Aisha bint Abi Bakr: Wives of the Prophet ﷺ

Tribe: Quraysh (Banu Taym)
Married: Contracted in Makkah before the Hijrah; she joined his household in Madinah in about 1-2 AH (c. 623-624 CE)
Before this marriage: She had not been married before (a virgin)
Children with the Prophet ﷺ: None
Died: Ramadan 58 AH (c. 678 CE), according to most reports
Buried: Al-Baqi', Madinah

Aisha bint Abi Bakr as-Siddiq grew up in a Muslim household in Makkah, the daughter of the Prophet's closest companion. She was the only one of his wives who had not been married before. She once asked him: 'Suppose you came to a valley with a tree that had been grazed and a tree that had not; on which would you graze your camel?' He said, 'The one that has not been grazed.' She meant, she said, that he had married no virgin other than her (Sahih al-Bukhari 5077).

Aisha reported that the Prophet ﷺ married her when she was six years old, and that she was brought to his house when she was nine (Sahih al-Bukhari 3894). In that report the marriage was contracted in Makkah, and the household began in Madinah after the Hijrah, where she is described as playing on a swing among her friends before she was taken to him.

Amr ibn al-As asked the Prophet ﷺ which people were most beloved to him. He answered, 'Aisha.' Amr asked, 'And among men?' He said, 'Her father' (Sahih al-Bukhari 3662). Her knowledge was widely recognised: Abu Musa al-Ash'ari said that whenever a matter was unclear to the Companions and they asked Aisha, they found knowledge of it with her (Jami at-Tirmidhi 3883).

When the Prophet ﷺ fell ill, his wives allowed him to stay in her house, and he passed away there on the day he was with her, his head resting against her chest (Sahih al-Bukhari 4450). The Quran declared her innocence from the slander spread against her (Quran 24:11-20). The sirah books record that she lived nearly half a century after him, teaching the Companions and later generations.