Hadhrat Ayesha: Mother of the Faithful (Allah is pleased with her):

 

Allah’s Name, Who is The Most Affectionate, The Most Merciful. Surely, Allah (Rubb Sustain-ER) loves those who repent and those who purify themselves (Al-Quraan.)

Attention please: “Avoid extremes in religious as well worldly matters, for peace and salvation lies only in following the middle path. Thanks!

Hadhrat Ayesha: Mother of the Faithful (Allah is pleased with her):

 Hadhrat Ayesha (Allah is pleased with her) being the daughter of the great father was the only virgin lady of the land, so young in an age when her marriage was solemnized to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) in Madina. All the other wives of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) were either divorced ladies and widowed persons who wanted to be respectful mothers of all the Muslims after their marriage with the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) on their personal perusal.Hazrat Ayesha (Allah is pleased with her) was only eighteen.

 On the tenth day of his moral fever the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) had forced himself up from his sickbed—a mattress stuffed with husks in Aisha’s (R.A) hut –to attend the dawn prayers then being called in the open courtyard outside. He (S.A.W) was not enough better to lead the prayers and having appointed Aisha’s father Abu  Bakr Siddique (Allah is pleased with him) to deputies for him, he (S.A.W) returned to Aisha’s hunt immediately after the prayers were over. There he (S.A.W) had laid his head in her lap and clasped her hand firmly in his own. To reduce the heat, for it was close to midsummer’s day, and his body was racked with fever, he (S.A.W) lay quite still all that morning. Then his (S.A.W) head grew heavy and Aisha (R.A) heard him (S.A.W) murmur  “Lord, grant me, pardon’ as the grip on her hand loosened for the last time.

Muhammad’s (S.A.W) departure brought Aisha (R.A) matrimonial life to end. She (R.A) would never love again, yet she (R.A) was to be loved and honored by the whole Muslim community as one of the Mothers of the Faithful— as all the Prophet’s wives were to be addressed. Her (R.A) pre-eminence within that group was never disputed. She would live on for another fifty-six years. Outliving practically all her friends, cousins, and the Companions of the Muhammad’s (S.A.W), to die as a venerable old woman aged seventy-four. Her (R.A) memories of those years with Muhammad (S.A.W) become a  bright jewel that was polished and reflected upon throughout Aisha’s (R.A) long life.

In those first eighteen years, there had seldom been a time when her life had not been filled with the presence of the Muhammad’s (S.A.W). It had been a life of high adventure and exhilaration. Of occasional marches with the army, filled with the scent of camels, leather harnesses, dander and war, set against a life that was otherwise lived around the confines of the walled compound that was Muhammad’s (S.A.W) house. It was a place that was both mosques, meeting ground and the courtyard in which all the intense elements of Arabian family life were staged. Deaths, births, betroths, weeding feasts as well as the humdrum daily concerns of grinding grain to make flour, Tending fires, spinning wool, the weaving of palm fronds and leather, the making and embroidering of clothes, caring for children, the giving of food to the poor, greeting of travelling, caring for the sick, cooking pots, the keeping of pets, the safe storage of dates and grain from pests, the gathering of firewood, and bargaining in the weekly markets. Not to mention such out-of-house chores as milking, fetching well water. For the first six years in Medina, the household’s income was earned from the skilled working and selling of leather.

This household stood at the political and religious center of the oasis of Medina. After  Muhammad’s (S.A.W) death, it would be drained of its domestic role and gradually transformed into the first monumental mosque of Islam (masjid-i-Nabvi). Though the nine small mud-brick huts, with their palm-fronds ceilings and doorways sealed by a simple woolen drape, would long stand as graphic testimony to the simplicity and austerity of his lifestyle. The everyday actions that had occurred in this courtyard house would become vital role models for the personal conduct of future Muslims. While they lived (and two of them, Aisha and Umm Salamah (Allah is pleased with them), would outlive all the principal male characters in this story) the Holy Prophet’s (S.A.W) widows formed an impromptu court of highest appeal, drawn out of their individual and collective memories of his thoughts, speech and actions. On this level alone, they must be considered as Heirs of the Holy Prophet’s (S.A.W) though, as we will see Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqa (Allah is pleased with her) would also pursue a direct disastrous involvement in political and military events.

Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqa (Allah is pleased with her) faith was absolute, was arguably one of the first Muslims to have been born straighter into belief– rather than converting from the pagan beliefs of pre-Islamic Arabia. For her, (R.A) parents were among the very first Meccans to profess themselves Muslims and they were also the intimate friends of the holy prophet (S.A.W)  Aisha (R.A)  like many a child of the Quraish, had been sent out from Mecca with her parents to be wet-nursed in the comparative health of the desert by a Bedouin mother. By the time Aisha.  (R.A) had been returned to her mother’s house the full force of the Meccan persecution had fallen upon the small Muslim community. The Muslims had become outcasts within Mecca and had clustered for self-defense among the households of  Muhammad’s (S.A.W) Beni Hashim clan. Aisha’s  (R.A)  father Hadhrat Abu Bakr (R.A) was one of the Prophet’s  (S.A.W) closest advisers, and as neighbors in this harrowing time, they would have been in and out of each other’s household several times a day.  Especially as the Prophet’s  (S.A.W)  had just lost the great emotional supports of his life, his beloved first wife Hadhrat Khadija (R.A) and old AbuTaleb, his uncle.

In those last years of Aisha’s childhood in Mecca, the widowed Muhammad (S.A.W)  would have often neatened in the house of Abu Bakr (R.A) as a guest. Since the death of his (S.A.W) own beloved Khadija (R.A), his own household had been intermittently under the care of a member of relatives. His aunt Khawlah had been especially helpful. Khawlah bint Hakim was the sister of Muhammad’s (S.A.W) mother. She and her husband have early embraced Islam, but Muhammad (S.A.W)   remained her affectionate nephew as well as her spiritual adviser. He  (S.A.W) had even taken on the delicate task of explaining to his uncle by marriage, who was a very passionate Muslim that Islam (unlike Pauli-St  Christianity) did not require or even approve of celibacy within marriage. Perhaps such frankness on her nephew’s part allowed Khawlah to be candid in return, and to suggest that Muhammad (S.A.W) should himself take a wife after the first of intense mourning for Khadija  (R.A)  was over. When he asked for more specific advice, she had put forward either Aisha (R.A) for her virginal beauty or Sawdah, a middle-aged widow, who knew how to run a house and might prove a motherly help to his daughters. Muhammad (S.A.W)  accepted both candidates. Aisha (R.A), then just six was betrothed. She stayed with her parents, though she remembered the change in her status as she was thereafter encouraged to play indoor rather than range through the streets as a wild tomboy.  

According to tradition, Abu Bakr (R.A)  had to privately lend the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) the bride price before the marriage could go ahead. Aisha (R.A) could always vividly recall that day, I was playing on a  see-saw and my long streaming hair dishevelled’. Then her mother and her closest friends and neighbors came and took me from my play and made me ready. She was given a new dress made from the fine red-strip cloth traded out of Bahrain and an onyx necklace before her mother  led her to a newly built hut around whose doorway there was seated company. In front of these witnesses her mother placed her in the lap of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W)  and then blessed the pair  of them: These are your family, may God bless  you in them, and bless them in your! ‘A bowl of milk was offered from which the Prophet (S.A.W) drank before passing it to Aisha. At first, she shyly declined, but gently insisted, so she sipped and then it was passed to her elder sister Asma, who was sitting beside her. Then it was passed to all the other guests, who afterwards rose up and departed. Later the Prophet (S.A.W) led Aisha into the bridle hut and Marriage became into being. In later life, Aisha (R.A) liked to compare the modesty and simplicity of that day with the lavishness and complexity of the celebrations that would later wrap themselves around the Muslim ritual of marriage. As for many who have known poverty and also great wealth, there was a bittersweet pleasure in contemplating these strong contrasts. She would always be fascinated by such celebrations. She keenly recalled her first sight of the dance-like exercises of the Abyssinian Muslim soldiers held in the mosque courtyard, where the Prophet  (S.A.W)  drew her protectively to his side as she watched their drill. There is another beguiling story that a young bride was seen by the prophet (S.A.W) tiptoeing precariously to peek over a wall to catch sight of the boisterousness of a marriage festivities neighbor. Instead of reproving her the Prophet (S.A.W) helped her secure a better view.

Neither Aisha (R.A) nor any of the Muslim historians think it's worth commentating on the great age gap between a bride who was, at most, and a groom aged fifty-four. It was clearly not an issue, any more than it was for an Archbishop, of Canterbury to do the same less than a century ago in Victorian Britain. However,  in our post-Industrial Revolution society, where we are permitted to vote, to drink and are forced into schools, according to a formula calculated by our Government-registered birth date. It is almost impossible to think back to how other societies quantified these issues. The honorific title of Umm (mother of) or Abu (or father) was the most prized possession of any Arab.

Aisha (R.A) kept hold of her toys and her playmates. She also remembered how her friends would hide away when her impressive husband (S.A.w) entered her room, but that the Prophet  (S.A.W) would ask her together with them together again — and but then join in their games.  

In January 627, the Prophet  (S.A.W) had heard that The Bani Mustaliq, a powerful sub-e clan of the Khuza'a tribe, who controlled the caravan route along the Red Sea coast, was preparing a raid on Medina. He decided to strike first and carried off thousands of sheep, goats and camels as well as 200 captives. When the Prophet  (S.A.W) accompanied on his campaigns and missionary journeys by his wives Both Aisha and Salamah (Allah is pleased with them), they travelled by day in howdahs light canopied seats made from cane and stretched leather that rose above a camel’s back. Aisha(R.A), being the youngest, lightest and most adventurous, took the comparative discomfort of these journeys in her stride. Both wives were accompanied by the Muslim army on this successful raid — as the soldiers were all too aware. The presence of the young Aisha (R.A) had done nothing to assist their military efficiency. For just as this force was getting ready to move on, after a short rest stop at dusk, Aisha  (R.A) found to her horror that her favorite necklace an elegant chain of onyx–had slipped from her neck. In the growing darkness, she could not find it, but was desperate with a cold superstitious dread. It had been given to her on her wedding day. The Prophet  (S.A.W) considerately gave the order for his army to camp where they were, though they had been gearing up to use these cool hours of the night to push on with their march and catch their enemy off guard. As there was no water or wellhead at hand that night. Aisha’s (R.A) name was roundly rebuked on all sides. In the morning light, the necklace still could not be found. But then when Aisha’s mount was finally made ready it was discovered that her camel had actually been sitting upon the necklace. Though publicly scolded by her father about this incident, Aisha (R.A)  clearly remained the darling of her husband’s eye. For just a few days later the army watched in delighted surprise and Muhammad (S.A.W)  and Aisha ( R.A) emerged from their tent challenged each other to a race along a valley of golden sand. Years and years later she remembered this arresting scene and how “I girded up my robe about me and the Prophet  (S.A.W) did likewise. Then we raced, and  he  (S.A.W) won the race.”This is in that race.” He said,  “which you did win for me.” referring back to some happy memory they shared.

As the march neared its end they were but a day’s ride away from Medina. At one of the customary halts, Aisha (R.A)  dismounted from her howdah and climbed a dune to be out of sight of the men while she answered the call of nature. Just when she was almost back in her howdah she realized that her precious necklace had once again slipped off and so she slowly retraced her clear footprints in the sand while she searched for the onyx stones of every step. In the meantime, the march had continued without her.  When she returned to the empty campsite she behaved quite properly by seating herself down where her howdah had been and patiently awaiting rescue. Her (R.A) absence had not been noticed so as the hours stretched on Aisha  (R.A) wrapped herself from the full force of the sun in the covering of her veil and fell asleep. The rescue, when it came, arrived from an expected direction. A young Bedouin of the Beni Sulaym tribe, Safwan Ibn Metal, came across the sleeping form of young Aisha (R.A). She awoke suddenly when Safwan was standing over her, but once her eyes were open he immediately recognized Aisha (R.A)   and stepped back crying out, “Verily we are from God and unto Him, we are returning. This is the wife of the messenger of  God.

Safwan then gallantly offered  Aisha (R.A) a seat on his camel while he escorted her on to the next halt When these two figures emerged out of the horizon, the whole camp buzzed with the talk about it, especially as no one had yet noticed that  Aisha (R.A)  was missing from her howdah.

Then came the movement of  Aisha’s (R.A) great  trial:

Soon after Juwayriya had been welcomed into The Prophet’s (S.A.W) household— after a new hut had been built for her (R.A) –Aisha (R.A) was laid low by a fever. Sensing a reduction in The Prophet’s (S.A.W)  concern for her, and once again afflicted with raging jealousy of the new bride. She took herself off to her parent's house to be nursed by her mother. Twenty days later she was up and about again but by then the oasis was alive with rumors that Safwan was her secret and that she had true Romulus' the Prophet’s (S.A.W). Murder commentator makes much of the political ramified ions ancommentatorsumour was circular d by the ‘Hypocrites’or half-converted Medina locals, who may have wanted to diminish the Prophet’s (S.A.W) standing. There may be some truth in this, though it is equally clear that many of the disseminate were good Muslims seemingly up with a simple love of gossip and intrigue —such as the Prophet’s (S.A.W) otherwise loyal poet Hassan Ibn Thabit, one of Aisha’s own cousins, and  sister to the Prophet’s (S.A.W) cousin-wife Zaynab.

 Whatever the source, the Prophet'(S.A.W)  for his part was clearly disturbed. He never claimed to be able to read the secrets of the human heart or possess any miraculous power. When questioned, he freely  confessed, ‘I know only what God  give-the  me to know.’  Usama, son of Zayd, jumped to her defense, declaring, ” This is all a lie — we know nothing but good of her.’ As the adopted grant-son of the Prophet (S.A.W), his opinion was listened to but as he was about the same age as Aisha it did not carry gravitas, Aisha’s (R.A) maid Buraydah, when questioned by the Holy  Prophet'(S.A.W) declared resoundingly, ‘ him that sent thee with the truth, I know only good for her;  and if it were otherwise  God would inform his Messenger. I have no fault with Aisha (R.A) but that she is a girl, young in years, but then went.  Off at a conventional tangent of her own, adding that ‘when I am kneading dough and I bid her watch it, she will fall asleep and her pet lamb will come and eat it...I have blamed her for that more than once.

After prayers in the mosque, the Prophet'(S.A.W) indirectly questioned his congregation, declaring that the new he ‘ knew nought but good of my household, and nought but good of the man (Safwan) they speak, who never entered a house of mine but I am with you. The congregation nodded its agreement, but then quickly dissolved into disorder as the Aws and Khazraj factions within Medina’s clans used the dispute to sharpen their old rivalry and fling at each other accusation. Backstabbing.

The Prophet (S.A.W)  like most of Medina, was in the daily expectation of a revelation to sort out this tangled affair. But weeks and weeks went by. Eventually, after a month apart, he went to talk to Aisha (R.A) himself, finding her hut in the company of pair of grave parents and one lone but sympathetic neighbor.  Aisha (R.A) had been crying for two nights and a day. The Prophet'(S.A.W) addressed her formally, but with compassion. ‘Aisha; if you are innocent, God will absolve you, but if you are guilty, ask forgiveness from God and repent, for God pardon those who confess and repent. “To Aisha’s (R.A) ears it sounded as if she had  already been judged and  she was furious that neither of her parents spoke in her defense, but meekly answered her appeals with  ‘I know not what answer to make.’  

She (R.A) had no need of any spokesperson. All of a sudden her trees dried up and she found herself calmly declaring, ‘I see that you have listened to them talk about me until it has taken hold of you so that you now believe in it. If I declare my innocence  (and God Most High knows that I am) you will not believe me. But I confess, but you will surely believe me. There remains nothing  to do but to follow the example of Joseph’s father and say, “Patience is becoming and God help us to be implored.”

It was well said and timely —- though later she would chastise herself for forgetting Jacob’s name, though Joseph’s father proved perfectly adequate at the time. Then she went to the back of the hut and lay down on her bed. Shortly afterwards her supplication answered. The hut went totally silent as the Prophet (S.A.W) was visibly gripped by a long-awaited revelation. In Aisha’s words, ‘He was seized with the pangs which seized him at such times, and as it were pearls of sweat dripped from him although it was a wintry day’. Then when he was relieved of the pressure his (S.A.W) face rose up and he (S.A.W) smiled. He (S.A.W) called out, ‘God tidings, Aisha. God Most High has exonerated you.

Her parents were beside themselves with relief and hurriedly called out to Aisha to rise from her mat and thank the Prophet (S.A.W). Their anxiety had concluded their understanding of the nature of revelation — for it was God’s word, not Muhammad’s. Aisha’s (R.A) with theological accuracy and a chilling dignity chided these two believers (her own parents) who had, half an hour earlier not come to her aid. She declared, ‘I shall neither  come to him nor thank him. Nor will I thank the both of you who listen to the slander. Himself and did not deny it. ‘She paused  to let this sink in and then added, ‘I shall rise and give thanks to God alone.’

In the immediate aftermath, the revelation that came upon the Prophet (S.A.W) in Aisha’s hut was revealed in all its Verses as Sura 24. It is a little Qur'an in itself, the glorious dancing mixture of exact law codes for future ethical conduct metaphysical descriptions and passage of great sublimity. For instance, verse 35:  Allah is the light, of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of High Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a chandelier is like a glittering star, lit from the blessed olive tree which is neither in the east nor in the west. It is near that its oil may flare up even though the fire does not touch it. The Light is upon Light. Allah guides to His Light whom He pleases., and Allah sets forth parables for men. Allah knows all the things fully well.  (The Light- 25/35)

While unbelief is described as   ‘Like utter darkness in the deep sea: there covers it a wave above which there wave, above which is a cloud, (and layers of) utter darkness on above another, when he holds out his hand, he is almost unable to see it, and to whomsoever, God does not give light.’ Elsewhere in this chapter, eighty lashes are prescribed as the punishment for those who bear false witness to a charge of adultery, four witnesses are required for any future accusation of adultery, and a hundred lashes are prescribed as the punishment for convicted adulterers. Husbands and wives may testify against each other four times, but on the fifth time, they solemnly have to call down the curse of God upon themselves if they lie. Though as so often in the Holy  Qur'an this outward legal severity can always be waived by the call of mercy, such as in Verse five, ‘Except those who repent thereafter, then mend to act rightfully, for surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.    (The Light 24/5)

Aisha (Allah is pleased with her) must have been especially delighted with the sound of this whole Sura. The verse that freed her, by God’s Command, from an accusation of infidelity, had also been uniquely delivered to the Prophet (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) in her presence. No other wife was ever so honored by God speaking to his Messenger in her presence.

Ascertained by Ishfaq Ahmed smaq*