Madam Aishah, a Study of her age at the time of her marriage with Prophet Muhammad

Historical Fact 6. Abu Bakr’s concern about the delay of Aishah’s full wedding:

When the Hijrah took place in 622, Aishah did not travel with the Prophet but in a group led by her half-brother Abdullah and Talhah ibn Ubaidullah, a group that included her mother Umm Ruman and her sister Asma.

Meanwhile, the Prophet’s other new wife Sawdah lodged in Madinah with the Prophet and his daughters. Aishah stayed with her parents, first in a house, then in the suburb of Sunh. The mosque was soon constructed, and alongside it the small private apartments for the Prophet’s family.

Sawdah was installed in one of them, but the Prophet said nothing about settling Aishah in one.

This began to worry Abu Bakr, and he inquired the reason for the delay. The Prophet replied that it was because he could not afford his marriage portion to Aishah. Abu Bakr, eager to see his daughter married, paid it for the Prophet himself.¹²

According to some versions, the marriage then took place in Shawwal of Year 1 AH; others state that it was 7-8 months after their arrival in Madinah, or in the Shawwal of Year 2 AH, or after the Battle of Badr.¹³

Why should Abu Bakr have been so concerned about the slowness of the Prophet moving his daughter into his household as a wife if she was only a child? If she was not nine but a good deal older, the gentle chiding of his friend would make far more sense.

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11. Ibn Sa’d VIII. 43.
12. Nawawi p.849; Tabari 1.1263.