Quoted: The status of women among Islamic jurists

 

The Islamic arena is seething with rumours that cannot be described as what consciences throw on tongues, but rather as the whisperings of devils. After the scientific miracle with its facts cut off any entrance to confusion, the devils began to recite to the faculty of Islamic jurisprudence formulas of doubts and mistreatment. Whenever the jurists are challenged, people go astray before the texts, and get lost in the isthmus between the conjectural and the definitive, and people look at the heritage of the nation with an eye of doubt, so people wake up and go to bed in a cognitive structure that can hardly rise before it is demolished. The preachers have spared no effort in defending the pure Sharia, and the call in the West treats symptoms and diseases from within the body of the nation, and from the pollution of the Western environment. One of the Islamic centres extended an invitation to a virtuous educator who has experience in the call work in the West; To lecture on the status of women in Islam, a topic that has been chewed on by the tongues of human devils before the jinn, until it has become unheard of. Usually, an email is placed for anyone who wants to ask a question, or make an intervention, etc. In the designated lecture hall, which is next to the center, where menstruating women, non-committal people, and those who love to learn from other religions are allowed to enter, the time came, and a sheikh in his fifties entered, his smile brightening his face, and the presenter of the ceremony sat next to him, who began by introducing the sheikh and the title of the lecture, then gave him the floor, and said after praising and praying for the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - and welcoming the attendees, and thanking the administration for providing the opportunity: I spent last night reading what I received from you via email, there were questions, requests for clarifications, and presentation of rumors and doubts, so I stayed up all night categorizing all of that, and I reached a conclusion that means: The enemies rely on the criticism from the jurists, that they - meaning: the jurists - With their human understanding, they have denied women their rights, to the point that the matter has become difficult for those who do not have a great deal of knowledge. So I sought God’s guidance, after awakening my mind, keeping my pen awake, and observing what has been said and is being said. I decided to defend the honor of our masters the jurists tonight, leaving some questions - if time does not permit - to the Imam of the Center. I will limit the discussion to quotes from the words of our masters the jurists, that Muslim group that has spent the dregs of their lives addressing the issues of the nation. I will begin my speech by saying: The problem began two centuries ago, specifically with Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt in 1798 AD. Many historians of colonial wars limit the reasons to material interests, and reality proves every day the ideological dimension of our hostility to the West. Then Muhammad Ali Pasha took on the task and sent his missions to the West, including Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, etc. [1]. The question is: Why women? The answer is: Because women are the foundation of the family, and the family is the nucleus of society, and your understanding is sufficient. People have often promoted the idea that jurisprudence is masculine, and that femininity is a shortcoming. In my humble opinion, the issue of femininity has not been written about more beautifully than the phrases written by a Hanafi jurist, Ibn Abd al-Salam Abu al-Makarim, the jurist and preacher (his biography is included in Tabaqat al-Hanafiyyah by al-Ghaznawi), where he says about femininity: • The eye is feminized, and through it truths are reached. • The ear is feminized, and through it subtleties are reached. • The hand is feminized, and it is the one responsible for writing compositions.











































• Paradise is feminine... and it was promised to the good and righteous. As for the issue of those who are deficient in intellect, by God, it is a lie that our preachers have killed in response. As for the response of the weak servant, it is the state of the jurists, not their words, some of which were taken out for the purpose of attack. How many learned sheikhs, who are well-versed in the rational and transmitted sciences, have received knowledge from those who claim that they are deficient in intellect? Is it logical for a scholar who has reached the level of ijtihad to be proud that the one who taught him knowledge, to the point that he considered her part of his chain of transmission, is deficient in intellect?! “ It was mentioned in the biography of Imam Al-Zuhri, he said: Al-Qasim bin Muhammad - a follower from the seven jurists of Medina - said to me, ‘Boy, I see that you are keen on seeking knowledge, so shall I not show you its receptacle?’ He - Al-Zuhri - said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘You should go to Amrah bint Abd Al-Rahman bin Saad bin Zararah Al-Ansariyyah, for she was in the care of Aisha - may God be pleased with her.’ Al-Zuhri said: ‘So I went to her and found her to be an inexhaustible sea .’ And look, if you wish, at the praise of the hafiz and jurist Ibn Hajar, the author of “Al-Fath,” for his sister Sitt Al-Rukb, and the praise of the jurist, encyclopedic scholar Ibn Al-Qayyim for his sheikhas, and the jurist, hadith scholar, and exegete Ibn Kathir for his sheikhas as well - may God have mercy on them all... etc., even those who are unjustly branded as fanatics, They are even, unfortunately, referred to by some Islamists as being strict. They were jurists who gave women a position that was unparalleled in their society. Did you know that the daughter of the great scholar and renewer, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab - may God have mercy on him - Fatima, used to teach women and men? [If her teaching of women was expected and known, then her teaching of men was the same. We can deduce this from what is narrated that she used to sit with students of knowledge and put a screen between them and herself during teaching] [2]. The issue of fatwas and the judiciary, there is a similarity and difference between them according to the jurists, even though the judiciary is one of the general powers, and the scholars have opinions on it, such as the Hanafis who permitted a woman to have part of the judiciary, and Ibn Hazm in Al-Muhalla (8/528) permitted assigning the judiciary to a woman absolutely, and the jurists are unanimous on the permissibility of issuing fatwas to women, and Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyya discussed the issue in detail in his wonderful book “I’lam Al-Muwaqqi’in”. I will quote to you from the words of Imam Al-Nawawi Al-Shafi’i regarding the conditions of the Mufti: “ He must be accountable, Muslim, trustworthy, reliable, free from the causes of immorality and the breaches of chivalry, and a jurist of the soul, and this applies equally to men and women ” [3]. Al-Hafiz Al-Dhahabi wrote in his book “Seer A’lam Al-Nubala” a biography of Ummat Al-Wahid bint Al-Hussein bin Ismail, saying: She used to issue fatwas with Abu Ali bin Abi Hurairah, and she was one of the people with the best knowledge of jurisprudence. • • • The Sheikh stopped and looked around the audience, then continued: I will now present jurisprudential sayings, handfuls from the seas of the jurists, rather from their oceans according to what God has bestowed upon me from swimming on their shores, and they are pearls from their beautiful shells:



























• The issue of choosing a husband, for example, is well-known, and the details of the jurists - including compatibility - are known. I will add to you a glimpse of the jurists’ appreciation of women. The majority said: If someone divorces a woman before consummating the marriage with her, and he desires her again, he needs a new contract and dowry, and he does not have the right to return to her. The Hanbalis made an exception that he has the right to return to her if he has been alone with her in a lawful manner, even if he has not consummated the marriage. If the woman was cheap in their view, they would not have preserved her dignity by having a suitor come forward again. If a man contracts a marriage with a woman, and before consummating the marriage with her, he gives her gifts, then annuls the contract, then according to the Shafi’is and Hanbalis, he does not have the right to return anything he gave, whether it is present or lost, because the ruling on a gift is the ruling on a donation. And you read the wonders about maintenance, custody, waiting period...etc. In fact, the companion of Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf, said about a woman of social status: “She is assigned two servants to take care of her affairs, one servant inside the house, and another for her needs outside the house.” Even caring for children is a subject of tension and attraction among the jurists. The author of “Al-Fath” Ibn Hajar quoted the jurist Ibn Battal as saying: “ A woman’s assistance to her husband in his children is not obligatory upon her, but rather it is from the good companionship and from the nature of righteous women. ” “Fath Al-Bari” when explaining Hadith No. (5052). • We come to the issue of polygamy, which is a legal issue, and the jurists have statements about it in terms of achieving the basis, and the Hanbalis considered that achieving the basis of justice is closer to one than to polygamy. Guardianship is a privilege given to men with conditions. There is no room here for details, and I will point out a glimpse of the Andalusian jurists. Abu Hayyan said in “Tafsir al-Muhit”: “Men are guardians of women, if they are men; that is, if they have achieved the qualities of manhood .” And Al-Soussi (a Moroccan Maliki jurist) has a description that you will be amazed by. The Sheikh paved the way for women’s rights in a way that the most civilized countries have not reached. I will read you the description, and then the ruling: “This woman from Al-Ighiya - a region in Morocco - is like all the women in those areas. She is the one who takes care of her household affairs, so she spends her day doing the work that is required for the times of the day. She gets up at dawn to grind, then heats the water for ablution at dawn, then milks the cow, then draws water from the well with the jug on her back. Then if she wants to cut firewood, she gets up early, and the sun does not rise on her until she is behind the hills of Al-Igh. Then she hardly enters the house until she prepares lunch, ... and breastfeeds her child. ” He concluded the fatwa with the woman’s right to work in her husband’s house, and a special share of the inheritance before the distribution of… [4] Inheritance. Before it, the Maliki fatwa of Ibn Ardun was followed by other fatwas. Some of them called her right to compensation for housework a craft. Regarding the issues of women’s work, Ibn al-Nujaym al-Hanafi issues a fatwa in “al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir”: “The country may need special female efforts, or they may perform better, so the whole should not be left for the benefit of the part. This is a general interest, as opposed to a private interest, which is the interest of the husbands only.” He was speaking about his time in the tenth century AH, so what about now?!In “Fath Al-Bari” when explaining the hadith of Imam Al-Bukhari about Al-Rabi’ bint Mu’awwidh and her going out to treat the wounded, Ibn Hajar commented , “It is permissible for a foreign woman to treat a foreign man out of necessity .” The Hanbalis stated that it is permissible for a woman to go out to nurse, and for a midwife to work as a woman to give birth.




















Among the jurisprudential considerations in the issue of using silk, which is unanimously forbidden for men and permissible for women, is that “a man is permitted to spread out on silk as a dependent of his wife, and not to spread it out independently. Rather, they have said that a man does not enter a silk bed except after his wife has entered, and he does not remain in it after that, which is what Ibn al-Arabi said ” [5]. • In terms of punishments, everyone knows that the punishment for an unmarried adulterer is one hundred lashes with banishment. The Malikis have ruled that it is a mitigation for an unmarried adulterous woman. The Malikis say: “ However, banishment is not obligatory for an unmarried adulterer, because her exile may become a reason for her to be exposed to corruption. The Malikis have said that a woman is not banished even if she is satisfied, and even if she is accompanied by a mahram, in order to preserve her honor .”[6] Anyone familiar with the fatwas of the jurists will be amazed by the actions of Imam Al-Bukhari in the chapter on prayer, where he did not find any authentic description of a woman’s sitting in prayer, except for his saying, “Umm Al-Darda’ - the younger - used to sit as a man would,” then he added: “And she was a jurist.” • In the chapter on Hajj, we find more care, which prompted Imam Al-Bukhari - and the scholars agreed that his jurisprudence in his Sahih lies in the titles - to devote a chapter entitled “Chapter on the desirability of giving precedence to weak women .” In Tabaqat Al-Hanabilah by Ibn Al-Farra’, in the biography of the jurist Yusuf bin Musa bin Rashid Al-Qattan Al-Kufi, he said : It was narrated from Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal: “If a man wants to perform Hajj on behalf of his parents, he should start with the mother.” The mother has a special legal status, and the jurists have established for her what many of the Women, Judge Iyad says in his book “Tarteeeb Al-Madarik”, when translating Ibn Hayyan: “He was a virtuous jurist who followed the example of the Salaf, and he was described as being dutiful to his mother, to the point that he angered his father by pleasing her, when she entrusted him with a dispute over rights she claimed after her separation... Then Judge Iyad continues: This issue was mentioned in another fatwa by Imam Abu Bakr Al-Tartushi, so he advised him to obey his mother, taking into consideration that being dutiful to one’s mother is more important; • As for the issue of testimony and what some sick souls try to exploit, which is a subject that has been thoroughly researched, a group of jurists see it as exclusively in financial matters, and Imam and jurist Ibn al-Qayyim and his Sheikh, the jurist and mujtahid Ibn Taymiyyah - may God have mercy on them - have a wonderful research on it, and a woman has five testimonies in the Sharia in which the testimony of a man is not accepted, no matter how high his stature in justice, and they are: (birth, breastfeeding, defects under the woman’s garment, the expiration of the waiting period, and the boy’s first cry), and the jurist and scholar Ibn al-Qayyim in his book “Al-Turuq al-Hikmiyyah” included a chapter entitled “The Testimony of Women Alone ”, and Imam Ahmad permitted the testimony of Women alone if the incident occurred in groups of women, such as bathrooms. Among the accepted testimony is the sighting of the crescent moon of Ramadan. Sheikh and jurist Ibn Uthaymeen - may God have mercy on him - says in “Al-Sharh Al-Mumti’ ‘ala Zad Al-Mustaqni’” after speaking about the testimony of women regarding the sighting of the crescent moon:“ The evidence of the school of thought is that this is a religious report in which males and females are equal, just as males and females are equal in narration ” (6/326).

















Before concluding this paragraph, it is necessary to mention the jurist Imam Ibn Hazm, as Al-Kattani’s induction reached, where he said: “ There is no issue in which the jurists differed between those who were strict on women and those who were easy, except that Ibn Hazm took the path of ease, and in his view women are like men except for what the evidence specifies .” • Among the issues that are raised around which the scum of doubts is the issue of inheritance, and it is not possible to elaborate on the statement about inheritance because it takes a long time to explain the foundations and branch out the issues, and the Moroccan jurist Sheikh Mustafa Bin Hamza - may God bless him - saved us the trouble of that, when he indicated in his book “The Dignity of Women in Islamic Legislation”: that the percentage of what a man gets more than a woman does not exceed 16.34% of the total inheritance issues, and the rest is either equality, or the woman gets more than the man. • The use of the word “Nasheez” is also raised as a jurisprudential term that limits women’s freedom. The word “Nasheez ” is a Quranic word used for both genders. Refer to the verses in Surat An-Nisa (34) and (128). • As for the issue of a man disciplining his wife, the jurists have stated that beating is permissible, and leaving it according to the majority is better; in implementation of the objectives in verse (23) of Surat An-Nisa. Beating is not permissible according to the majority from the first act of disobedience, but rather when the disobedience is repeated, and sermonizing and abandoning are useless. This is proven by what the jurist Imam, the commentator of Al-Bukhari, commented on in “Al-Fath” when speaking about the chapter of Al-Bukhari “ The chapter on what is disliked of beating women ”, Ibn Hajar said: “It indicates that beating is not permissible at all, but rather it includes what is disliked as a matter of purification and prohibition ”; “Fath Al-Bari” (11/639), and the Maliki jurist Ibn Al-Arabi reported in “Ahkam Al-Qur’an”: “Ata’ - who was one of the jurists of the Tabi’in - said: He should not beat her even if he orders her and forbids her and she does not obey him, but he should become angry with her , ” and Ibn Al-Arabi commented by saying: This is from the jurisprudence of Ata’. And the jurist Ibn Arafa warns, as in “Hashiyat Al-Dasouqi”: “Severe beating is not permissible even if the husband knows that she will not stop disobeying him, and if it happens, then she has the right to divorce him and to retaliate .” • • • The Sheikh was silent for a moment and looked at his watch, then said: It seems that time has stolen us, as they say, and I know that some of you live in distant areas, so I want to conclude with the words of the Sheikh of contemporary comparative jurisprudence, Sheikh Dr. Wahba Al-Zuhayli - may God bless him - in a research in which he participated in a symposium held at the Assembly of Sharia Scholars in America, and the research is published on their website, in which he said: “It must be noted in advance that most of the rulings of the noble Sharia are shared equally by men and women, and this amounts to 90% of the doctrine, jurisprudence, and ethics, then the difference between them comes in 10%, so that the woman takes 5% in what pertains to her, and the man takes 5% of what pertains to him, and this specialization originally stems from the innate difference.” ==== ... [2] Famous Women from Najd, Dr. Dalal Al-Harbi. [3] Al-Majmu’ Sharh Al-Muhadhdhab by Al-Nawawi. [4] Al-Ma’sool, by Al-Soussi (1/58). [5] Mawaheb Al-Jalil by Al-Hattāb (1/505). [6] Manh Al-Jalil by Sheikh Alish (6/262).