The Role of Aishah in the History of Islam (volume Three)

'a'ishah's Monopoly of Verdicts On Sucking Period

'A'ishah ordered her brother's sister or daughters to suck the man that she wished to visit her house, so that they may be considered religiously legitimate intimates.

al-Muwatta' of Malik

We have already seen that 'A'ishah was considered a great authority in religious matters from the time of her father's caliphate until the period of Mu'awiyah, with the exception of the period of the Alawite rule. She was frequently consulted by the caliphs and was asked to issue verdicts on various questions. Consequently she was treated with a great respect, and inquirers crowded at the door of her house. Among the Prophet's wives she was the only one who took part in the great political events of his life, and also, as we saw, she caused so much bloodshed, whereas the other consorts of the Prophet did not interfere in such affairs.

It was probably due to this reason that she quoted the Prophet's tradition concerning the sucking period, while the other wives of the Prophet contradicted her in this matter.

According to Musnad of Ahmad 'A'ishah says about this tradition: Sahlah, daughter of Suhayl ibn 'Amr and wife of Abu Hudhayfah, came to the Prophet and said: Salem, the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfah enters our house while we are not fully dressed and not properly covered. We used to call him our son, since Abu Hudhayfah had adopted him as his son, in the same way that the Prophet had adopted Zayd as his son.

The following verse of the Qur'an descended about this matter: "Assert their relationship to their fathers; this is more equitable with Allah." (3O7)

The Prophet said to Sahlah: "You may suckle your freed slave and adopted son five times; than he may be regarded as your foster son and thereby become a religiously legitimate relation." By relying on this tradition the narrator of which was herself, she ordered her sisters and nieces to give suck five times to the men that she wished to visit her, even though they were full- grown adults, so that thereby they could be considered as religiously legitimate intimates and be allowed to enter house without any inconvenience.

But the other wives of the Prophet abstained from this action and did not allow an adult man to visit them by means of sucking their sister's milk, and treat them like an intimate relation. They regarded sucking as something solely related to babyhood. They said to 'A'ishah: "We do not know. Maybe the verdict of the Prophet has been given only in the case of Salem, the slave-girl of Abu_Hudhayfah and his adopted son, and it is not applicable to others."(308) This incident has been narrated in Sahih of Muslim within six traditions, the last of which in his own words is as follows:

They said to 'A'ishah: "By God! We consider the matter of Salim as a leave given by the Prophet to him only. Therefore we cannot in that way allow anyone to become intimately related to us. (309)

Salim ibn 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar was one of those who, in adulthood, was allowed by means of suckling to visit 'A'ishah. The author of Tabaqat writes: 'A'ishah sent Salem to her sister Umm Kulthum, wife of 'Abd Allah ibn Rabi' ah to be given suck, so that he would legitimately be allowed to visit her and listen to some tradition.(310)

The next tradition, which is narrated by Muslim in his Sahih, confirms the opinion of Umm Salamah and other wives of the Prophet in the question of suckling. 'A'ishah says: One say the Prophet came in and saw a man sitting before me. He was annoyed and I could observe signs of anger on his face. I told him that the man was my foster brother. He made a remark (311) which is explained as follow by an-Nawawi, a famous interpreter of tradition in Sahih of Muslim:

It means: You must reflect to see whether this sucking has been effected in accordance with the required condition and laws of Islam or not. For, sucking is due to hunger, and the legitimacy of the glance is due to the face that the child is so young that his hunger is satisfied through sucking without needing any other food, whereas in the case of grown-ups milk alone would not serve as an adequate food, and they required some other food, too. Therefore, not every person who suckles the milk of a mother maybe regarded as her foster offspring, or a foster brother of her children. Thus the above legitimate intimacy can be obtained only by giving suck to a small baby.

In at-Tirmidhi's tradition there is a sentence which means:

Only that kind of sucking creates legitimacy of intimacy as a relative and bans marriage when the milk serves as the only food for the baby. Therefore its period is confined to the normal period of sucking in a baby. an-Nawawi adds that this is a well-known point in religious jurisprudence, about which there is, of course,

a different of opinion.(812)(313) The above tradition which we mentioned as a quotation of an-Nawawi in the book of Sahih of Muslim, has been quoted in the book of Tradition of at-Tirmidhi from Umm Salamah which makes this relationship more conditional, namely: "The state of sucking create sanctity and close relationship and prohibits marriage only if milk is offered as a substitute to food and the infant's bones are still soft (and not become hard) "(314) Then Abu 'Isa at-Tirmidhi, the famous author of the 'book writes: This is a correct tradition, which is acted upon by most scholar friends of the Prophet and others on the basis of the above remark of the Prophet. According to the verdict of the Prophet in reference to this tradition, they believe that if the suckling occurs in the first two years of a baby's life, it created a legitimate intimacy, but after two full years, no intimacy is possible.

These traditions were contrary to 'A'ishah's views. The words which, she quoted from the Prophet could not hold out against all the traditions of others, especially as her opponents were all the wives of the Prophet. To remove this obstacle, the best way for her was to invent a Quranic verse to prove that it is possible to produce legitimate intimacy in adults with oneself through sucking.

To attain this goal, again 'A'ishah narrates that a verse had descended about stoning to death and also about the sucking of adults in which it was said that ten suckings would be enough for obtaining legitimate intimacy. She claimed that this verse was written on a piece of paper, placed under her bed, she said:

"When the Prophet was ill in bed and we were looking after him in his last hours of life, a domestic animal entered the room and ate the paper, and thus the said verse was lost."(315)(316)

In other narrations quoted from 'A'ishah by Muslim in his Sahih 'A'ishah says: In the Qur'an which had been descended to the Prophet, there existed the following verse: "Ten times of clear and known suckings provide legitimate intimacy." Then this verse was abrogated by the phrase 'five known times', but as this verse was being recited from the Qur'an, the Prophet passed away.

an-Nawawi, great Sunni scholar and interpreter of Muslim's book of Sahih says: The narration means that the abrogation of 'ten times' for 'five times of known suckings' has taken place at the end of the Prophet's life, and some people recited the phrase 'ten times' without knowing that it was abrogated. Then an-Nawawi describes the difference of views of the Shafi'ite and Malikite Jurisprudents, and adds on behalf of the Malikites that Quranic words are proved by the statement of one person. Then in explaining the sucking of adult men and the manner of it, he quoted Judge 'Ayyad that the manner of sucking took this form that the milk offering woman milked herself in a pot, and the man drank out of it, and not by sucking her breast.

In this way 'A'ishah answered the criticism levelled at her by the other wives of the Prophet, and acted upon his own monopoly of verdicts.

Anecdotes in the life of 'A'ishah

May God bless 'Ali who was always with God.

'A'ishah

Although 'A'ishah was in her life always involved with various events and difficulties, yet she was not heedless of wit and humor in view of her delicate mind and subtlety. Some incidents are narrated about her in this connection in books of history.

Ibn 'Abd Rabbih writes in his famous book of al-'Iqd al-farid:

One day Imam al-Hasan ibn 'Ali visited Mu'awiyah when 'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr and Abu Sa'id, son of 'Aqil, were present there. When Imam al-Hasan sat down, Mu'awiyah asked: "Abu Muhammad! Which of them was senior, 'Ali or az-Zubayr?" The Imam said: "They were both almost of the same age, but 'Ali was regarded as az-Zubayr's senior."

'Abd Allah, son of az-Zubayr, began to speak and said: "And May God bless az-Zubayr!"(317) Imam al-Hasan only smiled, since he was above such superficialities and was aware of Mu'awiyah's mischievous intention. But Abu Sa'id, son of 'Aqjl, could not control his anger, and said: "Stop speaking about 'Ali and az-Zubayr. 'Ali invited the people to something in which he was a leader and Imam, whereas az-Zubayr invited the people to something the leadership of which was held by a woman! Then the two sides faced each other and the flame of war of kindled, and both groups prepared themselves for combat. But az-Zubayr took to his heels and fled from the field of battle before the victory of right and before his submission to right and before wrong was vanquished and before he could abandon it. Then a man seized him, who was much shorter than az-Zubayr, and cut off his head and carries away his clothes, and brought his severed head to the Imam as a souvenir.

But Imam 'Ali as usual served under the Prophet of God and was the vanguard of the army on that day. Therefore, may God bless 'Mi, not az-Zubayr!"

'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr said: "By God! If anyone else but you had uttered such words, I would have known what to do with him!"

The son of 'Aqil said: "The person towards whom you committed this insolence, nobly turned away from you and your words, and thus I was compelled to speak for him." This incident was reported to 'A'ishah. One day when Abu Sa'id was passing by her house, she shouted to him and said:

"You squint-eyed devil! Are you the man who spoke their biting words to my sister's son?" Abu Sa'id looked round and saw no one. So he shouted: "The devil sees you, but you cannot see him." 'A'ishah laughed on hearing these words and said: "May God bless your father! How sharp and biting your tongue is!"(318)

The above incident shows that Mu'awiyah's intention was to produce a clash between Imam al- Hasan and 'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr and cause hostility, this was a policy he constantly adopted towards the Quraysh chiefs, and roused one group against another.

In the above incident 'Abd Allah was unconsciously caught in the webs of Mu'awiyah cunning and followed the course envisaged by Mu'awiyah, while Imam al-Hasan, who was acquainted well with the character of Mu'awiyah, safely escaped from his trap. The role of 'A'ishah, too, in this incident was in accordance with what she did all her life, namely to support her kith and kin, and oppose their enemies.

Another anecdote in her life is a story narrated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his book of Musnad. He writes: 'Ammar ibn Yasir accompanied by Malik al-Ashtar went to 'A'ishah's house and asked for admission. When they entered, 'Ammar said: "O mother!" 'A'ishah said: "But I am not your mother!" 'Ammar said: "But you are, even though you dislike it."(319) 'A'ishah asked: "Who is the man with you?"

'Ammar said: "al-Ashtar." 'A'ishah turned to him and said: "Was it you who wanted to kill my sister's son?" al-Ashtar said:

"Yes, he wanted to kill me, and so I desired his death."

'A'ishah said: "If you had killed him you would never have received salvation; for, I have heard the Prophet say: 'Killing a Muslim is not permissible except in one of the three following cases: if he has killed someone, and he is killed, or a married man who commits adultery, or a man becomes an apostate after embracing Islam."(320)

Here 'A'ishah should have been asked: "O mother of the faithful! Why did you not remind your sister's son, 'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr, of the Prophet's words? Was he not eager to kill such a Muslim as al-Ashtar?

Was the consideration about the death of a Muslim confined only to the person of 'Abd Allah, and was the verdict not applicable to thousands of Muslims who had innocently been killed in that fearful battle in the way of whim and fancy? Had their blood no worth in the eye of God and Islam?"

Another anecdote mentioned in history about 'A'ishah's life, is a story narrated by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih in al-'Iqd al-farid. He says: After the battle of al-Jamal, one day Umm Ufa al-'Abdiyah of the 'Abd al-Qays tribe many hundred famous men of which such as Hakim ibn Jabalah had been killed by 'A'ishah's army, visited 'A'ishah and said to her: "O mother of the faithful! What do you say about a mother who kills her small offspring?" 'A'ishah said: "She must receive the fire of hell." Umm Ufa asked: "What do say about a mother who kills twenty thousand grown-up sons of hers?" 'A'ishah shouted: "Throw out this enemy of God!"(321)

How hard was this reproach for 'A'ishah to hear! The event of the battle of al-Jamal and its greatness and fearfulness weighed like a heavy mountain on her mind, and during the rest of her life it had not lost its effect.

We have already mentioned her deep regret and penitence about participating in that war, and our subsequent reference to this matter may depict the same kind of repentance. Ibn 'Abd Rabbih quotes a remark of 'A'ishah about this matter in his book of al-'Iqd al-farid. She has said: "A spindle in the hand of women is better and nobler than a spear in the hand of fighters in the way of God."(322) The effect of the battle of al-Jamal on the mind and spirit of 'A'ishah was as painful as it was exhilarating for the Umayyad party, so that they spoke of it every day and gloried in mentioning its details.

Ibn 'Abd Rabbih writes: "Yazid ibn Munyah went to Mu'awiyah from Basra to ash-Sham. He was a brother of Ya'la ibn Munayh, a chief of Basra and a commander in the battle of al-Jamal, and the original owner of 'A'ishah's camel. She rode it and directed the combat from there. Ya'la also had some kinship with Mu'awiyah, for his daughter was the wife of 'Utbah ibn Abi Sufyan, brother of Mu'awiyah.

When Yazid ibn Munayh set by Mu'awiyah, he began complaining of his debts, and requested Mu'awiyah to help him out of his difficulties. Mu'awiyah said to Ka'b: "Give him thirty thousand dinars!" When he rose to go out, Mu'awiyah said again: "Add to it another thirty thousand for the sake of the day of al-Jamal."(323)

One day 'Amr Thn al-'As in his conversation with 'A'ishah said: "I wish you were killed on the day of al-Jamal?" 'A'ishah said: "Why, you old villain?" 'Amr ibn al-'As answered: "Then you would have died fittingly and gone to heaven, and we could have used your death as the best excuse for pounding the Alawite front."(324)

Books of history narrate another encounter of 'Amr ibn al-'As with 'A'ishah, namely that, one day in 'A'ishah's presence the talk led to the death of Dhu ath-Thadiyah at the hand of Imam 'Ali. The narrator says: 'A'ishah said to me: "If you visit Kufah bring me a letter of testimony from the people who have witnessed this scene."

I went to Kufah and I chose ten people from each group and collected their testimony in a letter and took it to Medina for 'A'ishah. When she saw it, she said: "May God damn 'Amr ibn al-'As! He claimed that I have killed Dhu ath- Thadjyah in Egypt."(825)

After narrating this story, Ibn Kathir adds: Then 'A'ishah bent her head and wept bitterly. After she stopped crying and calmed down, she said: "May God bless 'Ali! He was always with God. What occurred between me and him, was what often occurs between women and their husbands' family."(326)

But as to why 'Amr ibn al-'As had made such a false claim and intended to attribute the death of Dhu ath-Thadiyah to himself, a reference to the narrations of the Prophet clarifies the matter: Writers of tradition and historians have quoted narrations from the Prophet in reproach of Dhu ath-Thadiyah and in praise of his killer. In this way 'Amr ibn al-'As intended to show the conformity of his own praise with that of the Prophet.

Here the survey of 'A'ishah's life comes to an end, and we return to the life of Mu'awiyah in order to discover the motives for and factors of the fabrication of traditions and narrations of that period, and find out the great role of 'A'ishah in this process. For, all our discussions and efforts are intended to recognize the traditions, which are falsely attributed to the Prophet in order to invert Islam. Therefore, without such an analysis those lies cannot be distinguished and criticized.

Part Six : Fabrication of tradition and tradition-makers

A brief glance at the life of Mu'awiyah A summary of previous discussions

In pagan times the Umayyads showed envy to the Banu Hashim During the pagan times Umayyah and his descendants were deeply envious of the greatness and headship of Hashim and his descendants, and this jealousy produced many unpleasant results. But before the advent of Islam the opposition and hostility of the Uniayyads were not so hard and acute. Time passed and the grandson of 'Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim brought Islam, the great religion of God, as souvenir to the world of humanity. It was at this time that Abu Sufyan, grandson of Umayyah assumed the leadership of Quraysh combat against Islam, and directed most of the anti-Islamic combats of the Meccan infidels. During the whole time of the apparent weakness of Islam, Abu Sufyan imposed severe and deadly tortures upon the weak and impotent followers of this new religion and did his worst to molest them.

Naturally the conditions could not remain such forever, and eventually God Almighty helped His prophet and opened the gates of Mecca for him and Muslim combatants and brought them success and victory. Thenceforth the Quraysh no longer dominated Arab tribes, and they were given the epithet of "freed ones" and a stain of disgrace on their character.

Abu Sufyan was vanquished in the same way that Arab idols had been smashed and destroyed, and those same weak and rejected individuals of pagan times such as 'Ammar, Abu Dharr and Bilal were now greatly respected and had rightfully become the heirs of all the political and social power of the time. Abu Sufyan passed by them and they said regretfully: "The swords of God did not cut the head of this enemy of God in the way he deserved."

Abu Sufyan lived long enough to see the caliphate of Abu Bakr. At this time one day the caliph treated him so harshly that Quhafah, Abu Bakr's father, was worried. Abu Bakr gave the following explanation to his father: "God has granted greatness and glory to your house for the sake of Islam, and lowered his house from the height of mastery."

Abu Sufyan also lived long enough to be compelled by 'Umar one day to carry stones on his back in Mecca, the seat of his former domination. Another day, too, he dealt Abu Sufyan strokes of the lash His wife, Hind, who was greatly vexed at this incident, spoke sharply to 'Umar and said: "By God! There was a time that if you dared to beat him, the land of Mecca would have trembled under your feet!" 'Umar answered: "You are right, but God has elevated some and abased others for the sake of Islam!"

Time passed and 'Uthman became caliph, and once more the Umayyads assumed power, and like children who pass a ball to one another, the Umayyads transferred ranks and positions to each other. In each province one member of the Umayyad house assumed the seat of governorship and was greatly proud of his position. It was at this period that the darlings of the Prophet's time, namely the chaste devouts, had become inferiors and weakened individuals like 'Ammar who were harshly treated, or like Abu Dharr and Malik al-Ashtar who were exiled to arid deserts!

Now the Qurayshis had once more regained their former pride and haughtiness, and one of the Umayyads exclaimed:

"The green lands of Iraq are one of the garden of the Quraysh." All this conceit, haughtiness and injustice led the Islamic realm towards a revolt, and this revolt and riot were so wide and deep that they culminated in the assassination of the caliph, and even then in his own house! After this bitter experience, the Muslims joined hands, and despite the Umayyads' wish, they brought the camel of caliphate to the door of the Banu Hashim. Now began the just rule of the Alawites and once more in Medina the Umayyads lost their power and glory,

and the Quraysh guardians of paganism were humbled. But they could not keep quiet, and every day they opposed the Alawite government in one way or another, since they cherished in their hearts the hope of recovering domination and rule from the time of Uthman onward. Gradually they paved the way for a war against the Imam's rule, which caused much bloodshed in Basra, but they gained no profit from it.

During the whole of this period Mu'awiyah had governed ash-Sham since the time of 'Umar, and now he wanted to make the foundation of his rule stronger at every opportunity. Consequently he wrote to the Imam demanding the governorship of Egypt and ash-Sham, but as the Imam refused to comply with his demand, he gathered together thousands of supporters in Siffin in the name of avenging 'Uthman's blood, and started a cruel and bloody battle!

But the battle did not settle the question, and the matter of arbitration was brought up, and Mu'awiyah returned to ash-Sham after consolidating his position. Then he began dispatching successive groups of plunderers to the Islamic lands of Iraq and Hejaz to seize innocent Muslim women as captives and kill the young and old, burn, massacre, pillage and demolish. The result of the wicked raids of one group of plunderers was the death of thirty thousand Muslims who were caught innocently in the clutches of the unjust and bloodthirsty raiders of Mu'awiyah. After the martyrdom of Imam 'Ali, Mu'awiyah again refused to show allegiance to Imam al- Hasan al-Mujtaba, and with a large army invaded Iraq.

At the same time Mu'awiyah tried to buy off the guards and companions of Imam al-Hasan with money and position in order to kill the Imam. As the Imam did not succeed in persuading his supporters to engage in war with Mu'awiyah and was also badly wounded, he concluded a truce with him, and stipulated heavy conditions in this pact, none of which was fulfilled by Mu'awiyah.

After his arrival in Kufah, Mu'awiyah declared: "I swear to God that I have not fought you for the sake of fast and prayer. You can please yourselves in performing these acts. My only reason for this combat has been to rule you, and so I trample upon every condition that I have made in my pact with al-Hasan."

In his first days and years of his rule, Mu'awiyah was compelled to follow a policy of caution and moderation. He made peace with the emperor of Rome, and even paid tributes to him.

He sent bags of money from Damascus to all parts of the country. He deceived the chiefs and dignitaries of tribes and crafty Arabs with money, position and ties of kinship until his rule was consolidated on the basis of materialism and tyranny. It was then that he revealed his real visage and nature. He revived the customs of the tyrannical emperors of the world.

Gold and silver from one side, and property, gardens and springs from another side were brought under his bloody hands from all parts of the great Islamic realm. He issued the order, like Iranian kings, that on the new year and Mehrgan festivals gifts should be offered to him, an act which was the heritage of the two great neighboring empires, namely Iran and Rome.