Background: Some think, including many Muslims, that the prophet Muhammad (the messenger for The Quran) was engaged to a girl by the name of Aisha (sometimes spelt: Ayesha) when she was 6, and married her when she was 9 years old and he was about 50.
The marriage story in question is based on the reports by various companions of the prophet Muhammad, as recorded by others from later generations. In these reported sayings, there are discrepancies/contradictions regarding what her age was at the time of marriage, ranging from 9 to 20 years old.
There has been much discussion of this topic on the internet, in articles, television programmes and books etc. For those wishing to do further research, opposing articles will be referenced: two highlighting the discrepancies in the traditional sources for this story, and another which was written as a response to this. This is to show both sides, for and against, of the reported story. Please note, they require some background knowledge in order to understand them fully. If you prefer, you can skip these articles for discussion of what The Quran says about this subject below.
www.quranicteachings.co.uk/ayeshas-age.htm by Abdul Fauq
www.irfi.org/articles/articles_151_200/ayesha_age_the_myth_of__a_prover.htm
By Dr. T.O. Shanavas: Vice President of 'Islamic Research Foundation International'
qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=7&ID=4604&CATE=1 (this is a response to the 2nd article above)
By Shaykh Gibril F Haddad: member of Sunni Path, The Online Islamic Academy
It should be clearly noted that even though these articles disagree on some points, they clearly acknowledge contradictions exist with regard to the age at the time of marriage. Discrepancies are a common occurrence in oral reports from different sources, especially when recorded generations after an event. Furthermore, based on the evidence for the time, what likely compounded the confusion is that celebrating birthdays was not a common practice, thus exact ages were unlikely to be known.
It should be noted that this story is nowhere to be found in The Quran.
Not in the Quran, so why believe this?