HAFEEZANWAR
06-09-07, 10:32 PM
MOTHER OF THE BELIVERS Aisha SIDDIQA
For other uses, see Aisha (disambiguation).
"Aisha" is a common misspelling of Ayesha (name).
The Wives of Muhammad
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
Sawda bint Zama*
Aisha*
Hafsa bint Umar
Zaynab bint Khuzayma
Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
Zaynab bint Jahsh
Juwayriya bint al-Harith
Ramlah bint Abi-Sufyan
Safiyya bint Huyayy
Maymuna bint al-Harith
Maria al-Qibtiyya
Aisha bint Abi Bakr (Arabic عائشة `ā'isha, "she who lives", also transcribed as A'ishah, Ayesha, 'A'isha, or 'Aisha, Turkish Ayşe, Ottoman Turkish Âişe etc.) was a wife of Muhammad.
In Islamic writings, she is thus often referred to by the title "Mother of the Believers" (Arabic: أمّ المؤمنين umm-al-mu'minīn), per the description of Muhammad's wives as "Mothers of Believers" in The Qur'an (33.6).
She is quoted as source for many hadith (traditions about Muhammad's life), with Muhammad's personal life being the topic of most narrations.
Contents
1 Early life
2 Aisha's marriage to Muhammad
2.1 Age at marriage
2.2 Status as "favorite wife"
2.2.1 Aisha accused of adultery
2.2.2 The story of the honey
2.2.3 The death of Muhammad
3 After Muhammad
3.1 Aisha's father becomes the first caliph
3.2 The battle of the camel
4 Sunni views of Aisha
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Early life
It is not clear when Aisha was born. Most scholars calculate her age, by reference to the date of her marriage to Muhammad (622).
Aisha was the daughter of Umm Rumman and Abu Bakr of Mecca. Abu Bakr belonged to the Banu Taim sub-clan of the tribe of Quraysh, the tribe to which Muhammad also belonged.
Aisha is said to have followed her father in accepting Islam when she was still young. She also joined him in his migration to Ethiopia in 615 AD; a number of Mecca's Muslims emigrated then, seeking refuge from persecution by the Meccans who still followed their pre-Islamic religions.
According to the early Islamic historian al-Tabari, Aisha's father tried to spare her the dangers and discomfort of the journey by solemnizing her marriage to her fiance, Jubayr, son of Mut`am ibn `Adi. However, Mut’am refused to honor the long-standing betrothal, as he did not wish his family to be connected to the Muslim outcasts.
The emigration to Ethiopia proved temporary and Abu Bakr's family returned to Mecca within a few years. Aisha was then betrothed to Muhammad.
Aisha's marriage to Muhammad
Aisha was initially betrothed to Djubayr ibn Mutim, a Muslim whose father, though pagan, was friendly to the Muslims. When Khawla bint Hakim suggested that Muhammad marry Aisha after the death of Muhammad's first wife (Khadija), the previous agreement regarding marriage of Aisha with Ibn Mutim was put aside by common consent.[2] Watt suggests that Muhammad hoped to strengthen his ties with Abu Bakr.[2]
Aisha's marriage was delayed until after the Hijra, or migration to Medina, in 622. Aisha and her older sister Asma only moved to Medina after Muhammad had already reached there.
Abu Bakr gave Muhammad the money to build a house for himself. After this, the wedding was celebrated very simply.After the wedding, Aisha continued to play with her toys, and Muhammad entered into the spirit of these games.[4]
Sahih Bukhari 5:58:234, 5:58:236, 7:62:64 7:62:65,7:62:88, Sahih Muslim 8:3309, 8:3310,8:3311,Sunnan Abu Dawud 41:4915, 41:4917 </ref>[3]
Age at marriage
Main article: Aisha's age at marriage
Several hadiths said to have been narrated by Aisha herself, such as Sahih Bukhari 5:58:234 and Sahih Muslim 8:3311, state she was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad and nine years old when married or when the marriage was consummated.[5][6][7][8]
Critics of Muhammad accept the Muslim tradition that she was as young as nine years old. Others, such as historian William Montgomery Watt, claim these are presentist critiques, anachronistically judging Muhammad by modern standards of morality rather than by those of his contemporaries.[2]
Status as "favorite wife"
Even though the marriage may have been politically motivated, to mark the ties between Muhammad and his companion Abu Bakr, most early accounts say that Muhammad and Aisha became sincerely fond of each other. Aisha is usually described as Muhammad's favorite wife, and it was in her company that Muhammad reportedly received the most revelations.[1] Aisha is believed to have been Muhammad's only virgin wife.
Aisha accused of adultery
Aisha was traveling with her husband Muhammad and some of his followers. She left camp in the morning to search for her lost necklace; when she returned, she found that the company had broken camp and left without her. She waited patiently for half a day, until she was rescued by a man named Safwan ibn Al-Muattal and taken to rejoin the caravan.
The scene of Aisha returning to the caravan with another man gave rise to the rumour that she had committed adultery with Safwan.
The Munafiqun and the women are reported to have taken up the rumour most readily. While Muhammad was in doubt, he consulted with his household: his adopted son Zayd defended Aisha's reputation. Aisha steadfastly proclaimed her innocence.
Shortly after this, Muhammad announced that he had received a revelation confirming Aisha's innocence and directing him that adultery be proven by four eyewitnesses, rather than simply inferred from opportunity. (Surah 24:4)
Muhammad also rebuked those who had slandered his wife (Surah 24:11) and ordered them to receive forty lashes, among them his poet Hassan ibn Thabit.[9][10]
The story of the honey
The prominent and respected Syrian scholar, Al-Sira Al-Nabawiyya of Ibn Kathir, recorded that Muhammad's wife Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya was given a skin filled with honey, which she shared with her husband.[11] He was fond of sweets and stayed overlong with Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya; at least in the opinion of Aisha and her co-wife Hafsa. Aisha and Hafsa conspired. Each of them was to tell Muhammad that the honey had given him bad breath. When he heard this from two wives, he believed that it was true and swore that he would eat no more of the honey.
Soon afterwards, he reported that he had received a revelation, in which he was told that he could eat anything permitted by God (66:1). In the following verses, Muhammad's wives are rebuked for their unruliness: "your hearts are inclined (to oppose him)".
Word spread in the small Muslim community that Muhammad's wives were tyrannizing over the mild-mannered man, speaking sharply to him and conspiring against him.
Umar, Hafsa's father, scolded his daughter and also spoke to Muhammad of the matter. Muhammad, saddened and upset, separated from his wives for a month. By the end of this time, his wives were humbled and harmony was restored.
When Muslim commentators on the Qur'an explicate Sura 66, it is usually this story that is told to explain the "occasion of revelation."
There is a similar but alternative explanation of this chapter, also involving Aisha. In this story, Aisha and her co-wives were unhappy because Muhammad was infatuated with Maria al-Qibtiyya, the Christian Coptic woman who bore Muhammad a brief-lived son. (Some accounts say that she was a slave, some that she converted to Islam, was freed, and was taken as a wife.)[12]
The death of Muhammad
Ibn Ishaq, in his Sirat Rasulallah, states that during Muhammad's last illness, he sought Aisha's apartments and died with his head in her lap. The Sunni take this as evidence of Muhammad's fondness for Aisha. Aisha never remarried after Muhammad's death. A passage in the Qur'an forbids any Muslim to marry a widow of Muhammad:
Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy God's Apostle, or that ye should marry his widows after him at any time. Truly such a thing is in God's sight an enormity.
—Qur'an 33:53
After Muhammad
Aisha's father becomes the first caliph
After Muhammad's death in 632 AD, Aisha's father, Abu Bakr, became the first caliph, or leader of the Muslims. Sunni maintain that the community chose Abu Bakr, and did so in accordance with Muhammad's wishes.
The battle of the camel
Main article: Battle of the Camel
Abu Bakr's reign was short, and in 634 AD he was succeeded by Umar, as caliph. Umar reigned for ten years, and was then followed by Uthman in 644 AD.
Both of these men had been among Muhammad's earliest followers, were linked to him by clanship and marriage, and had taken prominent parts in various military campaigns. Aisha, in the meantime, lived in Medina and made several pilgrimages to Mecca.
In 656 Uthman was killed by rebellious Muslim soldiers. The rebels then asked Ali to be the new caliph. He is reported to have refused the caliphate. He agreed to rule only after his followers persisted.
Aisha raised an army which confronted Ali's army outside the city of Basra. Professor Leila Ahmed claims that it was during this engagement that Muslim slaughtered Muslim for the first time.[1] Battle ensued and Aisha's forces were defeated. Aisha was directing her forces from a howdah on the back of a camel; this 656 battle is therefore called the Battle of the Camel.
Ali captured Aisha but declined to harm her. He sent her back to Medina under military escort. She lived a retired life until she died in approximately 678 under the reign of Muawiya.
Sunni views of Aisha
Sunnis historians see Aisha as a learned woman, who tirelessly recounted stories from the life of Muhammad and explained Muslim history and traditions. She is considered to be one of the foremost scholars of Islam's early age with some historians accrediting up to one-quarter of the Islamic Shariah, based on the collection of hadiths, to have stemmed from her narrations. Aisha became the most prominent of Muhammad’s wives and is revered as a role model by millions of women.[1]
See also
Persons related to Qur'anic verses
Muhammad's marriages
Family tree of Aisha
Arranged marriage
Notes
^ a b c d Goodwin, Jan. Price of Honour: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World. UK: Little, Brown Book Group, 1994
^ a b c Watt, Aisha, Encyclopedia of Islam Online
^ Tabari, Volume 9, Page 131; Tabari, Volume 7, Page 7
^ Watt, Muhammad, Oxford University Press 1961, page 102.
^ D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994, p. 40
^ Barlas(2002), p.125-126
^ Watt, Aisha, Encyclopedia of Islam Online
^ A minority of Muslims calculate the age of Aisha to have been over 13 and 14, perhaps between 17 and 19.<ref> Barlas(2002), p.125</li> <li id="_note-EIA">'''[[#_ref-EIA_0|^]]''' {{cite encyclopedia | author= Watt, M | title=Aisha bint Abi Bakr | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] Online | editor= P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs | publisher= Brill Academic Publishers | id=ISSN 1573-3912}}</li> <li id="_note-Glubb_264">'''[[#_ref-Glubb_264_0|^]]''' Glubb (2002), p. 264f.</li> <li id="_note-6">'''[[#_ref-6|^]]''' [http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/reveal/r5405et8.htm#p137]</li> <li id="_note-7">'''[[#_ref-7|^]]''' Rodinson 1961, pp. 279-283</li> <li id="_note-8">'''[[#_ref-8|^]]''' [http://www.al-islam.org/lifeprophet/24.htm]</li> <li id="_note-9">'''[[#_ref-9|^]]''' Shia sources:<br />'''a)'''Al Shafi, Vol. No. 2, Page No. 108<br />'''b)''' Haqq-ul-Yaqeen, Page No. 139<br />'''c)''' Hayat-ul-Quloob, Vol. No. 2, Page No. 901</li></ol></ref>
References
Guillaume, A. -- The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955
Rodinson, Maxime -- Muhammad, 1980 Random House reprint of English translation
Spellberg, D.A. -- Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994
Aisha bint Abi Bakr, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press, 2000
Rizvi, Syed Saeed Akhtar. -- The Life of Muhammad The Prophet, Darul Tabligh North America, 1971.
External links
Biography of Aisha
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha"
==================================================
SEARCH FROM THE WEB SITE WIKIPEDIA
BY
MUHAMMED A. HAFEEZ
B.COM.,
HDYERABAD, INDIA.,
EMAIL ; hafeezanwar@yahoo.com
==================================================
For other uses, see Aisha (disambiguation).
"Aisha" is a common misspelling of Ayesha (name).
The Wives of Muhammad
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
Sawda bint Zama*
Aisha*
Hafsa bint Umar
Zaynab bint Khuzayma
Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya
Zaynab bint Jahsh
Juwayriya bint al-Harith
Ramlah bint Abi-Sufyan
Safiyya bint Huyayy
Maymuna bint al-Harith
Maria al-Qibtiyya
Aisha bint Abi Bakr (Arabic عائشة `ā'isha, "she who lives", also transcribed as A'ishah, Ayesha, 'A'isha, or 'Aisha, Turkish Ayşe, Ottoman Turkish Âişe etc.) was a wife of Muhammad.
In Islamic writings, she is thus often referred to by the title "Mother of the Believers" (Arabic: أمّ المؤمنين umm-al-mu'minīn), per the description of Muhammad's wives as "Mothers of Believers" in The Qur'an (33.6).
She is quoted as source for many hadith (traditions about Muhammad's life), with Muhammad's personal life being the topic of most narrations.
Contents
1 Early life
2 Aisha's marriage to Muhammad
2.1 Age at marriage
2.2 Status as "favorite wife"
2.2.1 Aisha accused of adultery
2.2.2 The story of the honey
2.2.3 The death of Muhammad
3 After Muhammad
3.1 Aisha's father becomes the first caliph
3.2 The battle of the camel
4 Sunni views of Aisha
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Early life
It is not clear when Aisha was born. Most scholars calculate her age, by reference to the date of her marriage to Muhammad (622).
Aisha was the daughter of Umm Rumman and Abu Bakr of Mecca. Abu Bakr belonged to the Banu Taim sub-clan of the tribe of Quraysh, the tribe to which Muhammad also belonged.
Aisha is said to have followed her father in accepting Islam when she was still young. She also joined him in his migration to Ethiopia in 615 AD; a number of Mecca's Muslims emigrated then, seeking refuge from persecution by the Meccans who still followed their pre-Islamic religions.
According to the early Islamic historian al-Tabari, Aisha's father tried to spare her the dangers and discomfort of the journey by solemnizing her marriage to her fiance, Jubayr, son of Mut`am ibn `Adi. However, Mut’am refused to honor the long-standing betrothal, as he did not wish his family to be connected to the Muslim outcasts.
The emigration to Ethiopia proved temporary and Abu Bakr's family returned to Mecca within a few years. Aisha was then betrothed to Muhammad.
Aisha's marriage to Muhammad
Aisha was initially betrothed to Djubayr ibn Mutim, a Muslim whose father, though pagan, was friendly to the Muslims. When Khawla bint Hakim suggested that Muhammad marry Aisha after the death of Muhammad's first wife (Khadija), the previous agreement regarding marriage of Aisha with Ibn Mutim was put aside by common consent.[2] Watt suggests that Muhammad hoped to strengthen his ties with Abu Bakr.[2]
Aisha's marriage was delayed until after the Hijra, or migration to Medina, in 622. Aisha and her older sister Asma only moved to Medina after Muhammad had already reached there.
Abu Bakr gave Muhammad the money to build a house for himself. After this, the wedding was celebrated very simply.After the wedding, Aisha continued to play with her toys, and Muhammad entered into the spirit of these games.[4]
Sahih Bukhari 5:58:234, 5:58:236, 7:62:64 7:62:65,7:62:88, Sahih Muslim 8:3309, 8:3310,8:3311,Sunnan Abu Dawud 41:4915, 41:4917 </ref>[3]
Age at marriage
Main article: Aisha's age at marriage
Several hadiths said to have been narrated by Aisha herself, such as Sahih Bukhari 5:58:234 and Sahih Muslim 8:3311, state she was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad and nine years old when married or when the marriage was consummated.[5][6][7][8]
Critics of Muhammad accept the Muslim tradition that she was as young as nine years old. Others, such as historian William Montgomery Watt, claim these are presentist critiques, anachronistically judging Muhammad by modern standards of morality rather than by those of his contemporaries.[2]
Status as "favorite wife"
Even though the marriage may have been politically motivated, to mark the ties between Muhammad and his companion Abu Bakr, most early accounts say that Muhammad and Aisha became sincerely fond of each other. Aisha is usually described as Muhammad's favorite wife, and it was in her company that Muhammad reportedly received the most revelations.[1] Aisha is believed to have been Muhammad's only virgin wife.
Aisha accused of adultery
Aisha was traveling with her husband Muhammad and some of his followers. She left camp in the morning to search for her lost necklace; when she returned, she found that the company had broken camp and left without her. She waited patiently for half a day, until she was rescued by a man named Safwan ibn Al-Muattal and taken to rejoin the caravan.
The scene of Aisha returning to the caravan with another man gave rise to the rumour that she had committed adultery with Safwan.
The Munafiqun and the women are reported to have taken up the rumour most readily. While Muhammad was in doubt, he consulted with his household: his adopted son Zayd defended Aisha's reputation. Aisha steadfastly proclaimed her innocence.
Shortly after this, Muhammad announced that he had received a revelation confirming Aisha's innocence and directing him that adultery be proven by four eyewitnesses, rather than simply inferred from opportunity. (Surah 24:4)
Muhammad also rebuked those who had slandered his wife (Surah 24:11) and ordered them to receive forty lashes, among them his poet Hassan ibn Thabit.[9][10]
The story of the honey
The prominent and respected Syrian scholar, Al-Sira Al-Nabawiyya of Ibn Kathir, recorded that Muhammad's wife Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya was given a skin filled with honey, which she shared with her husband.[11] He was fond of sweets and stayed overlong with Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya; at least in the opinion of Aisha and her co-wife Hafsa. Aisha and Hafsa conspired. Each of them was to tell Muhammad that the honey had given him bad breath. When he heard this from two wives, he believed that it was true and swore that he would eat no more of the honey.
Soon afterwards, he reported that he had received a revelation, in which he was told that he could eat anything permitted by God (66:1). In the following verses, Muhammad's wives are rebuked for their unruliness: "your hearts are inclined (to oppose him)".
Word spread in the small Muslim community that Muhammad's wives were tyrannizing over the mild-mannered man, speaking sharply to him and conspiring against him.
Umar, Hafsa's father, scolded his daughter and also spoke to Muhammad of the matter. Muhammad, saddened and upset, separated from his wives for a month. By the end of this time, his wives were humbled and harmony was restored.
When Muslim commentators on the Qur'an explicate Sura 66, it is usually this story that is told to explain the "occasion of revelation."
There is a similar but alternative explanation of this chapter, also involving Aisha. In this story, Aisha and her co-wives were unhappy because Muhammad was infatuated with Maria al-Qibtiyya, the Christian Coptic woman who bore Muhammad a brief-lived son. (Some accounts say that she was a slave, some that she converted to Islam, was freed, and was taken as a wife.)[12]
The death of Muhammad
Ibn Ishaq, in his Sirat Rasulallah, states that during Muhammad's last illness, he sought Aisha's apartments and died with his head in her lap. The Sunni take this as evidence of Muhammad's fondness for Aisha. Aisha never remarried after Muhammad's death. A passage in the Qur'an forbids any Muslim to marry a widow of Muhammad:
Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy God's Apostle, or that ye should marry his widows after him at any time. Truly such a thing is in God's sight an enormity.
—Qur'an 33:53
After Muhammad
Aisha's father becomes the first caliph
After Muhammad's death in 632 AD, Aisha's father, Abu Bakr, became the first caliph, or leader of the Muslims. Sunni maintain that the community chose Abu Bakr, and did so in accordance with Muhammad's wishes.
The battle of the camel
Main article: Battle of the Camel
Abu Bakr's reign was short, and in 634 AD he was succeeded by Umar, as caliph. Umar reigned for ten years, and was then followed by Uthman in 644 AD.
Both of these men had been among Muhammad's earliest followers, were linked to him by clanship and marriage, and had taken prominent parts in various military campaigns. Aisha, in the meantime, lived in Medina and made several pilgrimages to Mecca.
In 656 Uthman was killed by rebellious Muslim soldiers. The rebels then asked Ali to be the new caliph. He is reported to have refused the caliphate. He agreed to rule only after his followers persisted.
Aisha raised an army which confronted Ali's army outside the city of Basra. Professor Leila Ahmed claims that it was during this engagement that Muslim slaughtered Muslim for the first time.[1] Battle ensued and Aisha's forces were defeated. Aisha was directing her forces from a howdah on the back of a camel; this 656 battle is therefore called the Battle of the Camel.
Ali captured Aisha but declined to harm her. He sent her back to Medina under military escort. She lived a retired life until she died in approximately 678 under the reign of Muawiya.
Sunni views of Aisha
Sunnis historians see Aisha as a learned woman, who tirelessly recounted stories from the life of Muhammad and explained Muslim history and traditions. She is considered to be one of the foremost scholars of Islam's early age with some historians accrediting up to one-quarter of the Islamic Shariah, based on the collection of hadiths, to have stemmed from her narrations. Aisha became the most prominent of Muhammad’s wives and is revered as a role model by millions of women.[1]
See also
Persons related to Qur'anic verses
Muhammad's marriages
Family tree of Aisha
Arranged marriage
Notes
^ a b c d Goodwin, Jan. Price of Honour: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World. UK: Little, Brown Book Group, 1994
^ a b c Watt, Aisha, Encyclopedia of Islam Online
^ Tabari, Volume 9, Page 131; Tabari, Volume 7, Page 7
^ Watt, Muhammad, Oxford University Press 1961, page 102.
^ D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994, p. 40
^ Barlas(2002), p.125-126
^ Watt, Aisha, Encyclopedia of Islam Online
^ A minority of Muslims calculate the age of Aisha to have been over 13 and 14, perhaps between 17 and 19.<ref> Barlas(2002), p.125</li> <li id="_note-EIA">'''[[#_ref-EIA_0|^]]''' {{cite encyclopedia | author= Watt, M | title=Aisha bint Abi Bakr | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] Online | editor= P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs | publisher= Brill Academic Publishers | id=ISSN 1573-3912}}</li> <li id="_note-Glubb_264">'''[[#_ref-Glubb_264_0|^]]''' Glubb (2002), p. 264f.</li> <li id="_note-6">'''[[#_ref-6|^]]''' [http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/reveal/r5405et8.htm#p137]</li> <li id="_note-7">'''[[#_ref-7|^]]''' Rodinson 1961, pp. 279-283</li> <li id="_note-8">'''[[#_ref-8|^]]''' [http://www.al-islam.org/lifeprophet/24.htm]</li> <li id="_note-9">'''[[#_ref-9|^]]''' Shia sources:<br />'''a)'''Al Shafi, Vol. No. 2, Page No. 108<br />'''b)''' Haqq-ul-Yaqeen, Page No. 139<br />'''c)''' Hayat-ul-Quloob, Vol. No. 2, Page No. 901</li></ol></ref>
References
Guillaume, A. -- The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955
Rodinson, Maxime -- Muhammad, 1980 Random House reprint of English translation
Spellberg, D.A. -- Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994
Aisha bint Abi Bakr, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press, 2000
Rizvi, Syed Saeed Akhtar. -- The Life of Muhammad The Prophet, Darul Tabligh North America, 1971.
External links
Biography of Aisha
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha"
==================================================
SEARCH FROM THE WEB SITE WIKIPEDIA
BY
MUHAMMED A. HAFEEZ
B.COM.,
HDYERABAD, INDIA.,
EMAIL ; hafeezanwar@yahoo.com
==================================================