Aisha bint Abu Bakr ( RAA ) was a wife of Muhammad [Peace Be Upon Him ]
Aishah became the Prophet's wife in Makkah when she was most likely in
the tenth year of her life but her wedding did not take place until the
second year after the Hijrah when she was about fourteen or fifteen
years old. Before and after her wedding she maintained a natural jollity
and innocence and did not seem at all overawed by the thought of being
wedded to him who was the Messenger of God whom all his companions,
including her own mother and father, treated with such love and
reverence as they gave to no one else.
About her wedding, she related that shortly before she was to leave her parent's house, she
slipped out into the courtyard to play with a passing friend:
"I was playing on a see-saw and my long streaming hair was dishevelled,"
she said. "They came and took me from my play and made me ready."
They dressed her in a wedding-dress made from fine red-striped cloth from
Bahrain and then her mother took her to the newly-built house where some
women of the Ansar were waiting outside the door. They greeted her with
the words "For good and for happiness may all be well!" Then, in the
presence of the smiling Prophet, a bowl of milk was brought. The Prophet
drank from it himself and offered it to Aishah. She shyly declined it
but when he insisted she did so and then offered the bowl to her sister
Asma who was sitting beside her. Others also drank of it and that was as
much as there was of the simple and solemn occasion of their wedding.
There was no wedding feast.
Marriage to the Prophet did not change her playful ways. Her young friends came regularly to visit her in her own apartment.
"I would be playing with my dolls," she said, "with the girls who were my friends, and the Prophet would come in and they would slip out of the house and he would go out after them and
bring them back, for he was pleased for my sake to have them there."
Sometimes he would say "Stay where you are" before they had time to
leave, and would also join in their games. Aishah said: "One day, the
Prophet came in when I was playing with the dolls and he said: 'O
Aishah, whatever game is this?' 'It is Solomon's horses,' I said and he
laughed." Sometimes as he came in he would screen himself with his cloak
so as not to disturb Aishah and her friends.
Aishah's early life in Madinah also had its more serious and anxious times. Once her father
and two companions who were staying with him fell ill with a dangerous
fever which was common in Madinah at certain seasons. One morning Aishah
went to visit him and was dismayed to find the three men lying
completely weak and exhausted. She asked her father how he was and he
answered her in verse but she did not understand what he was saying. The
two others also answered her with lines of poetry which seemed to her
to be nothing but unintelligible babbling. She was deeply troubled and
went home to the Prophet saying:
"They are raving, out of their minds, through the heat of the fever." The Prophet asked what they had said and was somewhat reassured when she repeated almost word for word
the lines they had uttered and which made sense although she did not
fully understand them then. This was a demonstration of the great
retentive power of her memory which as the years went by were to
preserve so many of the priceless sayings of the Prophet.
Of the Prophet's wives in Madinah, it was clear that it was Aishah that he
loved most. From time to time, one or the other of his companions would
ask:
"O Messenger of God, whom do you love most in the world?" He
did not always give the same answer to this question for he felt great
love for many for his daughters and their children, for Abu Bakr, for
Ali, for Zayd and his son Usamah. But of his wives the only one he named
in this connection was Aishah. She too loved him greatly in return and
often would seek reassurance from him that he loved her. Once she asked
him: "How is your love for me?"
"Like the rope's knot," he replied meaning that it was strong and secure. And time after time
thereafter, she would ask him: "How is the knot?" and he would reply:
"Ala haaliha in the same condition."
As she loved the Prophet so was her love a jealous love and she could not bear the thought that the
Prophet's attentions should be given to others more than seemed enough
to her. She asked him:
"O Messenger of God, tell me of yourself.
If you were between the two slopes of a valley, one of which had not
been grazed whereas the other had been grazed, on which would you
pasture your flocks?"
"On that which had not been grazed," replied the Prophet. "Even so," she said, "and I am not as any other of your wives. "Everyone of them had a husband before you, except myself."
The Prophet smiled and said nothing. Of her jealousy, Aishah would say
in later years:
"I was not, jealous of any other wife of the Prophet as I was jealous of Khadijah, because of his constant mentioningof her and because God had commanded him to give her good tidings of a
mansion in Paradise of precious stones. And whenever he sacrificed a
sheep he would send a fair portion of it to those who had been her
intimate friends. Many a time I said to him: "It is as if there had
never been any other woman in the world except Khadijah."
Once, when Aishah complained and asked why he spoke so highly of "an old
Quraysh woman", the Prophet was hurt and said: "She was the wife who
believed in me when others rejected me. When people gave me the lie, she
affirmed my truthfulness. When I stood forsaken, she spent her wealth
to lighten the burden of my sorrow.."
Despite her feelings of jealousy which nonetheless were not of a destructive kind, Aishah was
really a generous soul and a patient one. She bore with the rest of the
Prophet's household poverty and hunger which often lasted for long
periods. For days on end no fire would be lit in the sparsely furnished
house of the Prophet for cooking or baking bread and they would live
merely on dates and water. Poverty did not cause her distress or
humiliation; self-sufficiency when it did come did not corrupt her style
of life.
Once the Prophet stayed away from his wives for a month
because they had distressed him by asking of him that which he did not
have. This was after the Khaybar expedition when an increase of riches
whetted the appetite for presents. Returning from his self-imposed
retreat, he went first to Aishah's apartment. She was delighted to see
him but he said he had received Revelation which required him to put two
options before her. He then recited the verses:
"O Prophet! Say to your wives: If you desire the life of this world and its adornments,
then come and I will bestow its goods upon you, and I will release you
with a fair release. But if you desire God and His Messenger and the
abode of the Hereafter, then verily God has laid in store for you an
immense reward for such as you who do good."
Aishah's reply was:
"Indeed I desire God and His Messenger and the abode of the Hereafter," and her
response was followed by all the others.
She stuck to her choice both during the lifetime of the Prophet and afterwards. Later when the
Muslims were favored with enormous riches, she was given a gift of one
hundred thousand dirhams. She was fasting when she received the money
and she distributed the entire amount to the poor and the needy even
though she had no provisions in her house. Shortly after, a maidservant
said to her: "Could you buy meat for a dirham with which to break your
fast?"
"If I had remembered, I would have done so," she said. The
Prophet's affection for Aishah remained to the last. During his final
illness, it was to Aishah's apartment that he went at the suggestion of
his wives. For much of the time he lay there on a couch with his head
resting on her breast or on her lap. She it was who took a toothstick
from her brother, chewed upon it to soften it and gave it to the
Prophet. Despite his weakness, he rubbed his teeth with it vigorously.
Not long afterwards, he lost consciousness and Aishah thought it was the
onset of death, but after an hour he opened his eyes.
Aishah it is who has preserved for us these dying moments of the most honoured of
God's creation, His beloved Messenger may He shower His choicest
blessings on him.
When he opened his eyes again, Aishah remembered Iris having said to her: "No Prophet is taken by death until he has been shown his place in Paradise and then offered the choice, to
live or die."
"He will not now choose us," she said to herself. Then she heard him murmur: "With the supreme communion in Paradise, with those upon whom God has showered His favor, the Prophets, the martyrs and the righteous..." Again she heard him murmur: "O Lord, with the
supreme communion," and these were the last words she heard him speak.
Gradually his head grew heavier upon her breast, until others in the
room began to lament, and Aishah laid his head on a pillow and joined
them in lamentation.
In the floor of Aishah's room near the couch
where he was lying, a grave was dug in which was buried the Seal of the
Prophets amid much bewilderment and great sorrow.
Aishah lived on almost fifty years after the passing away of the Prophet. She had
been his wife for a decade. Much of this time was spent in learning and
acquiring knowledge of the two most important sources of God's guidance,
the Quran and the Sunnah of His Prophet. Aishah was one of three wives
(the other two being Hafsah and Umm Salamah) who memorized the
Revelation. Like Hafsah, she had her own script of the Quran written
after the Prophet had died.
So far as the Ahadith or sayings of the Prophet is concerned, Aishah is one of four persons (the others being Abu Hurayrah, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Anas ibn Malik) who
transmitted more than two thousand sayings. Many of these pertain to
some of the most intimate aspects of personal behavior which only
someone in Aishah's position could have learnt. What is most important
is that her knowledge of hadith was passed on in written form by at
least three persons including her nephew Urwah who became one of the
greatest scholars among the generation after the Companions.
Manyof the learned companions of the Prophet and their followers benefitted
from Aishah's knowledge. Abu Musa al-Ashari once said: "If we
companions of the Messenger of God had any difficulty on a matter, we
asked Aishah about it."
Her nephew Urwah asserts that she was proficient not only in fiqh but also in medicine (tibb) and poetry. Many of the senior companions of the Prophet came to her to ask for advice
concerning questions of inheritance which required a highly skilled
mathematical mind. Scholars regard her as one of the earliest fuqaha of
Islam along with persons like Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali and Abdullah ibn
Abbas. The Prophet referring to her extensive knowledge of Islam is
reported to have said: "Learn a portion of your religion (din) from this
red colored lady." "Humayra" meaning "Red-coloured" was an epithet
given to Aishah by the Prophet.
Aishah not only possessed great knowledge but took an active part in education and social reform. As a teacher she had a clear and persuasive manner of speech and her power of
oratory has been described in superlative terms by al-Ahnaf who said:
"I have heard speeches of Abu Bakr and Umar, Uthman and Ali and the
Khulafa up to this day, but I have not heard speech more persuasive and
more beautiful from the mouth of any person than from the mouth of
Aishah."
Men and women came from far and wide to benefit from her
knowledge. The number of women is said to have been greater than that
of men. Besides answering enquiries, she took boys and girls, some of
them orphans, into her custody and trained them under her care and
guidance. This was in addition to her relatives who received instruction
from her. Her house thus became a school and an academy.
Some of her students were outstanding. We have already mentioned her nephew
Urwah as a distinguished reporter of hadith. Among her women pupils is
the name of Umrah bint Abdur Rahman. She is regarded by scholars as one
of the trustworthy narrators of hadith and is said to have acted as
Aishah's secretary receiving and replying to letters addressed to her.
The example of Aishah in promoting education and in particular the
education of Muslim women in the laws and teachings of Islam is one
which needs to be followed.
After Khadijah al-Kubra (the Great) and Fatimah az-Zahra (the Resplendent), Aishah as-Siddiqah (the one who affirms the Truth) is regarded as the best woman in Islam. Because of
the strength of her personality, she was a leader in every field in
knowledge, in society, in politics and in war. She often regretted her
involvement in war but lived long enough to regain position as the most
respected woman of her time. She died in the year 58 AH in the month of
Ramadan and as she instructed, was buried in the Jannat al-Baqi in the
City of Light, beside other companions of the Prophet
Aishah became the Prophet's wife in Makkah when she was most likely in
the tenth year of her life but her wedding did not take place until the
second year after the Hijrah when she was about fourteen or fifteen
years old. Before and after her wedding she maintained a natural jollity
and innocence and did not seem at all overawed by the thought of being
wedded to him who was the Messenger of God whom all his companions,
including her own mother and father, treated with such love and
reverence as they gave to no one else.
About her wedding, she related that shortly before she was to leave her parent's house, she
slipped out into the courtyard to play with a passing friend:
"I was playing on a see-saw and my long streaming hair was dishevelled,"
she said. "They came and took me from my play and made me ready."
They dressed her in a wedding-dress made from fine red-striped cloth from
Bahrain and then her mother took her to the newly-built house where some
women of the Ansar were waiting outside the door. They greeted her with
the words "For good and for happiness may all be well!" Then, in the
presence of the smiling Prophet, a bowl of milk was brought. The Prophet
drank from it himself and offered it to Aishah. She shyly declined it
but when he insisted she did so and then offered the bowl to her sister
Asma who was sitting beside her. Others also drank of it and that was as
much as there was of the simple and solemn occasion of their wedding.
There was no wedding feast.
Marriage to the Prophet did not change her playful ways. Her young friends came regularly to visit her in her own apartment.
"I would be playing with my dolls," she said, "with the girls who were my friends, and the Prophet would come in and they would slip out of the house and he would go out after them and
bring them back, for he was pleased for my sake to have them there."
Sometimes he would say "Stay where you are" before they had time to
leave, and would also join in their games. Aishah said: "One day, the
Prophet came in when I was playing with the dolls and he said: 'O
Aishah, whatever game is this?' 'It is Solomon's horses,' I said and he
laughed." Sometimes as he came in he would screen himself with his cloak
so as not to disturb Aishah and her friends.
Aishah's early life in Madinah also had its more serious and anxious times. Once her father
and two companions who were staying with him fell ill with a dangerous
fever which was common in Madinah at certain seasons. One morning Aishah
went to visit him and was dismayed to find the three men lying
completely weak and exhausted. She asked her father how he was and he
answered her in verse but she did not understand what he was saying. The
two others also answered her with lines of poetry which seemed to her
to be nothing but unintelligible babbling. She was deeply troubled and
went home to the Prophet saying:
"They are raving, out of their minds, through the heat of the fever." The Prophet asked what they had said and was somewhat reassured when she repeated almost word for word
the lines they had uttered and which made sense although she did not
fully understand them then. This was a demonstration of the great
retentive power of her memory which as the years went by were to
preserve so many of the priceless sayings of the Prophet.
Of the Prophet's wives in Madinah, it was clear that it was Aishah that he
loved most. From time to time, one or the other of his companions would
ask:
"O Messenger of God, whom do you love most in the world?" He
did not always give the same answer to this question for he felt great
love for many for his daughters and their children, for Abu Bakr, for
Ali, for Zayd and his son Usamah. But of his wives the only one he named
in this connection was Aishah. She too loved him greatly in return and
often would seek reassurance from him that he loved her. Once she asked
him: "How is your love for me?"
"Like the rope's knot," he replied meaning that it was strong and secure. And time after time
thereafter, she would ask him: "How is the knot?" and he would reply:
"Ala haaliha in the same condition."
As she loved the Prophet so was her love a jealous love and she could not bear the thought that the
Prophet's attentions should be given to others more than seemed enough
to her. She asked him:
"O Messenger of God, tell me of yourself.
If you were between the two slopes of a valley, one of which had not
been grazed whereas the other had been grazed, on which would you
pasture your flocks?"
"On that which had not been grazed," replied the Prophet. "Even so," she said, "and I am not as any other of your wives. "Everyone of them had a husband before you, except myself."
The Prophet smiled and said nothing. Of her jealousy, Aishah would say
in later years:
"I was not, jealous of any other wife of the Prophet as I was jealous of Khadijah, because of his constant mentioningof her and because God had commanded him to give her good tidings of a
mansion in Paradise of precious stones. And whenever he sacrificed a
sheep he would send a fair portion of it to those who had been her
intimate friends. Many a time I said to him: "It is as if there had
never been any other woman in the world except Khadijah."
Once, when Aishah complained and asked why he spoke so highly of "an old
Quraysh woman", the Prophet was hurt and said: "She was the wife who
believed in me when others rejected me. When people gave me the lie, she
affirmed my truthfulness. When I stood forsaken, she spent her wealth
to lighten the burden of my sorrow.."
Despite her feelings of jealousy which nonetheless were not of a destructive kind, Aishah was
really a generous soul and a patient one. She bore with the rest of the
Prophet's household poverty and hunger which often lasted for long
periods. For days on end no fire would be lit in the sparsely furnished
house of the Prophet for cooking or baking bread and they would live
merely on dates and water. Poverty did not cause her distress or
humiliation; self-sufficiency when it did come did not corrupt her style
of life.
Once the Prophet stayed away from his wives for a month
because they had distressed him by asking of him that which he did not
have. This was after the Khaybar expedition when an increase of riches
whetted the appetite for presents. Returning from his self-imposed
retreat, he went first to Aishah's apartment. She was delighted to see
him but he said he had received Revelation which required him to put two
options before her. He then recited the verses:
"O Prophet! Say to your wives: If you desire the life of this world and its adornments,
then come and I will bestow its goods upon you, and I will release you
with a fair release. But if you desire God and His Messenger and the
abode of the Hereafter, then verily God has laid in store for you an
immense reward for such as you who do good."
Aishah's reply was:
"Indeed I desire God and His Messenger and the abode of the Hereafter," and her
response was followed by all the others.
She stuck to her choice both during the lifetime of the Prophet and afterwards. Later when the
Muslims were favored with enormous riches, she was given a gift of one
hundred thousand dirhams. She was fasting when she received the money
and she distributed the entire amount to the poor and the needy even
though she had no provisions in her house. Shortly after, a maidservant
said to her: "Could you buy meat for a dirham with which to break your
fast?"
"If I had remembered, I would have done so," she said. The
Prophet's affection for Aishah remained to the last. During his final
illness, it was to Aishah's apartment that he went at the suggestion of
his wives. For much of the time he lay there on a couch with his head
resting on her breast or on her lap. She it was who took a toothstick
from her brother, chewed upon it to soften it and gave it to the
Prophet. Despite his weakness, he rubbed his teeth with it vigorously.
Not long afterwards, he lost consciousness and Aishah thought it was the
onset of death, but after an hour he opened his eyes.
Aishah it is who has preserved for us these dying moments of the most honoured of
God's creation, His beloved Messenger may He shower His choicest
blessings on him.
When he opened his eyes again, Aishah remembered Iris having said to her: "No Prophet is taken by death until he has been shown his place in Paradise and then offered the choice, to
live or die."
"He will not now choose us," she said to herself. Then she heard him murmur: "With the supreme communion in Paradise, with those upon whom God has showered His favor, the Prophets, the martyrs and the righteous..." Again she heard him murmur: "O Lord, with the
supreme communion," and these were the last words she heard him speak.
Gradually his head grew heavier upon her breast, until others in the
room began to lament, and Aishah laid his head on a pillow and joined
them in lamentation.
In the floor of Aishah's room near the couch
where he was lying, a grave was dug in which was buried the Seal of the
Prophets amid much bewilderment and great sorrow.
Aishah lived on almost fifty years after the passing away of the Prophet. She had
been his wife for a decade. Much of this time was spent in learning and
acquiring knowledge of the two most important sources of God's guidance,
the Quran and the Sunnah of His Prophet. Aishah was one of three wives
(the other two being Hafsah and Umm Salamah) who memorized the
Revelation. Like Hafsah, she had her own script of the Quran written
after the Prophet had died.
So far as the Ahadith or sayings of the Prophet is concerned, Aishah is one of four persons (the others being Abu Hurayrah, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Anas ibn Malik) who
transmitted more than two thousand sayings. Many of these pertain to
some of the most intimate aspects of personal behavior which only
someone in Aishah's position could have learnt. What is most important
is that her knowledge of hadith was passed on in written form by at
least three persons including her nephew Urwah who became one of the
greatest scholars among the generation after the Companions.
Manyof the learned companions of the Prophet and their followers benefitted
from Aishah's knowledge. Abu Musa al-Ashari once said: "If we
companions of the Messenger of God had any difficulty on a matter, we
asked Aishah about it."
Her nephew Urwah asserts that she was proficient not only in fiqh but also in medicine (tibb) and poetry. Many of the senior companions of the Prophet came to her to ask for advice
concerning questions of inheritance which required a highly skilled
mathematical mind. Scholars regard her as one of the earliest fuqaha of
Islam along with persons like Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali and Abdullah ibn
Abbas. The Prophet referring to her extensive knowledge of Islam is
reported to have said: "Learn a portion of your religion (din) from this
red colored lady." "Humayra" meaning "Red-coloured" was an epithet
given to Aishah by the Prophet.
Aishah not only possessed great knowledge but took an active part in education and social reform. As a teacher she had a clear and persuasive manner of speech and her power of
oratory has been described in superlative terms by al-Ahnaf who said:
"I have heard speeches of Abu Bakr and Umar, Uthman and Ali and the
Khulafa up to this day, but I have not heard speech more persuasive and
more beautiful from the mouth of any person than from the mouth of
Aishah."
Men and women came from far and wide to benefit from her
knowledge. The number of women is said to have been greater than that
of men. Besides answering enquiries, she took boys and girls, some of
them orphans, into her custody and trained them under her care and
guidance. This was in addition to her relatives who received instruction
from her. Her house thus became a school and an academy.
Some of her students were outstanding. We have already mentioned her nephew
Urwah as a distinguished reporter of hadith. Among her women pupils is
the name of Umrah bint Abdur Rahman. She is regarded by scholars as one
of the trustworthy narrators of hadith and is said to have acted as
Aishah's secretary receiving and replying to letters addressed to her.
The example of Aishah in promoting education and in particular the
education of Muslim women in the laws and teachings of Islam is one
which needs to be followed.
After Khadijah al-Kubra (the Great) and Fatimah az-Zahra (the Resplendent), Aishah as-Siddiqah (the one who affirms the Truth) is regarded as the best woman in Islam. Because of
the strength of her personality, she was a leader in every field in
knowledge, in society, in politics and in war. She often regretted her
involvement in war but lived long enough to regain position as the most
respected woman of her time. She died in the year 58 AH in the month of
Ramadan and as she instructed, was buried in the Jannat al-Baqi in the
City of Light, beside other companions of the Prophet
