Summary of previous sets of arguments on Hadith study which talk directly about bulugh and the age of 9: 9 is always supplementary to something else, which has far greater reason for being the cause of bulugh. Why is 9 mentioned at all? Well I will answer that in a later blog but in a basic sense, the 3rd hadith is one of the reasons (other reasons in future blog!)
Also three comments to me from readers:
1. I do not provide sources in these last few blogs - that is laziness and anyone wanting them can just ask (they are all from Wasa`il al-Shia and I have the sources in the book)
2. Blogs are long - sorry but I want to try and cover a topic
3. The argument is not good enough! Well...let's finish the main arguments on both sides, and with a holistic view we can try and deal with this point...if there are individual arguments you do not like, ping me an email or write a comment, and I can try and give you what I think he means...
So far, we have discussed the first part of the hadith study i.e. the narrations that directly talk about the age of 9. Now we come to the second bunch of narrations: those that discuss the fact it is allowed to get married to girls of 9, and consequently, that is the age of bulugh.
Hadith 1: “If a man marries a young girl, he should not enter her until she is 9”
Hadith 2: “A girl should not be entered until she is 9 or 10 years old”
Hadith 3: The prophet (SAW) said: “the limit of a woman being entered into by her husband is a girl of 9”
Hadith 4: “whoever has relations with his wife before 9, is punishable…”
Hadith 5: “Whoever enters a girl before she reaches 9 is punishable…”
Hadith 6: “… ‘if he entered her when she was 9, then there is no problem but if she was not yet 9, or she was under 9 by a bit then and he deflowered her, then he has caused fasaad…”
All of these are based on the consensus view that it is not allowed to have relations before bulugh, and these narrations discuss whether it is allowed after 9, which would then imply that the age of bulugh is 9. Bu there are a few problems:
The first and second narration say that sex before 9 is not allowed, which one may think implies that after 9, it is allowed. However, this tactic of implying what is understood (مفهوم) has certain rules and limitations such as it cannot be absolute (إطلاق) unless the speaker makes it clear that it is, which requires something to indicate this – and there is nothing here [this is how Ayatullah Khumayni discussed the limitations of مفهوم.
To be clearer, you cannot infer directly that after 9 you will definitely be allowed to have sex with a girl because that requires proof, as it is not actually what is said - that requires a generalisation of the مفهوم (making it absolute - إطلاق) which cannot be done without proof/evidence.
Even if we were to assume that the مفهوم is absolute, there are other narrations (such as those of type 1), which limit this to only certain situations such as getting married…etc.
The sixth narration mentioned the reason for not being allowed to consummate the marriage and that was the fact it would cause fasaad on the girl, but the reality is that regardless of this reasoning, the impermissibility would still be there and thus the age by itself is not by itself enough to be a sign of bulugh.
[i.e. if you deflower a girl before 9, you are causing fasaad but that does not mean anything about deflowering her after 9 – and is independent of bulugh/not]
Therefore, this sixth narration must be understood in context of others as it cannot be the one that is the basis of the ruling.
There is a hadith from Abu Ayyub al-Khazzar that explains when it is allowed to enter a woman:
“…The Prophet of Allah (SAW) entered A’isha when she was 10 and he did not enter a young girl until she became a woman”
Therefore, the measure of bulugh is physical growth and becoming a woman, as well as being ready for relations. Therefore, the age of 9 is not by itself the reason for being allowed to have relations but it is whilst also being ready for having kids.
In the next post, we will discuss the prevailing opinion of 9, and the second major evidence used to back this up - that of Ijma' (consensus).
But don't all the hadiths seem to be giving a lower limit?
ReplyDeleteIt's like: "You can't drive until you're 17". Is there anything to say that after that you can't? [Well, yeah of course there is - you have to be able to drive or fit your car around you, and be able to see some distance and can't have some listed disabilities] But for most people, after 17, yea it's fine - you can drive.
Is this a fair comment to make? Is this something to do purely with the way Islamic scholars make their desicions? Has it got something to do instead with the Arabic language?
Nope...this is a very important point about مفهوم and إطلاق and is fundamental to understanding how logic works:
ReplyDelete"Don't fast until you are 9"
Logically, this does NOT mean you must fast after 9. However, it might be inferred in general to be the case. In Islamic law, however, you cannot make that inference without proof. Nothing can be done without proof. If you want, I can go to the books and find several examples in hadith/quran that make it clearer but the logical flaw in automaitclaly assuming that you must fast after 9 (rather than it might be okay to fast after 9 or you might have to fast after 9 given another conditoin or.....etc) should be sufficient..