IMAM ABU AL-FIDA' ISMA'IL IBN KATH~R 93The text of al-Bukhai reads, "Chapter on Marriage to Virgins. Ibn Aba
Mulayka stated, 'Ibn 'Abbas said to 'A'isha, "The Prophet (SAAS) married no
virgin other than yourself."'
"Isma'il b. 'Abd Allah related to us, as did his brother, from Sulaymm b.
Bilal, from Hishzm b. Wrwa, from his father, from 'A'isha, who stated, 'I said,
"0 Messenger of God, do you think that if you were to go down into a valley
where there was one tree whose fruit had previously been eaten from, and another
that had not been eaten from, at which of them would you graze your camel?"
"At the one never eaten from." This implied that the Prophet (SAAS) married
no other virgin but her."'
Al-Bukhzri alone gives this tradition.
He then stated, "Wbayd b. IsmaCil related to us, that it was related to him by
Aha Usma, from Hishm b. Wrwa, from his father, that 'A'isba said, 'The
Messenger of God (SAAS) told me, "You were shown to me in my sleep being
brought in a cloth of silk by an angel who said to me, 'This is your wife.' I with-
drew the cloth from your face and it was you! So I said, 'If this be God's will,
then may He bring it about!'""'
In one account the wording is, "You were shown to me three nights in my sleep."
According to al-Tirmidhi Gabriel brought him her image in a piece of green
silk and said, "This is your wife in this world and the next."
Al-Bukhari's text reads, "Chapter on Marriage between the Young and the Old.
'Ahd Allzh h. Yiisuf related to us, as did al-Layth, from Yazid, from 'Ira, from
Wrwa, that the Messenger of God (SAAS) asked Abn Bakr for 'A'isha's hand
in marriage. Aba Bakr replied, 'But I'm your brother!' (the Prophet (SAAS))
responded, 'You are my brother in God's religion and His Book, and she is
permitted to me."'
The text of this tradition clearly suggests it to be mursal, incomplete,2' even
though al-Bukhm and the authorities consider it uninterrupted. This is because
it is a hadith of Wrwa from 'A'isha, God bless her. This is a tradition narrated by
al-Bukhari alone, God bless him.
Yanus b. Bukayr stated, from Hishim b. Wrwa, from his father who said,
"The Messenger of God (SAAS) married 'A'isha three years after (the death of)
Khadija. At that time (of the contract) CA'isha had been a girl of six. When he
married her she was nine. The Messenger of God (SAAS) died when 'A'isha was
a girl of eighteen."
This tradition is considered gharib (unique in this line).
Al-Bukhzri had related, from Whayd b. IsmaciI, from Aha Usama, from
Hisham b. 'Urwa, from his father, who said, "Khadija died three years before the
emigration of the Prophet (SAAS). He allowed a couple of years or so to pass
after that, and then he contracted marriage with 'A'isha when she was six,
thereafter consummating marriage with her when she was nine years old."
- This is so because 'Urwa, the narrator, is transmitting a conversation to which he was not a
party, as is clear from the text. Also, he was too young to have witnessed this meeting.