Original link: https://tyingknots.net/2022/07/female-scholars-in-islam/
Mohammad Akram Nadwi began searching Arabic manuscripts for women’s names in 1995, after The New York Times cited Islam as the reason for women’s low education in the Muslim world. In the search for female scholars, I hope to find twenty or thirty people. What he found was shocking.
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Beyond this article, we also cannot ignore the fact that globally, Muslim women have a long and diverse practice of gender equality. For example, Chinese Muslims have a long tradition of female mosques, and you can refer to the “History of Chinese Mosques of Female Mosques” co-authored by Shuijingjun and Yasok. The original intention of sharing these voices is to reveal the diversity and complexity within the Islamic world, and to provide some inspiration for thinking about the multiple meanings of religion to people in the contemporary world.
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Friends who are interested in these topics are welcome to read:
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Men and women are not equal, contrary to Islam You cannot understand the Quran without women
Summary Newsletter | Afghan Women in Distress
Ignorance is Disastrous: On the Development of American Islamic Studies (Part 1)
Ignorance is Disastrous: On the Development of American Islamic Studies (Part 2)
Original author / Julia Ley
Translator / Wang Liqiu (from Maitreya, Yunnan, lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Harbin Engineering University)
Original simple link / t.ly/10ky
Original publication time / May 11, 2022 Editor / Wang Jing
01. Record the life of the prophet
In 1995, Mohammad Akram Nadevi was doing research at the Centre for Islamic Studies at Oxford University. At the time, The New York Times claimed that Muslim women were poorly educated because of Islam. Outraged, he decided to take action. He began to search ancient Arabic manuscripts for the names of women, especially women scholars.
At first, he hoped to find about twenty or thirty people. But, he said: “It wasn’t long before I realized that there were a large number of women active in the pursuit of knowledge. One scholar wrote, ‘I study with 70 women’. Another scholar recites hadiths recited by 400 women. “
For many Muslims, the hadith is the second most important material under the Qur’an. Hadiths are written records of the life of the Prophet Muhammad, i.e. what he is said to have said and done. Hadiths are extremely important to Muslims because they translate the abstract messages of the Qur’an into everyday details. In the early days of Islam, Muslim scholars who worked to establish the authenticity of the hadith critically dealt with its source material.
Nadevi first went to the hadiths to search for the names of women, which were either well known or not so well known. He also delved into biographies and reports written by scholars about their teachers, male and female. His discovery exceeded all his expectations.
For two decades, Nadevi has been working to rescue women scholars buried in history. But he is not what is commonly called a liberal Muslim. Nor does he call himself a feminist. “But feminism and I agree on one point. I do believe that women have been oppressed and we should work hard to defend their rights and give them the honor they deserve,” Nadevi admits.So the article he wrote at the beginning became a book, and the book became an encyclopedia. In mid-January 2021, after more than two decades of hard work, he finally finished his work. Today, the biographies of more than 10,000 women are included in a 43-volume encyclopedia. The end result surprised even Dina El Omari, an Islamic scholar who studies at the University of Münster in Germany. “I realised there were a lot of [women scholars], but it turned out that there were so many, which was shocking — indeed, it made the whole study more exciting.”
Nadevi also has some exciting stories to tell. Take Umm al-Darda, a famous jurist from Damascus in the seventh century. When she was young, she not only studied with the men, but also prayed with them in the mosque, in the area where the men worshiped—unthinkable in most mosques today. And Karima al-Marwaziyya, who lived in Mecca in the 11th century. The most important collection of hadiths she transcribed—the Hadith of Bukhari—is considered to be the most complete and reliable to this day.
Nadevi estimates that about a quarter of all hadiths are handed down by women. And, apparently, these women are not only diligent but meticulous. “Many, many men have been accused of fabricating hadiths when it comes to the words and deeds of the Prophet. But all the hadith scholars confirm that no woman has ever lied on any of the hadiths, which is remarkable.”
02. Men are famous, women are buried
But if there are so many learned women Muslims, and they are so diligent and conscientious, why are so few of them remembered today? Nadevi explains it with this example:
“One of Islam’s great scholars, Ibn al-Sam’ani, who lived in the 13th or 14th century, records that he once wanted to study with a woman named Karima: ‘I am much more This time I asked her brother to allow me to study with her. But her brother always found a reason not to.’ Here, you can see the problem: people want to make their sons or brothers famous and hide their sisters. “
Nadevi tried his best to rescue these women buried by history. But he is not what one would call a liberal Muslim. Nadevi has been working with Fatwarat (Germany’s Sharia Council) in Europe, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Nor does he consider himself a feminist.
“But feminism and I agree on one point,” Nadevi admits. “I do believe that women have been oppressed and we should try to defend their rights and give them the honor they deserve. What I don’t like is that kind of Feminism that equates between men and women.”
Early adopters of the final result: This book is the preface to the Nadvi Dictionary of the Biography of Women Hadith Scholars [Arabic], forty volumes. In the formative period of Islam, learned women enjoyed high public status and authority. For centuries, women have traveled extensively for religious knowledge and frequently visited the most famous mosques and scholastic institutes in the Islamic world. This introductory chapter with a map traces the spread of the Women’s Hadith Learning Centre and its eventual decline.03. Obstruction in the name of tradition
Still, his work is important to women Muslims because it provides them with a compelling argument that they can use in their fight for a greater voice. After all, according to Gönül Yerli, some male Muslims are still invoking “tradition” when trying to disempower women.
Yeerli, deputy director of the Penzberg Mosque, is one of the few female leaders of the German Islamic community. At first, some Bavarian parents were reluctant to accept her for this position. Yeerli remembers, “A religious father said: ‘You know, the hadith says: If a woman is the leader of the Islamic community, the community will be cursed, and she will never have peace.'”
On March 18, 2005, Islamic scholar Amina Wadud (amina wadud) worshipped in New York. Photographer Don Emmert, photo source AFPDina Omari is no stranger to men using religious arguments to manipulate women. “It is said that the Prophet had this hadith that said: If a man invites a woman to bed and the woman refuses, the angels will curse her all night long. Of course, this is a very extreme example. But it does show that the woman suffers When it comes to persecution, people use religious reasons to force them to do things they don’t want to do.”
According to Gnu Yerli, there is another reason why these utterances are so common: they are better understood than the Quran. “The language of the Qur’an is complex, and it doesn’t answer every question. In fact, to be honest, it rarely answers specific questions.”
04. Question the misogynistic content of the hadith
Both Gnu Yerli and Dina Omari have tried to confront the hadith of misogyny in their work, teaching and caring for their parents. For example, Omari explained that it is highly uncertain whether Muhammad was the de facto initiator of these emotions. After all, none of these misogynistic hadiths appear in the oldest surviving collection of hadiths. “That’s quite remarkable. It really makes you stop and think: These misogynistic hadiths contrast so starkly with the prophet’s biography that they don’t seem right.”
Omari said that as long as women have a voice, the hadith of misogyny will be corrected. For example, after the Prophet’s conversion, Aisha, one of his favorite wives, often argued with one of his companions, Abu Huraira.
Bint al-Shāti, whose real name was Aisha Abd al-Rahman (1913-1998), was her pen name, meaning “daughter by the water”. Born in Egypt, her illiterate mother sent her daughter to school when she was ten years old. In 1950, Aisha received her doctorate and became a professor of Arabic literature at the Women’s College of the newly established Ain Shams University in Cairo that year. Image source WikipediaFor example, when Abu Huraira said that a woman walking in front of a man while praying would spoil a man’s prayer “Aisha made it clear under oath that the Prophet never said anything like that”, Omari said.
Aisha herself also reported in several hadiths that when the Prophet was praying in her own room, the Prophet prayed even when she was lying in bed facing the Prophet. Examples like this show how important it is to finally pay attention and acknowledge these ancient women scholars again.
Nadevi agrees with this. “If women can’t speak for themselves, then no one will speak for them. Then false ideas about women will prevail, and then no one will be able to defend them anymore.”
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