To make extremely hateful and sacrilegious remarks about the Holy Prophet^sa of Islam is indeed offensive and hurts the sentiments of Muslims. In fact, the provocative depiction of any religious leader can jeopardize the peace and tranquillity of a nation. For this reason, the Holy Prophet^sa has taught his followers to respect the holy personages of all faiths and honour the sentiments of the people of all religions. In a country like India, where people of various faiths live as one society, this principle of respect for each others’ holy personages, places of worship and religious sentiments is all the more important in order to maintain peace in society.

Our hearts are deeply hurt by the recent blasphemous remarks made against the Holy Prophet^sa. However, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community responds to such instances by increasingly invoking God’s blessings on Prophet Muhammad^sa, educating people about his immaculate personality and alleviating the various misconceptions people harbour about his impeccable character.

According to the books of Tradition and history, Hazrat Aisha^ra was nine years of age at the time of her Nikah (the formal contract of marriage) with the Holy Prophet^sa and around twelve to fourteen years of age when that marriage was consummated. This is an incident that took place more than 1400 years ago, at a time when women used to get married at an early age. Similarly, age-gap marriages were also a norm in those days.

Moreover, it would be the height of injustice to make baseless and slanderous remarks about the Holy Prophet^sa with respect to any single incident of his life. Instead, studying the life of the Holy Prophet^sa will evidently prove that he possessed high moral excellences and laid down such principles concerning women’s rights that many progressive societies fail to provide even today.

When the Holy Prophet^sa started propagating God’s message to the people, the chiefs of Mecca approached him and tried to prevent him from furthering his mission by alluring him to numerous worldly pleasures and advantages. Of the things they offered was that if he so wished, he could marry the most beautiful girl in Mecca. But the Holy Prophet^sa rejected their offers and said that the sole objective of his advent was to establish the Oneness of God, which he would not refrain from at any cost.

When the Holy Prophet^sa was 25 years of age, he married Hazrat Khadija^ra who was 40 years old at the time. He spent 25 years with her and had a very happy and loving marital relationship with her. Moreover, most of the wives of the Holy Prophet^sa were either widows or elderly.

These incidents and facts clearly prove that the underlying objective of the Holy Prophet’s marriages was not to pursue worldly desires. Instead, those marriages fulfilled the purpose of moral training of society and proved to be a solace for the distressed.

The life of the Holy Prophet^sa was extremely pure and sacred, of which, not even a single instance can be made a point of objection.

We sincerely pray that God may enable every citizen of India to respect and honour each other’s religious figures so that our country may become a haven of peace.