Dear readers, especially Muslim brothers and sisters – stop and think for a moment. What would you say if a 53-year-old man married a 6-year-old girl, then consummated the marriage when she was just 9? Now imagine that same man rejecting marriage proposals for his own daughter because he said she was “too young.” Does that sound fair? Consistent? From a perfect role model sent by God? Let’s look at the authentic Islamic sources and ask the hard questions.
Muhammad Married 6-Year-Old Aisha (Daughter of His Closest Friend)
Islam’s most trusted books are very clear about Aisha’s age.
Sahih al-Bukhari 5134 (Sahih) Arabic: أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم تَزَوَّجَهَا وَهْىَ بِنْتُ سِتِّ سِنِينَ، وَبَنَى بِهَا وَهْىَ بِنْتُ تِسْعِ سِنِينَ. English: Narrated `Aisha: that the Prophet (ﷺ) married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old.
Sahih Muslim 1422a (Sahih) Arabic: تَزَوَّجَنِي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم لِسِتِّ سِنِينَ وَبَنَى بِي وَأَنَا بِنْتُ تِسْعِ سِنِينَ. English: Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house at the age of nine… I was at that time on a swing along with my playmates.
Aisha herself says she was still playing on swings with her little friends when the marriage was consummated. She was a child. Muhammad was over 50 years old at the time. This was the daughter of his best friend Abu Bakr.
Muslims, if a 53-year-old man today asked to marry your 6- or 9-year-old daughter, would you say yes? Would you call it “Sunnah” and bless it? Then why was it okay when Muhammad did it?
But When Abu Bakr and Umar Wanted to Marry His Own Daughter Fatima…
The same Muhammad gave a very different answer.
Sunan an-Nasa’i 3221 (Sahih – Darussalam) Arabic: خَطَبَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرُ رضى الله عنهما فَاطِمَةَ فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ” إِنَّهَا صَغِيرَةٌ ”. فَخَطَبَهَا عَلِيٌّ فَزَوَّجَهَا مِنْهُ. English: It was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin Buraidah that his father said: “Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, proposed marriage to Fatimah but the Messenger of Allah said: ‘She is young.’ Then ‘Ali proposed marriage to her and he married her to him.”
He simply said “إِنَّهَا صَغِيرَةٌ” – “She is young” (or “too small/too young”). So he turned down two of his closest companions (Abu Bakr was around 50, Umar around 40 at the time). Only when younger Ali asked did he agree.
Historical sources put Fatima’s marriage to Ali around 623-624 CE (shortly after the Battle of Badr). Most traditional accounts say she was 18 or 19 years old then – much older than Aisha was. Yet Muhammad still called her “too young” for the older men.
The Clear Double Standard
Think about this logically:
- For himself (age 53+): A 6-year-old girl is fine. Consummation at 9 is fine.
- For his own daughter (even at 18+): “She is young” – rejected for men in their 40s-50s.
Same man. Same time period. Same religion. But completely different rules.
Muslims, ask yourself honestly: Why protect his own daughter from older men but not Abu Bakr’s 6-year-old daughter? If marrying very young girls is “normal” and “from Allah,” why did he say no when it was his own child? Was he following divine rules… or his own desires?
This isn’t a small detail. It is in the most authentic books – Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and Sahih-grade Sunan an-Nasa’i. These are the books Muslims trust more than anything after the Quran.
The example of Muhammad is supposed to be perfect for all time. Yet here we see one rule for the Prophet and another rule for his own daughter. One standard for what he wanted, and a stricter standard when it came to protecting his little girl.
Dear Muslim readers, this should make you think deeply. If the greatest man in Islam could not apply the same rules to himself and his family, how can we say this is the perfect moral guide for the whole world? Child marriage still happens in many Muslim societies today because of these very examples. Isn’t it time to question where these double standards really come from?