Aisha passed on more than 2,000 hadiths about law, prayer and pilgrimage
Muhammad's youngest wife outlived him by 44 years and became one of early Islam's great teachers. Sunni tradition credits Aisha with narrating over 2,000 hadiths, on topics from inheritance to the end times, and she instructed companions and their successors. She also took the field in a civil war, which Shia tradition has never forgiven.
Aisha was born in Mecca around 614, the daughter of Abu Bakr and Umm Ruman, both companions of Muhammad. Sources say almost nothing about her childhood. After the death of Khadija, Muhammad's first wife, his aunt Khawlah bint Hakim proposed the match; Abu Bakr at first hesitated, thinking his bond with Muhammad as brothers ruled it out, until Muhammad explained that they were brothers only in faith. An earlier engagement of Aisha's was then cancelled.
Sunni tradition ranks her as Muhammad's most beloved wife after Khadija. Hadiths say her door opened straight into the mosque and that she was the only wife present when he received revelations. Historian Leila Ahmed notes her sharp tongue: when a revelation allowed Muhammad marriages forbidden to other men, Aisha reportedly replied that his Lord seemed quick to satisfy his wishes. The two are described as having a strong intellectual partnership.
Her reported age at marriage has become a modern controversy. Most early sources say she was six at the marriage and nine when it was consummated, in Medina in April 623, though Ibn Hisham suggests ten. Early Muslim writers did not treat the age as remarkable, but scholars Denise Spellberg and Kecia Ali find the frequent mention of it unusual and suggest it was meant to stress her virginity and religious purity.
After Muhammad's death she stayed active through the reigns of four caliphs, beginning with her father. She spoke publicly, taught, and joined the revolt that ended at the Battle of the Camel, an unusually public role for a woman then. She died in July 678. Sunnis honour her as a leading scholar and transmitter of hadith, while Shia Muslims view her critically for opposing Ali.
Source: Aisha
