LAST year, I had gone to Afghanistan for a
series of lectures on women’s rights. I also spoke on this subject in a
gathering of distinguished ulema and one of the issues which came up
for discussion was about women being naqisat al-’aql (short of reason)
and naqisat al-iman (short of faith).
I asked if these definitions were in the Quran, as I did not find
them anywhere in the holy book. When I asked if they were in the hadith,
the answer was yes. However, I pointed out that any hadith which goes
against the Quran cannot be accepted as authentic.
All the ulema agree that the Quran gives equal rights to men and
women and both enjoy equal dignity. Then how can a woman be short of
reason and faith? An alim who was insisting on women’s shortcomings was
unable to reply and instead murmured and sat down.
Recently I was going through a book written by Maulvi Nazir Ahmed, a
great scholar of Islam with somewhat liberal views, where he discusses
the story of the creation of Adam (AS) and his being expelled from
paradise for eating the forbidden fruit.
Maulvi Nazir Ahmed mentions that though Satan could not mislead Adam
as he was firm in his resolve not to eat the forbidden fruit, he
succeeded in misleading Hawwa (Eve) as she was short of reason and she
persuaded Adam; both ate and were expelled from paradise.
It is highly surprising that a scholar of the stature of the Maulvi
did not bother to consult the Quran, which nowhere says that Satan
succeeded in misleading Hawwa. The Quran directly blames Adam for being
misled and thrown out of paradise.
In Ayah 121 of Surah Ta Ha it is said “And Adam disobeyed his Lord
and went astray.” Here Adam is directly being blamed for allowing
himself to be misled and going astray, while Hawwa is not mentioned.
Despite this, Maulvi Nazir Ahmed and most of our ulema blame Hawwa
for yielding to temptation and persuading Adam to eat the fruit of the
tree. The evidence of the Quran is totally ignored and the ulema rely on
hadith. Why did it turn out this way?
The reason lies in our anti-women attitude and thinking in general,
which dictates that women are inferior to men and that men are the
rulers. Where does this attitude come from? Naturally from the
patriarchal values which are prevalent in society.
We would continue to think this way and quote prominent ulema without
understanding that our ulema were products of certain periods and were
prisoners of their time. In other words, we have to adopt a
socio-cultural approach to religion. What we call Islam is not merely
based on the Quran and Sunnah but also our social and cultural values.
The social structure of that time was not only patriarchal but the
prevalent patriarchal values also deeply penetrated our understanding of
the Quran and our theology, though we consider our theology divine.
Women in the past feudal and patriarchal structure of society were
subjected to severe restrictions including the denial of any public
role. The segregation of women from men also became part of our
treatment of women. During the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) time women
played active roles, took part in various public debates and even
accompanied the Prophet to the battlefield.
However, all this changed once Islam entered the era of monarchy and a
feudal culture became the ruling culture. The monarchs maintained large
harems and made women their prisoners to be guarded by eunuchs. It was
in this environment that women lost the rights that they had been given
in the Quran and Sunnah. Men were now projected as their superiors,
totally ignoring what the Quran had to say.
The Quran gave equal rights to women in every respect (see verses
33:35 and 2:228). The holy book did not use words such as husband and
wife but used zawj or zawja instead (zawj or zawja means one of the
couple). Thus the husband and wife are referred to as zawj and our
ulema, later on — under the influence of the feudal and patriarchal
culture — began to quote a hadith that had prostration (sajda) been
allowed for man, I (the Prophet, peace be upon him) would have ordered
the wife to prostrate before her husband.
The Quran also avoided using the word ba’al as in Arabic it signified
a deity. The Quran uses the word ba’al only three times and that too
for narrating stories of the past; otherwise, it uses the word zawj for
‘husband’. The use of the word ba’al was avoided lest it be
misinterpreted. The husband in Islam is no more than one half of the
couple, signifying the equality of both husband and wife. Yet our ulema
privilege the husband over the wife.
Since women were confined to their homes and their role reduced to
that of a housewife, they lacked experience of the outside world, while
parents thought that a person destined to be a housewife did not need
any higher education. The woman thus usually remained illiterate and
could acquire no experience of public life outside the home and hence
came to be described as naqisul ‘aql (short of reason).
Today, conditions have changed drastically; women are working in
every field of life and have become great achievers. In fact, they have
proved themselves to be superior to men in several fields. To describe
them as naqisul ‘aql is to display one’s own self as being short of
reason.
The writer is an Islamic scholar who also heads the Centre for Study of Society & Secularism, Mumbai.
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