The environment children are raised in plays an essential role even in cultivating a perception of the reality. Our surroundings – social, political and even topographical – have an impact on our human character. Society moulds much of our outlook and the way in which we perceive and view things; no matter how hard one may exert in trying to be indifferent he/she will be influenced by these elements, and will also determine how they interact, behave and communicate with each other.*
This may be true of those [Muslims] who harbour some abhorrence to the teachings of Islam, hence slowly and inevitably leave Islam completely – Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s case is emblematic, in my opinion, of this crisis. Several factors contributed to this situation – one significant cause is that they were not educated on the true and authentic Islam which is based on justice and equality, but rather much of the wrongdoings that were committed against them were justified as being Islamic by their perpetrators.
Although issues such as forced marriages, female genital mutilation, so called honour killings have been played out and distorted by the media to a large extent, some Muslims (regrettably) have been carrying out these hideous crimes in the name of Islam. As a consequence, this gave the victims the impression that Islam is the cause of their suffering and pain.
Some people - mostly men – often exploit Qur’anic verses and the traditions (hadith) of the Prophet pertaining to women and their rights and responsibilities, to undermine and suppress women due to their own cultural bias or prejudices. The hadith referring to women’s intelligence being deficient is a prime example in illustrating this point. Many so-called Muslim feminists are clearly mistaken in declaring this [and similar] hadith to be weak or fabricated – mainly due to their ignorance or personal dislike of the implications. However, some of the psychological agents which may have contributed in forming this evaluation about Islam, from their perspective, cannot be dismissed.
When these hadith are inappropriately used in such a way to give the impression that women are not intelligent or simple-minded (thus lacking objective thought and genuine will), it will undoubtedly lead a person to believe that Islam is unjust and outmoded. This of course contradicts the fundamental principles of justice, equality and equity the Qur’an and the Prophet preached. Furthermore it also conflicts with the established authentic, comprehensive and contextual interpretation of such hadith.
Recently I tuned into a Muslim channel which hosts ’scholars’ to answer people’s questions on life and Islam, and an answer was requested form the ‘Mufti’ regarding the veil (face-covering or Niqab). The Shaykh’s answer was not only factually wrong (he stated that the majority of scholars view Niqab to be an obligation or fard) but also lacked the spirit (maqasid) of fatwa, as practised by our great predecessors in jurisprudence such as Imam al-Shatibi.
I was quite disappointed that a person in such a position could just make a simplistic statement: ‘if the woman is pretty she needs to cover the face’, or something to that effect. Doesn’t that imply that women who are not pretty (in his eyes) are not required to cover the face? And how does one measure beauty, isn’t beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
To give the Shaykh the benefit of the doubt, some classical scholars have argued for the obligation of Niqab in situations where temptation is feared. However, this is very different from this Mufti’s statement, especially in the manner in which it was conveyed. Even if we stumble upon statements in the books of jurisprudence (fiqh) which are similar to the one above, we should not just take them literally, but also understand them in their proper context.
If Muslim women are being bombarded with these kinds of misrepresentations of the authentic traditions of Islam, it is no wonder some women are frustrated and turning to the other extreme and of preaching a ‘feminist reading of Islam’. It is not enough to say that they have to put up with these hadith and just accept them without explaining their authenticity, content, meanings and context.
I am not defending those people who wish to change the teachings of Islam by completely altering the meanings of such verses and traditions without correct recourse to the texts and usul (principles). However as Imam al-Shatibi and others have explained, a Mufti must take into consideration his environment, context and even the psychological state of the mustafsi (the one seeking fatwa) when issuing legal verdicts. Unfortunately, this is not happening when some issue fatwas on television and other similar platforms.
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* In the area of clinical psychology we are informed that one of the major factors which contribute to an individual’s psychological and emotional breakdown is the lack of empathy people receive in the early years of development.
Researchers inform us that when parents and prime carers of children are unavailable physically and/or emotionally, when they are overindulgent, when they are exposed to violent or malicious behaviour by parents/carers, and when children are exposed to violent media images – they are in danger of becoming self-centred, prone to aggressive and cruel behaviour, and unable to feel or express remorse, a quasi sociopathic interpersonal style.
The WAVE Trust, an international charity dedicated to raising public awareness of the root causes of violence in society and the ways to reduce it, commissioned research that found: “Empathy is the single greatest inhibitor of the development of propensity to violence. Empathy fails to develop when parents or prime carers fail to attune with their infants” (Hosking & Walsh, 2005, p.20). To attune to a child means “attempting to respond to his or her needs, particularly emotionally, resulting in the child’s sense of being understood, cared for, and valued”. (Ibid p. 20).
salam. suggestion for br abdullah. could you possibly write something on the explanation of the hadeeth re woman’s intelligence. I hear many poeple using that hadeeth, but haven’t yet read into it.
I dont know why, but i’ve noticed a certain trend in the blogs of this website. many of them end up:
1. Defending/ give 70+ excuses for very controversial figures whose unwanranted fatawa are rejected by the majority of scholars
2. digging deep and finding/exposing (unfound/ill-researched) faults of major IM figures
3. directly/ indirectly raising the issue of niqaab in a negative way one too many times. giving priority above mnore important ones.
4. Blaming the muslims for not doing enough
5. dilution of the concept of kufr and imaan
The above is a general comment, not focussing on just this article and taking its examples out of context. its just that i seem to be getting a general feeling that the blog seems to be very much skewed towards a ‘liberalist’ agenda.
Assalamu Alaikum
Alhamdullilah great blog at last someone has finally raised this issue. Many people namely men have been using hadiths to get what they want without considering the opionion or feeling of the women.
We need more imams and schloars with the correct undersanding of this issue to redress and claify the matter for the benefit of these men and for many women who have been misinformed.
Salamz. I think your article should have just clarified some misconceptions about women rather than start exposing faults and mistakes of other scholars. clarifying misconceptions about women is needed and very relevant to the public who are the ones who I assume read this blog.
if muftis make mistakes, the issue should be raised with muftis or in specialized circles and not publicized to joe bloggs on public blogs. It only serves to undermine the scholars and paints a picture of them that they don’t know how to give fatwa or lack knowledge. It makes the public belittle the scholars and leads to disobedience of scholars.
Even though I think your point carries some truth with some people . But in a climate when scholars are being demolished, adding to this doesn’t help.
Assalamu alaikum,
Rational thought – my main aim of the blog was to highlight some of the psychological aspects why people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali do what they do. To go into the details or explanaition of the hadith will require a longer post or a essay, and that is not the objective of BtL.
Shayna – thank you for stopping by and we hope you will visit this blog more often.
Wassalam
Jzk brother for raising this important topic and I am not too sure why people wish to brush these issues under the carpet. The psychological and social engineering of the new generation Muslims is much different to the previous generations and those in the Muslim world. I feel through personal experience that the level of Islamic scholarship is ill prepared to satisfy their minds. I don’t mean to generalise, there are obviously good scholars who are easily accessable and are able to articulate Islam to the ‘modern’ mind without watering it down. However, most of our scholars are not, still holding on to concepts and rules formulated to satisfy a completly different mindset. I sometimes flick through Muslim channels and I find myself thinking, ‘what on earth is this shaykh talking about’.
When it comes to these live Q&A shows on tv channels, the questioner needs to be blamed too. If someone really needs an Islamic advice on a matter, they should take the matter seriously and should discuss it properly with a scholar/Imam giving them opporunity to understand the questioner’s circumstances, reality and whatever else is required to pass a sound judgement. Its the same with the Q&A websites, people often search using key words and find a fatwa on a particular issue when that fatwa could be an answer to something very specific. Its no wonder that sometimes two contradictory answers are found to questions by the same scholar. The modern mind needs to exercise some common…
br salman, it appears that you are suggesting that islaam is extremely complicated.
and that islaam needs to be re presented for the modern audience.
Both these ideas are innaccurate. Islam is quite simple, with some rare exceptions. Issues pertaining to men and women are clearly outlined in quraan and sunnah and the works produced by the pious predecessors and the amazing ‘ulamaa that came after them. In suggesting that it isn’t ‘black or white’, many people would like to to say that “well, as things are very complicated in religion… let us practice islam how we choose and like. Let the ulamaa with ijaaza in ijtihaad solve those problems until then”
The second idea is far more dangerous as it suggests that islaam is a limited religion, incomplete and possibly even irrelevant to our ‘modern’ times. Almost as though to say that the modern world has left islaam behind.
God knew better and ensured that islaam and its teachings/message/ahkaam/laws were universal and timeless/eternal. That is why muhammad sas was the final prophet. Had modern times needed islaam to change, god would have sent a new prophet with a modern message.
This thinking is dangerous and points to weaknesses in the faith that one has in his own religion, seeing that his religion is becoming outdated and falling behind.
br a hasan. I agree with rational and muhammad. It seeks to apologise for the apostacy of the apostates by blaming the ulamaa and the muslims
How can we start to make excuses for the aspotacy of the apostate. The ruling is clear when they apostate, and it does not include to understand why the apostated and give them (70) excuses.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that Islam is over complicated and requires simplification to suit the modern mind. However, as you agree Brother Hamid, scholars of the past have written volumes and volumes of books touching every topic possible they had come across; their eloquence and deep insight into matters allows their works compiled hundreds of years ago to be relevant today. The fact that there was need to write volumes of books shows there was need to show the relevance of Islam to the people of their time and future generations. They addressed prevalent issues of their time which affected the muslims, they laid down complicated principles of Usul to protect the Shariah and responded to theological and philosophical attacks. Today, the Muslims face attacks of different nature from orientalist, secularists, liberalists and their friends but as far as I know there aren’t volumes and volumes of books being written with deep insight to prepare Muslims against these. One or two paragraphs or an article is not sufficient; the scholars need to be at the fore front. That’s my point. :)
@hamid
I agree with you hamid