Aishah bint Abi Bakr
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The
life of Aishah is proof that a woman can be far more learned than
men and that she can be the teacher of scholars and experts. Her
life is also proof that a woman can exert influence over men and
women and provide them with inspiration and leadership. Her life
is also proof that the same woman can be totally feminine and be
a source of pleasure, joy and comfort to her husband.
She did
not graduate from any university there were no universities as such
in her day. But still her utterances are studied in faculties of
literature, her legal pronouncements are studied in colleges of
law and her life and works are studied and researched by students
and teachers of Muslim history as they have been for over a thousand
years.
The bulk
of her vast treasure of knowledge was obtained while she was still
quite young. In her early childhood she was brought up by her father
who was greatly liked and respected for he was a man of wide knowledge,
gentle manners and an agreeable presence. Moreover he was the closest
friend of the noble Prophet who was a frequent visitor to their
home since the very early days of his mission.
In her youth,
already known for her striking beauty and her formidable memory,
she came under the loving care and attention of the Prophet himself.
As his wife and close companion she acquired from him knowledge
and insight such as no woman has ever acquired.
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 mentioning of 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.
Many of
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.
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