The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume II — Page 239
VI - Rukhsatānah of Ḥaḍrat ‘Ā’ishah ra and an Exposition of Her Age at the Time, the Issue of Polygamy and Two Fabricated Incidents 239 to their own age prove to be inaccurate. In contrast, as for those people who have attempted to undertake an independent study considering the nine-year notion as being incorrect, the mistake which they have committed is that by abandoning the straight and simple route for research, they have employed such a complicated method, that a person’s heart is left unsatisfied. Any intelligent individual would concur that the most correct and easy method by which the age of Ḥaḍrat ‘Ā’ishah ra may be discerned is to determine her date of birth on the one hand and the date of her Rukhsatānah on the other. After the specification of both these dates, no room for any uncertainty or doubt remains as to her age at the time of the Rukhsatānah. First we take up the question of her birth. Ibni Sa‘d has recorded a narration in Ṭabaqāt that: كَانَت ْ عَائِشَة ُ وُلِدَت ِ السَّنَة َ الرَّابِعَة َ مِن َ النُّبُّوَة ِ فِی ْ اَوَّلِھَا Meaning, “Ḥaḍrat ‘Ā’ishah ra was born in the beginning of 4 Nabawī. ” 1 With regards to the birthdate of Ḥaḍrat ‘Ā’ishah ra , except for this narration, no other specific narration from any book of the early historians has crossed my eye; nor has any narration been related in any book of Ḥadīth. Hence, the date of birth has been easily determined, and it is the beginning of 4 Nabawī. Now we take up the second question which relates to the date of her Rukhsatānah. In this respect, there is undoubtedly a disagreement in narrations. In various narrations, the date which has been recorded is Shawwāl 1 A. H. and in others, Shawwāl 2 A. H. However, if one contemplates, the latter narration proves to be more correct. The actual source of the narration which suggests Shawwāl 1 A. H. is Ibni Sa‘d, who has traced this narration to Ḥaḍrat ‘Ā’ishah ra through a chain of narrators. 2 Most historians have taken this narration of Ibni Sa‘d as a basis and declared the date of Rukhsatānah as being Shawwāl 1 A. H. However, although Ibni Sa‘d is trustworthy in himself, in this narration, one narrator from among its narrators is Wāqidī, with regards to whom scholars are almost at a consensus that he was untrustworthy and 1 Aṭ-Ṭabaqātul-Kubrā, By Muḥammad bin Sa‘d, Volume 8, p. 283, Dhikru Azwāji Rasūlillāhi sa / ‘Ā’ishata bintu Abī Bakriṣ-Ṣiddīq, Dāru Iḥyā’it-Turāthil-‘Arabī, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996) 2 Aṭ-Ṭabaqātul-Kubrā, By Muḥammad bin Sa‘d, Volume 8, p. 271, Dhikru Azwāji Rasūlillāhi sa / ‘Ā’ishata bintu Abī Bakriṣ-Ṣiddīq, Dāru Iḥyā’it-Turāthil-‘Arabī, Beirut, Lebanon, First Edition (1996)