A Question of Prophethood, Not of ʿĀʾishah

There are two types of people who would attack this. One type would be Muslims who have weak faith, and they wonder how Muhammad (peace be upon him) would do something like this. The response to them would be: it wasn't Muhammad (peace be upon him) who did it—he was commanded by Allah to do it. For a Muslim, the question becomes whether one believes in the command. It was an exceptional situation that isn't allowed for the rest of the ummah. That's why it's not part of the sunnah of Muhammad (peace be upon him); Muslims can't marry more than four, that's not part of the sunnah that is followed. And also, his situation with ʿĀʾishah is also not something that is allowed for the rest of the ummah. It was an exception that was allowed for Muhammad (peace be upon him) for particular reasons, examined below. But for a Muslim, this would be the response: that these were divinely commanded by Allah (swt), therefore there is no right to question them. It wasn't something that was initiated by Muhammad (peace be upon him); it was done by Allah.

For those who are not Muslim and are attacking Muhammad (peace be upon him), levelling all the horrible accusations that are directed at him, the response is that the real problem isn't Muhammad (peace be upon him) marrying ʿĀʾishah. The real problem is not believing he's the messenger of Allah, not believing that he's receiving revelation. So the problem runs deeper. The issue of bringing up ʿĀʾishah is just a front in order to attack Islam. Even if Muhammad (peace be upon him) didn't do it, the attack would still continue. To the claim that this was divinely instructed, the objection comes back: "Well, how convenient it is—whenever there is something that seems strange, it is said that God commanded it." That could be a response. "Well, these particular two marriages that are attacked, and it is said that God is the one who instructed them." The reply to that is to discuss the issue of whether Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a prophet of Allah or not, and that would settle the argument. If he's the prophet of Allah, then there is no right to question what Allah told him to do. Once it is established that he was a messenger of Allah, receiving revelation from Allah, then whatever Allah tells him to do is to be accepted. If Allah tells someone to stand against the wall with one foot up in the air until they die, there is no right to question that—it's God who's instructing it. Who is anyone to go against what their Creator wants of them? Allah owes nothing to His creation, and His creation owes everything to Him. Therefore, if something is instructed by Allah, understanding why it is instructed is not required; it need only be done.

The point, then, is this: the enemies of Islam are attacking the marriage of Muhammad (peace be upon him) to ʿĀʾishah. Even if that didn't happen, the attack would still continue, because their problem is that they don't believe in Islam. They don't believe that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the messenger of Allah. They don't believe that he was receiving revelations from Allah. So it's pointless to argue on the point of ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), because there is a major problem, and that is they don't accept him altogether—and that connects back to the accusations of the people of Quraysh that were thrown at Muhammad (peace be upon him). Allah (swt) revealed: they are not disbelieving you, they are disbelieving in the message of Allah. They are attacking you because you are the messenger; they're not attacking your personality just because of your personality, they're attacking you because you're conveying the message of Allah to them. So these attacks that are hurled at Muhammad (peace be upon him) are because he is the messenger of Allah.