Aishah has been interpreted as a symbol for women by several Muslim thinkers. Generally the Sunnis have had a more favorable opinion about Aishah than the Shiite Muslims. Among the Sunnis stories about Aishah have mostly been stories that praise Aishah's virtues and show Aishah as an ideal woman that other women should emulate, or they are used to show as an example of why women should not be in politics. Aishah has served has served as a unifying factor in some Muslim communities and as an object of strife in others. More Hadiths are attributed to Aishah than body else and she is a central figure in one of the most unique and detailed Hadiths.
Aishah is unique in Islamic literature in many ways. Firstly, we known an usual amount about her because of the Hadith al-ifk. Secondly Aishah is said to be Muhammad's favorite wife. Lastly, Aishah highly involved with the running of the early Umma after Muhammad passed away and she was also highly involved in the disputes over the Caliph lineage of Uthman and the subsequent political incidents with Ali and his followers. Because of her position of favor and power she is one of the most controversial figures in Islamic history.
Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi mentions Aisha several times in his writings on Perfecting Women but because a lot of his writings deal with trying to teach Indian Muslims to follow Islamic customs about marrying and remarrying widows and divorcées, he often mentions Aishah as the exception of Muhammad's wifes because she was the only one of Muhammad's wives that had not been previously married. Whenever he mentions her or any of Muhammad's wives he always does so favorably.
Thanawi cites two Hadiths involving Aishah back to back. In the first one he praises Aishah for giving praise to her co-wife Sauda and in the second one he says that there once was a woman that was so great that scholars consulted her on problems of religion. In both incidences he goes on to say that women in Thanawi's day do not reach the ideal that Aisha represents. The ladder example is interesting because Thanawi is using Aisha as an example of the fact that women can become very educated, to the point that people will seek them out to ask for religious advice. This contrasted with what else Thanawi had to say about women, one may conclude that Thanawi believes that there is a fundamental difference between modern women and women from the age of Muhammad. With this in mind one must consider if Aishah is suppose to represent an attainable goal or if she represents an unattainable ideal.
Some modern Muslim feminist, such as Nawal Saadawi, have used the story of Aishah as an example of a strong, self thinking, woman who was able to be an excellent Muslim yet not be unreasonably subjugated to the whims of men. Not every Muslim thinker has been as kind to Aishah as Thanawi and Saadawi. Some will use the story of Aishah as an example of why women should not be involved with politics.
Some Muslim thinkers would not draw the same conclusion about the Hadith where people sought out Aishah for religious advice. They would use this story as an example of what can go wrong when a woman is involved with politics. This view may be most dominate in Shiite circles where the discourse that took place between Aishah and Ali are considered to be most unfortunate and Aishah is considered to be the wrong mistaken one in the conflict.
Some Muslim thinks may argue that there exist some foreshadowing of the Uthman controversy in the Hadith al-ifk. In one of the versions it is Ali who tells the prophet Muhammad that women are plentiful and he could easily change one for another. One may wonder if Ali's remarks here have anything to do with what will happen between Aishah and Ali later. One may also wonder if Ali's remarks in this Hadiths are indicative of a Shiite perspective of women, or if they represent how Sunnis perceive Shiites view of women.
Aishah has come to represent a difference between Sunni and Shiite Islam. Because of this Sunnis may go out of their way to exemplify the actions of Aishah and are adament in their claim that Aishah was Muhammad's favorite wife. There is even a story about Gabrial bringing an image of Aishah before Muhammad and telling Muhammad to marry her. In this story not only is Aishah Muhammad's favorite wife, they are also divinely matched. Shiite however may go out of their way to denounce and vilify her, use her as examples of why women should not get involved in politics, and associate her with fitna.
The idea that Aishah's story serves as an example of why women should not be involved with politics may owe something to the idea of fitna. Fitna is the idea that women have some primordial association with chaos; fitna also means civil war. Considering Aishah's role in the Uthman controversy linking Aishah to fitna may be a logical jump for some Shiite Muslims. Associating Aishah, and women in general, with fitna may have been a big issue for some early Muslim converts that had a preexisting belief in the inherent impure and chaotic nature of women. The idea of the inherent impurity of women hasn't remained a popular in Islam but there definitely seems some remnant of the belief that women are chaotic and random. It is not uncommon to find female characters in Islamic named Fitna that represent some sort of chaos or misfortune.
Less controversial lessons have also been inferred about the Hadiths involving Aishah. Since Aishah presumably did not have water with her when she excused herself from her howdah to use the restroom, so one could use this story as an example of how one can use clean earth for ablution. Or one could contemplate how Um Mistah cursed her own son and Aishah scolded her for that. Cultural things can be inferred from the Hadith about the world that Aishah lived in such as her people's tendency to use the bathroom outside.
It is difficult but one can try to detangle Aishah from the Hadith, to try to figure out who Aishah really was and what her world view was like. A young girl married to a revolutionary figure, who's very existence has shaped much of the modern world's view on women and Islam. Aishah is one of the most beloved women in the Sunni Islamic tradition. Her stories have been used as proofs for many, sometimes contradictory, ideas. To be able to control Aishah and remake her in your own ideals, is to be able to define the role of women in Islam. That is why so many people have tried to tame her story, to bend it into agreement with their ideology. And when studying Aishah it is important to realize that we are studying her through multiple lens of history, culture, and perception.
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