Ages of Muhammads Wives at Marriage: Difference between revisions

Muhammad did indeed marry his first wife Khadijah when he was 25 and she was 15 years older (i.e. 40, though a more plausible tradition states that she was 28 years old at the time). He rejected Sawdah, who was a little younger than himself, when they were both middle-aged. All his other wives were young enough to be his daughters and several were young enough to be his granddaughters. According to the traditional Islamic sources, he divorced one woman before consummating the marriage<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:111</ref> and broke off another courtship<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:113</ref> solely because he decided that these women were “too old” for him, and he continued to pursue teenagers until the day he died.<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:105</ref> Nor does he seem to have been embarrassed by his own preference.<ref>"''Nothing was dearer to the Prophet of Allah than a horse. Then he said: “O Allah! Excuse me, no! The women!” (i.e., not dearer than women).''" - [http://www.soebratie.nl/religie/hadith/IbnSad.html#Book 90.6/ Ibn Saad, ''Tabaqat'' Vol. 1 Chapter 90:6].</ref> The Islamic tradition bears witness against the idea that Muhammad was in the habit of marrying older women who were destitute and in need of his aide, and indeed shows that he rather preferred to marry women much, much younger than he.