In this episode we want to talk about the status of women in Islam,
For it is often the case that whether a media discourse or statements by politicians or critics of Islam?
The claim that is often proposed that women or Muslim women are oppressed and that they need to be
Liberated from their faith and from their sacred law namely the Sharia.
While it is true that in some Muslim cultures and the practices
unfortunately of some Muslims may lead us to this conclusion,
that women are oppressed and deprived of their basic human rights.
however if you were to examine objectively,
the primary sources of evidence in Islam, namely the Qur'an and the Hadith,
You will find that it has not only guaranteed the fundamental human rights of women,
but also it secured those rights.
In fact centuries before
discussions about the rights of women began to emerge in the western context.
The default position of Islam, as I would always say to students is
that both men and women are equal before God.
God, Allah, being the Master and all are His Creation,
He does not distinguish between a male and a female based on gender. In fact from an Islamic Paradigm
God does not distinguish between human beings based on their color, based on their race, based on their ethnicity
but rather He looks at their hearts and their actions.
And this is beautifully exemplified in the Qur'an in many of its verses.
For example, in this particular verse where the Qur'an says:
إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ
وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالصَّادِقَاتِ
to the end of the verse
where it says that for Muslim men and women, for believing men and women,
for devout men and women,
for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant and so forth,
for them Allah or God has secured for them forgiveness and a great reward.
In this particular verse, clearly, it shows that in the Esteem of God Almighty,
They are equal in terms of their spirituality, in terms of their conduct, in terms of their moral ethic actions.
Elsewhere the Qur'an talks about this:
فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ
أَنِّي لَا أُضِيعُ
عَمَلَ عَامِلٍ مِّنكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ
That the Lord responded to them, and he said that "I do not let go astray
the actions of any of you; whether they are men or women"
and many other verses in the Qur'an that speak about this
equality before God, equality before the law between both men and women. In fact
almost 14 centuries ago islam recognized the rights of women
as God-given rights that are not subject to the whims of man,
not subject to the dictates of politics, and the pressures of society.
In fact, Islam in a sense,
revolutionized the way women were viewed legally, spiritually,
religiously, and otherwise and it came and granted them sweeping and specific rights.
Right to inherit property, for instance, the right to consent to marriage,
to stipulate conditions in the marriage contract,
to seek divorce and it also
recognized her as an independent human being,
economically, legally, spiritually and otherwise.
As a child,
Islam stipulated laws and principles,
to guarantee the best interest
of this child and
Mandated that the parents of children, including girls must be cared for and protected.
If you were to look at this in the context of what was happening in
Arabia pre-Islam, and in fact, they used to practice infanticide, or the burying of daughters alive.
Right at the outset of Islam, the burial of daughters alive was eradicated and beautifully,
the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, came and changed the status quo when he said:
"Whoever has a daughter, or two daughters or three daughters,
and looks after them and he nurtures them, and
takes care of them as they ought to be looked after,
Then he and I, or she and I will be like this in Paradise."
In doing so, he(ﷺ) elevated the position and the status of girls,
and subsequently of women.
And later on, Islamic law, the sacred law of Islam
stipulated that as an adult,
a woman is obliged and obligated to worship her Lord, as a man does!
This is clearly demonstrated in many verses of the Qur'an
where God for example says in one of those verses that: "I shall not
lose sight of the labor of any of you
whether men or women, if you do righteous deeds you will be rewarded for it, each of you is equal to the other.
But Islam then went further, and it did not stop at recognizing the spiritual rights of women,
but also it recognized her economic autonomy
and not only guaranteed her right to inherit wealth and property,
but also to earn it, to keep and dispose of her wealth as she determines.
Islam is often criticized because of the verse in the Qur'an that
seemingly talks about a woman receiving half of the inheritance of her male siblings or relative.
And often this criticism is because of a failure to understand the comprehensiveness of
Islamic jurisprudence when it comes to the question of women's inheritance
for example, Muslim scholars agree that
(there are) 11 cases where a woman inherits the same amount as a man, in about 14 cases
she inherits more than a man, in five cases
she inherits, and a man does not, and only in four cases will a woman inherit less than a man. So it depends,
It's contextual, it depends on the certain circumstances.
Islamic law revolutioned the nature of marriage
from status to contract whose conditions are an offer and an acceptance.
It considered a marriage contract invalid in fact,
if a woman is forced into marriage and her consent is not given. We often hear about
arranged marriages where women are not given
consent and from a legal,
technical perspective this renders a marriage contract invalid, and this is based on the textual evidence
from the Hadith of the Prophet(ﷺ), who once responded to the question
when he was asked can a marriage
be and remain legal and valid, if a woman has not given consent;
to which he said, a woman has the right to invalidate and break that contract if she wishes to do so.
So Islam made marriage a legal contract, to protect her rights,
especially in societies where these rights may be usurped, or maybe she is seen as vulnerable.
And that is why in fact, many Muslim scholars even said
that she has the right to stipulate certain legal conditions within a marriage contract to
further guarantee
her own right and to further secure those rights.
In fact in an event of a dysfunctional marriage, or even in an abusive relationship such as domestic violence
she has also been guaranteed and granted the right to exit such a marriage using multiple ways of divorce.
And the majority of Muslim Scholars in Islamic jurisprudence
state that a wife is not even obliged to cook for her husband or serve the house, and if a woman
elects to refuse to do so, then a husband cannot compel her to do so, this is from a legal perspective.
Although culturally, there may be some compromise in this regard and
what is important is that we must see the
relationship between man and wife, and husband and wife in Islam to be complementary and
not a competitive one.
In knowing so, Islam in a sense, created a paradigm shift in the way society view women.
Women have always, in fact played a substantial role in Islamic civilization
and it is only in the very recent past, that this role has diminished for various sociopolitical
reasons. There are some critics and some scholars who would say,
that in fact the colonial impact, or colonization
has a tremendous negative impact on the status of women in Muslim countries
and from there on, her role as a positive contributor to society began to diminish.
In recent research for example, in a publication known as Muhaddithat,
Dr. Nadawi, based at Oxford University, he published
a 40 volume dictionary
containing the biographies of about
8,000 women scholars in the field of Hadith or Prophetic tradition.
It is a sophisticated field of tradition,
It's a specialized tradition, for the common
assumption is that women did not play a substantial role in the religious sciences of Islamic civilization and
historical evidence shows otherwise.
for example in his biography, Dr. Nadawi
showed that a scholar by the name of Kareema Al-Mirwaziya, who died in the year 1070, was the best
authority on the Sahih Al-Bukhari in her own time.
Sahih Al-Bukhari is the most reliable book of tradition, after the Qur'an itself.
In fact her name occurs with such extraordinary
frequency of a ijazahs, or license to teach for narrating the text of this book.
Among her students was the Al Khatib Al-Baghdadi, the most
fearless Imam, erudite scholar and Mufti meticulous Hadith master, scholar of his time
Prolific author and so forth. He was actually the student of Kareema Al-Mirwaziya.
In fact, many a man used to compete in trying to get the ijazah from Kareema Al-Mirwaziya.
There is Fatima Al-Juzdani, who was a great scholar from Esfahan in Present-day, Iran.
She read one of the great books of Hadith,
Al-Mu'jam Al Kabeer with Abu Bakr, who himself studied the entirety of the book with its author, Imam Tabarani
This book has been published in
30 volumes!
Which she had mastered, and she had taught,
and we know that no one else other than her has studied
the complete 30 volumes of this book. Imam ad-Dhahabi in fact affirms that
Out of the Hadith masters, the female Hadith scholars you will never find
historically there has been a woman who had
fabricated the Hadith on behalf of the Prophet Muhammad(ﷺ) when there were many men who fabricated the Hadith.
So therefore, a failure really, to understand the context and totality of Islam's position
on women can lead to a false and incorrect assumption and interpretation,
and it can also lead to certain mistreatment of women.
Whether in the form of domestic violence or taking their right, for instance to consent to marriage.
Such as in the case of verse 4:34, where the Qur'an speaks about men as giving being
caretakers in the word that is used in the Qur'an is: men are قَوَّامُونَ(protectors)
over their women and sometimes this is taken out of context and some men may take that to give them certain privileges
that are beyond and outside the boundaries of Islamic law.
But if you look at the
interpretation rules of the Qur'an, then the
conclusion that scholars arrive at is that:
This قَوَّامُونَ that men have been given is a قَوَّامُونَ of responsibility,
meaning they are to take care of their wives and
when he is no longer able to take care of his wife,
then he is no longer
entitled to this قَوَّامُونَ , or responsibility, if a man is unable to provide
the care and protection for his wife and is unable to provide the necessary
care in the house, then he is no longer seen legally as a person who can uphold this قَوَّامُونَ
Recent scholar, and a well respected one in our time, stated the husband has the responsibility in fact, of taking care of his wife,
protecting her, it does not mean as all too many people often
stipulate that he has to behave harshly towards her,
that he has to compel her, that he has to subject her to his will, suppress her individuality and
thus heinously negate her identity.
I think one of the most important aspects of Islam is that it came to protect that individuality of a woman, and
protect her single identity as a human being, who is equal before God.
Although may have responsibilities obligations
That are different to that of a man in certain contexts.
Seen in this context, my friends, the dictates of Islam for women to cover their bodies in the form of Hijab or otherwise
must not be seen as a means of subjugating her
Nor subjugating her will and individuality,
but in fact it is enhancing that
individuality by freeing her from the whims and dictates of man and society.
We must not see some of the
hurtful practices committed against Muslim women,
As a result of the teachings of Islam;
but rather we, especially Muslims, need to ponder
deeply upon the teachings of our faith and to see the
extent to which in fact, it came to empower women.
Both at the religious level,
at the social level, at the spiritual level, at the economic level and so forth.
And any acts
that intend to harm women or
to remove these rights away from them, must be seen as opposing to, and
contrary to the teachings of the Sacred Law of Islam. Thank you for listening