im not of the 69 camp, but i certainly have my view on it all. problem is, would you understandi t? would you legitimately take an active interest in what i have to say?
ive touched on it numerous times in the past, on here, and it gets ignored or goes over people's heads.
so for the record, my opinion is not orthodox, it is my own rational take on hadith..and ive been studying hadith since i was 10 yrs old. ive studied them far far longer than i have done the bible, but collectively studying other religions aswell as history, kingdoms/empires, rulers, influencers etc, i can say i have a better idea than most.
there's a text called the Bahman Yast. it is a strange zoroastrian book of 'end times prophecy' which appeared in the 6th century AD, attributed to Zoroaster himself.
Now the book with it's prophecies, speaksof all out war between the wonderful, good, pious and pure Iran and it's allys from the east, against the evil 'demons with dishevelled hair' from europe (the byzantines, the greeks ie the christians).
eg
O Zaratûst the Spîtâmân! they will lead these Iranian countries of Aûharmazd into a desire for evil, into tyranny and misgovernment, those demons with dishevelled hair who are deceivers, so that what, they say they do not do, and they are of a vile religion, so that what they do not say they do. 29. And their assistance and promise have no sincerity, there is no law, they preserve no security, and on the support they provide no one relies; with deceit, rapacity, and misgovernment they will devastate these my Iranian countries
Now this text begins by describing a giant tree extending to heaven, made up of 4 parts. Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron, pertaining to 4 ages.
Zaratûst asked for immortality from Aûharmazd, then Aûharmazd displayed the omniscient wisdom to Zaratûst, and through it he beheld the root of a tree, on which were four branches, one golden, one of silver, one of steel, and one was mixed up with iron.
This is a major clue that it was clearly a forgery ripping off Daniel 2, hence it would have been a jewish forgery, since we know historically jews were well placed in positions of power, in iran. So what of it's intent?
clearly we know jews would have hated christinas back then. jewish messianicism, leading to the sassanian vs byzantine wars. Get it? it had a political purpose and people believed it.
However it does get way more interesting if you see things from my pov. The sassanian-byzantine wars, led to the sassanian victory and thus led to a new jewish-sassanian vassal state in Jerusalem led by a few thousand jews. This just happened to take place in the lifetime of Mohammad, right at the cusp of his journey as a prophet. So whilst it was a propanda peice, what it represented was the heart and desire of the jewish nation and their world view.
See, im familiar with the law of attraction, i understand how inner beliefs reflect in the material experience, things we see in our reality are a manifestation or reflection of deeper beliefs. This is where the game of religious manipulation of the masses turns eg just like the Bahman yast itself had massive consequences right away.
See, jewish messianicism of the 6th and 7th century also gave rise to various jewish 'prophecies' and amongst them was a deep belief if a Messiah ben Joseph/suffering servant..and a messiah ben david/king. This dualistic messianic ideal lead to a guy called Nehemiah Ben Hushiel becoming the 'messiah ben joseph'. He was supposed to die..to usher ihn the arrival of the davidic messiah.
en.wikipedia.org
(im not making this up, its real history, most christians dont know there even was a jewish state back then all in the time of Mohammad? as if that wasnt relevant at all?).
The only thing is when Ben hushiel was killed, the jews didnt find their davidic messiah in Madina (as per the isaiah 42 new song prophecy), but instead....it was an arab. Hushiel was killed in 619 and the hijra/migration of Mohammad took place 3.5 YRS LATER in 622.
no one else would pick up on this but me (srsly, no ego, it's true though, im too familiar with bible prophecy so i get the themes at play here).
You're probably not familiar with the story of Mohammad's arrival in Madina, i don't want to get into that too much other than to say that the jews celebrated his arrival expecting a jewish messiah. one of the stories in hadith around this is the story of Heraclius the byzantine emperor. it says he saw a dream that a prophet was coming to circumcised people (ie jews) and so his desire was to wipe out jews (given the context of the wars and bloodshed that took place in jerusalem, leading to thousands and thousands of christians being killed by jews and persians, it was understandable he wanted an end to it all). So basically the judeo-christian world never saw an arab prophet coming. im sure christians would have been expecting the antichrist, you know 'the wilderness'..and the jews would have expected the messiah.
Why did their desire not materialise exactly how they willed it? to understand that, you have to accept that the jews are under a collective curse since they rejected Jesus and their lack of temple is proof of this. Read the punishments part of
Leviticus 26
Reward for Obedience - “‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God. “‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD. “‘If you follow my decrees and are...
www.biblegateway.com
You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
my understansing of the seed of faith, is that it represents intent..and the fruit represents the object of our desires...eg our goal, what we want.
eg the jews planted the seeds of a messianic archetype that instead came to arabs, in accordance with the punishments theme..and hence Mohammad..and this further led to all the messianic dreams of rule over the whole region, going into arab hands.
Now the bit where i get into the hadith.
we have this hadith
en.wikipedia.org
see, the Abbasid caliphate who were ruling the sunni world from persia at that time, happened to have the Black flags. So this hadith wasnt a real prophecy at all but a manipulated forgery created by the abbasid's to consolidate their legitimacy as the true rulers of the muslim world, in the face of shia resistance.
yet...this hadith is plagarised from the Bahman yast..how ironic
'For the support of the countries of Iran is the innumerable army of the east; its having exalted banners', is that they have a banner of tiger skin (bôpar pôst), and their wind banner is white cotton[6]; innumerable are the mounted troops, and they ride up to the lurking-holes[7] of the demons; they will slay so that a thousand women can afterwards see and kiss but one man.
whilst this may seem trivial, the abbasids ruled over persia from persia...and thus adopting existing persian centric themes would also help them remain in power. They changed up the colours to black (in line with their own). What they were doing was legitimising their rule using existing beliefs/archetypes. Yet again this reflects the collective messianic dream, that seed planted by jews. it reflected their propanda, their deception and their dreams..playing out through abbasids instead.
the ensuing wars between the abbasids and byzantines were by design too.
en.wikipedia.org
Finally im going to relate this to the topic of Aisha. The shia and the sunni sides were building legitimacy through the manipulation of religion and this was done on the shia side their own persian scholars collecting/writing 'hadith'...and likewise the sunnis were doing the same.
the shia being devoted to Ali, Fatima, Hassan and Hussain...hated Aisha as she was the daughter of Abu Bakr who was the first caliph.
The shia camp spread propaganda against Aisha to break morale and make people reject the other side. Amongst them, they abuse Aisha, call her a whore, an adulteress and accuse her of poisoning and killing the prophet.
no word of a lie, they absolutely hate her till this day and it has become even more fashionable today in the age of youtube/facebook and intense sectarianism, to attack her.
en.wikipedia.org
THUS, the abbasid's response was to instead claim Aisha as a child bride, as a pure and noble innocent woman and attribute the majority of sunni hadith to her name.
As for my view of all the sunni hadith collections..i treat them as sources of information and within that, im open to questioning the intent. most are probably legit and have an actual oral tradition behind them, but many are political propaganda work.
Hence many muslims argue that Aisha was a lot older by using other sources of information and being rational. However many more cling to the original narration version because they dare not question 'hadith'. they were brainwashed to believe in 'QURAN AND HADITH/SUNNAH ONLY'.
however the Quran actually says
KITAB/SCRIPTURE AND HIKMAH/WISDOM
Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own (and indeed Allah answered their invocation by sending Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم), who shall recite unto them Your Verses and instruct them in the Book (this Qur'an) and Al-Hikmah (Wisdom). Verily! You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise."
(سورة البقرة, Al-Baqara, Chapter #2, Verse #129)
now im certain there is a lot of hikmah/wisdom contained in hadith. ive studied them from age 10 like i said, there is a treasure trove of material in them..but there is also darker stuff that was clearly forged with political intent.
the element of sunnah, of following Mohammad, applicable through Quranic verses, was for those muslims present at the time with the prophet. Eg THEY had to follow him (goes without saying). However the Quran certianly didnt endorse material that was gathered and written over 2 centuries later. Hadith have no quranic confirmation, no divine protection. in fact it directly warns muslims against that
And so We have appointed for every Prophet enemies - Shayatin (devils) among mankind and jinn, inspiring one another with adorned speech as a delusion (or by way of deception). If your Lord had so willed, they would not have done it; so leave them alone with their fabrications. (Tafsir Qurtubi)
(سورة الأنعام, Al-An'aam, Chapter #6, Verse #112)
ie the Quran clearly insists that every prophet had enemies from men, lying with 'adorned speech' as a deception....
how could that happen? it clearly wouldnt come from people outside of the religion, it would have to c ome from within it, hence this extends to hadith aswell.
113. (And this is in order) that the hearts of those who disbelieve in the Hereafter may incline to such (deceit), and that they may remain pleased with it, and that they may commit what they are committing (all kinds of sins and evil deeds).
have a little think on this one given your accusation of muslims using hadith to justidy pedophillia (and i agree with you on that, it's true, but only a minority do that).
Now you know what does come with divine confirmation? the Torah and Gospel DO. You've seen how most muslims view those books..so you certainly cant tell me that the majority of muslims who are openly dissing the bible, are correct (at least on their analysis of islam/the Quran) and that im wrong. I look at hadith, as i said, as historical sources of information, which is exactly what they are. I'm open minde enough to question their origin and purpose/intent within the political climate of the time. it doesnt mean i have all the answers, but at least i remain cautious.
Still, it is more convenient for xtians to really just push my points aside and stick to the dominant narratives in these exchanges to have the upper hand. for xtians, it is absolutely necessary that Mohammad was having sex with a 9 yr old child.
However for me, it makes no sense. There is no evidence of any controversy surrounding this in early islam (and i believe there would have been, it's too big an age difference for people to not jump on it back then even). Aisha was older in other sources. Even in Saheeh Bukhari, where this 'hadith' originates from, we get this one
Narrated 'Aisha: (the wife of the Prophet) I had seen my parents following Islam since I attained the age of puberty. Not a day passed but the Prophet visited us, both in the mornings and evenings. My father Abii Bakr thought of building a mosque in the courtyard of his house and he did so. He used to pray and recite the Qur'an in it. The pagan women and their children used to stand by him and look at him with surprise. Abu Bakr was a Softhearted person and could not help weeping while reciting the Quran. The chiefs of the Quraish pagans became afraid of that (i.e. that their children and women might be affected by the recitation of Quran)." (Book #8, Hadith #465)
He would have married her in 619/20...and he declared prophethood in 610, Abu Bakr was his first follower after his wife and uncle-in-law...eg she was already at the age of puberty at 610. she would be at least 19/20 by this point..which is exactly in line with other sources.
Lastly....
im also familiar with how the christian side has debated with muslims on this particular hadith aswell.
eg
here, the xtian side claimed that the original is a poor translation and then they present us with the 'correct' one...
“Narrated Aisha: (wife of the Prophet) Since I reached the age WHEN I COULD REMEMBER THINGS, I have seen my parents worshipping according to the right faith of Islam. Not a single day passed but Allah's Apostle visited us both in the morning and in the evening..." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 37, Number 494)
The word used in this hadith was Aqal, meaning 'intellect'.
ie 'age of intellect'
According to Islamic jurists, human irads or niyah or qasd or free will, aqal or ability to judge right and wrong, and courage are formed before the age of puberty (Tamyiz) and between the age of puberty, and after the age of puberty (Taklif), his intellect (Aql), that is, wisdom and judgment, attains perfection.
so you have it more like this
Narrated 'Aisha: (the wife of the Prophet) I had seen my parents following Islam since I attained the age of INTELLECT Not a day passed but the Prophet visited us, both in the mornings and evenings. My father Abii Bakr thought of building a mosque in the courtyard of his house and he did so. He used to pray and recite the Qur'an in it. The pagan women and their children used to stand by him and look at him with surprise. Abu Bakr was a Softhearted person and could not help weeping while reciting the Quran. The chiefs of the Quraish pagans became afraid of that (i.e. that their children and women might be affected by the recitation of Quran)." (Book #8, Hadith #465)
big difference between the age of intellect (knowing right or wrong, posessing free will etc) and 'the age of rememberance'.
eg i remember many things from age 3...but i wasnt at the age of aql according to my parents, until i was 10..that's when i went to high school. my parents told me fasting was now compulsory on me as was salat 5 times a day.
literally Aisha was saying her parents started following islam when she was at the age of intellect. Meaning she was born anywhere from 8-10 yrs before 610.
get it?
now this hadith is in the same Bukhari collection, this contradicts the 69 version...
thus proving my own points about hadith as historical sources of information that have been tampered with for political intent...not all but some, that is when they were serving the interests of the caliphate.
in this hadith Aisha talks about the pagan woman and 'their children' looking at the prophet 'with surprise'. what age would children need to be at to look at the prophet with surprise with some understanding/notion of who he was and his intentions? they'd be 7 at least mean...so she was referring to them as 'children' ie she was older.
need me to go on?