Now consistency is key here, if the Christian missionaries are consistent they will find objection with Abraham (a Prophet of God,pbuh) as Abraham (pbuh) did the same as Mohammad (peace be upon Abraham and Mohammad) but Abraham (pbuh) was 86 years old which is much older than Mohammad (pbuh) as highlighted in the Bible:
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. … So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.” (Genesis, chapter 16, verses 1–4, and 15–16, New International Version.)
Also David (pbuh) according to the Bible did have a young virgin to tend to him, being fair and scholarly I must mention that it is not believed any sexual relations took place (mentioned below), however the reasons why I include this is to illustrate honesty on my part and to show that age difference did not matter an iota back in those days:
“When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. So his servants said to him, ‘Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.’ Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.” (1 Kings, chapter 1, verses 1–4, New International Version. Bolding is mine.)
Also Joseph is said to have been 90 when he married the 12-14 year old Mary (mother of Jesus, peace be upon both of them)(20), thus it must be extremely hypocritical and inconsistent for christian missionaries to attack Mohammad (pbuh) for having a marital relationship with a younger woman when Joseph (who was much older than Muhammad,pbuh) did the same with Mary (peace be on her). The irony is immense and it is compounded by the fact that the lady that the Christian missionaries believe to be the ‘mother’ of their ‘god’ was involved in a similar relationship. Naturally, if the Christian missionary is entirely consistent and honest (something that history shows that they are not) they will believe that the ‘mother‘ of their ’god’ was subjected to ’paedophilia’ or some other ’sexual perversion’ and was wilfully involved in a ’sexually perverse relationship’, moreover they will believe that the stepfather of their ‘god’ was a pervert (either ‘paedophile‘ or ‘a man motivated by lust’):
These accounts are summed up in the Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1913 edition,:
“It will not be without interest to recall here, unreliable though they are, the lengthy stories concerning St. Joseph’s marriage contained in the apocryphal writings. When forty years of age, Joseph married a woman called Melcha or Escha by some, Salome by others; they lived forty-nine years together and had six children … A year after his wife’s death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age, Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalem among the candidates; a miracle manifested the choice God had made of Joseph …”
Of course it is hypocritical for the Christian missionaries to attack Mohammad (pbuh) because there is an age difference between him and Lady Aisha. However the Christian missionary who spreads lies and distortions about Mohammad (pbuh) and Islam is shameless and will no doubt hide the fact that the step-father (Joseph) of the Christian god (Jesus, pbuh) was in a similar relationship but he was even older than Mohammad (pbuh) so the age difference is more profound and of course his relationship was with Mary (peace be on her), the Christians believe that she is the mother of their god so using ‘logic’ the missionaries would believe that the mother of their god was the victim of paedophilia or was married to a man of lust, all this while their god ( Jesus, pbuh) was growing up, i.e. their god was raised by a man of lust (according to the missionary logic or lack of logic). They also fail to add that their god (Jesus, pbuh) never rebuked Joseph or Mary for their relationship, therefore they must believe that Jesus (pbuh) saw nothing wrong with this relationship and it was a cultural norm at the time.
Of course their relationship was the norm at the time, just like that of Abraham’s (pbuh) relationship with Hagar. We must also note that the belief of sincere Muslims and Christians would be that neither Mohammed, Abraham, Joseph, Jesus or Mary (peace be on them all) did anything wrong concerning their support and/or partaking in age-gap marriages. Again the Christian missionary ends up with egg on his/her face and winds up looking unscholarly, lacking sound reasoning and full of hypocrisy and deception.
Summary
~ Claiming an age difference as being objectionable is being unscholarly and dishonest as the context is missing as age differences in marriage were not seen as objectionable in the Arabian culture and were the norm.
~Modern day law does not object to an age-gap marriage and nor did any great civilization of the past object to this, in fact they partook in age-gap marriages and were the norm in many past communities and still are the norm in some modern-day communities
~ Secular, Christian, Hindu, Jewish law do not object to an older male marrying a younger female, therefore it is hypocritical to attack Islam for allowing it without attacking the others
~ Well known Biblical figures such as Abraham (pbuh) and Joseph (the step father of Jesus, peace be upon them) were involved in similar relationships yet the missionaries tend to ignore this or not know it
~ This claim is unjust and holds no water at all and only highlights a lack of knowledge on the part of the claimant as well as their desperation to besmirch the last Prophet of God, Mohammed (pbuh)
The Christian missionaries clearly have an agenda against Islam, their ‘fight’ against Islam and massive efforts in order to get these ‘paedophile’ claims to stick is shown to be inconsistent as the same accusations (if using dubious Christian missionary ’logic‘) could be levelled at their faith (Christianity) and Hinduism (manu 9.94) as well as Judaism (Sanhedrin 55b). The ‘tactics of dishonesty’ employed by these missionaries backfire and result in their dishonesty being revealed to all and moves the thoughtful people away from Christianity rather than bringing them closer to it. These Christian missionaries are not faithful in speaking about other faiths, what makes us believe they are truthful when speaking about other topics?
Jesus outlined a principle of reliability at Luke 16:10, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much: and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."
These propaganda artists masquerading as ‘religious’ Christians are defying logic and should contemplate the following sayings rather than looking for opportunities to twist the truth and slander the last Prophet of Almighty God.
"It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher." – Annie Besant, THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF MUHAMMAD, Madras, 1932, p. 4.
"I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today."
George Bernard Shaw, THE GENUINE ISLAM, Vol. 1, No. 81936.
The reason some Christian missionaries operate in this deceitful fashion, in my opinion, is due to the high convert numbers that Islam tends to have coupled with the already huge global population of Muslims and its huge growth rate via birth-rate, therefore it is naturally seen as a threat to Christian dominancy, especially considering that a large proportion of the converts to Islam do come from Christian denominations. The question still remains, why would the missionaries resort to dishonest character assassinations rather than focus their tack on the Islamic theology and argue against Islam in an honest manner?
The question is answered by comparing Islamic theology with Christian theology, when this is done in an honest and scholarly fashion one sees that Islam is more rational, scientific and logical while Christianity comes off very poorly when compared to Islam, these observations are highlighted by the points below
1. Islam has a logical belief concerning God, i.e. God is ONE while the Christians have an illogical belief concerning God, i.e. they believe in the trinity, which Christians themselves do not even understand and this lack of logical sense is further highlighted by the following quote:
"One may say with one's lips: 'I believe that God is one, and also three'--but no one can believe it, because the words have no sense." (‘What is Religion’ by Leo Tolstoy). One must ask themselves “would God send down a core belief(i.e. the trinity) that is incomprehensible by the recipients or would it be logical and rational (like the Islamic belief)?” I must also add that NO prophet (including Jesus, pbuh) ever taught the trinity but they did teach the Islamic form of monotheism. Logic and history argues against Christianity here!
2. The Bible (through its genealogies) incorrectly teaches us that the Earth is about 6000 years old, science shows the Bible to be far off the mark here and scientists believe the age of the solar system to be closer to 4.5 billion years and the appearance of human beings on the earth is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of years! A vocal group of Christians (Young Earth Creationists) still argue for the Biblical version today.
The Quran makes no such inaccurate assertions and is fully compatible with modern day science and even has scientific miracles within it, I must also state that there are further scientific problems in the Bible for further reading concerning the comparison of the Bible and Quran with science please read ‘The Bible, The Quran and Science by Dr. Maurice Bucaille. I also append an excerpt from Gary Miller concerning science and Islam from his article ‘An Introduction to the way of Life known as Islam’ in the reference section that makes interesting reading and gives a good feel of how science agrees with Islam (21). I feel compelled to put forward the rhetorical question, ‘ would God not know the age of the earth?’ Science argues against Christianity here
3. The Bible contains lewd passages such as:
For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. (Ezekiel 23:20)
The Quran remains a Book of great eloquence and has nothing that can compare to Ezekiel 23:20. Surely the Book of God would be free from lewdness and full of eloquence? Rationale argues against Christianity here!
4. The Christians claim that Jesus (pbuh) is God but there is no such claim in the Bible from Jesus (pbuh), in fact Jesus (pbuh) claims to be a man and claims God is One and the Gospel of Luke states he is a prophet. The Quran also teaches that God is One and Jesus is the prophet of Allah (Quran,19:30). However Trinitarian Christians try to make Jesus (pbuh) out to be part of God even though their own Bible disagrees with them. This kind of inconsistency is never found in the Quran. In summary the Christians have an unclear Book (the Bible) while the Muslims have a Book full of clarity and consistency (the Quran). Surely God would send a message of clarity concerning the core belief? Sound reasoning argues against Christianity.
5. The Christians accept the belief of ‘sacrifice’ of an innocent man (Jesus, pbuh) in order for the world to gain forgiveness for sins, Muslims have no such belief and believe God forgives out of His Mercy. Surely God is Just and would not condemn an innocent man in order to forgive sins, surely God can forgive sins through His own Mercy. Why would God kill an innocent man for the sins of others? If the Christian belief makes no sense now then the lack of logic is further compounded by adding in the other Christian belief that the man sacrificed/killed for the sins of mankind was ‘God’, therefore the Christians believe that God killed himself or part of Himself in order to forgive sins. All forms of rationality argue against Christianity here!
The Christian missionaries know the above points yet they adhere to their policy of spouting propaganda in order to keep Christians away from Islam, this reminds me of the Pagan Arabs who opposed Islam, these Pagans would lie about Mohammad (pbuh) in order to keep people away from Islam, despite their efforts more and more people accepted Islam, interestingly enough more and more people from the Christian communities are accepting Islam today! One of the reasons behind this is that the Bible only makes sense through Muslim understanding, i.e. the New and Old Testaments are corrupted texts, hence the contradictions and problems (some of which have been outlined above).
My sincere advice to the honest truth-seeker would be put away the Christian missionary propaganda and research Islam objectively and see for yourself the truth and logic within it.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Allah makes the way to Jannah (paradise) easy for him who treads the path in search of knowledge.''[Muslim].
Jesus outlined a principle of reliability at Luke 16:10, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much: and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."