Ayisha's Unreliability in Hadith Narration

[Knightmare]

Assalamu alaikum brothers and sisters,

There are many reasons why it is believed that Ayisha should not be relied upon for hadith narration. One key issue is her claim that the Prophet died while she was by his side, which many consider problematic.

I have a few questions regarding this matter:

1.     In his book Al-Murajaat, what are the two stories that Sayyid Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din al-Musawi mentions that illustrate concerns about her reliability?

a) One story involves accusations against Lady Mary [the Copt, consort of the Prophet] and her son Ibrahim, which were disproven by the Commander of the Faithful (عليه السلام). Could you please elaborate on this story?
Source: page 39, Vol. 4, of al-Hakim's Al-Mustadrak, or to his Talkhis by al-Thahbi

b) Another story describes a situation where Ayisha gave inaccurate information about a woman’s condition to the Prophet, motivated by her own self-interest. What does this story entail, and what are the implications for her reliability?

Source: page 294, Vol. 6, of Kanz al-’Ummal, or page 115, Vol. 8, of Ibn Sa’d's Tabaqat,

2.     I would appreciate your thoughts on the following cases concerning Ayisha. Could you please explain how her actions were deviated from the right path or unethical, based on the excerpts provided?

 

·        nor did her manners permit her to stretch her legs before the Prophet while performing the rite of prayers, thus showing disrespect to him and to the rite of prayers, without removing them from the place of his prostration till he beckoned her to do so, then when he beckoned her, she lifted her leg till he stood up, then she put it down again...!

Source:  Bukhari's Sahih, his section dealing with what deeds are lawful while performing the prayers, page 143, Vol. 1.

·        Her statement that the Messenger of Allah (S) died on her chest, therefore, is as good as her statement claiming that the Messenger of Allah (S) saw a few Sudanese men playing at their mosque with their shields and spears, and he supposedly asked her if she liked to have a look at them, to which invitation she responded in the affirmative. ‘Ayesha goes on to say: "He let me stand behind him, my cheek on his, and said: ‘O Sons of Arfada, keep on!'" supposedly encouraging them to play so that the lady mighty be entertained, till he asked her if she saw enough. Upon saying "Yes," he told her to leave.

Source: Bukhari's Sahih, the beginning of his section on both ‘Iids, page 116, Vol. 1, and refer to Muslim's Sahih, his section on permissible sports during the days of the eid, page 327, Vol. 1. Also refer to Ahmad's Musnad, page 57, Vol. 6

 

·        The Messenger of Allah (S) came in once when I had two concubines singing for me excitingly. He lay down on the bed. Abu Bakr entered and rebuked me saying: ‘Do I hear Satan's pipe being played in the presence of the Messenger of Allah?!' The Messenger of Allah (S) approached him and told him to leave them alone."

Thank you for your time.

 

[ShiaMan14]

All we know to know about Hz Aisha is how severely Allah reprimanded her:

[Shakir 66:1] O Prophet! why do you forbid (yourself) that which Allah has made lawful for you; you seek to please your wives; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
[Shakir 66:2] Allah indeed has sanctioned for you the expiation of your oaths and Allah is your Protector, and He is the Knowing the Wise.
[Shakir 66:3] And when the prophet secretly communicated a piece of information to one of his wives-- but when she informed (others) of it, and Allah made him to know it, he made known part of it and avoided part; so when he informed her of it, she said: Who informed you of this? He said: The Knowing, the one Aware, informed me.
[Shakir 66:4] If you both turn to Allah, then indeed your hearts are already inclined (to this); and if you back up each other against him, then surely Allah it is Who is his Guardian, and Jibreel and -the believers that do good, and the angels after that are the aiders.
[Shakir 66:5] Maybe, his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in your place wives better than you, submissive, faithful, obedient, penitent, adorers, fasters, widows and virgins.

[Knightmare]

I totally agree; however, I would still appreciate it if my questions could be answered more specifically.

[Guest111]

On 7/29/2024 at 9:39 AM, Knightmare said:

Assalamu alaikum brothers and sisters,

There are many reasons why it is believed that Ayisha should not be relied upon for hadith narration. One key issue is her claim that the Prophet died while she was by his side, which many consider problematic.

I have a few questions regarding this matter:

1.     In his book Al-Murajaat, what are the two stories that Sayyid Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din al-Musawi mentions that illustrate concerns about her reliability?

a) One story involves accusations against Lady Mary [the Copt, consort of the Prophet] and her son Ibrahim, which were disproven by the Commander of the Faithful (عليه السلام). Could you please elaborate on this story?
Source: page 39, Vol. 4, of al-Hakim's Al-Mustadrak, or to his Talkhis by al-Thahbi

Wa Alaikum Alsalam,

 

As 24:4 of the Quran states, the punishment for falsely accusing someone of adultery is 80 lashings (.وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَانِينَ جَلْدَةً)

Do we have documented proof of Aisha receiving this punishment for her accusing Mariyah?

[Ashvazdanghe]

On 9/12/2024 at 11:04 PM, Guest111 said:

Do we have documented proof of Aisha receiving this punishment for her accusing Mariyah?

Salam at first punishment about women is different than men also it refers to event of Ifk 

First Story: Accusing Aisha

Criticisms about this Report

About this famous report which has been mentioned in many historical and exegetical sources, some criticisms are mentioned by Shi'a sources. These sources, with emphasis on clearance of the Prophet's (a) wives of indecency, have doubted about the actual happening of this story and have considered the verses of Ifk related with another story

Quote

Another problem mentioned about this story is that according to it, the Prophet (a) was influenced by the rumors, while accepting that the Prophet (a) would have any bad conjecture toward an innocent person is not acceptable with regards to his infallibility.^[13]

Second point is that the ruling of Qadhf, according to which a person who accuses a Muslim of adultery and cannot bring four witnesses for his claim will be punished, was previously revealed and in the verses of Surah al-Nur, Muslims are criticized because they did not ask the accusers to bring any witnesses. Thus, critics of the story ask why the Prophet (a) in the period of about one month the rumors are said to had been spread, did not act according to the mentioned ruling, did not ask the accusers to bring their witnesses and did not punish them? However, there are some evidences that the ruling of Qadhf was not revealed until then or was revealed at the same time with the event of Ifk.^[14]

 

Another Story: Accusing Mariya al-Qibtiyya

According to another report mentioned in Shi'a sources, verses of Ifk were revealed when Aisha accused Mariya al-Qibtiyya of having illegitimate relationship with a person called Jurayh al-Qibti. According to this report, Aisha told the Prophet (a) who was sad because of losing his son Ibrahim, "why are you sad for the death of Ibrahim while he was not your son and was son of Jurayh?" So, the Prophet (a) sent Imam Ali (a) to kill Jurayh, but when Imam (a) found that he did not have the male organ, withdraw from killing him and thus the accusation of Mariya al-Qibtiyya for having illegitimate relationship was refuted.

This report is mentioned in Tafsir Ali b. Ibrahim al-Qummi for the first time and relies on a hadith attributed to Imam al-Baqir (a).^[15] However, many Shi'a exegetes have not mentioned this report and have considered the verses of Ifk about Aisha as Sunni sources.^[16]

Contemporary Shi'a researchers and writers have disagreements about the context of revelation for these verses. Some contemporary researchers have considered the verses about accusation of Mariya.^[17] 'Allama Ja'far Murtada al-'Amili was among these researchers who mentioned some evidences for this opinion including the support of some historical hadiths for this supposed context of revelation.^[18]

Criticisms about this Interpretation

However, some contemporary Shi'a researchers have rejected the relation of verses of Ifk with the story of accusation of Mariya.^[19] They consider the most important problem for this interpretation, its disagreement with the content of verses which consider the accusers one group while according to this story, Aisha was the only accuser. On the other hand, according to this report, the Prophet (a), only based on the testimony of Aisha and without making further researches, ordered the killing of an innocent person which is unacceptable from the Prophet (a).^[20]

^{https://en.wikishia.net/view/Event_of_Ifk}

 

[Knightmare]

On 9/12/2024 at 11:34 PM, Guest111 said:

Do we have documented proof of Aisha receiving this punishment for her accusing Mariyah?

Here it says she has wronglfully accused Lady Mary and her son Ibrahim. I'm unclear on why you referred to "adultery". 

On 9/12/2024 at 11:34 PM, Guest111 said:

One story involves accusations against Lady Mary [the Copt, consort of the Prophet] and her son Ibrahim

 

[Guest111]

On 9/25/2024 at 11:40 AM, Knightmare said:

Here it says she has wronglfully accused Lady Mary and her son Ibrahim. I'm unclear on why you referred to "adultery". 

 

Because the story is that according to some Shia narrations, Aisha accused Mariyah of adultery by saying that her son Ibrahim was not the son of the prophet (sawa) but rather someone else's.

[Borntowitnesstruth]

It would be very wrong of me to believe such story of Ayesha against Lady Maria Qibtiya because of the fact that Imam Ali (عليه السلام) was such genius of his time that he successfully knew the ways to distinguish true mother of child from a fake one and true father of a child let alone we talk about Prophet (PBUHHP) that he decided to order for killing the person without having him heard. 

Edited September 26 by Borntowitnesstruth