ހިލްއަތު ރަޝީދު: މާތް ﷲ އަށް ފުރައްސާރަކުރާ ނިކަމެތި އިންސާނެއް

ައލީ: ހިއްލަތު ކިޔާބަލަ ނޭގޭވާހަކަ ނުދައްކާ Minivan News talks to Salih Yucel, currently a lecturer at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology at Monash University in Australia. Yucel completed a five-year programme in Islamic Theology – equivalent to a BA and MA – at the University of Ankara in 1982. After graduating, he undertook a variety of ecclesiastical roles for the ministry of religious affairs in Turkey for a period of ten years. In 1996, he completed an MA in Theology at the University of Sydney and was awarded his PhD at Boston University in 2007. During his time in Boston, he was co-founder and director of the Boston Dialogue Foundation – a community-based organisation dedicated to fostering interfaith and intercultural dialogue between Muslims and the greater Boston community. In Islam, it is considered that when a girl reaches puberty she is of a marriageable age. Can you explain this with reference to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)? Let’s first look at what marriage is, from the Islamic point of view and the Western point of view. What we see in the West, after the age of 10, 11, 12, will have a relationship with the opposite sex. It’s been practiced in every Western society. So the concept of marriage, what we understand in the Muslim society and the Western society, is not the same. In the Muslim society, marriage is not just signing a contract. It’s more than this. There are 1,000 wisdoms of marriage. One is just the sexual relationship, the third to have children, etc. But there are social implications, spiritual implications, economic implications, moral implications. Of course, first of all, a girl, whatever her age is, she has rights. Whether to accept or reject. However, you can say, at 10 years old a girl isn’t mature enough to make a decision. I agree with you. However, if you look at practice and mostly in the past, in the Muslim countries, it’s over 15, 16. It’s not at nine or ten. It’s very rare. In today’s society because of education and because girls go to school, have to have a skilled job and learn about Islam. In many Muslim countries girls marry at the age of 18, 20, 25. That’s because according to Muslim scholars if someone can control himself or herself, the marriage is not an obligation, it’s Sunnah, the tradition of the Prophet (PBUH). If this person cannot control himself or herself and this person is going to commit what we call haram (forbidden in Islam) activities, then this person is obliged to get married. Even marriage sometimes is disliked by God. When I get married if I’m not going to provide sustenance for my wife, then the Prophet (PBUH) says, don’t get married. There are different views about the age of marriage and different practices. In practice, most Muslims wouldn’t let girls get married at the age of nine. It is there, yes. This is because saving community is important. Let’s say in the Western society, they have a relationship after puberty and on the one hand how it’s causing long-term damage to the society. But Islam gives a solution. If you live in a society where people can’t control themselves, the best way is let them get married. But of course they have to be under the supervision of their parents, because they are of a young age. They can act emotionally. They need a lot of counseling from their family, friends. Otherwise, if you force people to marry at a young age, it will cause harm to their society. What about the example of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)? I think recently and in the past the Western scholars said the Prophet (PBUH) married Aisha at the age of nine. First of all, let’s go to that society. The Prophet (PBUH) had opponents definitely; those who disliked the Prophet (PBUH), those who tried to kill the Prophet (PBUH). If it was wrong, what would have been the reaction of his opponents? Definitely they would have criticised him severely and they would have said, look, the Prophet (PBUH) is marrying a nine-year-old girl. Even the companions of the Prophet (PBUH) wouldn’t have accept it. The Prophet (PBUH) got married at the age of 25. He was a very handsome person and many girls in the city wanted to get marry to him. But he married Khadeeja and she was 45 years old; 15 years older than the Prophet (PBUH). The Prophet (PBUH) was her third husband and the Prophet (PBUH) never married until she died. Then he was single for one and a half years and then he got married to Aisha. So what’s the reason for this? Imagine how people in an illiterate society 1,400 years ago would have known their ages? Because Aisha was very skinny and she looked very young. If the Prophet (PBUH) did something wrong in his society, everyone around him, including his companions would have said. They would have left him. Another reason is because as you know, young people learn very quickly. We are learning almost one-third of the religion from Aisha. This is important. He had other wives as well but none of them reported Hadiths or about the life of the Prophet (PBUH) as much as she did because she was young and was able to memorise whatever the Prophet (PBUH) said to her. And many companions later became her students. Muslims learnt a lot from her. So the one purpose of the marriage was not for self-desire but because half of the humankind is female and there are some certain issues, no one could ask the Prophet (PBUH). Only his wife could ask and learn and practice. The other thing is some history books mention that Aisha was between 15 and 18 years old. And this is definite. Because what we know is if she’s nine years old and he got married at 54, when the Prophet (PBUH) died, Aisha would be 15 years old. Aisha was a commander of an army. Can a 15-year-old girl go and become a commander of an army surrounded by people such as Abdullah Bin Zubair around her? That’s why that accusation is inaccurate. In history books, it says that she was 9, 13, 15, 18, even 24. Five different narrations. However, the majority of scholars will take between age 15 and 18. The Prophet (PBUH) got married many times and he’s also criticised by Western scholars for polygamy. But we have to ask what was the purpose of polygamy? Why did the Prophet (PBUH) practice this? He wanted unite the community because there were different tribes. Before, the Arabs never had unity. It wasn’t for sexual desires.