Child marriages are not permitted in Islam

Muhammad al-Massari in his book ‘Women in Islam’ mentions:

“Child marriages, like the ones practised in some backward societies around the world in which an infant is married to another infant or sometimes a foetus is married to another foetus or children are married at an age when they don’t know even the meaning of marriage, find no approval in Islam.

A boy or girl’s personal consent is necessary in marriage, which they cannot give unless they are mature enough to take a decision about it.

Some scholars, influenced by such pre-Islamic customs and cultural background, take the marriage of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to ‘Aisha, which was consummated at her young age of nine years, as an evidence for the permissibility of child marriage! This is not correct. That marriage was contracted, according to the, then valid, Arab tradition, in Mecca and consummated in the first year of the Medina time long before the new detailed laws has been revealed about women and their rights, specifically their right to accept or reject a marital partner. This necessiates a minimum maturity and capacity of contracting not found in children or minors!

That exceptional marriage to a minor is either abrogated, or it is a special legislation for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ tied to his prophetic rank and office.

Staying unmarried for no reason has been discouraged in Islam, however. The Prophet Muhammad has said: “Marriage is my path and one who deviates from my path has nothing to do with me”. He has repeatedly exhorted all Muslims to marry: “When a person marries he perfects half of his faith. so let him fear God regarding the other half.”

Islam has not fixed a certain age for marriage, though. It has, however, recommended that one should get married as early as one is mature enough and may afford to do so.”

Rulers and Prophets do not get married for themslves

It should be noted that rulers do not get married for themslves but rather for furthering the interests of the state as a whole. Similarly prophets do not get married for themselves but rather to further the cause of the religion. Therefore the marriages of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who was a ruler-prophet were for political and religious objectives not for himself.

Allah (Most High) says,

وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلْهَوَىٰٓ إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْىٌۭ يُوحَىٰ

“He does not speak from his own desire. It is only a revelation sent down ˹to him˺.” [Qur’an. Al-Najm, 3-4]

Aisha (ra) is the second most prolific narrator of hadith surpassed only by Abu Hurayrah. She transmitted 2,210 hadiths, providing crucial legal, theological, and intimate domestic insights into the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Therefore without this marriage to Aisha all of this knowledge – especially about the private and family life of the Prophet ﷺ – would have been lost.

Women cannot be forced into marriage

Abdullah b. Burayda (ra) narrates on the authority of his father that a young girl came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said: “My father married me off to his nephew in order to raise his lowly status.” So the Prophet ﷺ gave her the right to repudiate the marriage. She responded: “I accept what my father has done, but I wanted to inform the (other) women that fathers do not have any authority to give their daughters in marriage against their wishes.”

The meaning of her statement: ‘in order to raise his lowly status’ is that her father wanted to raise his nephew’s social standing by marrying her to him. This means that the father gave her in marriage against her wish because she did not consider him suitable for her, not because she thought he was not a match for her, indeed he was her cousin, but because she did not agree to the marriage. [Taqiudeen Al-Nabhani, ‘Social System in Islam,’ p.116]