Why Prophet Muhammad ﷺ married Ayesha (RA) at a young age?
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* Informative Thread on this topic*

This question is raised by a number of islamaphobes and because of that a lot of Muslims have been confused about this as well. It is not wrong to be confused about something you don’t know.

Such slanders against the Prophet of Mercy (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by kaafirs and others of their ilk, are indicative of their inability to find fault with the law and religion that he brought from Allah

so they try to find ways to criticize Islam with regard to issues that are not related to sharee’ah.

First of all I would debunk this claim by saying that 100,200 years ago this wasn’t even an issue. The norms of society changed from time to time and now people think of this as controversial and pedophilic.

Prophet had ALOT of enemies during his whole life, they called him magician and so on but they never called out our prophet for marrying a young girl. Even later on the munafiqs (hypocrites) who always needed a blame to accuse someone, they never used this argument against him!

Why didn’t they? Because at that time the norms of society were different and people accepted it, not because the women were oppressed in those times. Islam empowered women 1400 years ago (check my pinned tweet for that, there’s a thread on this topic)

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had 13 wives. All of them were divorced or widowed apart from Ayesha (May Allah be pleased with her). His first wife was a business woman who was 15 years older than him. He spent half of his life with her

Do you really think you can blame our Prophet by saying he married Ayesha for his needs? The marriage of Ayesha was an instruction from Allah (Bukhari: Volume 5 :Book 58: Hadith 235)

It is a historical fact that young teenagers from ages 9 to 15 would get married in Middle East and Asia. In hot countries adolescence comes early and people marry early. This is how the people of Arabia were until recently.

Moreover, women vary greatly in their development and their physical readiness for marriage. 
At the age we live in girls hit puberty at age 12,14 and some even at 16. This is a fact.
Read this for a short summary

Ayesha ( May Allah be pleased with her) she directly narrated 2200 to 2600 hadiths of our Holy Prophet. After he passed away all through her life she preached Islam. The characteristics of intelligence and smartness in ‘Ayesha even as a small child was astounding.

That’s why Allah instructed Muhammad to marry her so that she would be able to transmit reports of what he did and said. In fact, as stated above, she lived with our beloved prophet for 9 years and yet she was a reference point for the Sahaabah with regard to their rulings

Arabs at that time looked upon women as worthless possessions
The Holy Prophet(saw) introduced a totally new form of decorum towards women. In general, he would observe no formality or formal protocol when meeting people.

He used to say: “I am not of those who adopt unnecessary formality.” He would sit on the floor next to Hadhrat ‘A’ishah(ra) and drink from the same part of the bowl that she had drunk from.

When they ate, he would sometimes suck the piece of bone she had sucked, as a demonstration of his affection. The Prophet was a loving husband. Aisha talked about the times when she enjoyed meals with him. He enjoyed his meals only when she sat next to him.

They drank from one cup and he watched where she placed her lips so that he could place his lips on the same area. He ate from a bone after she ate and placed his mouth where she had eaten. She also said that he placed morsels of food into her mouth and she would do the same.

Aisha and the Prophet would use code language with each other denoting their love. She asked the Prophet how he would describe his love for her. The Prophet Muhammad answered, saying: “Like a strong binding knot.” The more you tug, the stronger it gets, in other words.

Every so often ‘Aisha would playfully ask, “How is the knot?” The Prophet would answer, “As strong as the first day (you asked).”
When she was asked: “What did the Prophet use to do in his house?” She replied, “He used to keep himself busy serving his family.”

When one of his companions asked him “who is the most beloved to your heart?” he answered instantly “Aisha”.
Before his death, Prophet Muhammad’s very last words to his companions were: “Treat women with kindness, treat women with kindness!

Have fear of God in relation to them and make sure you want well for them”.

Hadhrat ‘A’ishah(ra) relates:
“One day, the Holy Prophet(saw) was mending his shoe and I was working on the spinning wheel.

As I looked up I saw that the forehead of the Holy Prophet(saw) was glistening with sweat and I saw a light gleaming in his forehead, which continued to grow and spread. It was a sight to behold! I was watching with fascination. The Holy Prophet(saw) looked up and asked: