The Marriage to ʿĀʾishah

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also married ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) during this time — or, more precisely, the consummation of the marriage to ʿĀʾishah occurred in that time. The actual marriage itself had happened towards the end of his time in Makkah, when she was six years old, and the marriage was consummated when she was nine, and that was when he was already in Madīnah. The ages here — the marriage happening at the age of six, and the marriage consummated at the age of nine — are quite young, and this is one of the issues that some of the orientalists take against Islam, against the Prophet of Allah (swt): they say, "Look at your prophet, he married a child." This issue was already discussed in the account of the Makkan period, together with the wisdom behind the marriages of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in general, the wisdom behind him marrying ʿĀʾishah at this young age, and the wisdom of him marrying more than one wife — more, in fact, than the limit of four that is binding on the rest of the ummah. One point deserves adding here: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was fifty-four years old when he married ʿĀʾishah, but he was young even though he was fifty-four years old.

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) met with the delegation that came from the tribe of Rabīʿah, at a time he was about fifty years old, while he was still in Makkah, the head of the tribe went back to his people and said, "If I take with me this fatā" — fatā meaning young man — "I will eat the Arabs with him." So even though the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was already a man of fifty years old, this man was calling him a young man; that was because of his strength and his activeness — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was vigorous and strong, and his age did not really show on him. So he was saying that he is a fatā, and that he would eat the Arabs with him, because he saw that he was a leader, a strong man.

Another account: Anas ibn Mālik, when he was narrating part of the account of the hijrah, said, "Abū Bakr was a shaykh who was known, while the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a young man who was not known." He said Abū Bakr was a shaykh — a shaykh is an old man, a senior or elder person is called a shaykh — while the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a young man. This was because, from his travelling, Abū Bakr was known to people by his face, while the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), people did not recognise his face — even though he was the most known man among the Arabs at the time because of his daʿwah, everyone was talking about him, but they had not really seen him, so they did not recognise him. So when Abū Bakr and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) were travelling in the desert, on the journey of hijrah, people would come and greet Abū Bakr, and they would ask him, "Who is this man next to you?" So Abū Bakr would say, "He is a guide, he is showing me my path." Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī comments on this, and says: Abū Bakr's age showed on him, so he looked according to his age — he did not look younger or older — while the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) seemed, or appeared, to be a young man, even though he was older than Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was, in fact, two years older than Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him).

It is known from the sunnah that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to race ʿĀʾishah: when they would travel, they would run, and he would compete with her. ʿĀʾishah said that when they first got married she would run faster than him, but then later on, when she was getting heavier, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would win against her, and he would say, "This one for that one" — a tit for tat, as if to say, "You won last time, this time I won." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was very strong, very active, very healthy: Allah (swt) had given him the strength that was needed to perform this most important and most difficult duty of all, that of being the Messenger of Allah (swt).