Aisha’s Marriage and her Historic Role

Aisha’s Marriage and her Historic Role the author was not “pre-conscious” but “precocious.” In English, precocious means premature or unusually early development: Precocious: “Ripe before the proper or natural time; premature; developed or matured earlier than usual.” (Webster) “Of a child: having developed particular abilities and ways of behaving at a much younger age than usual; sexually precocious.” (Oxford) However, neither Hadith nor history establishes that Aisha al-Siddiqah’s case was one of precocious development. The entire explanation, therefore, rests on assumption. In any case, this answer is irrelevant to the real issue. The real issue is that authentic narrations state, with numerical specificity, that the marriage contract took place at the age of six and the formal departure to the Prophet’s household at the age of nine, while the Messenger of God was then over fifty years old. The real question concerns this established difference in age, not physical maturity. Similarly, some people argue that among the Arabs, before marriage, it was customary to settle the matter of a relationship in advance. This was similar to what is called fixing a match or engagement in our society. The Quran mentions only nikah, not engagement or betrothal. Therefore, when the narrations say that Aisha’s nikah took