Is Male a Degree above Female in Status? Part 3

Hermeneutical Principles

The Quran is God’s Final Testament to the world, and He has pledged to protect it from the slightest distortion (15:9). Quran is the distinguisher of truth and falsehood[i]. However, it will be unreal to deny that the Quran offer possibilities of intolerant interpretation. Usually individual verses are taken out of context, distorting the intended meaning[ii]. Another misuse is by concealing other parts related to the subject in question[iii]. The Quran also admonishes those people who “change the words from their (right) times and places” (5:44), thereby altering the meaning of scriptures and it is equally sharp in criticizing those who dwell only on its allegorical verses as a means to sow discord among people while ignoring its clear verses (3:7). As God is supremely just, God’s speech cannot teach injustice. The Quran instructs believers to follow “the best” in the revelation[iv]; “the best” is that which is just and fair.

The pre-existing misogyny was incorporated seamlessly into Islamic interpretation during the middle Ages, shaping Muslim discourses on women and gender for years to come. Kab-al-Ahbar (d. 652) and Wahb-ibn-Munabbih (654-729 CE), two Jewish converts to Islam, have transmitted many Isra’lliyat narrations into Islamic literature. Many of the early Tafsir such as those of al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari, al-Razi, al-Baydawi, al-Qurtubi and others were predisposed by Isa’liyat to an extent that it became difficult to isolate them from the original norm and precedent.

Some of the Hadith are full of narrations against women, insulting them and looking down upon them.

“If a monkey, a black dog, or a woman passes in front of a praying person, his prayer is nullified” (Sahih Bukhari 8/102 and Hanbel 4/86).

“Treat your women well, for they are captives with you” (Tirimidi).

“Even thought her husband body is smeared from head to foot with pus and the wife cleans it by licking him, yet her debt to him would still remain unsettled.” (Ahmad bin Hanbal: Musnad).

“A man will not be questioned about why he beats his wife’ (Miskat).

“Do not take counsel from women; oppose them, for opposition to womankind brings prosperity” (Suyuti, Leali, Ibn Arrak, Tanzihush Shariai)

The continuous popularity of the these Hadith amongst Muslims in general also indicates that they articulate something deeply embedded in Muslim culture, namely, the belief that women are derivative and secondary in the context of human creation.

The presence of fabrication matter in the body of Hadith is especially noteworthy on the subject of women, containing sometimes of statements that stands in total contrast with the Quran and the dignified speech and conduct of the Prophet. Fabricated Hadith, exaggerated interpretations, and indefensible conclusion in the Tafsir have in turn influences the fiqh works on the subject of marriage, guardianship, dower, maintenance, polygamy and divorce, as well as women’s dress, mannerism, and movement. The model of gender construction by classical fiqa is breached in the patriarchal ideology of pre-Islamic Arabia, which continued in the Muslim era, though in a tailored form. As Esposito notes “(it) produced a situation in which a woman was subjugated by males, her father, brother, or close male relatives…As matter of custom, she came to be regarded as little more than a piece of property.”[v]

As in other monotheistic religions, the classical fiqa texts – that is, texts of early Islamic legal jurisprudence – ignored gender equality as it was presented in the Quran and introduced interpretation in line with patriarchal social order[vi]. As Islam spread and came in contact with well-established, patriarchal cultures to its North – Judiaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism – it assumed many of their values and assumptions. To quote an example, the Quran says absolutely nothing about the Eve’s Creation from the rib of Adam. There is no rib, no apple, no serpent and no Original Sin. The Quran is simple silent about such matters[vii]. Yet, within a hundred years of Prophet Muhammad’s death, Islamic literature had made its own theory that Eve was created from Adam’s rib!

The practical role models for women in Islam could not be erased from historical memories: Prophet’s first wife Khadija was an economically independent, rich businesswoman; the greatest scholar activist in the history of Islam was Aisha, who became one of the major narrators of traditions and arguably the most influential person after Prophet Muhammad. However, within a century after the Prophet’s death, Muslim society was noticeably more patriarchal. By the twelfth century, the noted scholar Al-Ghazali (d. 1111 CE) could declare, without fear of contradiction, that women are indeed intellectually inferior to men. This idea is still widely conceived by many Muslims (just like people at large). Women were relegated out of public life and back into the seclusion of the home. Women lost most of their right to divorce or to remarry. Their testimony and their worth were literally devalued.

Every Tafsir (Quranic commentary) is man-made and, therefore, subject to human nuances, peculiarities, and limitations. Divine will is always in the process of becoming; humankind can only hope to gain direction towards that will by likewise being in process, but never complete. By the third Islamic century even Quranic exegesis showed that the egalitarianism once associated with Quran had lost its subservice connotations[viii].

Shariah is a product of the intellectual, social, and political process of Muslim history and was constructed by its founding jurists[ix]. It was through a biased interpretation of the Shariah, along with the rigid cultural tendencies of male jurists, that women became confined to a secluded life and subordinated existence of men. Customs and traditions that were an integral part of society before the Prophet began to resurface after his death. These social norms where so deeply rooted that one generation could not eradicate the built-up injustices that had developed over the centuries. The behavior and attitude that the Prophet had tried to correct inevitably reappeared, imprinting themselves on the religion as Muslim scholars began to interpret the religion and apply its laws to suit their own circumstances. Societal impulses not only stopped the gradual progress of change but also reversed the trend, affecting the interpretation of Islam in such a way as to reinforce the pre-existing customs and traditions. Further elaboration of the Shariah with regard to its contradiction with the Quranic teachings and principals portraying it as the source of new theology, ethics and law in parallel with the Quran and, sometimes in total contravention of Islam.

Two examples to prove the assertion:

1) While the punishment prescribes 100 lashes as punishment for adultery (24:2), the Shariah sanctions stoning to death for both the adultery and adulteress.

2) While there is no death penalty for apostasy in the Quran for renouncing Islam[x], the Shariah is very strict about enforcing the death penalty for the apostate.

Most prominent contemporary interpretation of Islamic position of women accounts for the ideology that discrimination against women by pointing to the anatomical differences between mean and women such as the size of heart, the weight of the brain, and the size of skull, the psychological difference etc.[xi] The notion that the difference between the sexes is inherent in their nature and determined by their biological differences which in turn leads to psychological differences have been used both in the East and the West to justify the social inequalities of women[xii]. Biological determinism and the emotion reason dichotomy are not specifically Islamic and in parts are in fact contradictory to the teachings of the Quran. The biological differences, “inadequacies”, of female biology are used to negate her spirituality and relationship to her Creator. As Wadud states: “There is not term in the Quran, which indicates the child bearing is ‘primary’ to a women. No indication is given that mothering is her exclusive role. The capacity is essential to the continuation of human existence. This function becomes the primary only with regard to women since they are the only ones capable of doing so.”[xiii] The Quran does not support a specific stereotype role for its characters, male or female. It does not strictly delineate the role of women and the role of men to such an extent as to propose only a single possible outcome for each gender.

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[i] Quran 25:1, 8:25

[ii] Quran 15:91-93

[iii] Quran 6:91, 15:90-93

[iv] Quran 7:145, 39:18

[v] John L. Esposito, Women in Muslim Family Law, Syracuse University Press : New York, 1982, p.4-15

[vi] Al-Ghazali, the greatest twelve century Muslim philosopher, in his monumental work Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din devoted a book to marriage, reflects the customary view of his time: “It is enough to say that marriage is a kind of slavery, for a wife is a slave to her husband. She owes her husband absolute obedience in whatever he may demand of her, where she herself is concerned, as long as no sin is involved.” (Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, The Proper Conduct of Marriage in Islam, Book twelve of ‘Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din’, (Translation: Muhtar Holland), Al-Baz: Hollywood, 1998, p.89)

[vii] St. Paul extrapolated his theology based on the primordially of the creation of Adam over Eve. (See for example: I Timothy 2:13). Eve was specifically blamed by name as the one responsible for leading man astray (2 Corinthians 11:3, I Timothy 2:14). The Bible excluded Eve; she was not created until after God realized that Adam needed a helper. The Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18). Eve, according to the Quran, is not a delayed product of Adam’s rib, as in the Christian and Jews traditions; instead, the two were born from a single soul (Quran 4:1). A similar verse points to this interpretation: “It is God who has made from your species your mates’ (Quran 16:72). Actually the word ‘minha’ (from the soul) in the verse does imply that both were human. Hibri writes: “Nowhere does the Quran say that Eve was crafted out of Adam. Instead it states that males and females are created by God from the same soul or spirit (nafs). The founding myths as such are not inherently patriarchal when read in this way.” Azizah Y. Al-Hibri, “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women?” in Susan Moller Okin (ed.), Is Multiculturalism Bad For Women? Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1999, p.42. The Quran makes it clear that both Adam and Eve were mislead (2:36, 7:22, 20:121). They both sought forgiveness from God and were forgiven (7:23)

In Genesis 3:16, Eve is told that because pf her sin Adam shall rule over her. The verse further says that all women must suffer great pains during child birth due to Eve eating the fruit of knowledge. Genisis 3:16, thus, made motherhood a God-inflicted curse degrading her status in the world. On other hand, Quran exalts pregnancy and child birth as an upliftment for the status of women (31:14, 46:15, 4:1)

[viii] Louis Marlow, Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1977, p.93

[ix] Abdullahi An-Naim, Towards an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law, Syracuse University Press: New York, 1990, p.xiv

[x] Killing of people just for being leaving Islam would directly contradict the Quranic dictum, “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2:256). See also 2:273, 6:108, 9:6, 10:99, 11:28, 109:6, 60:8, 50:45

[xi] The misogynous notions about women are expressed by the popular Egyptian Islamic writer Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad, in Women in the Quran (1959): “Men are sole source of every accepted definition of good conduct whether for men or women. Woman has never been true source of anything to do with ethics or good character even though she brings up the children. The guidelines are provided by male.” (Cited in Yvonne Haddad, Contemporary Islam and the Challenge of History, State University of New York: Albany, NY., 1982, p. 63)

[xii] Ashley Montagu provides evidence from biology and social anthropology not only for woman’s equality but also for her superiority. In the prologue of this book, Montagu states: “In the present book the mythology of the female inferiority is challenged and dismantled on the basis of the scientific facts. My many years of works and research as a biological and social anthropologist had made it abundantly clear to me that from the evolutionary standpoint, the female is more advanced and constitutionally more richly endowed than the male. It seemed to me important to make that first claim. That is the scientific fact. Women as biological organism are superior to men. If anyone has any evidence to the contrary let him or her state it. The scientific attitude of the mind is not one of either belief or disbelief, but of a desire to discover what is and to state it, no matter what traditional beliefs may be challenged or outraged in the process.” (Ashley Montagu, The Natural Superiority of Women, Macmillan Publishing Co: New York, 1992, p.2)

[xiii] Charles Kurzman (ed.), Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, Oxford University Press, Inc: New York, 1998, p.133)