I'm willing to give Muhammad the benefit of the doubt regarding the assertion that he had a paedophilic fetish. Having said that there isn't a 10 year old I have ever found
remotely attractive on a sexual level. However I can accept that it was not considered reprehensible back in his day. That still, however, illustrates that he is
not a man whose example should be followed in this day and age.
The greater issue with Allah's apostle is his inability to keep the fire burning his balls in check. Aisha (radiallahu anha) was obviously the most disgusting and lowest point. However there are other examples, eg. when he saw Juwayriyyah.
Aisha remembers, 'She was a most beautiful woman. She captivated every man who saw her. She came to the Apostle to ask his help in the matter. As soon as I saw her at the door of my room I took a dislike for her, for I knew that he would see her as I saw her.' (Ibn Ishaq,
Sirat Rasulullah, p.493).
Then of course there is the matter of Allah (SWT) revealing to His Messenger that adopted sons are not sons because he wanted to marry Zainab (RA). Fatima Mernissi quotes Tabari as saying that Zaynab was 'the most beautiful woman of her time.'
Sound familiar?
He continues, 'One day the Prophet went to look for Zayd at his house. He put his hand on the door and opened it. Seeing Zaynab seated in her apartment with her head uncovered, he asked her, as he turned his face away, the whereabouts of Zayd. She replied that he had gone out. She made a great impression on him, and not wanting to look at her a second time, he closed his eyes and said: 'God be praised, God is great, God who commands hearts and eyes!' And he went out.' (Mernissi,
The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 104)
Another issue is Rasulullah's hypocrisy when it came to his own daughter Fatima (AS). For example when Fatima was nine,
'Abu Bakr and Umar were among those who asked to marry Fatima, but the Prophet (S) rejected them too, and said that she was still too young for marriage.' (
Abu Muhammad Ordoni, Fatima the Gracious.)
Also when polgyamy was concerned.
I heard Allah's Apostle who was on the pulpit, saying, "Banu Hisham bin Al-Mughira have requested me to allow them to marry their daughter to Ali bin Abu Talib, but I don't give permission, and will not give permission unless 'Ali bin Abi Talib divorces my daughter in order to marry their daughter, because Fatima is a part of my body, and I hate what she hates to see, and what hurts her, hurts me." (
Bukhari)
However, I don't think his true love for Khadija (AS) can be diminished. Aisha, who was jealous of several wives, (including
Umm Salama) maintained that:
I did not feel jealous of any of the wives of the Prophet as much as I did of Khadija though I did not see her, but the Prophet used to mention her very often, and when ever he slaughtered a sheep, he would cut its parts and send them to the women friends of Khadija. When I sometimes said to him, "(You treat Khadija in such a way) as if there is no woman on earth except Khadija," he would say, "Khadija was such-and-such, and from her I had children." (
Bukhari)
Incidentally Shia have ahadith that inflate Aisha's age, but this is clearly to satisfy their sectarian interests as they also want to show that she was actually married (rather than merely engaged) to Jubayr ibn Mut'im. Others accept Aisha's young age, for example:
After the death of his first loyal wife, Khadjjah, and two years before his emigration to Medina, the Prophet wedded 'A'ishah, and a year and a half after the emigration, in the lunar month of Shawwal and after the battle of Badr, on the insistence of her father Abu Bakr, took her to his own house. When the Prophet died, she was only eighteen years old. Thus Umm al-Mu'minin spent only eight years and five months of her life in the Prophet's house. (Sayyid Murtada Askar,
The Role of Aishah in the History of Islam, p.28).
Ayatollah Fadlallah too replied to an enquirer:
Q: Is it morally and traditionally permissible for a man of 32 to marry of woman who is barely 17 years old?
A: Why not: The prophet(p.), our role model, married Aisha when she wad 10 years old while he was 53 years. If both parties accept the marriage than there is nothing wrong with it.
Topic: Mohammad, the Pedophile