Women and Politics in Islam  

   

  

One of the major controversial issues in Religion of  Islam for those who do not know the truth in the Quran is the woman's role in the political system or in leadership. Can a woman assume the leadership role? Is there a prohibition?

 

The answer is clear in God's scripture - the Quran.  If the source is man made books (Hadith written 200+ years after the revelation of the Quran) a view of subjugation of women and denial of rights in the political system emerges.

 

God gives stories in the Quran to establish precedents and to provide us guidance and teachings.

 

"We narrate to you the most accurate history through the revelation of this Quran. Before this, you were totally unaware." 12:3

 

"In their history, there is a lesson for those who possess intelligence......" 12:111

 

The role of woman in the history of the world is demonstrated in the story of Belquees, the Queen of Sheba. See 27:22-44. God gave us her history in the Quran, to set a precedent that a woman in a political leadership is not offensive to God.

 

She represented a democratic ruler who consulted with her people

before making important decisions (27:29). She visited Solomon, talked to him and made decisions for herself and her people.

 

After witnessing what God gave Solomon, she became a submitter (Muslim), while still the Queen of Sheba.

 

"She was told, "Go inside the palace." When she saw its interior, she thought it was a pool of water, and she (pulled up her dress) exposing her legs. He said, "This interior is now paved with crystal." She said, "MY LORD, I HAVE WRONGED MY SOUL. I NOW SUBMIT WITH SOLOMON TO GOD, LORD  OF THE UNIVERSE."

 

Here we witness one of the first Muslim woman in charge of a nation, ruling them as the Queen of Sheba.

 

Sheba's history provides us lessons that God has placed no  restrictions on a woman in a leadership role. Contrary to what the traditional Muslim scholars and man-made Hadith books advocate, a woman as a political leader or Head of State is not against God's system or against the Quran. It might be against the chauvinistic views of the men who wrote the corrupted books of Hadiths.

 

The Muslims scholars and clerics advocate completely the opposite and contradict the Quran.

 

In one of the most famous Hadiths (man written books/stories) that is often raised in the face of any Muslim woman seeking higher education or higher position in her career is one by a man called Abu Bakra who narrated a Hadith reported in Bukhari that states that any community ruled by a woman will never succeed.

 

The fallacy of this Hadith is not only proven in history but in the fact that Abu Bakra himself was reported in the Muslim history books to be punished publicly for bearing false witness. Despite this known story of his bearing false witness, Bukhari did not remove his Hadith from among his collected Hadiths according to the rules that Bukhari himself claimed to follow. Such a bearer of false witness should never be allowed or accepted as a witness ever, according to the Quran. 24:4. Bukhari did not follow the Quran or his own rules. We guess he liked the degrading of women he found in this hadith.

 

We need only to look at what God is teaching us in His only acceptable Hadith (77:50 - the Quran itself). All of us have a choice, either believe God and His book or believe Bukhari and other men who contradict the Quran. Only those who choose God will  be the successful ones.

 

 

 

http://www.submission.org/women/politics.html