By: Arshad A Javed
Many times, we find media showing a minor girl married to an elderly man. The media is quick to show the world how human rights are abused in Islam. The allegations of pedophilia and child abuse become hard for Muslims to defend. Such cases come in handy for anti-Muslim elements to mock Islamic laws.
The question arises: who is truly at fault? Is it the media’s anti-Islam stance, or is it the Muslim theologians who justify these marriages under Sharia law? Those justifying such marriages conveniently take shelter in Sharia, saying that marrying a minor girl child is allowed in Islam. The Muslim community will normally put forward such logic and justification that is not even able to convince them. Even those who defend minor child marriage as permissible in Islam will never give their underage daughter to a grown-up man. People are scared to have a critical view of the topic, as it will contradict the rules set by the theologians. They feel it is safe to follow the historians and theologians blindly without any question.
Let us examine this subject from the perspective of Quran and history:
A perusal of the Quran will reveal that marriage in Islam is a civil contract (meesaq):
How could you take it when you have been intimate with one another and they have made a binding contract with you? (4:21)
All scholars agree that marriage is a contract in Islam between man and woman and a contract can be finalized only between persons who are intellectually and physically mature enough to understand and fulfill the responsibilities of such a contract.
The very point of each party being capable to make a contract or having crossed the age of puberty is supported by other verses of the Quran as follows:
“Keep a close check on orphans until they reach a marriageable age, then if you perceive that they have sound judgment hand over their property to them…(4:6)”
It can be noted that the Quran makes intellectual maturity (which falls beyond the age of puberty) the basis to arrive at the age of marriage.
Each partner in marriage finds tranquility when together
Quran describes marriage as emotional bonding between two mutually compatible persons through which they seek “to dwell in tranquility” in the companionship of each other. (see 7:189 and 30:21). This kind of relationship is not possible if either of the spouses is mentally undeveloped. The calmness and tranquility in marriage are for both husband & wife, not just the husband. The full translation of the ayaat goes as follows:
Among His Signs is that He created spouses for you of your own kind so that you might find tranquillity in them. And He has placed affection and compassion between you. There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect. (30:21)
It is He Who created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her (in love). When they are united…….. (7:189)
With total disregard to the primary source of Islam, the Quran, marriage of the minor girl is legitimized by fatwas. The child marriage is justified on the basis of a hadith recorded in Bukhari which says that the prophet Mohammad (pbuh) married Hazrat Aisha (ra) when she was just 7 and consummated the marriage when she was nine.
The problem lies in the fact that the scholars consider the recordings in Bukhari superior to the Quran. According to Muslim theologians, the recordings in Seh Sitta (The sound Six) have an overriding effect on the Quran. In other words, the sunnah of the prophet (as authenticated by these scholars of past in their respective books) can abrogate the Quran.
Our beloved Prophet (pbuh) has been described in the Quran as a role model. His sole guide was the Quran as is evident in the following ayaats:
..Say, ‘I follow only what has been revealed to me from my Lord.’ This is clear insight from your Lord, and guidance and mercy, for people who believe. (7:203)
When Our Clear Signs are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say, ‘Bring a Qur’an other than this one or change it.’ Say: ‘It is not for me to change it of my own accord. I follow nothing except what is revealed to me. I fear, were I to disobey my Lord, the punishment of a Dreadful Day.’ (10:15)
Can anybody expect that our Holy Prophet (pbuh) would do anything contrary to the spirit of the Quran? Certainly NOT.
We can expect historians to have erred in recording an event. This is quite possible because history is unseen and is recorded after hundreds of years of happening. Chances for misquoting, errors and omission are always there. Many researchers have proved with strong evidence from history and by correlating the age of Hazrat Asma (RA) to Hazrat Ayesha (RA) that age of Hazrat Ayesha at the time of marriage was 17 years and when the marriage was consummated she was 19 years old (Not 7 year and 9 years as recorded in Bukhari). There are strong chances of a mistake in writing which is now regarded as unchangeable and unchallengeable.
The truth is that the Quran is most authoritative and no other book howsoever authenticate it is considered can supersede it.
Judge between them by what Allah has sent down and do not follow their whims and desires. And beware of them lest they lure you away from some of what Allah has sent down to you. If they turn their backs, then know that Allah wants to afflict them with some of their wrong actions. Many of mankind are deviators. (5:49)