Women of Jannah

Aisha bint Abu-Bakr

She was truthful, daughter of the truthful, wife of the most truthful, and the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away in her lap.

Our Mother, Our Teacher, Aisha bint Abu-Bakr

You know, the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, he treated every single one of the companions so well that they all thought they were the most beloved to him. So, Amr bin al-’As decides one day that he’s going to ask the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, in front of everyone else, “من أحب الناس إليك؟”,( menn ahabbo Al naas ilayk?) – who is the most beloved person to you? So he says one day we’re sitting together, all the sahaba are there, so he says, I said to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam,  “يا رسول الله، من أحب الناس إليك؟”,( Ya rasool Allah, menn ahabbo Al naas ilayk?), Oh Messenger of Allah, who’s the most beloved person in the world to you? He’s like, come on tell them, I know it’s me so go ahead and tell them. So RasulAllah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam says, well if you’re asking… Aisha radiAllahu anha.

That was something that was very different, because obviously in those times, they didn’t treat their women very well, they were embarrassed about their relationship with their wives. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, I love my wife more than anyone else, particularly he mentioned Aisha radiAllahu anha. He said, “no, no, no, I mean from the men, from the men. We can talk about wives later, lets talk about the men.” So, RasulAllah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, “أبوها”(abooha) , her father. He didn’t say Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu, he said her father. Still connecting Abu Bakr to her. Then Amr bin al-’As radiAllahu anhu said, then who? He said, then Umar. Then Amr bin al-’As said, I just stopped asking because I was afraid the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam would never say my name.

So Aisha radiAllahu anha was that woman that was the most beloved to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. RasulAllah salAllahu alayhi wa sallam said that comparing Aisha to all the other women in the world is like comparing the dish of thareed to all other dishes, and thareed was his favorite dish, salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. It was a very good dish that the arabs had, it was a delicacy. So the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam said she’s that special.

When we look at the life of Aisha radiAllahu anha, we truly do see a special woman, and this woman excelled in so many ways. There was a reason why she was so beloved to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam.

Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala of course, revealed to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam in the form of a dream to marry Aisha radiAllahu anha as the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam saw Jibreel alayhi as-salam, and Jibreel alayhi as-salam directed him to Aisha radiAllahu anha, so the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam married Aisha. Her name is as-Siddiqa Bint as-Siddiq. She’s the truthful one, the daughter of the truthful one being Abu-Bakr.

Now Aisha radiAllahu Anha, because she grew up primarily in Medina, at least her adult life was in Medina, she had the characteristics and the traits of the women of Ansar. She was a very assertive woman, she was a very intelligent woman, as the women of the Ansar were. And subhanAllah, we find so many incidents between her and the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, and we learn so much from just their marital life. And subhanAllah, she gives us access to the life of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam that no one else could give us because she lived a very long life after the Messenger salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, she died 58 years after Hijra, so she lived for many years after the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. She was very intelligent, she was a scholar, and many of the ahadith come from Aisha radiAllahu anha. How the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam slept, when the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam would take a bath, and when the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam would do his tasks behind close doors, how else would we have known that was it not for Aisha radiAllahu anha, so we all owe her a great deal of love and respect, because it’s through her that we gained that access to the life of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. His qiyam, his sleeping, everything. The intimacy of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, the romance of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. It truly allows us to have that whole picture of the Messenger salAllahu alayhi wa sallam.