I've been thinking abotu this video since yesterday... The "I asked ChatGPT about Muhammad. It wouldn't answer" video. Since I wanted to give my answer, but answering in that comment section will lead to a lot of headache, so I just write my thoughts here.
By the way, I really find ChatGPT's "hypocrisy" amusing...
The comment section on that video is a landmine. Everyone is fighting for their perspective, and I'm not dedicated enough for a back-and-forth conversation with all these perspectives going at me from all directions, so here we are:
My take on this: According to the rules this woman established with ChatGPT, that it has to give a "Yes/No" answer, it has to not include any nuance, and they already established through these rules that marrying a 14 year's old minor is wrong, and marrying someone younger than 14 should be considered even worse.
So, yes... ChatGPT avoiding answering whether the marriage of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Aisha is hypocritical, and according to the established rules, it's answer should be "Muhammand marrying a 9 years old was wrong," despite how hard for me was to say this.
But I think it only shows how ChatGPT isn't a reliable source of information. I imagine they programmed it like that because they'll lose the majority of Muslim users if ChatGPT said anything bad about prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
The topic of prophet Muhammad ﷺ marriage to Aisha is very controversial, many people have said many things about it, and if you're interested you should do your own research about it.
The age of Aisha at her marriage is not even 100% confirmed, some sources, say she was 6 or 7 years old, and consumed her marriage at 9. Some sources say she was above 18... The prophet was 54 at the time, so regardless, people will have a lot to say either way...
The rules of the conversation in the video above were meant to corner ChatGPT into saying the prophet Muhammad was wrong, and logically, he would be wrong when viewed through the lenses established via the conversation. The topic is way too nuanched for a "Yes/No" answer. Especially since the topic is way more nuanced even in the Islamic Scholar sphere who all agree that the prophet didn't do anything wrong.
For Muslims, what decides morality isn't humans, society or science. It's God (Allah,) so of course, using modern sensibilities things that Islam considers Haram/Forbidden are viewed as good things, and things Islam considers Halal/allowed are viewed as terrible things..
...Anyway...
Regardless of Aisha's age, Islam allows marriage of people we consider today minors. There are even verses in the Qur'an that the old scholars of Tafsir explain as allowing marriage of girls that didn't have their first period yet.
My argument is: Is that even a bad thing?
We're not talking about modern world here where individuality is viewed as more importance than collective peace. That's why most Muslims today will be against it. The Islamic rules ALLOWS IT not Obligate it. If allowing it causes societal problems, the state could forbid it for that society. There are way more important things that take priority over the age of the spouse in marriage in Islam.
We're talking about child marriages is an Islamic Society where Islamic rules are enforced.
In that situation, the girl can't marry except with the permission of her father/guardian, and a father can't marry his daughter to someone unless she agrees.
In Islam, the main purpose of marriage is to ensure a peaceful organized society. Every person has responsibilities and children are taken for by their parents, grandparents or the closest guardian to them. Pleasure is a supplementary consideration, not a main goal of the marriage.
In that society, adultery/intimacy outside of marriage is punished heavily. A married man who goes for a woman that isn't his wife may even be stoned to death according to some scholars. Even if these punishment weren't enforced, the man will be shamed by society for doing so. Early marriage, for both men and women is seen as a preventive measure for behaviors like these.
In that society, a husband will have to care of all his wive(s) needs, financial, physical and emotional, and will be shamed by society for not doing so. The state can also divorce a girl off her husband if he's mistreating her.
Finally, if people found loopholes in religion, like they always do, then God (Allah) will punish those who do wrong, whether in this life or in the hereafter. We Muslims believe that this worldly life is not everything, but we should also strive to better our lives in this world and the lives of the people around us, so if we found Islamic rules regarding minor marriages being abused, we should strive to fix those issues.
Maybe I'm very biased... But I know people from my father's generation and older who married very young (between 12-15) and they were mostly fine. Maybe, I am very biased... That happened in a society that was far from a perfect Islamic society, and I believe a true Islamic society will be much better than that.
So, above are my thoughts on the topic.
...Wow, this took longer than I thought.
I don't like the "our culture is better" talk when (almost) every culture has tried its best to find solutions to issues specific to it. And for Muslims, we have to adapt our culture's to God's teachings, not adapt God's teachings to what we consider good. God knows and we don't know... والله أعلم...