Refuting the Claim that Prophet Muhammad was a Pedophile

[فداء الرسول]

Did the Prophet’s Disciple View Aisha as Immature?



An Islamaphobic website claims that one of the Prophet’s disciples, Buraira, thought of
Aisha (peace be upon her) as immature. To back this claim, the site mentions the
following narrations:


Buraira said: “I cannot accuse her of any defect except that she is still a young girl
who sleeps (on the job), neglecting her family’s dough which the domestic goats
come to eat.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 48, Number 805)
Buraira said, “No, by God Who has sent you with the Truth, I have never seen in
her anything faulty except that she is a girl of immature age, who sometimes


sleeps and leaves the dough for the goats to eat.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 3,
Book 48, Number 829)


Buraira said: “By Him Who sent you with the truth, I have seen nothing
objectionable in her duty only this much that she is a young girl and she goes to
sleep while kneading the flour and the lamb eats that.” (Sahih al-Muslim, Book
37, Number 6673)


In fact, this is an incorrect translation; nowhere does the text say that Aisha (peace be
upon her) was immature. Rather, the Arabic text merely says that Aisha (peace be upon
her) was young.
Bassam Zawadi explains:


Looking at the Arabic text, I don’t see (the) word ‘immature’ anywhere! It only
states that she is a young girl, which we already know. But if someone is young,
that does not necessarily imply that he or she is immature.


Secondly, the Companion [Buraira] was not criticizing Aisha for her age. Rather,
he was saying that her fault was that she “goes to sleep while kneading the
flour…” The Companion might have attributed her carelessness due to the fact

that she was young and did not take seriously her responsibility over her tasks.
However, this does not imply she was immature or psychologically incapable of
being married.
Even in my workplace, when we bring in new marketing research trainees who
are fresh graduates and are in their early twenties, our managers would criticize
them for being careless in their jobs, since they haven’t matured and are too
young for these kind of responsibilities and tasks. Now, in no way would that
imply that these individuals are (sexually) immature or incapable of being
married. However, their age and inexperience does play a role in them not being
efficient and serious at the work place like someone who has been working for
several years…
It is very likely that Aisha in her young age would not take her house chores
seriously (just as I and many other bachelors do[n’t]; if you see my room, it is a
mess!), but I really do not see how this in any way shows that she was too
immature to get married. Someone not taking a certain thing seriously might be
said to be immature in regards to that thing, but that does not necessarily imply
that he/she is immature in everything.
Therefore, the Prophet’s disciple was not talking about Aisha’s physical body! He was
merely saying that she was acting irresponsibly. For example, we often hear how
eighteen year olds are “immature kids”, even though by law they are considered adults.
Her “immaturity” was not that she was physically or psychologically incapable of sexual
intercourse, but rather that she was irresponsible in regards to her chores. The truth is
that I, like Bassam Zawadi and other bachelors, am well past the age of adulthood but I
continue to be irresponsible with my household chores!
We admit that Aisha (peace be upon her) was young, but she was sexually mature and
capable of having sexual intercourse without this harming her. The Islamaphobes claim
that the Prophet’s marriage to Aisha (peace be upon her) was a proof of his child abuse.
What abuse, if they cannot cite a shred of evidence that indicates that Aisha was harmed
from her marriage? Far from it! Aisha (peace be upon her) would boast about how she
of all his wives was the youngest of his wives to be married to him; this was a source of
great pride for her. So the image that the Islamaphobes wish to portray—about a young
girl being forced off into marriage—is highly inaccurate; in fact, Aisha was so pleased
about her early marriage that she used to boast about it. The marriage may seem odd by
today’s standards, but it was nothing unusual 1,000 years ago.