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Added new subheading, removed Islamic apologist obfuscation
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==Marriage to Aisha==A controversial (Only in modern times; in his time period it was never brought up negatively.outside out of Islam) point of Muhammad's life was his "marriage " to [[Aisha bint Abi Bakr|Aisha]], daughter of [[Abu Bakr]], who was just six years old at the time of "engagement".<ref>''Sahih Bukhari'' 5:58:234</ref><ref>Sahih Muslim 8:3311</ref> The marriage was consummated when Aisha was nineyears old and began puberty.<ref> D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994, p. 40</ref> The narratives describing her age at marriage as six are narrated by Aisha herself. Though Aisha was known to use numerical substitution in other hadith, such as in the hadith of Laylat Al-Qadr where she substituted 1 for 21 and 3 for 23, which is a common way of referencing numbers in Arabic when the base number is established. Some scholars argue that she could have been speaking in such numerical substitution when narrating the Hadith regarding her age at marriage, thus rendering 16 as 6 and 19 as 9.<ref>Hakim Niaz Ahmad, '' تحقیق عمرعا،شہ صدیقہ (Research on the age of Ayesha)'', Mashkoor Academy, [[Karachi]].</ref> There is additional disagreement over her age at marriage, and a number of Islamic scholars believe that Aisha was older at the time of marriage. However, it is worth noting that at the time, and for thousands of years before and hundreds of years after, early marriage of a girl to a powerful man was very common. Aisha reached puberty at the age of nine, which is when the marriage was consummated.<ref>Habib ur Rahman Kandhalwi, ''[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Age_of_Aisha Age of Aisha]'', Al-Rahman Publishing Trust, [[Karachi]]</ref><ref>Maulana Muhammad Ali, ''The Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad'', p. 30, 1992, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat, ISBN 0-913321-19-2</ref> However it is important to note, because of of the time period, where the Christian Byzantine empire, Zoroastrian Persian empire were taking brides (consummating their marriages) before puberty, [[Islam]] made it forbidden to consummate a marriage prior to puberty. Aisha was only the third wife, his two prior marriages was to that of Khadija a woman double his age (40), and then later to Sawda Bint Zama who was in her 50's. However, Comparative, [[Mary]] the mother of [[Jesus]] was around 12 where as her husband [[Joseph]] was around 90, making nearly an 80 year age gap.<ref>http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08504a.htm</ref>
== After Muhammad's Death ==
Muhammad's death at an early age caused the splintering of his religion into new sects, over the question of succession. The groups called themselves the [[Sunnis]] and the [[Shiite|Shi'as]]. Many attribute this split to the high degree to which authority was centered in the powerful character of Muhammad himself: without his powerful personality, the movement could not survive intact.<ref>[[Bernard Lewis]], ''What Went Wrong''</ref>, however this depiction is not accurate in some lights. The [[Shi'as]] came into the picture much later than the death of Muhammad, and were first a nuisance group thought to be started by a Jew by the name of [[Abdullah ibn Saba]] who was burned at the stake by [[Abu Bakr]] for proclaiming [[Ali]] was God. Note that [[Ali]] disagreed with the punishment, because fire is a punishment only for [[Allah]].
The failure or splintering of movements , such as personality cults, built around a charismatic leader is a recurring sociological problem, often studied by psychologists, and referred to as the problem of the [[routinization of charisma]]. [[Christianity]] faced the same problem, and many attribute the conquest of this problem to the leadership of the apostle [[Paul]].<ref>Maximillian Weber, ''Theory of Social and Economic Organization,'' in the chapter "The Nature of Charismatic Authority and its Routinization," see also Len Oakes, "Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities"</ref>.
==See Also==
