"In many Muslim societies, for example in traditional South East Asia, or in Bedouin lands a face veil for women is either rare or non-existent; paradoxically, modern fundamentalism is introducing it", writes Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.D.
In the name of Allah the most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
Literally, Hijab means "a veil", "curtain", "partition" or "separation." In a meta- physical sense, Hijab means illusion or refers to the illusory aspect of creation. Another, and most popular and common meaning of Hijab today, is the veil in dressing for women. It refers to a certain standard of modest dress for women. "The usual definition of modest dress according to the legal systems does not actually require covering everything except the face and hands in public; this, at least, is the practice which originated in the Middle East." [1]
While Hijab means "cover", "drape", or "partition"; the word KHIMAR means veil covering the head and the word LITHAM or NIQAB means veil covering lower face up to the eyes. The general term hijab in the present day world refers to the covering of the face by women. In the Indian sub-continent it is called purdah and in Iran it called chador for the tent like black cloak and veil worn by many women in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. By socioeconomic necessity, the obligation to observe the hijab now often applies more to female "garments" (worn outside the house) than it does to the ancient paradigmatic feature of women's domestic "seclusion." In the contemporary normative Islamic language of Egypt and elsewhere, the hijab now denotes more a "way of dressing" than a "way of life," a (portable) "veil" rather than a fixed "domestic screen/seclusion." In Egypt and America hijab presently denotes the basic head covering ("veil") worn by fundamentalist/Islamist women as part of Islamic dress (zayy islami, or zayy shar'i); this hijab-head covering conceals hair and neck of the wearer.
The Qur'an advises the wives of the Prophet (SAS) to go veiled (33:59).
In Surah 24:31 (Ayah), the Qur'an advises women to cover their "adornments" from strangers outside the family. In the traditional and modern Arab societies women at home dress quite differently compared to what they wear in the streets. In this verse of the Qur'an, it refers to the institution of a new public modesty rather than veiling the face.
...When the pre-Islamic Arabs went to battle, Arab women seeing the men off to war would bare their breasts to encourage them to fight; or they would do so at the battle itself, as in the case of the Meccan women led by Hind at the Battle of Uhud. This changed with Islam, but the general use of the veil to cover the face did not appear until 'Abbasid times. Nor was it entirely unknown in Europe, for the veil permitted women the freedom of anonymity. None of the legal systems actually prescribe that women must wear a veil, although they do prescribe covering the body in public, up to the neck, the ankles, and below the elbow. In many Muslim societies, for example in traditional South East Asia, or in Bedouin lands a face veil for women is either rare or non-existent; paradoxically, modern fundamentalism is introducing it. In others, the veil may be used at one time and European dress another. While modesty is a religious prescription, the wearing of a veil is not a religious requirement of Islam, but a matter of cultural milieu. [2]
"The Middle Eastern norm for relationships between the sexes is by no means the only one possible for Islamic societies everywhere, nor is it appropriate for all cultures. It does not exhaust the possibilities allowed within the framework of the Qur'an and Sunnah, and is neither feasible nor desirable as a model for Europe or North America. European societies possess perfectly adequate models for marriage, the family, and relations between the sexes which are by no means out of harmony with the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This is borne out by the fact that within certain broad limits Islamic societies themselves differ enormously in this respect." [3]
The Qur'an lays down the principle of the law of modesty. In Surah 24: An-Nur: 30 and 31, modesty is enjoined both upon Muslim men and Muslim women [4]:
Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for Greater purity for them: And God is Well-acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women That they should lower their gaze And guard their modesty: and they should not display beauty and ornaments expect what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that They must draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husband's sons, or their women, or their slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their ornaments.
The following conclusions may be made on the basis of the above-cited verses [5]:
1. The Qur'anic injunctions enjoining the believers to lower their gaze and behave modestly applies to both Muslim men and women and not Muslim women alone.
2. Muslim women are enjoined to "draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty" except in the presence of their husbands, other women, children, eunuchs and those men who are so closely related to them that they are not allowed to marry them. Although a self-conscious exhibition of one's "zeenat" (which means "that which appears to be beautiful" or "that which is used for embellishment or adornment") is forbidden, the Qur'an makes it clear that what a woman wears ordinarily is permissible. Another interpretation of this part of the passage is that if the display of "zeenat" is unintentional or accidental, it does not violate the law of modesty.
3. Although Muslim women may wear ornaments they should not walk in a manner intended to cause their ornaments to jingle and thus attract the attention of others.
The respected scholar, Muhammad Asad [6], commenting on Qur'an 24:31 says " The noun khimar (of which khumur is plural) denotes the head-covering customarily used by Arabian women before and after the advent of Islam. According to most of the classical commentators, it was worn in pre-Islamic times more or less as an ornament and was let down loosely over the wearer's back; and since, in accordance with the fashion prevalent at the time, the upper part of a woman's tunic had a wide opening in the front, her breasts were left bare. Hence, the injunction to cover the bosom by means of a khimar (a term so familiar to the contemporaries of the Prophet) does not necessarily relate to the use of a khimar as such but is, rather, meant to make it clear that a woman's breasts are not included in the concept of "what may decently be apparent" of her body and should not, therefore, be displayed.
The Qur'anic view of the ideal society is that the social and moral values have to be upheld by both Muslim men and women and there is justice for all, i.e. between man and man and between man and woman. The Qur'anic legislation regarding women is to protect them from inequities and vicious practices (such as female infanticide, unlimited polygamy or concubinage, etc.) which prevailed in the pre-Islamic Arabia. However the main purpose is to establish to equality of man and woman in the sight of God who created them both in like manner, from like substance, and gave to both the equal right to develop their own potentialities. To become a free, rational person is then the goal set for all human beings. Thus the Qur'an liberated the women from the indignity of being sex-objects into persons. In turn the Qur'an asks the women that they should behave with dignity and decorum befitting a secure, Self-respecting and self-aware human being rather than an insecure female who felt that her survival depends on her ability to attract or cajole those men who were interested not in her personality but only in her sexuality.
by Dr. Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.D
One of the verses in the Qur'an protects a woman's fundamental rights. Aya 59 from Surah al-Ahzab reads:
O Prophet! Tell Thy wives And daughters, and the Believing women, that They should cast their Outer garments over Their Persons (when outside): That they should be known (As such) and not Molested.
Although this verse is directed in the first place to the Prophet's "wives and daughters", there is a reference also to "the believing women" hence it is generally understood by Muslim societies as applying to all Muslim women. According to the Qur'an the reason why Muslim women should wear an outer garment when going out of their houses is so that they may be recognized as "believing" Muslim women and differentiated from street-walkers for whom sexual harassment is an occupational hazard. The purpose of this verse was not to confine women to their houses but to make it safe for them to go about their daily business without attracting unwholesome attention. By wearing the outer garment a "believing" Muslim woman could be distinguished from the others. In societies where there is no danger of "believing" Muslim being confused with the others or in which "the outer garment" is unable to function as a mark of identification for "believing" Muslim women, the mere wearing of "the outer garment" would not fulfill the true objective of the Qur'anic decree. For example that older Muslim women who are "past the prospect of marriage" are not required to wear "the outer garment". Surah 24: An-Nur, Aya 60 reads:
Such elderly women are past the prospect of marriage,-- There is no blame on them, if they lay aside their (outer) garments, provided they make not wanton display of their beauty; but it is best for them to be modest: and Allah is One who sees and knows all things.
Women who on account of their advanced age are not likely to be regarded as sex-objects are allowed to discard "the outer garment" but there is no relaxation as far as the essential Qur'anic principle of modest behavior is concerned. Reflection on the above-cited verse shows that "the outer garment" is not required by the Qur'an as a necessary statement of modesty since it recognizes the possibility women may continue to be modest even when they have discarded "the outer garment."
The Qur'an itself does not suggest either that women should be veiled or they should be kept apart from the world of men. On the contrary, the Qur'an is insistent on the full participation of women in society and in the religious practices prescribed for men.
Nazira Zin al-Din stipulates that the morality of the self and the cleanness of the conscience are far better than the morality of the chador. No goodness is to be hoped from pretence, all goodness is in the essence of the self. Zin al-Din also argues that imposing the veil on women is the ultimate proof that men suspect their mothers, daughters, wives and sisters of being potential traitors to them. This means that men suspect 'the women closest and dearest to them.' How can society trust women with the most consequential job of bringing up children when it does not trust them with their faces and bodies? How can Muslim men meet rural and European women who are not veiled and treat them respectfully but not treat urban Muslim women in the same way? [7] She concludes this part of the book, al-Sufur Wa'l-hijab [8] by stating that it is not an Islamic duty on Muslim women to wear hijab. If Muslim legislators have decided that it is, their opinions are wrong. If hijab is based on women's lack of intellect or piety, can it be said that all men are more perfect in piety and intellect than all women? [9] The spirit of a nation and its civilization is a reflection of the spirit of the mother. How can any mother bring up distinguished children if she herself is deprived of her personal freedom? She concludes that in enforcing hijab, society becomes a prisoner of its customs and traditions rather than Islam.
There are two ayahs which are specifically addressed to the wives of the Prophet Muhammad (S) and not to other Muslim women.
These are ayahs 32 and 53 of Sura al-Ahzab. ".. And stay quietly in your houses," did not mean confinement of the wives of the Prophet (S) or other Muslim women and make them inactive. Muslim women remained in mixed company with men until the late sixth century (A.H.) or eleventh century (CE). They received guests, held meetings and went to wars helping their brothers and husbands, defend their castles and bastions.[10]
Zin al-Din reviewed the interpretations of Aya 30 from Sura al-Nur and Aya 59 from sura al-Ahzab which were cited above by al-Khazin, al-Nafasi, Ibn Masud, Ibn Abbas and al-Tabari and found them full of contradictions. Yet, almost all interpreters agreed that women should not veil their faces and their hands and anyone who advocated that women should cover all their bodies including their faces could not face his argument on any religious text. If women were to be totally covered, there would have been no need for the ayahs addressed to Muslim men: 'Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty.' (Sura al-Nur, Aya 30). She supports her views by referring to the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (S), always taking into account what the Prophet himself said 'I did not say a thing that is not in harmony with God's book.'[11] God says: 'O consorts of the Prophet! ye are not like any of the (other) women' (Ahzab, 53). Thus it is very clear that God did not want women to measure themselves against the wives of the Prophet and wear hijab like them and there is no ambiguity whatsoever regarding this aya. Therefore, those who imitate the wives of the Prophet and wear hijab are disobeying God's will.[12]
In Islam ruh al-madaniyya (Islam: The Spirit of Civilization) Shaykh Mustafa Ghalayini reminds his readers that veiling pre-dated Islam and that Muslims learned from other peoples with whom they mixed. He adds that hijab as it is known today is prohibited by the Islamic shari'a. Any one who looks at hijab as it is worn by some women would find that it makes them more desirable than if they went out without hijab [13]. Zin al-Din points out that veiling was a custom of rich families as a symbol of status. She quotes Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Maghribi who also saw in hijab an aristocratic habit to distinguish the women of rich and prestigious families from other women. She concludes that hijab as it is known today is prohibited by the Islamic shari'a. [14]
Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali in his book Sunna Between Fiqh and Hadith [15] declares that those who claim that women's reform is conditioned by wearing the veil are lying to God and his Prophet. He expresses the opinion that the contemptuous view of women has been passed on from the first jahiliya (the Pre-Islamic period) to the Islamic society. Al-Ghazali's argument is that Islam has made it compulsory on women not to cover their faces during haj and salat (prayer) the two important pillars of Islam. How then could Islam ask women to cover their faces at ordinary times?[16] Al-Ghazali is a believer and is confident that all traditions that function to keep women ignorant and prevent them from functioning in public are the remnants of jahiliya and that following them is contrary to the spirit of Islam.
Al-Ghazali says that during the time of the Prophet women were equals at home, in the mosques and on the battlefield. Today true Islam is being destroyed in the name of Islam.
Another Muslim scholar, Abd al-Halim Abu Shiqa wrote a scholarly study of women in Islam entitled Tahrir al-mara'a fi 'asr al-risalah: (The Emancipation of Women during the Time of the Prophet)[17] agrees with Zin al-Din and al-Ghazali about the discrepancy between the status of women during the time of the Prophet Muhammad and the status of women today. He says that Islamists have made up sayings which they attributed to the Prophet such as 'women are lacking both intellect and religion' and in many cases they brought sayings which are not reliable at all and promoted them among Muslims until they became part of the Islamic culture.
Like Zin al-Din and al-Ghazali, Abu Shiqa finds that in many countries very weak and unreliable sayings of the Prophet are invented to support customs and traditions which are then considered to be part of the shari'a. He argues that it is the Islamic duty of women to participate in public life and in spreading good (Sura Tauba, Aya 71). He also agrees with Zin al-Din and Ghazali that hijab was for the wives of the Prophet and that it was against Islam for women to imitate the wives of the Prophet. If women were to be totally covered, why did God ask both men and women to lower their gaze? (Sura al-Nur, Ayath 30-31).
The actual practice of veiling most likely came from areas captured in the initial spread of Islam such as Syria, Iraq, and Persia and was adopted by upper-class urban women. Village and rural women traditionally have not worn the veil, partly because it would be an encumbrance in their work. It is certainly true that segregation of women in the domestic sphere took place increasingly as the Islamic centuries unfolded, with some very unfortunate consequences. Some women are again putting on clothing that identifies them as Muslim women. This phenomenon, which began only a few years ago, has manifested itself in a number of countries.
It is part of the growing feeling on the part of Muslim men and women that they no longer wish to identify with the West, and that reaffirmation of their identity as Muslims requires the kind of visible sign that adoption of conservative clothing implies. For these women the issue is not that they have to dress conservatively but that they choose to. In Iran Imam Khomeini first insisted that women must wear the veil and chador and in response to large demonstrations by women, he modified his position and agreed that while the chador is not obligatory, modest dress is, including loose clothing and non-transparent stockings and scarves.[18]
by Dr. Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.D
With Islam's expansion into areas formerly part of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, the scripture-legislated social paradigm that had evolved in the early Medinan community came face to face with alien social structures and traditions deeply rooted in the conquered populations. Among the many cultural traditions assimilated and continued by Islam were the veiling and seclusion of women, at least among the urban upper and upper-middle classes. With these traditions' assumption into "the Islamic way of life," they of need helped to shape the normative interpretations of Qur'anic gender laws as formulated by the medireview (urbanized and acculturated) lawyer-theologians. In the latter's consensus-based prescriptive systems, the Prophet's wives were recognized as models for emulation (sources of Sunna). Thus, while the scholars provided information on the Prophet's wives in terms of, as well as for, an ideal of Muslim female morality, the Qur'anic directives addressed to the Prophet's consorts were naturally seen as applicable to all Muslim women.[19]
Semantically and legally, that is, regarding both the terms and also the parameters of its application, Islamic interpretation extended the concept of hijab. In scripturalist method, this was achieved in several ways. Firstly, the hijab was associated with two of the Qur'an's "clothing laws" imposed upon all Muslim females: the "mantle" verse of 33:59 and the "modesty" verse of 24:31. On the one hand, the semantic association of domestic segregation (hijab) with garments to be worn in public (jilbab, khimar) resulted in the use of the term hijab for concealing garments that women wore outside of their houses. This language use is fully documented in the medireview Hadith. However, unlike female garments such as jilbab, lihaf, milhafa, izar, dir' (traditional garments for the body), khimar, niqab, burqu', qina', miqna'a (traditional garments for the head and neck) and also a large number of other articles of clothing, the medireview meaning of hijab remained conceptual and generic. In their debates on which parts of the woman's body, if any, are not "awra" (literally, "genital," "pudendum") and many therefore be legally exposed to nonrelatives, the medireview scholars often contrastively paired woman's' awra with this generic hijab. This permitted the debate to remain conceptual rather than get bogged down in the specifics of articles of clothing whose meaning, in any case, was prone to changes both geographic/regional and also chronological. At present we know very little about the precise stages of the process by which the hijab in its multiple meanings was made obligatory for Muslim women at large, except to say that these occurred during the first centuries after the expansion of Islam beyond the borders of Arabia, and then mainly in the Islamicized societies still ruled by preexisting (Sasanian and Byzantine) social traditions.
With the rise of the Iraq-based Abbasid state in the mid-eighth century of the Western calendar, the lawyer-theologians of Islam grew into a religious establishment entrusted with the formulation of Islamic law and morality, and it was they who interpreted the Qur'anic rules on women's dress and space in increasingly absolute and categorical fashion, reflecting the real practices and cultural assumptions of their place and age. Classical legal compendia, medireview Hadith collections and Qur'anic exegesis are here mainly formulations of the system "as established" and not of its developmental stages, even though differences of opinion on the legal limits of the hijab garments survived, including among the doctrinal teachings of the four orthodox schools of law (madhahib). [20]
Attacked by foreigners and indigenous secularists alike and defended by the many voices of conservatism, hijab has come to signify the sum total of traditional institutions governing women's role in Islamic society. Thus, in the ideological struggles surrounding the definition of Islam's nature and role in the modern world, the hijab has acquired the status of "cultural symbol."
Qasim Amin, the French-educated, pro-Western Egyptian journalist, lawyer, and politician in the last century wanted to bring Egyptian society from a state of "backwardness" into a state of "civilization" and modernity. To do so, he lashed out against the hijab, in its expanded sense, as the true reason for the ignorance, superstition, obesity, anemia, and premature aging of the Muslim woman of his time. He wanted the Muslim women to raise from the "backward" hijab into the desirable modernist ideal of women's right to an elementary education, supplemented by their ongoing contact with life outside of the home to provide experience of the "real world" and combat superstition. He understood the hijab as an amalgam of institutionalized restrictions on women that consisted of sexual segregation, domestic seclusion, and the face veil. He insisted as much on the woman's right to mobility outside the home as he did on the adaptation of shar'i Islamic garb, which would leave a woman's face and hands uncovered. Women's domestic seclusion and the face veil, then, were primary points in Amin's attack on what was wrong with the Egyptian social system of his time. [21] Muhammad Abdu tried to restore the dignity to Muslim woman by way of educational and some legal reforms, the modernist blueprint of women's Islamic rights eventually also included the right to work, vote, and stand for election-that is, full participation in public life. He separated the forever-valid-as-stipulated laws of 'ibadat (religious observances) from the more time-specific mu'amalat (social transactions) in Qur'an and shari'a, which latter included the Hadith as one of its sources. Because modern Islamic societies differ from the seventh-century umma, time-specific laws are thus no longer literally applicable but need a fresh legal interpretation (ijtihad). What matters is to safeguard "the public good" (al-maslah al'-amma) in terms of Muslim communal morality and spirituality. [22]
In The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, the Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi attacks the age-old conservative focus on women's segregation as mere institutionalization of authoritarianism, achieved by way of manipulation of sacred texts, "a structural characteristic of the practice of power in Muslim societies." In describing the feminist model of the Prophet's wives' rights and roles both domestic and also communal, Mernissi uses the methodology of "literal" interpretation of Qur'an and Hadith. In the selection and interpretations of traditions, she discredits some of textual items as unauthentic by the criteria of classical Hadith criticism. In Mernissi's reading of Qur'an and Hadith, Muhammad's wives were dynamic, influential, and enterprising members of the community, and fully involved in Muslim public affairs. He listened to their advice. In the city, they were leaders of women's protest movements, first for equal status as believers and thereafter regarding economic and sociopolitical rights, mainly in the areas of inheritance, participation in warfare and booty, and personal (marital) relations. Muhammad's vision of Islamic society was egalitarian, and he lived this ideal in his own household. Later the Prophet had to sacrifice his egalitarian vision for the sake of communal cohesiveness and the survival of the Islamic cause. To Mernissi, the seclusion of Muhammad's wives from public life (the hijab, Qur'an 33.53) is a symbol of Islam's retreat from the early principle of gender equality, as is the "mantel" (jilbab) verse of 33:59 which relinquished the principle of social responsibility, the individual sovereign will that internalizes control rather than place it within external barriers. Concerning A'isha's involvement in political affairs (the Battle of the Camel), Mernissi engages in classical Hadith criticism to prove the inauthenticity of the (presumably Prophetic) traditions "a people who entrust their command [or, affair, amr] to a woman will not thrive" because of historical problems relating to the date of its first transmission and also self-serving motives and a number of moral deficiencies recorded about its first transmitter, the Prophet's freedman Abu Bakra. Modernists in general disregard hadith items rather than question their authenticity by scrutinizing the transmitters' reliability. [23] After describing the active participation of Muslim women in the battlefields as warriors and nurses to the wounded, Maulana Maudoodi [24] says " This shows that the Islamic purdah is not a custom of ignorance which cannot be relaxed under any circumstances, on the other hand, it is a custom which can be relaxed as and when required in a moment of urgency. Not only is a woman allowed to uncover a part of her satr (coveredness) under necessity, there is no harm."
In the matter of hijab, the conscience of an honest, sincere Believer alone can be the true judge, as has been said by the Noble Prophet: "Ask for the verdict of your conscience and discard what pricks it."
Islam cannot be properly followed without knowledge. It is a rational law and to follow it rightly one needs to exercise reason and understanding at every step.[25]
by Dr. Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.D
•Copyright © 2001 irfiweb.org All Rights Reserved.
References
1. Cyril Glasse. The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam. Harper and Row Publishers, New York, N.Y., 1989, p. 156
2. Ibid, p. 413
3. Ibid, p. 421
4. Translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. The Holy Quran (Amana Corp., Brentwood, Maryland), 1989. Pp 873-874
5. Riffat Hassan. Women's Rights and Islam: From the I.C.P.D. to Beijing. Louisville, Kentucky, 1995. pp. 65-76
6. Translated and explained by Muhammad Asad. The Message of the Qur'an. Dar al-Andalus, Gibraltar. 1984. p.538
7. Bouthaina Shaaban.The Muted Voices of Women Interpreters. In
FAITH AND FREEDOM: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World, Mahnaz Afkhami (Editor). I. B. Tauris Publishers, New York, 1995. p.68.
8. Nazira Zin al-Din, al-Sufur Wa'l-hijab (Beirut: Quzma Publications, 1928), p 37
9. Bouthaina Shaaban, op.cit. P.69
10. Nazira Zin al-Din, op.cit.pp. 191-2
11. Ibid, p.226
12. Bouthaina Shaaban, op. cit. p.72
13. Shaykh Mustafa al-Ghalayini, Islam ruh al-madaniyya (Islam:
The Spirit of Civilization)(Beirut: al-Maktabah al-Asriyya,
1960) P.253
14. Ibid, pp.255-56
15. Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali.: Sunna Between Fiqh and Hadith
(Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1989, 7th edition, 1990)
16. Ibid, p.44
17. Abd al-Halim Abu Shiqa.: Tahrir al-mara' fi 'asr al-risalah
(Kuwait: Dar al-Qalam, 1990)
18. Jane I. Smith.:The Experience of Muslim Women:Considerations
of Power and Authority. In The Islamic Impact. Haddad, Y.Y. (Editor), Syracuse University Press. 1984. Pp. 89-112
19. Barbara Freyer Stowasser.: Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation.Oxford University Press. 1994. P. 92
20. Ibid, p.93
21. Ibid, p.127
22. Ibid, p.132
23. Ibid, p.133
24. Syed Abu Ala Maudoodi. Purdah and the Status of Woman in Islam. Islamic Publications. Lahore, Pakistan. 1972. P.215
25. Ibid, p.203
by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood
the author of over thirty books on Islam
How can anyone justify Islam's treatment of women, when it imprisons Afghans under blue shuttlecock burqas and makes Pakistani girls marry strangers against their will?
How can you respect a religion that forces women into polygamous marriages, mutilates their genitals, forbids them to drive cars and subjects them to the humiliation of "instant" divorce? In fact, none of these practices are Islamic at all.
Anyone wishing to understand Islam must first separate the religion from the cultural norms and style of a society. Female genital mutilation is still practised in certain pockets of Africa and Egypt, but viewed as an inconceivable horror by the vast majority of Muslims. Forced marriages may still take place in certain Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, but would be anathema to Muslim women from other backgrounds.
Indeed, Islam insists on the free consent of both bride and groom, so such marriages could even be deemed illegal under religious law.
A woman forbidden from driving a car in Riyadh will cheerfully take the wheel when abroad, confident that her country's bizarre law has nothing to do with Islam. Afghan women educated before the Taliban rule know that banning girls from school is forbidden in Islam, which encourages all Muslims to seek knowledge from cradle to grave, from every source possible.
The Koran is addressed to all Muslims, and for the most part it does not differentiate between male and female. Man and woman, it says, "were created of a single soul," and are moral equals in the sight of God. Women have the right to divorce, to inherit property, to conduct business and to have access to knowledge.
Since women are under all the same obligations and rules of conduct as the men, differences emerge most strongly when it comes to pregnancy, child-bearing and rearing, menstruation and, to a certain extent, clothing.
Some of the commands are alien to Western tradition. Requirements of ritual purity may seem to restrict a woman's access to religious life, but are viewed as concessions. During menstruation or postpartum bleeding, she may not pray the ritual salah or touch the Koran and she does not have to fast; nor does she need to fast while pregnant or nursing.
The veiling of Muslim women is a more complex issue. Certainly, the Koran requires them to behave and dress modestly - but these strictures apply equally to men. Only one verse refers to the veiling of women, stating that the Prophet's wives should be behind a hijab when his male guests converse with them.
Some modernists, however, claim that this does not apply to women in general, and that the language used does not carry the textual stipulation that makes a verse obligatory. In practice, most modern Muslim women appreciate attractive and graceful clothes, but avoid dressing provocatively.
What about polygamy, which the Koran endorses up to the limit of four wives per man? The Prophet, of course, lived at a time when continual warfare produced large numbers of widows, who were left with little or no provision for themselves and their children.
In these circumstances, polygamy was encouraged as an act of charity. Needless to say, the widows were not necessarily sexy young women, but usually mothers of up to six children, who came as part of the deal.
Polygamy is no longer common, for various good reasons. The Koran states that wives need to be treated fairly and equally - a difficult requirement even for a rich man. Moreover, if a husband wishes to take a second wife, he should not do so if the marriage will be to the detriment of the first.
Sexual intimacy outside marriage is forbidden in Islam, including sex before marriage, adultery or homosexual relationships. However, within marriage, sexual intimacy should be raised from the animal level to sadaqah (a form of worship) so that each considers the happiness and satisfaction of the other, rather than mere self-gratification.
Contrary to Christianity, Islam does not regard marriages as "made in heaven" or "till death do us part". They are contracts, with conditions. If either side breaks the conditions, divorce is not only allowed, but usually expected. Nevertheless, a hadith makes it clear that: "Of all the things God has allowed, divorce is the most disliked."
A Muslim has a genuine reason for divorce only if a spouse's behaviour goes against the sunnah of Islam - in other words, if he or she has become cruel, vindictive, abusive, unfaithful, neglectful, selfish, sexually abusive, tyrannical, perverted - and so on.
In good Islamic practice, before divorce can be contemplated, all possible efforts should be made to solve a couple's problems. After an intention to divorce is announced, there is a three-month period during which more attempts are made at reconciliation.
If, by the end of each month, the couple have resumed sexual intimacy, the divorce should not proceed. The three-month rule ensures that a woman cannot remarry until three menstrual cycles have passed - so, if she happens to be pregnant, the child will be supported and paternity will not be in dispute.
When Muslims die, strict laws govern the shares of property and money they may leave to others; daughters usually inherit less than sons, but this is because the men in a family are supposed to provide for the entire household.
Any money or property owned by women is theirs to keep, and they are not obliged to share it. Similarly, in marriage, a woman's salary is hers and cannot be appropriated by her husband unless she consents.
A good Muslim woman, for her part, should always be trustworthy and kind. She should strive to be cheerful and encouraging towards her husband and family, and keep their home free from anything harmful (haram covers all aspects of harm, including bad behaviour, abuse and forbidden foods).
Regardless of her skills or intelligence, she is expected to accept her man as the head of her household - she must, therefore, take care to marry a man she can respect, and whose wishes she can carry out with a clear conscience. However, when a man expects his wife to do anything contrary to the will of God - in other words, any nasty, selfish, dishonest or cruel action - she has the right to refuse him.
Her husband is not her master; a Muslim woman has only one Master, and that is God. If her husband does not represent God's will in the home, the marriage contract is broken.
What should one make of the verse in the Koran that allows a man to punish his wife physically? There are important provisos: he may do so only if her ill-will is wrecking the marriage - but then only after he has exhausted all attempts at verbal communication and tried sleeping in a separate bed.
However, the Prophet never hit a woman, child or old person, and was emphatic that those who did could hardly regard themselves as the best of Muslims. Moreover, he also stated that a man should never hit "one of God's handmaidens". Nor, it must be said, should wives beat their husbands or become inveterate nags.
Finally, there is the issue of giving witness. Although the Koran says nothing explicit, other Islamic sources suggest that a woman's testimony in court is worth only half of that of a man. This ruling, however, should be applied only in circumstances where a woman is uneducated and has led a very restricted life: a woman equally qualified to a man will carry the same weight as a witness.
So, does Islam oppress women?
While the spirit of Islam is clearly patriarchal, it regards men and women as moral equals. Moreover, although a man is technically the head of the household, Islam encourages matriarchy in the home.
Women may not be equal in the manner defined by Western feminists, but their core differences from men are acknowledged, and they have rights of their own that do not apply to men.
By Dr. Ahmad Shafaat
First published in Al-Ummah, Montreal, Canada
Women’s participation in the work of Islam and Muslims has so far been very limited. Most of our sisters spend their spare time reading novels or watching video movies or making telephone calls and social visits to each other, during which they indulge in idle gossip and talk about who has more and better material possessions (TV’s, stereo and video sets, cars, houses, etc.), unmindful of the words of God:
“You are occupied with competing for more and more until you go down to your graves. But nay, you will soon know (the reality)...” (102:1-3
One reason that our sisters do not spend part of their spare time for the work of Islam and Muslims, apart from their own love of the life of this world, is the idea, held in various religious circles with varying degrees of intensity, that women should concern themselves exclusively with the work at home and that the community work is the responsibility of men only. Naturally this attitude either completely discourages Muslim women from any social participation or it leads them to find social participation in circles where Islamic values are not respected.
Participating in Congregational Prayers
The idea about women's role being limited to housework is, however, a creation of our own minds and is not based on what God and His messenger have given us. Thus, for example, mosques are meant to be the centers of Muslim participation and even though some Muslims oppose women going to the mosques, the Qur’an and Hadith leave no doubt that it is as desirable for women to visit the house of Allah and pray there in congregation as it is for men. One of the Qur’anic verses where reference is made to congregational prayers reads:
“And establish regular prayer and practice regular charity and bow down with those who bow down.” (2:43)
Here the verb “bow down” ('arka'u) is in the masculine plural, but it is a well-known rule of Qur’anic tafsir (and indeed of interpreting most pieces of writings) that unless otherwise indicated all recommendations, commandments, etc. delivered in the masculine plural are applicable to both men and women. In this verse there is no indication of any kind that women are excluded: just as the words “establish regular prayer”, “practice regular charity” are meant for both men and women, so also the words “bow down with those who bow down” (i.e. pray in congregation) are addressed to both.
A further proof of this is found in 3:43 where one of the most saintly women of all history is told:
“O Mary! Worship your Lord devoutly; prostrate yourself and bow down with those who bow down.”
Interesting to note that God does not command Mary to “bow down with those women who bow down” but rather uses the masculine plural which, as we said earlier, includes both men and women. God’s command to Mary thus means: “bow down (in prayer) with those fellow human beings, men and women, who bow down.” The fact that this command is to Mary who lived before Islam does not mean that it has no relevance to us. Nothing that the Qur’an says about earlier men and women is without relevance for us, for the Qur’an does not relate the stories of earlier people just for our amusement. These stories are related for some moral and spiritual lessons but unless there are indications to the contrary they also form the basis of Islamic Shariah, as is widely recognized by Muslim scholars(1)
Consistent with these indications in the Qur’an, we find that in the time of the Prophet men and women alike used to go to the mosque for their daily prayers, including fajr (morning) and isha (night) prayers. This is one of the few facts about the Sunnah in the days of the Prophet that has never been doubted in the past fourteen centuries of Islamic history. Even those who oppose women going to the house of Allah admit this. But they, despite this admission, stop or discourage women from going to the mosques because they think that Hadhrat Umar, after noticing that women on their way to the mosques were no longer safe, stopped the practice. But we cannot base our conduct on this reported decision of Hadhrat Umar because in some ahadith the Prophet specifically tells Muslims not to stop women from going to the houses of Allah. Thus in Muwatta of Imam Malik, the Prophet is reported to have said:
“Do not stop the maid servants of Allah from going to the mosques of Allah.”
Later, in the third century, Imam Bukhari (born 194 A.H.), included in his sahih a similar command of the Messenger of God:
“When the wife of one of you asks about going to the mosque, DO NOT STOP HER.”
If Hadhrat Umar stopped women from going to the mosques, as he is reported to have done, then he did exactly what the Messenger asked Muslims NOT to do. The question is, did Hadhrat Umar violate the teachings of the Prophet, perhaps because he was not aware of the ahadith found in Muwatta and Bukhari?(2) Or are these ahadith themselves not authentic?(3) Or is it that the report about Hadhrat Umar stopping women from going to the mosques is a false report?(4) It is hard to say anything with certainty but one thing is crystal clear: If on the one hand we have some explicit sayings of the Prophet and on the other hand an equally reliable or unreliable report about a suhabi's (companion of the Prophet) view, we have no choice but to go by the sayings of the Prophet, especially when the Qur’an also points in the same direction as the sayings of the Prophet.
Let therefore Muslim sisters visit the houses of Allah whenever they can. And as they do, they should also take interest in the affairs of the mosques. In particular, they should raise their voices against position-clinging people who are trying to control some mosques of Allah.
By Dr. Ahmad Shafaat
First published in Al-Ummah, Montreal, Canada
Participation in Other Areas
In addition to participation in congregational prayers and mosque affairs, Muslim women can and should also involve themselves in other affairs of Islam and Muslims according to their abilities, availability of time and energy. Islam puts absolutely no limit to the level of women’s involvement in the affairs of Islam and Muslims. In the days of the Prophet and the rightly guided caliphs, we see women taking part in jihad, not only as water carriers and nurses but also as actual combatants. In the battle of Uhad, for example, the Prophet was at one point facing alone the attacks of the unbelievers. At that time a woman, Umm Ammara, along with other members of her family successfully defended the Prophet. The first martyr in Islam was a woman, Hadhrat Summayyah. In the caliphate of Hadhrat Umar, Muslims came under attack from the Roman army at a place called Marj as-Safar. A newly wed bride among the Muslims, Umm al-Hakim, after her husband was martyred by the Romans, fought all day alongside with other Muslims. Before the day was finished, Umm al-Hakim had killed seven of the enemy soldiers. Muslims paid their tribute to their heroine by renaming Marj as-Safar as Qantara Umm al-Hakim.
In the days of the Prophet we also see women running businesses or engaged in farming. The Prophet’s first wife, Khadijah, and Hadhrat Abu Bakr’s daughter, Asma, were among them. We see women holding administrative positions. After the Muslim conquest of Makkah, the Prophet entrusted Umm Hani with the task of deciding who should be given asylum. Hadhrat Umar appointed Shifa’ bint Abd Allah as market supervisor who had the job of checking corruption in the market. Probably on this basis Imam Abu Hanifah held that women are entitled to be appointed as finance officers and al-Tabari, quite logically, went further and held that every administrative job can be entrusted to women.
In the days of the Prophet at least one woman acted as imam in prayer, at least for people of her household that included some slave males. Christian churches are still arguing whether women should be allowed to become priests, but more than a thousand years ago some Muslim jurists had already accepted that women can be imams without exception.
It is true that the level of participation of women in the affairs of Islam and Muslims was extremely small compared to men, but that was not because Islam puts any hurdles in the way of their participation. There are some natural factors that keep the level of women's involvement lower than that of men. Thus once women get married and have children, they naturally get tied, for sometime at least, with the care of children. Also, because in general they are physically more delicate than men, women are less capable of withstanding the pressures of the rough world outside. Then there is also the unfortunate tendency on the part of many men to keep women out of the life of the society, a tendency that existed even in the early days of Islam. But the point is that as far as Islam itself is concerned, it would like to see women participate in the affairs of Islam and Muslims as much as it is possible for them to do within the limits of their abilities and without neglecting their obligations as mothers, wives, etc., just as it would like men to involve in those affairs as far as is possible within their abilities and without neglecting their duties as fathers, husbands, etc.
What we are saying here is different from what some other writers say on the subject. Their attitude can be summed up as follows: “Yes, women can participate in every area of the collective life of the Ummah, but it is better if they don’t.” What we are saying here is that it is positively desirable and sometimes obligatory that women, like men, participate in the collective affairs of the Ummah whenever they can. This is because in accordance with the principle of Qur’anic tafsir (interpretation) alluded to earlier, the injunctions in the Qur’an and Hadith about jihad, about acquiring and propagating knowledge of Islam, about calling people to God, truth and justice are not meant for men only but all Muslims whether men or women. Just as commandments about such personal aspects of religion as prayer, fasting, hajj, etc. are meant for both men and women (with some adjustments regarding dress, etc.), so also the teachings of Islam about these other social matters are meant for them both.
Notes:
(1) Thus, for example, Ibn Kathir, who speaks for a majority of scholars of earlier times, says in his commentary on another verse about Mary (3:36):
“(When the mother of Mary delivered her child she said), ‘I name her Mary.’ This shows that it is permissible to name a child on the same day that it is born. For a rule of an earlier shari’ah is also (a part of) our shari'ah when it is stated (in the Qur’an) and not contradicted.”
By the same reasoning God’s words to Mary about praying in congregation should form part of the basis of Islamic shari'ah.
Incidentally, the story of Mary teaches us another point and that is that a woman can dedicate herself full-time to the service of God and for this purpose live in a mosque. When Mary’s mother was pregnant with her, she, unmindful of whether she is carrying a boy or a girl vowed to God:
“O my Lord! I dedicate to You what is in my womb for Your service, so accept this from me.” (3:36)
What she had in mind was probably to free her child when it came of age to live in the Solomon Temple (Masjid al-Aqsa) and serve God and His sacred house. According to the man-made customs of the Jews, in general only men devoted themselves to God and His house in this way. So when she saw a girl, Mary's mother said with a mixture of joy and irony:
“O my Lord! I have delivered a girl” (3:36).
But
“God was well aware of what she delivered” (3:36).
He purposefully gave her a girl in response to her vow, so that the world may know that God accepts for His service both men and women. He therefore "accepted (Mary) with a gracious acceptance."
(2) This is not impossible since there are other cases in which Hadhrat Umar reportedly held a view that was later found to be against a sahih hadith. Thus Bukhari and Muslim report that Hadhrat Umar used to think that a person in the state of junub cannot do tayammum when water is not available for bath. Ammar bin Yasir mentioned to Hadhrat 'Umar that the Prophet had in fact permitted him tayammum when he was once in need of a bath. But Hadhrat 'Umar for some reason considered Ammar's report weak. Later, however, Ammar's report was found sound and people began to act upon it, and still do, despite Hadhrat Umar’s rejection of it.
(3) This is also possible, since Muwatta and Bukhari were compiled about 150 and 200 years after the death of the Prophet and this is a long enough time for all kinds of false reports to find widespread acceptance and end up even in the most carefully produced books of Hadith.
(4) In our view this is the most likely possibility.
By Dr. Ahmad Shafaat
First published in Al-Ummah, Montreal, Canada
June 6, 1985 (Ramadan 17) was the 1347th anniversary of Umm al-Mu'minin ‘Ayesha Siddiqah (with whom Allah is well-pleased).
‘Ayesha was not only the wife of the greatest man in human history, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family), and the daughter of one the greatest Muslims of all times, the First Caliph Abu Bakr, but also a towering Islamic personality in her own right.
A GREAT TEACHER
‘Ayesha appears in Islamic history as a great teacher and respected leader. She was an important and sometimes indispensable source of knowledge about the life and teachings of the Prophet. Even senior disciples of the Prophet such as Umar frequently asked her about matters of faith in which they were doubtful and often found answers from her. Among the successors of the disciples (tabi'in) great scholars of Prophetic Traditions (Hadith) and Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh) learned the teachings of Islam from her and then spread them in the rapidly expanding lands of Islam. A part of what they learned from ‘Ayesha has come down to us in the form of numerous traditions that are narrated on her authority.
The position that ‘Ayesha came to occupy as a teacher in early Islam was in no small measure due to her intellectual abilities. Even as a child, ‘Ayesha showed exceptional intelligence, which was one of the things, in addition to her beauty, that attracted the Prophet to her. She was about six years of age when the Prophet saw her in her father's house playing with some toys, including a toy-horse with wings. The Prophet asked her, ‘Ayesha! Do horses ever have wings? Instead of feeling shy in the presence of this great man, ‘Ayesha confidently replied, yes, King Solomon's horse did.
‘Ayesha also had a very strong memory. It is reported that she could recite poems of up to 100 verses at a stretch.
The teachings of Islam that ‘Ayesha learnt from the Prophet with her strong memory and keen intelligence were delivered to her students with great eloquence. Tirmidhi reports Musa ibn talha as saying that he did not find anyone more eloquent than ‘Ayesha.
SAINTLY CHARACTER
Like other great Muslims of the time, ‘Ayesha did not simply teach and preach Islam but lived it. She led a truly Muslim life of prayer, charity and struggle for truth and justice. The Prophet once gave her the following advice:
“‘Ayesha, if you want to meet me (again, in the life to come), then treat this world like a traveler's meal and do not attend the gatherings of the rich and the powerful and do not consider clothes old as long as they can be mended.” (Ibn Sa’ad)
‘Ayesha always acted according to this saintly advice of her loving and noble husband. She kept wealth away from her like one would keep dust from one's person. When in the Caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-khattab and afterwards, wealth began to pour into the hands of the Muslims, a due share of it inevitably came to ‘Ayesha but she gave away almost all she received. Once Abd Allah bin Zubayr sent her 100,000 dirhams, but by the end of the same day she had given it all away to the people. Ibn Sa'ad reports Urwa as saying that on one occasion he “saw ‘Ayesha distribute 70,000 dirhams among the people and then get up shaking the front of her dress as if she were clearing it of dust.” ‘Ayesha also often kept nafl (supererogatory) fast.
THE BATTLE OF THE CAMEL
Saintliness of the great Muslims of early time was not of a reclusive type. Jihad, that is, speaking or acting against falsehood and injustice was an integral part of their saintliness. ‘Ayesha was no exception.
In the 35th year of Hijrah, the Third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was murdered by a group of his opponents. ‘Ayesha despite being critical of 'Uthman's policies, was of the opinion that his murderers should be brought to justice. With her eloquent speeches ‘Ayesha organized a campaign against Uthman’s murderers and their political backers who were considerably strong. ‘Ayesha’s campaign for justice led to two battles at Basra, one against the Governor of Basra and the second (known as the Battle of the Camel) against the new caliph, Hadrat Ali. She won the first battle but lost the second. Ali treated the defeated ‘Ayesha with the respect due to an umm al-mu'minin (mother of the believers). ‘Ayesha accepted Ali as the lawful caliph and gave him the respect due to a legitimate leader of the Muslims.
Events that led to the Battle of the Camel (so-called because Ali’s forces directed their attack against the camel ‘Ayesha was riding without hurting the rider) have been hotly debated in Islamic history and will probably continue to be debated until the day of judgment. We will not here enter into this debate. We will say only that these events raised complex questions of law and order justice which despite their complexity could not be ignored. ‘Ayesha faced these questions, reached an answer, and then did what she felt she had to do. And this is all that history should expect from great men and women who are not prophets.
After the Battle of the Camel, ‘Ayesha returned to Makkah and to her life of teaching Islam. She died on the night of Ramadan 17, 58 Hijrah, at the age of 66.
