>>15759630Islam sets a set of criterion for marriage.
1) puberty.
A girl must have had reached puberty in order to consummate a marriage. You are not allowed to consummate a marriage with anyone who has not reached puberty.This alone debunks the "pedophilia" claim but I'll go further.
2) mental maturity.
Both the male and female within the relationship must have proper mental maturity. If a man was to be 33, but be unemployed, live in his mother's basement, do nothing but play video games all day and not have any life ahead of him whatsoever, it's impermissable for him to marry anyone. You may ask about aisha, how she would've had mental maturity at 9; we can look back on records about her and her life. For one, childhood did not exist in Arabia back in the 600's, ergo, you matured much faster. It should also be stated that studies show in hotter climates boys and girls tend to attain puberty much faster. Aishas maturity can be seen through hadiths, such as her leaning her chin on the prophets shoulder (showing the height equality) and her partaking in wars (showing courage, and maturity). She is also one of the best scholars in islamic history. She spent her days teaching islam and has narrated over thousands of hadiths.
3) consent.
Both parties must be absoloutely free of any peer pressure whatsoever and be consenting on their own, they cannot be forced in anyway whatsoever to marry. If an arranged marriage is to take place and at any moment any party retracts their consent, the marriage is null and should not be enforced.
If you have any more questions on Aisha specifically or anything else in general I'll answer them, I haven't really given sources here but if you want I can pull them up.