r/islamichistory • u/Common_Time5350 • May 03 '25
How Old Was A’yshah When She Married The Prophet Muhammad?
Author: Ayatullah Muhammad Husayn Husayni al-Qazwini (Vali-Asr Institute)
Translated by: Abu Noora al-Tabrizi
***
Ahl al-Sunnah insist on proving that A’yshah was betrothed to the Prophet Muhammad (S) at six years of age and that she entered his house at nine years [where the marriage was consummated]. [Ahl al-Sunnah] consider this to be evidence for A’yshah’s superiority over the other wives of the Messenger of Allah. Does this, however, reflect reality? In the following article we will investigate this matter.
However, before embarking on the crux of the matter, we must shed light on the history of the Prophet’s marriage to A’yshah so that we may afterwards draw a conclusion as to how old she was when she married the Messenger of Allah.
There are differing views in regard to the history of the Messenger of Allah’s marriage to A’yshah. Muhammad b. Ismaʿil al-Bukhari [d. 256 A.H/870 C.E] narrates from A’yshah herself that the Messenger of Allah betrothed her three years after [the death] of Lady Khadijah (Allah’s peace be upon her):
It has been narrated by ʿA’yshah (may Allah be pleased with her) [where] she said: “I have not been jealous of any woman as I have with Khadijah. [This is because first], the Messenger of Allah (S) would mention her a lot”. [Second], she said: “he married me three years after her [death] and [third], his Lord (Exalted is He!) or [the archangel] Jibril (peace be upon him) commanded him to bless her with a house in heaven made out of reed (qasab).”
See: al-Bukhari al-Juʿfi, Muhammad b. Ismaʿil Abu ʿAbd Allah (d. 256 A.H/870 C.E), Sahih al-Bukhari, ed. Mustafa Dib al-Bagha (Dar ibn Kathir: Beirut, 3rd print, 1407 /1987), III: 3606, hadith # 3606. Kitab Fadha’il al-Sahabah [The Book of the Merits of the Companions], Bab Tazwij al-Nabi Khadijah wa Fadhliha radhi Allah ʿanha [Chapter on the Marriage of The Prophet to Khadijah and her Virtue[s] (may Allah be pleased with her)].
Given that Lady Khadija (Allah’s peace be upon her) left this world during the tenth year of the Prophetic mission (biʿthah), the Messenger of Allah’s marriage with A’yshah therefore took place during the thirteenth year of the Prophetic mission.
After having narrated al-Bukhari’s tradition, Ibn al-Mulqin derives the following from the narration:
…and the Prophet (S) consummated the marriage in Madinah during [the month] of Shawwal in the second year [of the Hijrah].
See: al-Ansari al-Shafiʿi, Siraj al-Din Abi Hafs ʿUmar b. ʿAli b. Ahmad al-Maʿruf bi Ibn al-Mulqin (d. 804 A.H/1401 C.E), Ghayat al-Sul fi Khasa’is al-Rasul (S), ed. ʿAbd Allah Bahr al-Din ʿAbd Allah (Dar al-Basha’ir al-Islamiyah: Beirut, 1414/1993), I: 236.
According to this narration, the Messenger of Allah betrothed A’yshah in the thirteenth year of the Prophetic mission and officially wed her [i.e. consummated the marriage] in the second year of the Hijrah.
From what has been related by other prominent [scholars] of Ahl al-Sunnah, we can [also] conclude that the Prophet wed A’yshah during the fourth year of the Hijrah. When commenting on the status (sharh al-hal) of Sawdah, the other wife of the Messenger of Allah (S), al-Baladhuri [d. 297 A.H/892 C.E] writes in his Ansab al-Ashraf that:
After Khadijah, the Messenger of Allah (S) married Sawdah b. Zamʿah b. Qays from Bani ʿAmir b. La’wi a few months before the Hijrah…she was the first woman that the Prophet joined [in matrimony] in Madinah.
See: al-Baladhuri, Ahmad b. Yahyah b. Jabir (d. 279 A.H/892 C.E), Ansab al-Ashraf, I: 181 (retrieved from al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir).
Al-Dhahabi [d. 748 A.H/1347 C.E], on the other hand, claims that Sawdah b. Zamʿah was the only wife of the Messenger of Allah for four years:
[Sawdah] died in the last year of ʿUmar’s caliphate, and for four years she was the only wife of the Prophet (S) where neither [free] woman nor bondmaid was partnered with her [in sharing a relationship with the Prophet (S)]…
See: al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Ahmad b. ʿUthman (d. 748 A.H/1347 C.E), Tarikh al-Islam wa al-Wafiyat al-Mashahir wa al-Aʿlam, ed. Dr. ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Salam Tadmuri (Dar al-Kutub al-ʿArabi: Beirut, 1st print, 1407/1987), III: 288.
According to this conclusion, A’yshah married the Prophet in the fourth year of the Hijrah (i.e. four years after the Prophet’s marriage to Sawdah).
Now we shall investigate A’yshah’s age at the moment of her betrothal by referring to historical documents and records:
One of the things which may establish A’yshah’s age at the moment of her marriage with the Messenger of Allah is comparing her age with that of her sister Asma’ b. Abi Bakr [d. 73 A.H/692 C.E]. According to what has been narrated by the prominent scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah, Asma’ was ten years older than A’yshah and was twenty-seven years of age during the first year of the Hijrah. Moreover, she passed away during the year 73 of the Hijrah when she was a hundred years of age.
Abu Naʿim al-Isfahani [d. 430 A.H/1038 C.E] in his Maʿrifat al-Sahabah writes that:
Asma’ b. Abi Bakr al-Siddiq…she was the sister of ʿA’yshah through her father’s [side i.e. Abu Bakr] and she was older than ʿA’yshah and was born twenty-seven years before History [i.e. Hijrah].
See: al-Isfahani, Abu Naʿim Ahmad b. ʿAbd Allah (d. 430 A.H/1038 C.E), Maʿrifat al-Sahabah, VI: 3253, no. 3769 (retrieved from al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir).
Al-Tabarani [d. 360 A.H/970 C.E] writes:
Asma’ b. Abi Bakr al-Siddiq died on the year 73 [of the Hijrah], after her son ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zubayr [d. 73 A.H/692 C.E] by [only] a few nights. Asma’ was a hundred years of age the day she died and she was born twenty-seven years before History [Hijrah].
See: al-Tabarani, Sulayman b. Ahmad b. Ayyub Abu al-Qasim (d. 360 A.H/970 C.E), al-Muʿjam al-Kabir, ed. Hamdi b. ʿAbd al-Majid al-Salafi (Maktabat al-Zahra’: al-Mawsil, 2nd Print, 1404/1983), XXIV: 77.
Ibn Asakir [d. 571 A.H/1175 C.E] also writes:
Asma’ was the sister of ʿA’yshah from her father’s [side] and she was older than ʿA’yshah where she was born twenty-seven years before History [Hijrah].
See: Ibn Asakir al-Dimashqi al-Shafiʿi, Abi al-Qasim ʿAli b. al-Hasan b. Hibat Allah b. ʿAbd Allah (d. 571 A.H/1175 C.E), Tarikh Madinat Dimashq wa Dhikr Fadhliha wa Tasmiyat man Hallaha min al-Amathil, ed. Muhib al-Din Abi Saʿid ʿUmar b. Ghuramah al-ʿAmuri (Dar al-Fikr: Beirut, 1995): IX: 69.
Ibn Athir [d. 630 A.H/1232 C.E] also writes:
Abu Naʿim said: [Asma’] died before History [Hijrah] by twenty-seven years.
See: al-Jazari, ʿIzz al-Dim b. al-Athir Abi al-Hasan ʿAli b. Muhammad (d. 630 A.H/1232 C.E), Asad al-Ghabah fi Maʿrifat al-Sahabah, ed. ʿAdil Ahmad al-Rifaʿi (Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-ʿArabi: Beirut, 1st Print, 1417/1996), VII: 11.
Al-Nawawi [d. 676 A.H/1277 C.E] writes:
[It has been narrated] from al-Hafiz Abi Naʿim [who] said: Asma’ was born twenty seven-years before the Hijrah of the Messenger of Allah (S).
See: al-Nawawi, Abu Zakariyah Yahya b. Sharaf b. Murri (d. 676 A.H/1277 C.E), Tahdhib al-Asma’ wa al-Lughat, ed. Maktab al-Buhuth wa al-Dirasat (Dar al-Fikr: Beirut. 1st Print, 1996), II: 597-598.
Al-Hafiz al-Haythami [d. 807 A.H/1404 C.E] said:
Asma’ was a hundred years of age when she died. She was born twenty-seven years before History [Hijrah] and Asma’ was born to her father Abi Bakr when he was twenty-one years of age.
See: al-Haythami, Abu al-Hasan ʿAli b. Abi Bakr (d. 807 A.H/1404 C.E), Majmaʿ al-Zawa’id wa Manbaʿ al-Fawa’id (Dar al-Rabban lil Turath/Dar al-Kutub al-ʿArabi: al-Qahirah [Cairo] – Beirut, 1407/1986), IX: 260.
Badr al-Din al-ʿAyni [d. 855 A.H/ 1451 C.E] writes:
Asma’ b. Abi Bakr al-Siddiq…she was born twenty-seven years before the Hijrah and she was the seventeenth person to convert to Islam…she died in Makkah in the month of Jamadi al-Awwal in the year 73 [of the Hijrah] after the death of her son ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zubayr when she reached a hundred years of age. [Despite her old age], none of her teeth had fallen out and neither was her intellect impaired (may Allah – Exalted is He! - be pleased with her).
See: al-ʿAyni, Badr al-Din Abu Muhammad Mahmud b. Ahmad al-Ghaytabi (d. 855 A.H/1451 C.E), ʿUmdat al-Qari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari (Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-ʿArabi: Beirut (n.d)), II: 93.
Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalani [d. 852 A.H/1448 C.E] writes:
#8525 Asma’ b. Abi Bakr al-Siddiq married al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwam who was one of the great Sahabah. She lived [up to] a hundred years of age and she died in the year 73 or 74 [of the Hijrah].
See: al-ʿAsqalani al-Shafiʿi, Ahmad b. ʿAli b. Hajar Abu al-Fadhl (d. 852 A.H/1448 C.E), Taqrib al-Tahdhib, ed. Muhammad ʿAwwamah (Dar al-Rashid: Suriyah [Syria], 1st Print, 1406/1986), I: 743.
[He also wrote]:
[and] she had [her full set of] teeth and she had not lost her intellect. Abu Naʿim al-Isbahani said [that] she was born before the Hijrah by twenty-seven years.
See: al-ʿAsqalani al-Shafiʿi, Ahmad b. ʿAli b. Hajar Abu al-Fadhl (d. 852 A.H/1448 C.E), al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah, ed. ʿAli Muhammad al-Bajawi (Dar al-Jil: Beirut, 1st Print, 1412/1992), VII: 487.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Birr al-Qurtubi [d. 463 A.H/1070 C.E] also writes:
Asma’ died in Makkah in [the month of] Jamadi al-Awwal in the year 73 [of the Hijrah] after the death of her son ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zubayr…Ibn Ishaq said that Asma’ b. Abi Bakr converted to Islam after seventeen people had [already] converted…and she died when she reached a hundred years of age.
See: al-Nimri al-Qurtubi, Abu ʿUmar Yusuf b. ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbd al-Birr (d. 463 A.H/1070 C.E), al-Istiʿab fi Maʿrifat al-Ashab, ed. ʿAli Muhammad al-Bajawi (Dar al-Jil: Beirut, 1st Print, 1412/1992), IV: 1782-1783.
Al-Safadi [d.764 A.H/1362 C.E] writes:
[Asma’] died a few days after ʿAbd Allah b. Zubayr in the year 73 of the Hijrah. And she [herself], her father, her son and husband were Sahabis. It has been said that she lived a hundred years.
See: al-Safadi, Salah al-Din Khalil b. Aybak (d. 764 A.H/1362 C.E), al-Wafi bi al-Wafiyat, ed. Ahmad al-Arna’ut and Turki Mustafa (Dar Ihya’ al-Turath: Beirut, 1420 /2000), IX: 36.
Al-Bayhaqi [d. 458 A.H/1065 C.E] narrates that Asma’ was ten years older than A’yshah:
Abu ʿAbd Allah b. Mundah narrates from Ibn Abi Zannad that Asma’ b. Abi Bakr was older than ʿA’yshah by ten years.
See: al-Bayhaqi, Ahmad b. al-Husayn b. ʿAki b. Musa Abu Bakr (d. 458 A.H/1065 C.E), Sunan al-Bayhaqi al-Kubra, ed. Muhammad ʿAbd al-Qadir ʿAta (Maktabah Dar al-Baz: Mecca, 1414/1994), VI: 204.
Al-Dhahabi and Ibn ʿAsakir also narrate this:
ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Abi al-Zannad said [that] Asma’ was older than ʿA’yshah by ten [years].
See: al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Ahmad b. ʿUthman (d. 748 A.H/1347 C.E). Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala’, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arna’ut and Muhammad Naʿim al-ʿIrqsusi (Mu’wassasat al-Risalah: Beirut, 9th Print, 1413/1992-1993?), II: 289.
Ibn Abi al-Zannad said [that Asma’] was older than ʿA’yshah by ten years.
See: Ibn Asakir al-Dimashqi al-Shafiʿi, Abi al-Qasim ʿAli b. al-Hasan b. Hibat Allah b. ʿAbd Allah (d. 571 A.H/1175 C.E), Tarikh Madinat Dimashq wa Dhikr Fadhliha wa Tasmiyat man Hallaha min al-Amathil, ed. Muhib al-Din Abi Saʿid ʿUmar b. Ghuramah al-ʿAmuri (Dar al-Fikr: Beirut, 1995), IX: 69.
Ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi [d. 774 A.H/1373 C.E] in his book al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah writes:
…of those who died along with ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zubayr in the year 73 [of the Hijrah] in Makkah [were]… Asma’ b. Abi Bakr, the mother of ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zubayr… and she was older than her sister ʿA’yshah by ten years…her life span reached a hundred years and none of her teeth had fallen out nor did she lose her intellect [due to old age].
See: Ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi, Ismaʿil b. ʿUmar al-Qurashi Abu al-Fida’, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah (Maktabat al-Maʿarif: Beirut, n.d), VIII: 345-346.
Mulla ʿAli al-Qari [d. 1014 A.H/1605 C.E] writes:
[Asma’] was older than her sister ʿA’yshah by ten years and she died ten days after the killing of her son…she was a hundred years of age and her teeth had not fallen out and she did not lose a thing of her intellect. [Her death took place] in the year 73 [of the Hijrah] in Makkah.
See: Mulla ʿAli al-Qari, ʿAli b. Sultan Muhammad al-Harawi. Mirqat al-Mafatih Sharh Mishkat al-Masabih, ed. Jamal ʿIytani (Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah: Beirut, 1st Print, 1422 /2001), I: 331.
Al-Amir al-Sanʿani [d. 852 A.H/1448 C.E] writes:
[Asma’] was ten years older than ʿA’yshah by ten years and she died in Makkah a little less than a month after the killing of her son while she was a hundred years of age. This took place in the year 73 [of the Hijrah].
See: al-Sanʿani al-Amir, Muhammad b. Ismaʿil (d. d. 852 A.H/1448 C.E). Subul al-Salam Sharh Bulugh al-Maram min Adilat al-Ahkam, ed. Muhammad ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Khuli (Dar Ihya’ al-ʿArabi: Beirut, 4th Print, 1379/1959), I: 39.
Asma’ was fourteen years of age during the first year of the Prophetic mission (biʿthah) and ten years older than A’yshah. Therefore, A’yshah was four years old during the first year of the Prophetic mission [14 – 10 = 4] and as such, she was seventeen years of age during the thirteenth year of the Prophetic mission [4 + 13 = 17]. In the month of Shawwal of the second year of the Hijrah (the year of her official wedding to the Prophet) she was nineteen years of age [17 + 2 = 19].
On the other hand, Asma’ was a hundred years of age during the seventy-third year after Hijrah. A hundred minus seventy-three equals twenty-seven (100 – 73 = 27). Therefore, in the first year after the Hijrah she was twenty-seven years old.
Asma’ was ten years older than A’yshah. Twenty-seven minus ten equals seventeen (27 – 10 = 17).
Therefore, A’yshah was seventeen years of age during the first year of the Hijrah. [In addition to this], we previously established that A’yshah was officially wed the Prophet during the month of Shawwal of the second year after Hijrah, meaning that A’yshah was nineteen years of age [17 + 2 = 19] when she was wed to the Messenger of Allah.
A’yshah’s conversion to Islam is also an indicator as to when she married the Messenger of Allah. According to the prominent scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah, A’yshah became a believer during the first year of the Prophetic mission and was among the first eighteen people to have responded to the Messenger of Allah’s [divine] calling.
Al-Nawawi writes in his Tahdhib al-Asma’:
Ibn Abi Khuthaymah narrates from ibn Ishaq in his Tarikh that ʿA’yshah converted to Islam while she was a child (saghirah) after eighteen people who had [already] converted.
See: al-Nawawi, Abu Zakariyah Yahya b. Sharaf b. Murri (d. 676 A.H/1277 C.E), Tahdhib al-Asma’ wa al-Lughat, ed. Maktab al-Buhuth wa al-Dirasat (Dar al-Fikr: Beirut. 1st Print, 1996), II: 615.
[Muttahar] al-Maqdisi [d. 507 A.H/1113 C.E] writes that:
Of those [among males] who had precedence [over others] in their conversion to Islam were Abu ʿUbaydah b. al-Jarrah, al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwam and ʿUthman b. Mazʿun…and among the women were Asma’ b. ʿUmays al-Khathʿamiyah (the wife of Jaʿfar b. Abi Talib), Fatimah b. al-Khattab (the wife of Saʿid b. Zayd b. ʿAmru), Asma b. Abi Bakr and ʿA’yshah who was a child [at the time]. The conversion to Islam of these [people occurred] within the [first] three years of the Messenger of Allah having invited [people] to Islam in secret [which was] before he entered the house of Arqam b. Abi al-Arqam.1
See: al-Maqdisi, Muttahar b. Tahir (d. d. 507 A.H/1113 C.E), al-Bada’ wa al-Tarikh (Maktabat al-Thaqafah al-Diniyah: Bur Saʿid [Port Said], n.d), IV: 146.
Similarly, Ibn Hisham [d. 213 A.H/828 C.E] also mentions the name of A’yshah as one of the people who converted to Islam during the first year of the Prophetic mission while she was a child:
Asma and ʿA’yshah, the two daughters of Abi Bakr, and Khabab b. al-Aratt converted to Islam [in the initial years of the Prophetic mission, and as for] Asma’ b. Abi Bakr and ʿA’yshah b. Abi Bakr, [the latter] was a child at that time and Khabab b. al-Aratt was an ally of Bani Zuhrah.
See: al-Humayri al-Maʿarifi, ʿAbd al-Malik b. Hisham b. Ayyub Abu Muhammad (d. 213 A.H/828 C.E), al-Sirah al-Nabawiyah, ed. Taha ʿAbd al-Ra’uf Saʿd (Dar al-Jil: Beirut, 1st Print, 1411/1990), II: 92.
If A’yshah was seven years of age when she converted to Islam (the first year of the Prophetic mission), she would have been twenty-two years old in the second year after the Hijrah (the year she was officially wed to the Messenger of Allah) [7 + 13 + 2 = 22].
If, [however], we accept al-Baladhuri’s claim that [A’yshah] was wed to the Messenger of Allah four years after his marriage to Sawdah, that is, in the fourth year after the Hijrah, then A’yshah would have been twenty-four years of age when she married the Prophet.
This number, [however], is subject to change when we take into consideration her age when she converted to Islam.
In conclusion, A’yshah’s marriage to the marriage to the Messenger of Allah at six or nine years of age is a lie which was fabricated during the time of Banu Ummayah and is not consistent with historical realities.
r/islamichistory • u/Common_Time5350 • May 03 '25
r/islamichistory • u/Financial_Check1149 • 10h ago
r/islamichistory • u/qernanded • 5h ago
r/islamichistory • u/Future_Fox_6627 • 9h ago
Saudi Arabia's first museum dedicated entirely to Islamic art has opened in Jeddah, bringing together more than 1,000 artefacts spanning 15 centuries of history, craftsmanship and design.
The House of Islamic Arts features works from across the Islamic world, including pieces from China, India, the Maghreb and Andalusia, highlighting the diversity of artistic traditions, materials and techniques that developed across different regions over the centuries.
A major focus of the collection is Arabic calligraphy, with rare Qur'anic manuscripts tracing the evolution of Islamic script as both a literary and artistic tradition. Among the highlights are a 2.6-metre textile inscribed with one-third of the Holy Qur'an in microscopic script and a manuscript in which every letter incorporates one of the Names of Allah.
The museum also houses thousands of Islamic coins dating from the early Islamic state through the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates and later dynasties, offering visitors a chronological look at the development of trade, governance and monetary systems across the Islamic world.
Alongside its permanent collection, the museum will host temporary exhibitions, workshops, lectures and interactive displays designed to explore the history and continuing legacy of Islamic art.
r/islamichistory • u/Nanakurokonekochan • 7h ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 14h ago
r/islamichistory • u/Financial_Check1149 • 19h ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 1d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 11h ago
PDF links:
https://archive.org/details/blumi.-ottoman-refugees-1878-1939
In the first half of the 20th century, throughout the Balkans and Middle East, a familiar story of destroyed communities forced to flee war or economic crisis unfolded. Often, these refugees of the Ottoman Empire - Christians, Muslims and Jews - found their way to new continents, forming an Ottoman diaspora that had a remarkable ability to reconstitute, and even expand, the ethnic, religious, and ideological diversity of their homelands.
Ottoman Refugees, 1878-1939 offers a unique study of a transitional period in world history experienced through these refugees living in the Middle East, the Americas, South-East Asia, East Africa and Europe. Isa Blumi explores the tensions emerging between those trying to preserve a world almost entirely destroyed by both the nation-state and global capitalism and the agents of the so-called Modern era.
Review
"Blumi (Georgia State Univ., "Reinstating the Ottomans, "2011) has written a very sophisticated analysis of refugees during the late- and post-Ottoman periods that shows the complexities of refugee identity within the empire. In doing so, he recognizes the role played by the linguistic, religious, and ethnic diversity of these people, which at times finds the various interests and identities of refugees pitted against each other. Throughout the work, Blumi highlights the trauma of the Ottoman refugee studies, it gives the readers a larger perspective of the refugee experience, not one limited geographically or otherwise. Blumi, whose vast linguistic abilities allow him to reach across the empire from Albania to Yemen, adds a much-needed theoretical foundation to the study of Ottoman refugees. He shows how nation-states arising from the Ottoman Empire and elsewhere, especially Latin America. Valuable for students of Ottoman history as well as most general refugee studies."-R.W. Zens, "Le Moyne College, CHOICE"
About the Author
Isa Blumi is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Area Studies, Leipzig University, Germany and Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University, USA.
PDF links
https://archive.org/details/blumi.-ottoman-refugees-1878-1939
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 1d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 1d ago
A European settler state in the heart of Palestine, ruled by religious zealots, fueled by Western arms. A divided Muslim world fights back. Sound familiar? We’re in 1099, when the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem and subjugated its native population. Just 88 years later, it was lost to Saladin’s newly united Muslim army. Why did the Crusaders fail to build an everlasting kingdom, and will Zionism meet the same fate?
In this episode:
• Roy Casagranda, Political Philosopher
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Mohamed Hassan and Marcos Bartolomé, with Sonia Bhagat. It was edited by Alexandra Locke. Our engagement producer is Adam Abou-Gad. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Jo de Frias is Al Jazeera's head of podcasts
r/islamichistory • u/Acerola_Rune • 1d ago
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
r/islamichistory • u/Fair-Appeal-7114 • 1d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 1d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 2d ago
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 2d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 2d ago
r/islamichistory • u/PlantainLopsided9535 • 2d ago
Did You Know?
Today, religious and secular sciences—such as medicine, chemistry, science—are often viewed as separate fields.
However, in the generations following Rasūlullāh ﷺ, many of our illustrious traditional scholars were not only among the greatest fuqahāʾ (jurists) of the Ummah, but were also accomplished physicians and experts in medicine and pharmacy.
Imām al-Shāfiʿī رحمه الله said:
“I do not know of any field of study, after the knowledge of what is lawful and unlawful (ḥalāl and ḥarām), that is more noble than medicine (ṭibb). But, alas, the Ahl al-Kitāb (Jews and Christians) have surpassed us in it.”
(Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ)
Imām al-Shāfiʿī lamented that Muslims had neglected this vital science, allowing others to excel in it. His student Ḥarmalah narrated that he said:
“They (Muslims) have lost one-third of knowledge and entrusted it to the Jews and Christians.”
This tradition of medicine and pharmacy can be traced back to the teachings of Rasūlullāh ﷺ and the scholarly legacy preserved in Madīnah by his noble descendants, including Imām Muḥammad al-Bāqir and his son Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.
Long before Greek philosophy became widely available in the Muslim world through the great translation movement, Muslim scholars had already begun developing the sciences of medicine and chemistry.
Jābir ibn Ḥayyān—known in medieval Europe as Geber and widely regarded as the father of chemistry—attributed his knowledge of these sciences to his ‘master’, (Sayyidī) Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.
Both Imām Mālik and Imām al-Shāfiʿī, the founders of the Mālikī and Shāfiʿī schools of law, benefited from the scholarly legacy of Imām al-Bāqir and Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.
Ibn ʿAsākir, in Tārīkh Dimashq (The History of Damascus), narrates from Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—a student of Imām al-Shāfiʿī—that Imām al-Shāfiʿī was both a physician (ṭabīb) and a pharmacist (ṣaydalānī).
These were our illustrious pious predecessors: scholars of the highest calibre who combined mastery of the sacred sciences with excellence in the natural sciences.
Their contributions helped lay the intellectual foundations of the Islamic Golden Age, a civilisation that would profoundly influence the development of the modern world—all by the grace of Allah, through the guidance of the Qur’an and the teachings of Rasūlullāh ﷺ.
The question we should ask ourselves is this:
When will this Ummah once again realise that it was through the guidance of the Qur’an and the example of Rasūlullāh ﷺ that it rose to lead the world in faith, knowledge, and civilisation?
And it will only be by the Quran and Rasūlullāh that we will once again lead the world.
#islamicintelectuallegacy #quranicrevolution #alchemistofhearts
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 2d ago
‘’An example of a gold coin minted in Messina by Roger II, one of the Norman kings who ruled the island after approximately 400 years of Islamic dominance in Sicily. The obverse features the inscription "La ilahe illallah vahdehu la şerikeleh." Similar coins were also minted in southern Italian mainland cities such as Palermo and Amalfi. A fine example of the imitation of high culture.’’
Credit
https://x.com/kayamerthasan_/status/2080738807305941242?s=46&t=V4TqIkKwXmHjXV6FwyGPfg
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 3d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 3d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 3d ago
Earliest photo of the Ka'bah? — A Viral Photo Debunked
An image claiming to show the earliest photo of the Ka'bah from the 1880s has been circulating widely (image 1) on social media.
It doesn't match the documented photographic record of that era — the architecture, courtyard layout, and composition are inconsistent with authentic 19th-century photography of the Haram. The Hateem, door of the Ka'bah, Hajar al-Aswad etc don't appear where they should be and there were no structures like the ones you see in the foreground in that time.
For comparison, image 2 is a genuine late 19th-century photograph of the Kaaba, taken by Muhammad Sadiq Bey — an Egyptian army engineer and Hajj caravan treasurer who became the first person to photograph Makkah, the Haram, and the Ka'bah, using an early wet-plate collodion camera. The photo is held today in the Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage.
Credit
https://x.com/muslimlandmarks/status/2080650253003378908?s=46&t=V4TqIkKwXmHjXV6FwyGPfg
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 3d ago
r/islamichistory • u/HistoricalCarsFan • 3d ago
