Series On Islam: "THREE FACES EAST Part 51" - By HJS

Radi (Radical): Modi, do you remember my cousin from Holland?

Modi (Moderate): Oh, yes. Nice person. Did he get home all right?

Radi: Yes, he had no problems at all. Thanks to you, he is interested in our history. He sent a letter.

Mani (Mainstream): Aha! What does he want to know?

Radi: He is interested in Aisha. Apparently, he takes some abuse from some infidels calling our Most Beloved some nasty names.

Modi: I guess we had better give him some answers then. I suppose his first question is, How old was she when our Most Beloved married her? Most people, believers as well, put her age at nine on the wedding date. However, they don’t really know. NO ONE KNOWS THE EXACT BIRTH DATE. We do accept age nine, though, as her age at marriage.

Mani: I understand that she was betrothed to someone else earlier. She could have been married earlier than she was to our Great Founder.

Modi: I have to look it up, but I believe that her father, Abu Bakr, wanted her married before they migrated to Ethiopia. They were escaping from Meccan pressure, and Abu Bakr did not believe she was up to such an arduous journey. Therefore, the answer is yes. It is possible that Aisha could have been married two years sooner.

Radi: So, originally she could have been married at seven years.

Modi: Yes, maybe younger. But as far as her actual marriage is concerned, she could have been anywhere between nine and thirteen. Other say she could have been older; however, Aisha herself says she was nine. That is good enough for me. She was betrothed to her only husband directly after the infidel Jubayr refused the marriage (prior to the journey to Ethiopia). However, the marriage to our Most Beloved never took place until after the Hejira, when she settled in Medina.

Mani: I wish we had better records from back then. It is not good to need specific information, but it is not available.

Modi: I feel that way about many documents during that period.

Radi: I know what you are saying, Modi, but Allah has seen to it that the original documents that we cherish were collected and compiled the way He wanted it.

Modi: You need not answer, Radi, though it would be nice to know how everyone knew Allah’s plans for collecting and arranging everything.

Mani: Don’t mind him, Modi. Radi, what else does he want to know?

Radi: What about the charge of adultery against her?

Modi: I can actually make short work of that one. Aisha was accompanying her husband on a trip with several others. She had received a necklace as a gift but lost it. Her search took her out of camp, and when she returned, everyone was gone. She had to wait there alone for a few hours before another believer showed up and took her to rejoin the caravan.

Mani: Oh! I bet that went over well with everyone.

Modi: You bet. She was alone with another man not her husband for almost a day. Some tongues were wagging eight-to-the-bar. Voices were bouncing around her husband’s head about divorce and punishment, despite the fact that everyone close to her swore that she would never do anything wrong.

Radi: What happened? I think I know, but I want to be sure.

Modi: Well, talk about a deus ex machina[1] ending, it was revealed by Allah (Qur’an 24:11) that Aisha was innocent. Those that had spoken against her received forty lashes.

Mani: Ooops! I guess that taught them something.

Radi: I do not understand what comment you made about our Most Beloved’s receiving the revelation from Allah confirming Aisha’s innocence.

Modi: Well, you just look at that situation, Radi. Suppose your fiancée were gone from your sight and her parents’ sight for a day or so and then she showed up in some man’s car. Just what would you say to her?

Radi: Nothing. I would never see her again. Besides, her parents would kill her.

Mani: Would you not wait to hear her explanation?

Radi: Not on your tintype, Mani.

Modi: (laughs) He’s been waiting for weeks to say that.

Mani: You and her parents would just abandon her to a stoning, despite how devoted she has been to you all this time.

Radi: Of course. There is no explanation in a situation like that.

Modi: But that was the situation that Aisha was confronting so long ago. You would not have believed Aisha.

Mani: You would have gotten forty lashes, Radi.

Modi: Perhaps your fiancée fainted, someone took her to the hospital, and it was a doctor that brought her home.

Radi: Well, Modi, if it were something like that....

Mani: But you folks would not have waited for the reason.

Modi: Look at it this way: if someone ran up at the last moment and showed everyone she was unconscious in a hospital for half a day, what would you call it?

Radi: A lie?

Mani: Radi, Modi is trying to get you to say it is a miracle.

Radi: Oh.

Modi: What I was trying to say, Radi, was that the revelation exonerating Aisha was a miracle. But you would not have believed it.

Radi: I would believe if our Most Beloved said it.

Mani: Radi, you only want to avoid those forty lashes.

Radi: If I were traveling with our Most Beloved, I would think differently from if I were standing around with you two.

Mani: That sounds like bigotry to me. Modi, I think Radi does not believe in miracles.

Modi: I want to believe in miracles, but Radi is not cooperative.

Radi: What have miracles to do with me?

Modi: Nothing, so far. But if you ever pay for a meal….

Mani: Now that would be a miracle.

HJS

NOTE: Those interested can find additional interesting information about Aisha on the web, especially here, for brief vignettes.


[1] Referring to Greek plays in which the god or gods are lowered onto the stage by means of a crane or other machine to untangle an impossible situation for the hero and save the day. It is used today to describe an artificial or improbable ending.