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BACKGROUND
OF MY WORK IN THE AREA OF THEOLOGY
OF WOMAN IN ISLAM By DR.
RIFFAT HASSAN, Professor of Islamic Studies, Experientially I have
always known what it means to be a Muslim woman since I was born female in a
Saiyyad1 Muslim family living
in I do not know exactly at what time my
"academic" study of women in Islam became a passionate quest for
truth and justice on behalf of Muslim women - perhaps it was when I realized
the impact on my own life of the so-called Islamic ideas and attitudes
regarding women. What began as a scholarly exercise became simultaneously an
Odyssean venture in self-understanding. But "enlightenment" does not
always lead to "endless bliss." The more I saw the justice and
compassion of God reflected in the Qur'anic teachings regarding women, the more
anguished and angry I became, seeing the injustice and inhumanity to which Muslim
women, in general, are subjected in actual life. I began to feel strongly that it was my duty
- as a part of the microscopic minority of educated Muslim women - to do as
much consciousness - raising regarding the situation of Muslim women as I
could. The journey that began in Despite the fact that women such as Khadijah and ‘A’ishah
(wives of the Prophet Muhammad) and Rabi’a al-Basri (the outstanding woman
Sufi) figure significantly in early Islam, the Islamic tradition has, by and
large, remained rigidly patriarchal until the present time, prohibiting the
growth of scholarship among women particularly in the realm of religious
thought. This means that the sources on which the Islamic tradition is mainly
based, namely, the Qur'an, the Sunnah3,
the Hadith4 literature, and Fiqh,5 have been interpreted only by Muslim men who
have arrogated to themselves the task of defining the ontological, theological,
sociological, and eschatological status of Muslim women. It is hardly
surprising that until now the majority of Muslim women have accepted this
situation passively, almost unaware of the extent to which their human (also Islamic,
in an ideal sense) rights have been violated by their male-dominated and
male-centered societies, which have continued to assert, glibly and tirelessly,
that Islam has given women more rights than any other religious tradition. Kept
for centuries in physical, mental, and emotional bondage, and deprived of the opportunity
to actualize their human potential, even the exercise of analyzing their
personal experiences as Muslim women is, perhaps, overwhelming for these women.
(Here it needs to be mentioned that while the rate of literacy is low in many
Muslim countries, the rate of literacy of Muslim women, especially those who
live in rural areas, where most of the population lives, is among the lowest in
the world.) In recent times, largely due to the
pressure of anti-women laws that are being promulgated under the cover of
"Islamization" in some parts of the Muslim world, women with some
degree of education and awareness are beginning to realize that religion is
being used as an instrument of oppression rather than as a means of liberation. To understand the strong impetus to "Islamize"
Muslim societies, especially with regard to women-related norms and values, it
is necessary to know that of all the challenges confronting the Muslim world,
perhaps the greatest is that of modernity.
The caretakers of Muslim traditionalism are aware of the fact that
viability in the modem technological age requires the adoption of the
scientific or rational outlook that inevitably brings about major changes in
modes of thinking and behavior. Women,
both educated and un-educated, who are participating in the national work force
and contributing toward national development, think and behave differently from
women who have no sense of their individual identity or autonomy as active
agents in a history-making process and regard themselves merely as instruments
designed to minister to and reinforce a patriarchal system that they believe to
be divinely instituted. Not too long
ago, many women in Pakistan were jolted out of their "dogmatic
slumber" by the enactment of laws (such as those pertaining to women's
rape or women's testimony in financial and other matters) and by
"threatened" legislation (such as proposals pertaining to
"blood-Money" for women's murder) that aimed to reduce them
systematically, virtually mathematically, to less than men. It was not long before they realized that
forces of religious conservatism were determined to cut women down to one-half
or less of men and that this attitude
stemmed from a deep-rooted desire to keep women "in their place,"
which means secondary, subordinate, and inferior to men. In the face of both military
dictatorship and religious autocracy, valiant efforts have been made by women's
groups in Returning to the time when I began
my career as a "feminist" theologian, I remember how stricken I felt
when I first began to see the glaring discrepancy between Islamic ideals and
Muslim practice insofar as women are concerned.
Convinced of the importance of underscoring this discrepancy and believing
that most Muslim women (even those who were all too well aware of the reality
of their own life-situation) were largely unaware of it, I set out to
articulate what I considered to be the normative Islamic view of women. This view is rooted largely in what all
Muslims accept as the primary source,
or highest authority, in Islam - the Qur'an, which Muslims believe to be the
Word of Allah conveyed through the agency of the angel Gabriel to the Prophet
Muhammad, who transmitted it without change or error to those who heard him. In 1979, while I participated in an
ongoing "trialogue" of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars (under
the sponsorship of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in As I reflected upon the scene I witnessed, and
asked myself how it was possible for laws that were archaic if not absurd to be
implemented in a society that professed a passionate commitment to modernity,
the importance of something that I had always known dawned on me with stunning
clarity. Pakistani society (or any other
Muslim society for that matter) could enact or accept laws that specified that
women were less than men in fundamental ways because Muslims, in general,
consider it a self-evident truth that women are not equal to men. Anyone who states that in the present-day
world it is accepted in many religious as well as secular communities that men
and women are equal, or that evidence can be found in the Qur'an and the
Islamic tradition for affirming man-woman equality, is likely to be confronted,
immediately and with force, by a mass of what is described as "irrefutable
evidence" taken from the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sunnah to "prove"
that men are "above" women.
Among the arguments used to overwhelm any proponent of man-woman
equality, the following are perhaps the most popular: according to the Qur'an,
men are qawwamun (generally translated
as "rulers," or "managers") in relation to women;6 according to the Qur'an, a man's share in
inheritance is twice that of a woman;7
according to the Qur'an, the witness of one man is equal to that of two women;'
according to the Prophet, women are deficient both in prayer (due to
menstruation) and in intellect (due to their witness counting for less than a
man's).9 Since I was (in all probability)
the only Muslim woman in the country who was attempting to interpret the Qur'an
systematically from a nonpatriarchal perspective, I was approached numerous
times by women leaders (including the members of the Pakistan Commission on the
Status of Women, before whom I gave my testimony in May 1984) to state what my
findings were and if they could be used to improve the situation of women in
Pakistani society. I was urged by those
spirited women who were mobilizing and leading women's protests in the streets
to help them refute the arguments that were being used to make them less than
fully human on a case-by-case or point-by-point basis. I must admit that I was tempted to join the
foray in support of my beleaguered sisters who were being deprived of their
human rights in the name of Islam. But I
knew through my long and continuing struggle with the forces of Muslim
traditionalism (which were now being gravely threatened by what they described
as "the onslaught of Westernization under the guise of
modernization") that the arguments that were being broadcast to "keep
women in their place" of subordination and submissiveness were only the
front line of attack. Behind and below
these arguments were others, and no sooner would one line of attack be
eliminated than another one would be set up in its place. What had to be done, first and foremost, in
my opinion, was to examine the theological ground in which all the anti-women
arguments were rooted to see if, indeed, a case could be made for asserting
that from the point of view of normative Islam, men and women were essentially equal, despite biological
and other differences. My inquiry into the theological
roots of the problem of man-woman inequality in the Islamic tradition led to
the expansion of my field of study in at least two significant areas. First, realizing the profound impact upon
Muslim consciousness of Hadith literature, particularly the two collections Sahih al-Bukhari and, Sahih Muslim (collectively known as the Sahihayn, which the Sunni Muslims regard as the most authoritative
books in Islam next to the Qur'an),
I examined with care the women-related ahadith in these collections. Second, I studied several important writings
by Jewish and Christian feminist theologians who were attempting to trace the
theological origins of the antifeminist ideas and attitudes found in their
respective traditions. As a result of my study and
deliberation I came to perceive that not only in the Islamic, but also in the
Jewish and Christian traditions, there are three theological assumptions on
which the superstructure of men's alleged superiority to women (which implies the
inequality of women and man) has been erected.
These three assumptions are: (1) that God's primary creation is man, not
woman, since woman is believed to have
been created from man's rib, hence is derivative and secondary ontologically;
(2) that woman, not man, was the primary agent of what is customarily described
as the "Fall," or man's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, hence all
"daughters of Eve" are to be
regarded with hatred, suspicion, and contempt; and (3) that woman was created
not only from man but also for man, which
makes her existence merely instrumental and not of fundamental importance. The three theological questions to which the
above assumptions may appropriately
be regarded as answers, are: How was woman created? Was woman responsible for the
"Fall" of man'? Why was woman
created'? Given the profound significance - both
theoretical and practical - of these three questions in the history of ideas
and attitudes pertaining to women in the Islamic (as well as the Jewish and
Christian) tradition, I hope to write a full-scale book in response to
each. However, at this time I would like to focus on the first
question, which deals with the issue of woman's creation. I consider this issue to be more basic and
important, philosophically and theologically, than any other in the context of
woman-man equality, because if man and woman have been created equal by Allah
who is the ultimate arbiter of value, then they cannot become unequal,
essentially, at a subsequent time. On
the other hand, if man and woman have been created unequal by Allah, then they
cannot become equal, essentially, at a subsequent time. MADE
FROM ADAM’S RIB? THE ISSUE OF WOMAN’S CREATION The ordinary Muslim believes, as
seriously as the ordinary Jew or Christian, that Adam was God's primary
creation and that Eve was made from Adam's rib.
If confronted with the fact that this firmly entrenched belief is
derived mainly from the Bible and is not only extra-Qur'anic but also in
contradiction to the Qur'an, this Muslim is almost certain to be shocked. The rather curious and tragic truth is that
even Western-educated Muslims seldom have any notion of the extent to which the Muslim psyche bears the
imprint of the collective body of Jewish and Christian ideas and attitudes pertaining
to women. The Biblical account of the
creation of the first human pair consists of two different sources, the Yahwist
and the Priestly, from which arise two different traditions, subject of much
Jewish and Christian scholarly controversy.
There are four references to woman's creation in Genesis: (1) Gen.
1:26-27, 5th century B.C.E., Priestly tradition; (2) Gen. 2:7, 10th century B.C.E., Yahwist tradition; (3) Gen. 2:18-24, 10th
century B.C.E., Yahwist tradition; (4) Gen. 5:1-2, 5th century B.C.E., Priestly tradition. A study of these texts shows that the Hebrew
term "Adam" (literally, "of the soil," from adamah: "the soil") functions
mostly as a generic term for humanity.
Pointing out that the correct translation of this term is "the
human," Leonard Swidler observes: "It is a mistake to translate it
["ha Adam"] in Genesis 1 to 2:22 either as man in the male sense or
as a proper name, Adam (until Genesis 4:25 the definite article "ha"
is almost always used with "Adam," precluding the possibility of its
being a proper name: in 4:25 it becomes a proper name, "Adam" without
the "ha"). Moreover, it is
clearly a collective noun in Genesis 1 to While in Genesis specific reference
is made to the creation of Adam and Eve, there is no corresponding reference in
the Qur'an. In fact, there is no mention
of Eve (Hawwa') at all in the
Qur'an. The term Adam occurs twenty-five times in the Qur'an, but there is only one
verse (Surah 3: Al-'Imran:59) that refers to the creation of Adam:
"Certainly with Allah the likeness of 'Isa [Jesus] is as the likeness of
Adam. Allah created him from the earth,
then said to him, "Be," and he was." Here it needs to be
mentioned that the term "Adam" is not an Arabic term but a Hebrew
term, and the description of Adam as a creature of earth in the verse cited
above is no more than an explication of the meaning of the term. There are three other verses (Surah 3: Al-'Imran:35; Surah 19: Maryam:58;
Surah 5: Al-Ma'idah:30) in which the
term "Adam" is used as a proper name for an individual who was probably
a prophet. Since Arabic has no capital
letters, it is often not possible to tell whether a term is used as a proper
name or as a common noun without looking at the context in which it occurs. However, there is no categorical statement in
the Qur'an to the effect that Adam was the first human being created by
Allah. The term is used most frequently
in reference to more than one or two human beings. That the term "Adam" functions as a
collective noun and stands for humankind is substantiated by an analysis of
several verses in which this term occurs.
It is also corroborated by the fact that all human beings are
assimilatively addressed as "Children of Adam" (Bani Adam) in
Surah 7: Al-'Araf :26, 27, 31, 35,
172, Surah 17: Bani Isra'il:70, and Surah 36: Ya-Sin:60, and also by the fact that the Qur'an sometimes replaces
the term "Adam" by al-insan or
bashar, which are both generic terms
for humanity. Here it is important to
note that though the term "Adam" mostly does not refer to a
particular human being, it does refer to human beings in a particular way. As pointed out by Muhammad Iqbal: Indeed, in the verses which deal
with the origin of man as a living being, the Qur'an uses the word
"Bashar" or "Insan,"
not "Adam," which it reserves for man in his capacity of God's
vicegerent on earth. The purpose of the
Qur'an is further secured by the omission of proper names mentioned in the
Biblical narration - Adam and Eve. The
word "Adam" is retained and used more as a concept than as the name
of a concrete human individual. This use
of the word is not without authority in the Qur'an itself.11 It is noteworthy that the Qur'an
uses the terms bashar, al-insan, and
an-nas while describing the process of the physical creation of human
beings. It uses the term
"Adam" more selectively to refer to human beings only when they
become representative of a self-conscious, knowledgeable, and morally
autonomous humanity. Instead of "Adam and Hawwa',” the Qur'an speaks of "Adam and zauj” in Surah 2: Al-Baqarah:35, Surah 7: Al-'Araf: 19, and Surah 20: Ta-Ha:117. Muslims, almost without exception, assume
that "Adam" was the first human being created by Allah and that he
was a man. If "Adam" was a
man, it follows that "Adam's zauj"
would be a woman. Hence the zauj mentioned in the Qur'an becomes
equated with Hawwa'. Neither the initial assumption nor the
inferences drawn from it are, however, supported in a clear or conclusive way
by the Qur'anic text. The Qur'an states
neither that Adam was the first human being nor that he was a man. The term "Adam" is a masculine
noun, but linguistic gender is not sex.
If "Adam" is not necessarily a man, then "Adam's zauj" is not necessarily a
woman. In fact, the term zauj is also a masculine noun and,
unlike the term "Adam," has
a feminine counterpart, zaujatun. (Here,
it may be noted that the most accurate English equivalent of zauj is not "wife" or
"husband," or even "spouse," but the term "mate."
The Qur'an uses the term zauj with
reference not only to human beings but to every kind of creation, including
animals, plants, and fruits.) However, neither the term zaujatun nor the plural form zaujatun
is used anywhere in the Qur'an, which consistently uses the masculine forms
zauj and azwaj. It has been pointed out by the authoritative
Arabic lexicon Taj al-'Arus that only
the people of Al-Hijaz ( number, is because its purpose is not to narrate
certain events in the life of a man and a woman (i.e., the Adam and Eve of
popular imagination), but to refer to some life experiences of all human
beings, men and women together. The Qur'an describes human creation
in thirty or so passages that are found in various chapters. Generally speaking, it refers to the creation
of humanity (and nature) in two ways: as an evolutionary process whose diverse
stages or phases are mentioned sometimes
together and sometimes separately, and as an accomplished fact or in its
totality. In the passages in which human
creation is described "concretely" or "analytically," we
find that no mention is made of the separate or distinct creation of either man
or woman, as may be seen, for instance, from the following: Surah 15:
Al-Hijr:26, 28, 29, Surah 16: An-Nahl:4;
Surah 22: Al-Hajj: 5; Surah 23: Al-Mo'minun:12-14; Surah 25: Al-Furqan:54; Surah 32: As-Sajdah:7-9; Surah 36: Ya-Sin:77; Surah 38: Sad:71-72; Surah 39: Az-Zumar:6; Surah 40: Al-Mo'min:67; Surah 55: Ar-Rahman:3, 4, 14; Surah 71; Nuh:14, 17; Surah 76: Ad-Dahr:2; Surah 77: Al-Mursalat:20-22; Surah 82: Al-Infitar:6-8; Surah 86: At-Tariq:5-7, Surah 95: At-Tin:4; and Surah 96: Al-'Alaq:1-2. In some passages (e.g., Surah 49: Al-Hujurat:13; Surah 53: An-Najm:45; Surah 78: An-Naba:8), though reference is made to
Allah's creation of human beings as sexually differentiated "mates,"
no priority or superiority is accorded to either man or woman. There are, however, some verses in
the Qur'an that are understood in such a way that they appear to endorse a
version of the Genesis 2 story of
woman's creation from man. These verses
can be grouped into two categories. The
most important verses in the first group are: Surah 16: An-Nahl:72; Surah 30: Ar-Rum:20-21; and Surah 35: Al-Fatir:11. Muslim arguments that women
were created from and for men are supported as follows: (1) Surah 30: Ar-Rum:21 uses the term ilaiha to refer to "mates"
created from, and for, the original creation.
Since ha is a feminine
attached pronoun, the "mates" it refers to must be female (thus
making the original creation male); (2) all three verses cited use kum as a form of address. Hence these verses are addressed not to humanity
collectively, but only to men, since the term used is a masculine attached
pronoun (second person plural). Men are,
therefore, the primary creation from and for whom the “mates” were
created. Regarding (1), ilaiha literally means "in
her" and not "in them" and refers not to women (who are not
mentioned here) but to azwaj
(masculine plural used in the Qur'an for both men and women). If the “mates” were clearly designated as
women, the term used would be hunna,
not ha. The use of ha here is consistent with the Arabic
grammatical rule that permits the use of feminine singular terms for a class or
collectivity. The fact that the
creatures to whom the passage is addressed are referred to as bashar further supports the argument
that the "mates" created by Allah are not only women (for men), since bashar obviously has a bisexual
reference. Regarding (2), Arabic usage
permits the use of kum in reference
to men and women together. When women
alone are concerned, kunna is
used. Here it is of interest to note
that in his book Haquq-e-Niswan (The
Rights of Women, 1898), Mumtaz 'Ali pointed out that the Qur'an uses the masculine form of
address to prescribe fundamental duties (e.g., salat, zakat, fasting) to Muslim
men and women. If masculine terms of
address are understood by the entire Muslim ummah
to apply to both men and women in highly significant contexts, such as the
prescription of basic religious duties, then it cannot consistently be argued
that these terms apply to men invariably and exclusively. Regarding the second group of
verses that are cited to prove man's ontological priority and superiority to
woman, the following are of exceptional importance: Surah 4: An-Nisa':
1; Surah 7: Al-'Araf :189; and Surah 39: Az-Zumar:6. In
these verses (as also in Surah 6: Al-An'am:98 and Surah 31: Luqman:28) reference is
made to the creation from one source or being (nafsin wahidatin) of all human beings. Muslims, with hardly any exceptions, believe
that the one original source or being referred to in these verses is a man
named Adam. This belief has led many
translators of the Qur'an to obviously incorrect translations of simple
Qur'anic passages. For instance, Surah
4: An-Nisa':1; if correctly translated, reads as follows: "O an-nas be circumspect in keeping your
duty to your Sustainer who created you [plural] from one being [nafsin wahidatin) and spread from her [minha] her mate [zaujaha] and spread
from these two beings many men and women." However, most translators
(e.g., Hashim Amir-'Ali, Muhammad Ali, A. J. Arberry, A. K. Azad, A. M.
Daryabadi, N. J. Dawood, S. A. Latif, A. A. Maududi, M. M. Pickthall, George
Sale, and M. Y. Zayid) translate the feminine attached pronoun ha in minha and zaujaha as
"his" instead of "her".
How is such a mistake possible?
Could it be the case that given their preconceptions and psychological
orientation, these interpreters of the Qur'an (who all happen to be men) are
totally unable to imagine that the first creation could have been other than
male? Or are they afraid that a correct
translation of ha might suggest the
idea - even for an instant - that woman, not man, was the prior creation (and
therefore superior if priority connotes superiority) and that man was created
from woman and not the other way around (which, in a reversal of the Eve from
Adam's rib story would give Eve the primacy traditionally accorded to
Adam)? Certainly no Qur'anic exegete to
date has suggested the possibility that nafsin
wahidatin might refer to woman rather than man. Summing up the Qur'anic
descriptions of human creation, it needs to be emphasized that the Qur'an
evenhandedly used both feminine and masculine terms and imagery to describe the
creation of humanity from a single source.
That Allah's original creation was undifferentiated humanity and not
either man or woman (who appeared simultaneously at a subsequent time) is
implicit in a number of Qur'anic passages, in particular Surah 75: Al-Qiyamah: 36-39, which reads: Does al-insan think that he will be Jeff aimless? Was he not a drop of semen emitted then he
became something which clings; Then He [Allah] created and shaped and made of
him [minhu] two mates [zaujain] the
male and the female. If the Qur'an makes no distinction between the
creation of man and woman, as it clearly does not, why do Muslims believe that
Hawwa' was created from the rib of Adam?
Although the Genesis 2 account of woman's creation is accepted by
virtually all Muslims, it is difficult to believe that it entered the Islamic tradition
directly, for very few Muslims ever read the Bible. It is much more likely that it became a part
of Muslim heritage through its assimilation in Hadith literature, which has
been, in many ways, the lens through which the Qur'an has been seen since the
early centuries of Islam. Hadith literature, which modernist
Muslims tend to regard with a certain skepticism, is surrounded by
controversies, centering particularly around the question of the authenticity
of individual ahadith as well as the body of the literature as a whole. These controversies have occupied the
attention of many Muslim scholars since the time of Ash-Shafi'i (d. A.H. 204/A.D. 809). Fazlur
Rahman has pointed out that "a very large portion of the Hadiths were
judged to be spurious and forged by classical Muslim scholars themselves,"
but goes on to add that "if the Hadith as a whole is cast away, the basis
for the whole historicity of the Qur'an is removed with one stroke.”12 Noted Islamicists such as Alfred Guillaume.13 H. A. R. Gibb,14 and M. G. S. Hodgson15 have underscored the importance of the Hadith
literature, which not only has its own autonomous character in point of law and
even of doctrine, but also has an emotive aspect, hard to overstate, relating
to the conscious and subconscious thought and feeling of Muslims, both
individually and as a group. That the
story of Eve's creation from Adam's rib had become part of the Hadith
literature is evident from the following Hadith related from Ibn 'Abbas and Ibn
Mas'ud, which is referred to by authoritative commentators on the Qur'an,
including Fakhr ud-Din ar-Razi, Isma'il ibn 'Umar Ibn Kathir, and al-Fadl ibn al-Hasan
al-Tabarsi: When God sent Iblis out of the Garden and placed Adam in
it, he dwelt in it alone and had no one to socialize with. God sent sleep on
him and then He took a rib from his left side and placed flesh in its place and
created Hawwa' from it. When he awoke he found a woman seated near his head. He
asked her, "Who are you?" She answered, "Woman." He said,
"Why were you created?" She said, "That you might find rest in
me." The angels said, "What is her name?" and he said,
"Hawwa' " They said, "Why was she called Hawwa'?" He said,
"Because she was created from a living thing."16 Another Hadith, related from Ibn 'Abbas and cited by Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir, which also refers to the
creation of Hawwa' from Adam's rib, reads as follows: After Iblis had been chastised and Adam's knowledge had
been exhibited, Adam was put to sleep and Hawwa' was created from his left rib.
When Adam awoke he saw her and felt affection and love for her since he was made
from his flesh and blood. Then Allah gave Hawwa' in wedlock to Adam and told
them to live in al-jannah.17 Both of the above ahadith clash sharply with the Qur'anic accounts of
human creation, while they have an obvious correspondence to Genesis 2:18-33
and Genesis 3:20.
Some changes, however, are to be noted in the story of woman's creation
as it is retold in the above ahadith.
Both mention "the left rib" as the source of woman. In Arab culture great significance is
attached to "right" and "left," the former being associated
with everything auspicious and the latter with the opposite. In Genesis, woman is named "Eve"
after the Fall, but in the above ahadith she is called Hawwa' from the time of
her creation. In Genesis, woman is named
Eve because "she is the mother of all who live" (thus a primary
source of life), but in the first of the aforementioned ahadith, she is named
Hawwa' because "she was created from a living thing" (hence a
derivative creature). These variations
are not to be ignored. Biblical and
other materials are seldom incorporated without alteration into ahadith. The above examples illustrate how in respect
of woman, Arab biases were added to the adopted text. The citing of the above ahadith by
significant Muslim exegetes and historians shows the extent to which
authoritative works both of Qur'anic exegesis and Islamic history had become
colored by the Hadith literature. In
course of time, many ahadith became "invisible," the later commentators
referring not to them but to the authority of earlier commentators who had
cited them, to support their views. This
made it very hard to curtail their influence since they became diffused
throughout the body of Muslim culture. A
typical example of how the Qur'anic account of human creation is distorted by
means of inauthentic ahadith (which identify nafsin wahidatin from which all human beings, including Hawwa’,
originated, with Adam the man), even when these ahadith are not mentioned of
affirmed directly, is provided by A. A. Maududi, author of a well-known modern
commentary on the Qur'an18 and
one of contemporary Islam's most influential scholars. In commenting on Surah An-Nisa' l, Maududi observes: "He created you of a single
soul." At first one human being was created and then from him the human
race spread over the earth.... We learn from another part of the Qur'an that
Adam was that "single soul." He
was the first man from whom the whole of mankind sprang up and spread over
the earth. "And of the same created
his mate": we have no definite detailed knowledge of how his mate was
created of him. The Commentators generally say that Eve was created from the rib of
Adam and the Bible also contains the same story. The Talmud adds to it that she was created from
the thirteenth rib of Adam. But the Qur'an is silent about it, and the
Tradition of the Holy Prophet that is cited in support of this has a different
meaning from what has been understood.
The best thing, therefore, is to leave it undefined as it has been left
in the Qur'an, and not to waste time in determining its details.19 In the above passage, Maududi has
no difficulty in affirming what has traditionally been made the basis of
asserting woman's inferiority and subordination to man, namely that woman was
created from man. Having made the deadly
affirmation, however, he is reluctant to explicate it further, nor does he
reveal what he considers to be the "true" meaning of the Hadith
pertaining to Eve's creation from Adam's rib.
His justification for not discussing the issue of woman's creation is
that the Qur'an has deliberately left it undefined. But this is simply not the case. The creation of woman is as clearly defined
in the Qur'an as the creation of man, and the Qur'anic statements about human
creation, diverse as they are, leave no doubt as to one point: both man and
woman were made in the same manner, of the same substance, at the same
time. Maududi (like the majority of Muslim
exegetes, who happen to be all men) does not want to face this fact, so he
declares that the discussion of the issue of woman's creation is a waste of
time. If the issue in question was not
worthy of serious theological reflection, or one that had no significant effect
on the lives of human beings, particularly of women, one would, perhaps, be
less critical of a scholar who has had massive impact on the minds of the
Muslim masses, for dereliction of scholarly duty. But theologically the issue of creation of
woman is of such import that it cannot be
allowed to be dismissed in the manner in which Maududi has done. Perhaps no better proof can be
given of how totally ahadith such as the ones cited above have penetrated
Muslim culture than the fact that the myth of the creation of Hawwa' from
Adam's fib was accepted uncritically even by Qasim Amin (1863-1906), the
Egyptian judge and feminist whose books Tahrir
al-Mara' (The Emancipation of Women, 1899) and Al-Mara' al-Jadida (The Modern Woman, 1900) were epoch-making in
the history of Muslim feminism. Amin's
romantic interpretation of the myth, reminiscent of Milton's, shows that he did
not realize how fundamentally the issue that concerned him most deeply, namely,
woman's social equality with man in a strongly male-centered and male-dominated
Muslim society, hinged upon the acceptance or rejection of a creation story that asserted woman's
derivative status and had been interpreted traditionally to affirm her
inferiority and subordination to man. It
is unfortunate that many present-day Muslim advocates of women's rights also do
not realize the profound implications of this myth that undergirds the
anti-women attitudes and structures they seek to change. Anti-women ahadith are found not
only in the significant secondary sources of Islam but also in Sahih al-Bukhari (compiled by Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, A.
H. 194-256/A..D. 810-870) and Sahih
Muslim (compiled by Muslim bin al-Hajjaj, A. H. 202 or 206-261 /A. D. 817 or 821-875), the two most influential Hadith
collections in Sunni Islam. Cited below
are six ahadith, the first three from Sahih
al-Bukhari and the last three from Sahih
Muslim, that have had a formative influence upon the Muslim mind: 1. Abu Karaith and Musa bin Hazam related to
us: Husain bin 'Ali told us that he was reporting on the authority of Zai'dah
who was reporting on the authority of Maisarah al-Ashja'i who was reporting on
the authority of Abu Hazim who was reporting on the authority Abu Hurairah
(with whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul20 (may
peace be upon him) said: Treat women nicely, for a woman
is created from a rib, and the most curved portion of the rib is its upper
portion, so if you should try to straighten it, it will break,
but if you leave it as it is, it will remain crooked. So treat woman nicely.21 2. 'Abd al-'Aziz related to us that he was
reporting on the authority of 'Abd Allah who said: Malik had told us that he
was reporting on the authority of Abu Zinad who was reporting on the authority
of al-A'raj who was reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with whom may
Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul (may peace be upon him) said:22 The woman is like a rib, if you
try to straighten her, she will break.
So if you want to get benefit from her, do so while she still has some
crookedness.23 3. Ishaq bin Nasr related to us: Husain
al-Jo'fi related to us that he was reporting on the authority of Za'idah who
was reporting on the authority of Maisarah who was reporting on the authority
of Abu Hazim who was reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with whom may
Allah be pleased) who said: The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) said:24 Whoever believes in Allah and
the Last Day should not hurt (trouble) his neighbor. And I advise you to take care of the women,
for they are created from a rib and the most crooked part of the rib is its
upper part; if you try to straighten it, it will break, and if you leave it, it
will remain crooked, so I urge you to take care of woman.25 4. Harmalah bin Yahya related to me: Ibn Wahb
informed us: Yunus informed me that he was reporting on the authority of Ibn
Shihab who said: Ibn al-Musayyab told me that he was reporting on the authority
of Abu Hurairah (with whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul (may
peace be upon him) said:26 Woman is like a rib. When you attempt to straighten it, you would break
it. And if you leave her alone you would
benefit by her, and crookedness will remain in her.27 5. 'Amr an-Naqid and Ibn 'Umar related to us
saying: Sufyan related to us that he was reporting on the authority of Abu
Zinad who was reporting on the authority of al-A'raj who was reporting on the
authority of Abu Hurairah (with whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's
Rasul (may peace by upon him) said:28 Woman has been created from a
rib and will in no way be straightened for you; so if you wish to benefit by
her, benefit by her while crookedness remains in her. And if you attempt to straighten her, you
will break her, and breaking her is divorcing her.29 6. Abu Bakr bin Abu Shaibah told us: Husain
bin 'Ali told us that he was reporting on the authority of Za'idah who was
reporting on the authority of Maisarah who was reporting on the authority of
Abu Hazim who was reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with whom may
Allah be pleased) who said: The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) said:30 He who believes in Allah and the
Hereafter, if he witnesses any matter he should talk in good terms about it or
keep quiet. Act kindly towards women,
for woman is created from a rib, and the most crooked part of the rib is its
top. If you attempt to straighten it,
you will break it, and if you leave it, its crookedness will remain there so
act kindly towards women.31 While it is not possible, within
the scope of this chapter, to give a detailed critical analysis of either the isnad (list of transmitters) or matn (content) of the above ahadith, a
few comments on both may be useful. With
regards to the isnad the following
points may be noted: (1) All these ahadith are cited on the authority of Abu
Hurairah, a Companion who was regarded as controversial by many early Muslim
scholars, including Imam Abu Hanifah (A.D. 700-767),32 founder of the largest Sunni school of law. Here it is pertinent to point out that though
a more critical attitude toward Hadith and Hadith-transmitters prevailed during
the earliest phase of Islam, later, as stated by Goldziher,33 it became "a capital crime" to be
critical of any Companion; (2) All six of the above ahadith are gharib (the lowest grade of Hadith
classification) because they contain a number of transmitters who were single
reporters. (Al-Hakini Abu 'Abd Allah al-Naysaburi and lbn Hajar al-'Asqaiani,
who were eminent scholars of Hadith, defined a sahih or sound Hadith as one that is related in the first place by
a well-known Companion, in the second place by at least two Followers, and
thereafter by many narrators.);34 (3) All of the above ahadith are da'if
(weak) because they have a number of unreliable transmitters (e.g., Maisarah
al-Ashja'i, Harmalah bin Yahya, Zaidah, and Abu Zinad).35 Analysis of the matn of the above ahadith leads to the
following statements: (1) Woman is created from a rib or is like a rib; (2) The
most curved and crooked part of the rib is its top; (3) The crookedness of the
rib (and of the woman) is irremediable - any effort to remove it will result in
breakage; and (4) In view of the above, an attitude of kindness is recommended
and those who wish to benefit from women are advised to do so "while
crookedness remains in her." Concerning these statements the following
observations are made: (a) The rib story obviously originates in Genesis 2, but
no mention is made in any of these ahadith of Adam. This eliminates the Yahwist's androcentrism
but also depersonalizes the source of woman's creation (i.e., the "rib"
could, theoretically, be nonhuman); (b) The misogynist elements of the ahadith,
absent from Genesis, clash with the teachings of the Qur'an which describes all
human beings as having been created fi
ahsan-i taqwim (most justly proportioned and with the highest
capabilities); (c) I cannot understand the relevance of making the statement
that the most crooked part of the rib is at the top; (d) The exhortation to be
kind to women would make sense if women were, in fact, born with a natural
handicap and needed compassion. Is
"irremediable crookedness" such a handicap? (e) The advice to benefit
from women without making any effort to help women deal with their
"crookedness" (in case it is a natural handicap) smacks of hedonism
or opportunism and is hard to appreciate even if women were indeed
"iffemediably crooked." The theology of woman implicit in
the above ahadith is based upon generalizations about her ontology, biology,
and psychology that are contrary to the letter and spirit of the Qur'an. These ahadith ought to be rejected on the
basis of their content alone. However,
"matn-analysis" (which was
strongly urged by Ibn Khaldun, A.D. 1332-1406)36 has received scant attention in the work of many
Muslim scholars, who insist that a Hadith is to be judged primarily on the
basis of its isnad. It is
not difficult to see why isnad – criticism
- particularly if it excludes a scholarly scrutiny of initial reports of a
Hadith - is not a sufficient methodological tool for establishing the
reliability of a -Hadith. Not all
initial reporters of ahadith were the Prophet's close Companions whose word
would be difficult to question. (The word "Companion" has come to be
applied rather loosely to a variety of persons, some of whom spent only a
limited amount of time with the
Prophet and cannot necessarily be presumed to have known him well.)
Furthermore, it is not always possible to say in the case of a Hadith whether
its isnad (including the name of the
Companion initially narrating the Hadith)
is authentic and not fabricated. In such
cases references to the matn of other ahadith ascribed to the same
initial narrator, or to other ahadith with similar content, become critically
important in determining the degree of reliability of both the narrator and the
Hadith in question. CONCLUSION To sum up the foregoing discussion
on the issue of woman's creation, I would like to reiterate that according to
the Qur'an, Allah created woman and man equal.
They were created simultaneously, of like substance, and in like
manner. The fact that almost all Muslims
believe that the first woman (Hawwa') was created from Adam's rib shows that,
in practice, the Hadith literature has displaced the teaching of the Qur'an at
least insofar as the issue of woman's creation is concerned. While all Muslims agree that
whenever a Hadith attributed to the Prophet conflicts with the Qur'an it must
be rejected, the ahadith discussed in this chapter have not only not been
rejected, they have in fact remained overwhelmingly popular with Muslims
through the ages, in spite of being clearly contradictory to the Qur'anic
statements pertaining to human creation.
While being included in the Sahihan
gives the ahadith in question much
weight among Muslims who know about
the science of Hadith, their continuing popularity among Muslims in general
indicates that they articulate something deeply embedded in Muslim culture - namely,
the belief that women are derivative creatures who can never be
considered equal to men. Even the courageous Muslim women
presently leading women's movements in oppressively conservative Muslim
societies, which in the name of "Islamization" are systematically
legitimizing the reduction of women to a less than fully human status, are not
aware of the far-reaching implications of the ahadith that make them derivative
or devious creatures. It is imperative
for the Muslim daughters of Hawwa' to realize that the history of their
subjection and humiliation at the hands of sons of Adam began with the story of
Hawwa's creation, and that their future will be no different from their past
unless they return to the point of origin and challenge the authenticity of
ahadith that make them ontologically inferior, subordinate, and crooked. While it is not a little discouraging to know
that these ahadith (like many other anti-woman ones) represent not only the
ideas and attitudes regarding woman of the early generations of Muslims (whose
views were reflected in the Hadith literature), but also of successive
generations of Muslims until today, it is gratifying to know that they cannot
be the words of the Prophet of Islam, who upheld the rights of women (as of
other disadvantaged persons) throughout his life. Furthermore, regardless of how many Muslim
men project their own androcentrism and misogyny upon the Prophet of Islam, it
is valid to question how, being the recipient of the Qur'an, which states that
all human beings were made from a single source (i.e., al-insan, bashar, or nafsin
wahidatin), the Prophet of Allah
could say that woman was created from a crooked rib or from Adam's rib. NOTES 1. Saiyyad: a descendant of the
Prophet Muhammad. 2. Ummah (from umm: mother): community of Muslims. 3. Sunnah: practical traditions
attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. 4. Hadith (plural: ahadith):
oral traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. 5. Fiqh:
jurisprudence. 6. Surah 4: An-Nisa':34. 7. Surah 4: An-Nisa':11. 8. Surah 2: Al-Baqarah:282. 9. Reference here is to ahadith
from Sahih al-Bukhari. 10. Leonard Swidler, Biblical Affirmations of Woman. ( Press, 1979), 76. 11. Muhammad lqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam ( Shaikh Muhammad Ashraf, 1962),
83. 12. Fazlur Rahman, Islam (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and
Company, 1968), 73. 13. Alfred Guillaume, The Traditions of Islam (Beirut:
Khayats, 1966), 15. 14. and William R. Polk (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1966) 194. 15. Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History
in a World Civilization. Vol. 1, The Classical Age of Islam ( Press, 1974), 332. 16. Hadith quoted in Jane 1.
Smith and Yvonne Y. Haddad,, "Eve: Islamic Image of Woman," Women's Studies International Forum 5
no. 2 (1982): 136-37. 17. I.B.U. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir lbn Kathir ( n.d.) 1:101. 18. A. A. Maududi, The Meaning of the Qur'an and Tafhim
ul-Qur'an, 6 vols. ( Maktaba-e-Ta'mir-e-Insaniyyat, 1974). 19. Maududi, Meaning
of the Qur'an, 2: 298, footnote 1 (emphasis is mine). 20. Rasul: a Prophet sent by God
with a message. Reference here is to the
Prophet Muhammad. 21. M. M. Khan, translation with
notes of Sahih al-Bukhari ( 1971), vol. 4 "Book of Prophets,"
chap. 1, Hadith 548, p. 346. 22. Sahih al-Bukhari 7: 33. 23. Sahih al-Bukhari (translation), vol. 7, "Book of
Wedlock," chap. 80, Hadith 113, p. 80. 24. Sahih at-Bukhari 7: 33. 25. Sahih al-Bukhari (translation), vol. 7, "Book of
Wedlock," chap. 81, Hadith 114, p. 81. 26. Muslim bin al-Hajjaj, Sahih Muslim, 2 vols. ( 1:625. 27. A. H. Siddiqui, translation
with notes of Sahih Muslim ( Ashraf) vol. 2, "Book of
Wedlock," chap. 576, Hadith 3466, p. 752. 28. Sahih Muslim, 1:625. 29. Sahih Muslim (translation), vol. 2, "Book of Wedlock,"
chap. 576, Hadith 3467, p. 752. 30. Sahih Muslim, 1: 625. 31. Sahih Muslim (translation), vol. 2, "Book of Wedlock,"
chap. 576, Hadith 3468, pp. 752-53. 32. 'Abdul Wahab Ash-Shairani, Al-Mizan al-Kubra ( 33. Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies trans. C. R. Barber and S. M. Stem, ed. S. M. Stem (Chicago: Aldine Publishing
Company, 1971), 2:163. 34. See Muhammad bin 'Abd Allah
al-Hakim, Ma'rifat 'Ulum al-Hadith, ed. Mu'azzam Hussain ( Fikr fi Mustaleh Ahl al-Athar ( 35. See, for example, Shams
ad-Din Adh-Dhahabi, Mizan I'tidal fi Naqd
ar-Rijal, 4 vols. ( 36. Hodgson, Venture of Islam, 2:480. |
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