Thread by @SiriuslyCold

I want to talk about irrational behaviour.

Recently, I raised the issue of child marriage amongst Muslims, and I asked this "scientist" how old he believed Aisha was when she was married to Prophet Muhammad. He said "9".

We "know" this because it is mentioned in the hadith that the marriage was when she was 6, but the consummation took place when she was 9.

Then I said I do not believe that because ...

1) the Qur'an has laid down guidelines on how to determine if a girl is eligible to marry (not the onset of menses - but the ability to manage their own finances, the ability to give their own consent, and the ability to enter into a legal contract) AND

2) The prophet was a man of impeccable character and would not go against God's commandments.

How old Aisha was, really, is unknown, and conjecture/guesses at best, and frankly, irrelevant to Deen Islam, otherwise it would be mentioned in the Qur'an.

What happened next completely stunned me.
He - who believed the prophet married a 9-year old girl - accused ME of intending to impugn the Prophet's character.

This is irrational behaviour from anyone, more so one who says he is a scientist.

Because rationally, the people who actually do denigrate the Prophet are people who believe without question that he would 1) marry a child and 2) go against God's commandment.

Normally, I would brush it off, but irrational accusations like these are probably what killed Samuel Paty, who for all we know, had no intention of denigrating the Prophet, but sought to use a strong example to illustrate his lesson on free speech.

Nobody knows for sure, but some irrational person accused him of denigrating the prophet, and the next thing you know, another even more irrational person had killed the poor man.

Maybe it was too strong an example, but the Qur'an tells us to ignore these slights, say "peace" (25:63) and move away from the topic and person (7:180). This is the rational reaction. Had this happened, Samuel Paty would be alive.

Instead, irrationality took over and a human being is dead.

In real Islamic terms, this is akin to killing humanity itself.
5:32 ... whoever kills a human being, unless it be for murder or bloody crimes on the earth, it would be as if he killed all mankind...

One is tempted to think of himself, "I won't be that irrational" but that predicates being able to recognize irrationality in the first place in order not to commit excesses.

Again, normally, I would brush it off - but beliefs like this (Aisha marriage) is partly what prevents us from abolishing child marriage.

#EndChildMarriage #ChildNotBride

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