Book review continued:
WALLACE TOM Jr. (2015) Refuting Islam, The Christian Patriots Guide to Exposing the Evils of Islam, Bellingham, Fundamental Publishers.
Again, I will state that this is a book review of the text of Mr. Wallace.
In Chapter 12: Islam Encourages Pedophilia, Mr. Wallace explains that it is common documented knowledge the Muhammad married his wife Aisha when she was six years old and consummated the marriage when she was nine years old. (99).
Wallace quotes Sahih Bukhari 5: 58: 234...
Sahih Bukhari online
Cited
Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234 :
Narrated by Aisha The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.
From
Sacred texts
Cited
The Hadith are anecdotes about Muhammad and other founders of Islam. They are considered important source material about religious practice, law, and historical traditions. This is an extensive collection of Hadith as organized by Muhammad Ismâ'îl al-Bukhârî, one of the most respected of the Hadith redactors.
Wallace has emphasized the Qur'an and Sunnah as the sacred texts of Islam:
From
BBC Religion
Cited
Sunnah and Hadith In addition to the Qur'an, the other sacred sources are the Sunnah, the practise and examples of the Prophet Muhammad's life, and the Hadith, reports of what the prophet Muhammad said or approved. Both the Hadith and Sunnah must adhere to a strict chain of narration that ensures its authenticity, taking into account factors such as the character of people in the chain and continuity in narration. Reports that fail to meet such criteria will be disregarded.
The Hadith is at times examined and questioned for reliability and is therefore not always held in as high of regard as is the Sunnah, by those within Islam and Islamic scholarship. The Hadith would contain the story of Muhammad and the sayings of Muhammad.
In my mind, the topic pf pedophilia (paedophilia) and child marriage within Islam will be divisive along liberal and conservative theological and worldview lines. Liberal and westernized adherents to Islam and their scholars will typically downplay these sexual practices as ancient and outdated within Islam. These Muslims will tend to be sensitive to the reasonable, moral outrage within the Western world to these sexual practices.
Those within Islam that hold to fundamentalistic, conservative doctrines and traditional religious practices may hold to and embrace child marriage, especially within Islamic countries where these practices are less likely to be prosecuted legally by government authorities.
These are not what I would consider exhaustive categories of which positions would be taken in regard to child marriage within Islam.
Although the Bible defines no age for marriage, I would subscribe to the model from Genesis 2 (Hebrew Bible) that Adam and Eve were both mature, mentally stable adults of the opposite sex, that were bonded together in marriage by God and their God.
