Woman's Identity and Rethinking the Hadith

Nimat Hafez Barazangi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134770724
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

The Prophet Muhammad's reported traditions have evolved significantly to affect the social, cultural, and political lives of all Muslims. Though centuries of scholarship were spent on the authentication and trustworthiness of the narrators, there has been less study focused on the contents of these narratives, known as Hadith or Sunnah, and their corroboration by the Qur`an. This book is a first step in a comprehensive attempt to contrast Hadith with the Qur`an in order to uncover some of the unjust practices by Muslims concerning women and gender issues. Using specific examples the author helps the reader appreciate and understand the magnitude of the problem. It is argued that the human rights and the human development of Muslim women will not progress in a meaningful and sustainable manner until the Hadith is re-examined in a fresh new approach from within the Islamic framework, shifting the discourse in understanding Islam from a dogmatic religious law to a religio-moral rational worldview. The author argues that such re-examination requires the involvement of women in order to affirm their authority in exegetical and practical leadership within Muslim societies, and she encourages Muslim women to stand up for their rights to effect change in understanding the role of sunnah in their own life.

Chapter 1
Muslim Woman’s Autonomous Authority in the Qur`an: Khilafa and Imama

Introduction

Muslim women everywhere are still viewed as secondary and/or complementary in the structure of Muslim societies. In order to challenge and transform these un-Islamic views, some Muslim women, including myself, have retaken their principal role and have been reinterpreting the primary source of Islam, the Qur`an.<sup>1</sup> This silent revolution in the past two to three decades was intended to implement a fundamental aspect of the social justice contract between Muslims and Islam: that woman is an autonomous agent and equal partner with man.<sup>2</sup> Islam as documented in the Qur`an is a worldview that propagates a single pair, the human pair:

It is God Who created you from a single soul, and made her mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her (in tranquility) … {al A’raf 7: 189}.

Wherein women and men share equal rights and responsibilities—spiritually {`Al ’Imran 3:195; al Ahzab 33: 35}:

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, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage conscientiously in Allah’s guidance, for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward {al Ahzab 33: 35}.

Intellectually and socially {al ’Alaq 96: 1–6, 14–19}:

Does he not know that Allah Dose See? Nay, heed him not: but bow down in adoration (to Allah) that will bring you the closer (to Allah) {al ’Alaq 96: 14–15, 19},

in trusteeship, witnessing, and leadership:

Behold, your Guardian God said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Your praise and glorify Your holy (name)?” He said: “I know what you know not” {al Baqara 2: 30}.

And there will come forth every soul: with each will be an (angel) to drive, and an (angel) to bear witness {Qaaf 50: 21}.

The criterion is taqwa in the Qur`an {al Hujurat 49: 13}:

O humankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (s/he who is) the most righteous or conscientious of Allah. And Allah Has full knowledge and is Well-acquainted (with all things).

Taqwa here reference the capacity of each individual to balance all the above roles and to be in peace with oneself and with societal needs, within the guidelines of the Qur`an, the only divine source of Islam:

A revelation from (Allah), Most Gracious, Most Merciful; A Book, whereof the signs are explained in detail; a Qur`an in Arabic, for people who understand; giving good news and admonition: yet most of them turn away, and so they hear not {Fussilat 41: 2–4}.

Indeed, this was the first essential step toward accomplishing comprehensive human rights for themselves as Muslim women, and to challenge the unwarranted and hijacked authority over Islam by Muslim men that has been ongoing for 14 centuries.³ Yet, as Muslims often persist on using indiscriminately the reported traditions attributed to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, to produce “Islamic” legislation, they further marginalize the majority of Muslim women. Indeed, the Prophet was following Qur`anic principles of justice when he affirmed: “[t]o be just with one another and treat women kindly.”<sup>4</sup> But Muslims do not heed to invoke the Prophet’s praxis when he himself affirmed what the Qur`an teaches first and foremost. Instead, Muslims often commit injustice towards women by using some reports attributed to the Prophet that do not corroborate the Qur`an even when they were reported in the same trusted source. For example, Ibn Hisham [d. ca 834], in his biography of the Prophet abridged from Ibn Ishaq (see Introduction), reports on the authority of the Prophet that the Prophet, during the farewell pilgrimage, reminded believing men of similar rights and responsibilities of women to theirs (quoted in the above verses). However, Ibn Hisham himself takes the liberty to extend the rights for men to hit their women who are nashez (this word means women who conduct sexual acts outside marriage, but is often misinterpreted to mean women who do not obey their husbands). Despite the fact that the Qur`an commands that such women should be left alone in their homes until they repent on their own (see the Introduction), Muslims want to punish a woman for simple contestation of her male household (Ibrahim and Abdalla 2010).

Given that moral agency of the woman, or any Muslim for that matter, is a mandate of the Qur`an,

Whoever works righteousness benefits his [her] own soul; whoever works evil, it is against his [or her] own soul: nor is your Guardian ever unjust (in the least) to His creatures {Fussilat 41: 46},

this moral agency and authority lies in her/his identification with Islam through God’s light and guidance in the Qur`an:

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light as if there were a niche and within it a lamp: the lamp enclosed in glass; the glass as it was a brilliant star: lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah does guide whom He will to His Light: Allah does set forth Parables for the people: and Allah does know all things {al Noor 24: 35}.

This agency and authority is not to be promoted or restricted by historical precedence as emphasized by Mattson (2011b) (whether it was the Prophet’s reported tradition or any other tradition), by either social constructs, patriarchal repression, or feminist aspirations.⁵ However, some recent scholarship concerning Muslim women (for example, Nadwi 2007; Mattson 1999, 2011a and 2011b) leads me to believe that Muslim women have no hope for reaffirming their autonomous authority and agency in a sustainable manner unless they also rethink the Prophetic reported traditions. That is, women, and men for that matter, need to reread the Hadith (reported narratives) and rethink the sunnah (reported practices) of the Prophet by themselves and with different premises. More focused efforts are also needed to address the events surrounding Muslim women in the global scene, even though there are other recent scholarly works by Muslim and non-Muslim women that are helping in presenting new images and views on Qur`an and Hadith (for example, K. Ali 2010; Sayeed 2005, 2009, 2011; Stowasser 2009). The positive reviews of the Muslim women scholar-activists’ writing on the Qur`an also help.⁶ Hammer (2008 and 2012), for example, in her emphasis on the authority of American Muslim women’s approach to the Qur`an, takes the important step toward such a change in attitudes and premises and sheds new light on the topic. For instance, by reporting as well as analyzing these ideas, Hammer also furthers the dynamics of some ideas that I discussed in my work on Muslim woman’s self-identity with the Qur`an and Islamic higher learning (Barazangi 2004a and 2004b, 2000, and1997). Unfortunately, and contrary to her efforts to show how “Muslim women and men are increasingly conscious of the need to negotiate gender discourses among as well as between the sexes” (Hammer 2012: 5–6), some Muslim male scholars still patronize the same writings [of these self-identified Muslim women scholar-activists] when they suggest that the “individual Muslim woman needs to reaffirm her authority by developing a different representation of Islam and of herself,” as if these women scholars-activists are not doing so.⁷ Therefore, I strongly believe and argue that the representation by the Muslim women scholar-activists who self-identify with Islam and with the Qur`an as the only divine source must overturn what has been circulating during the past two centuries, first, by orientalists—such as stereotypical images of the oppressed Muslim women that need rescuing from their culture that is also generalized in the contemporary trends of discussing Islam and Muslims—as Cesari (2010) summarizes,⁸ and second, by the majority of Muslims who continue to reiterate, reinforce, and practice the image of the secluded, segregated Muslim female. For this purpose, it is important to use the singular form “woman” because both autonomous morality and agency in Islam are the right and the responsibility of each individual:

Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him [her] will We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure, and We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions {al Nahl 16: 97}.

This use of the singular is particularly critical when the Muslim community codifies Islam in the dogma of traditions and precedents, as suggested by Mattson (2011a: 2): “[People] must rely on authority when it comes to interpreting the Qur`an, and should be weary of careless interpretations that may twist the spirit of the religion to fit any fad or trend.”

Mattson further discusses the reliability of the established body of scholarly knowledge that represents a guide for understanding the Qur`an, and learning what it takes to lead a peaceful and prosperous life (emphasis added).

It is true that, as she stated, “[W]e should be weary of careless interpretations that may twist the spirit of the religion to fit any fad or trend.” Yet, as a Muslim scholar of Islam, she should have also realized that we cannot afford to rely only on “the established body of scholarly knowledge as a guide for understanding the Qur`an.” That is, because unfortunately the current established knowledge of Islam is a mix of misused or weak reported Prophetic traditions that often do not corroborate the Qur`an, codified jurists rules, personal edicts of Imams who do not have deep knowledge of Islam, and British, Swiss, Dutch, and French laws—the totality of which is erroneously called shari’a (as I explained in the Introduction).

Furthermore, self-identity with Islam stems from the individual’s intimate and direct understanding of the Qur`an, not from exclusive individualism, neither from any particular “established knowledge,” nor from an affiliation with a homogeneous group:

Blessed is He Who sent down the Criterion to His creature, that it may be an admonition and forewarning to all inhabitants of the world {al Furqan 25: 1}.

Consequently, the challenge for the Muslim woman in her drive for autonomous authority is to ask: “What premises are being brought towards the process of ‘rethinking’ Islamic sources, and how these premises are (or not thereof) restructuring the main stream jurisprudence process in Muslim majority societies?” This questioning is essential in order to change attitudes about Muslim women and gender as well as to overthrow the unjust practices towards Muslim women as well as women in general. After presenting this and other challenges, I discuss in this chapter where the Muslim woman’s autonomous authority and agency lies in relation to the two principles of Khilafa (human trusteeship) and Imama (leadership initiative). Khilafa defines the relationship of God, the only Deity, to the human pair (the male and female) as representative of God or the trustee. Imama defines the moral authority of the pair to lead towards the path that is guided by Qur`anic ethos, be it in prayer or in mundane affairs. Here, I use two examples to establish the framework for rereading the Hadith and the procedure for rethinking the sunnah. The first, ’A`ishah bint Abi Bakr, the wife of Prophet Muhammad and one of the major narrators of his reported traditions, is an example for the struggle to re-establish khilafa as the Qur`an intends. The second, Amina Wadud, the well-known self-identified scholar of Islam in North America and South Africa, is an example of the struggle to re-establish imama for women. These two women have in common the moral courage to contest the common practice of their time and to affirm their spiritual and intellectual authority as agents of change by reinterpreting the Qur`anic message and acting accordingly. Next, I briefly explore theories of Hadith as a science and the theology of sunnah as an authentic religious source by elaborating on Wadud’s leading the congregational prayer. I conclude this chapter with the Prophet Muhammad example as an agent of change.

Challenges to Woman’s Autonomous Authority and Agency

I repeat here my earlier claim: one of the core problems within the current...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Woman’s Identity and the Hadith: Rethinking the Sunnah
• 1 Muslim Woman’s Autonomous Authority in the Qur`an: Khilafa and Imama
• 2 Corroborating Hadith by the Qur`an: Self-Identity, Testimony, and Witnessing
• 3 Qaran and Talaq in Qur`an, Hadith, Tafseer, and in Personal Status Code
• 4 Belief and Knowledge, Sexuality and Slavery, Inheritance and Custody
• 5 Rereading the Making of Hadith and Rewriting a New Perspective on Sunnah
• Conclusions: Will Conscientious Self-Identified Muslim Women Become Active Agents?
• References
• Index