Women and Islam

Muslim Women’s

Religious Authority

in Early Islam

To understand women’s religious

authority, we have to understand

what their world was like.

Mixed-gender interactions, freedom of

movement, and access to public and

private space are necessary for women

to hold any significant religious

authority.

To some degree, they had it.

They had access because Muhammad’s

movement was a revolution

And revolutions make for gender egalitarianism.

◦ Gender egalitarianism: Women have access to power, contribute to many aspects of society, but are not fully equal to men. In a gender egalitarian world, only men or mainly men are at the center of power.

◦ Gender equality: Men and Women have equal access to power and contribute to all aspects of society. Not just in theory, in practice.

Brave Women

Women were among the first to take the risk in joining Muhammad’s movement◦ His wife Khadijah was the first to believe

him.

◦ Many women joined Muhammad despite threats from their families.

◦ Many left everything they owned, including their husbands, risking their lives to follow him from Mecca to Medina.

◦ Many women fought beside him in battles.

Women in battle

Nusaybah bint Kaʿb carried

a sword and a bow to the

Battle of Uhud.

She defended the Prophet

himself, after men had

already fled in fear. She

killed men on horses and on

foot, sustaining serious

injuries.

Muhammad said:

“Wherever I turned to the

left or to the right, I saw

her fighting for me.”

Women acted as water-

carriers

and medics, but also as

soldiers.

Rehana, a

Kurdish soldier who reportedly killed

over 100 ISIS soldiers in Kobane

Women and men interacted

somewhat freely

Women and men sat near each other and talked in Muhammad’s Home-Mosque, and other mosques, including the great mosque in Mecca.

Women and men interacted in the street, in the market place, visited each other at home.

How do we know this?

◦ We have reports about Muhammad and his companions, written reports of market-place inspectors, reports of men and women discussing religious issues, men and women studying together, etc.

Muhammad’s Home-MosqueMuhammad’s home mosque was gender-

open. He and his wives lived in rooms on one

side of the mosque.

Women and men gathered there day and

night to learn from him, to socialize, and to do

work like weaving baskets.

Women and Men Interacting at

Muhammad’s Home-Mosque Courtyard

'Urwa and I entered the mosque-courtyard and found 'Abdullah b. 'Umar sitting beside Aisha’s room.

'Urwa asked Ibn 'Umar, "How many lesser pilgrimages did the Prophet perform?"

Ibn 'Umar replied, "Four, one of which was in the month of Rajab.”

Then we heard 'Aisha brushing her teeth, whereupon 'Urwa said, "O mother of the believers! Don’t you hear what he is saying? He is saying that the Prophet performed four lesser pilgrimages, one of which was in the month of Rajab.”

'Aisha said, ”If the Prophet performed a lesser pilgrimage, then Ibn 'Umar witnessed it; but he (the Prophet ) never performed one during the month of Rajab." (Bukhari Book 5, 59, #555)

Home and work life

Women ran businesses as they did before Islam, owned and directed real estate.

Enslaved and poor women did domestic, agricultural, marketplace work.

But Elite women could be socially constrained.◦ Nevertheless, mixed gender gatherings in

public were not unusual.

◦ In private, elite women, men from their family, slaves, and those men who were known to have no desire for women could keep company.

Muhammad and God seemed to

approve of strong women

Individuals and groups of women

confronted Muhammad and argued with

him when they were dissatisfied with his

rulings or revelation itself.

Page from an

8th or 9th

century

Qur’an written

on Papyrus

Muhammad married strong

women

Muhammad married women who had very strong personalities. Khadija was his employer.

ʿAʾisha and Umm Salamah are famous for their tough characters and willingness to speak their mind to the Prophet.

Umm Salamah It is reported that Muhammad’s wife Umm

Salamah confronted Muhammad about the fact that the Qurʾan only addressed men directly and not women. At that point, the revelation changed to address both men and women directly:

◦ Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so - for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward (Q 33:35)

Khawla

An old woman named Khawla argued with the Prophet about a ruling he made concerning her marriage.

The 58th chapter of the Qurʾan opens with the verses addressing her problem and is even named for her, “al-Mujadila,” meaning, “She Who Skillfully Disputed.”

But even that, she continued to argue with the Prophet until she got exactly what she wanted.

“She Who Skillfully Disputed,” verses 1-4

God heard the words of the woman who disputed with you concerning her husband and who complained to God. God heard the dispute. God is the all-Hearing, the all-Seeing.

And those of you who divorce your wives by saying, “You are like my mother’s back,” well, she is not your mother! A mother is the one who gave birth to you. They speak hatefully and they lie. But God is always Pardoning and always Forgiving.

So, those who have divorced them in this manner and want to return to their wives, they are admonished to free a slave to make up for it. God knows what you are up to.

And he who cannot find a slave, then he must fast for two months consecutively. He who is unable to fast, must feed sixty poor people. This is so you will follow through with your faith in God and his Messenger. These are God’s limits. For those who try to cover over the truth, there will be a painful punishment.

During Muhammad’s day and just after

women had significant religious authority

As we just saw with ʿAʾisha’s example, Muhammad’s wives were regularly addressed to answer religious questions: ◦ if the Prophet was not immediately available,

◦ and if the issue concerned women specifically, and on all matters after Muhammad died.

Some female companions of the Prophet or the generation after were regularly addressed to answer theological and legal questions before and after Muhammad died.◦ These companions may even have been slaves.

Domestic slaves especially had access to Muhammad, his family, and close companions.

At the time of the Prophet, Women were

prayer leaders (imams)

Reports demonstrate:

Women led prayer for their families, including their husbands, especially if their knowledge of the Qurʾan was superior.

Women led other women in prayer. There are a number of reports that both ʿAʾisha and Umm Salamah led women in congregational prayer.

And, women led unrelated men in prayer…

The report about Umm Waraqah

Umm Waraqah was well known for her

knowledge of Qurʾan and her bravery.

The Prophet used to visit Umm Waraqah in

her home. He appointed a man to perform

the call to prayer for her [only used for the

obligatory prayers]. He ordered her to lead

the members of her dar in prayer [meaning,

either her home or neighborhood] (Abu

Dawud 2:300-301; Bayhaqi 3:131).

Just because I know you are wondering: the

classical rulings on woman-led prayer

Despite these reports most schools of law denied women the right to lead prayer unequivocally…

Some schools permit women to lead other women, women and men in non-obligatory prayers.

And a few early and medieval scholars such as Tabari, Abu Thawr, and Ibn al-ʿArabi agreed that women may lead men in all circumstances.

But let’s not lie about it

Men, even his closest companions, complained to the Prophet about women’s freedoms.

Men even complained to the Prophet about how his own wives’ treated him.

◦ Abu Bakr and ʿUmar asked Muhammad for permission to beat their daughters ʿAʾisha and Hafsa because Muhammad would not!

Men, even his closest companions complained to the Prophet as he tried to limit men’s freedom to beat the women in their own families.

Slavery was common and female slaves were used for sex.

◦ Slaves were not permitted to cover themselves as free women did, and their breasts were sometimes even exposed to public view.

Despite Muhammad’s efforts to get men to control themselves, men would harass women.

After Muhammad, there were efforts to limit

women’s public participation in official

religious life by barring them from mosques

For practical purposes alone, it was impossible to limit most women’s secular public participation.◦ Women worked. Women had to make

purchases. Women had to visit each other.

It was also difficult to limit women public participation in unofficial religious life.◦ Men and women continued to get together to

worship or talk about God outside of the mosque.

◦ Some women even preached in the streets even as they were not allowed to pray in mosques!

Female Scholars, Pious Women,

and Sufis in the early period Jurists

Hadith

Qur’an

The Pious and Sufis

Jurists

There are a significant number of

reports of women making legal

arguments concerning women’s issues

in the early period.

Before institutionalization, women who

had knowledge of the Qur’an and

reliable knowledge of the Prophet’s

practice took part in legal discussions

concerning all aspects of Muslim life.

Hafsa bint Sirin (d. 110H/728CE)

She came from a family of well-known scholars of

Muhammad’s tradition who learned from well-

known female and male scholars. She was herself

a well-respected scholar of hadith and Qur'an who

taught male and female students out of her home.

Hafsa bt. Sirin secured the right for the women of

Basra to attend the mosque on the major holidays,

the two Eids.

She was able to use her connections to two

women who had elite social authority, moral

authority, proximity to the Prophet, and deft legal

reasoning to prove that the Prophet insisted that

even menstruating and sexually vulnerable girls

should attend the Eid prayers.

Jurists, cont.Institutionalization made it much more difficult for women to become formal legal scholars over the years, but popular legal engagement continued.

◦ Women were mainly scholars out of their homes. Although there are scattered reports of women teaching out of mosques.

◦ Non-scholarly women had popular authority. Consider if you have a basic question about ritual or what would be best to do, who do you ask first? Most likely a family member, a knowledgeable friend, or neighbor.

HadithWomen were particularly known for transmitting hadith, reports about with the Prophet said, did, accepted, or rejected.

of female Hadith scholars. He is

presently at 53 volumes spanning from

the 1st/7th century to the present.

Akram Nadwi is

collecting biographies

Female hadith scholars

The most important authority was proximity to the Prophet or his companions.

Even slaves who had been close to the Prophet or his family, could pass on reports.

Most reports are passed along in response to distinct social contexts, therefore women tend to pass on reports about women’s issues, like menstruation, or practical matters in which women would be involved, like washing the bodies of women who had died.

As women come to be

excluded from mosques

and other authority, Asma

Sayeed shows that they

come to be excluded from

hadith scholarship.

• Starting around the end of the 1st/7th

century to the 4th/10th century women

disappear from biographies of hadith

transmitters.

• They return, but never up to the

original numbers.

Pious and Sufi Women

If you have heard of a female Sufi, you have heard of Rabia al-Adawiyya. But she is only one of many, many pious and mystic women who held the respect of men and women alike in the early period.

Prior to the rise of institutionalized

Sufism in the 11th century, it was not

uncommon for women to be mystical

teachers of men and women alike or

students of male teachers.

Much of their history is lost, but from the

reports we have women were highly

revered teachers, street preachers,

ecstatics, weepers who inspired others

to weep, ascetics, poets.

The frames of the stories tell us about

how men and women interacted:

Sufyan, Ibn Mubarak and others used to visit her…

“We used to visit ʿAjrada the Blind at her home…

He said, “I saw a woman who came to sit with Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Barathi...

He said, “I used to attend Shaʿwana’sgatherings often…

”ʿAta and and Mujahid used to frequent a black slave woman in the neighborhood of Mecca, she would move them to tears, then they would return."

They passed on their wisdom in mixed-

gender gatherings

Abu al-Hasan al-Rum said, “There was a

woman in Mecca who would host gatherings

where worshippers [male and female] would

advise each other on religious matters. One

day she said to them,

“This world has obscured God from

your hearts. If only you would polish

them, your hearts would aspire to the

heights of the heavens and bring back

to you a bit of insight.”

A father sent his son to sit and learn

from an old woman

Abdullah ibn Issa al-Tafawi told us, “My

father sent me to sit with Talha al-

Adawiyah. We entered [her home] and

found two baskets in front of her; one of

them containing raisins, buckthorn and

fresh beans. I was told that she uses

them for counting litanies and

sometimes eats from them in turn.

Women were street preachers

Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Karīm said, “I saw a black woman in Baṣra. People had gathered around her as she preached. At one point, she stood up and went into a house and they followed her inside. They encircled her, drawing near to her. I came up to her saying, "Have you no fear of pride?"

She raised her head to look at me and said, “How could one who has no knowledge of their place in the next world be proud of their works?”

Women held mixed-gender gatherings in

which they would lead others in worshipHe said, “I used to attend Shaʿwāna’sgatherings often but I could not understand what she had to say because of her profuse weeping.”

Then I asked, “Did you memorize any of her sayings?”

He said, “I did not retain any of her sayings that I can recall at this moment, except for one thing.” “What is it?” I asked.

He answered, “I heard her say ‘Any one of you who is able to weep should weep, or at least be compassionate towards those who weep. For the weeper only weeps because of their awareness of what has touched his soul’.”

So what are things like these

days?The restrictions on women’s authority has continued over the centuries with only exceptional women succeeding in elite traditional religious learning.

Popular practice, though, continued to see women offering guidance especially with regard to private preaching, teaching other women, and in spiritual matters.

To give you an idea, this is an illustration

of the Prophet’s mosque reimagined by

conservative scholars today

Hmm, where did the wives’ houses go?

A note of caution, though!

I’m talking about religious authority, not secular authority.

Muslim women continued over the centuries into the present to be business women at all levels of society.

Muslim women have been elected in much higher rates to political office in Muslim majority countries around the world.

But they are still subject to restricted elite religious authority in many places around the world with some exceptions.

In China

Women-only mosques in China created

a class of traditionally educated female

religious scholars and prayer leaders.

This

tradition

carries

on to this

day.

In West AfricaIn countries like Senegal, women have long been spiritual leaders for other women—with some famed women like Nana Asma’u.

—but have

recently

been moving

more and

more into

the forefront

as leaders of

both men

and women

Women’s Organizations like

Musawah and Women Living

Under Muslim Laws offer women

legal authority

Muslim women who have secular degrees

in Islamic Law or who have studied in

religious institutions like al-Azhar in Cairo

use their legal knowledge to intervene on

women’s issues globally in ways that are

sensitive to the complex identities of

Muslim women globally.

Conservative Muslim Women

In the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, traditional schools of religious learning have opened up more to female students. Women have even started their own schools.

They may never reach the status of elite males who do the same.

But they make a huge difference.

In Syria

Houda al-Habash opened a Qur’an school for girls and women in a mosque. They do not just learn to recite Qur’an, but also understand its meaning.

◦ They do not challenge traditional gender roles, but argue that traditional gender roles mean women should be educated, be scholars, be professionals, be in charge of the direction of their lives.

The school is featured in a documentary

called “The Light in Her Eyes”

A woman from the school wrote on the PBS website

for the film:“I have learned that so many

things that Muslims say about

Islam are wrong (lay people and

‘scholars’ alike) and have no basis

in our religion, but instead are

products of backward cultural

norms/racism that have been

allowed to persist despite what the

Qur'an and Hadith tell us. This

has empowered me against

people who want to impose their

own misogynistic/racist beliefs

against me and other people

under the guise of Qur'an.”

In Morocco

In 2005, after the Casablanca bombings, the Qarawayyin, some say the oldest university in the world (others say Cairo’s al-Azhar) began

educating women to be pastors

(mourchidate) in their communities in

the same program as men who are

training to be imams.

The program is explicitly political

These women are trained to prevent

“radicalization” through pastoral guidance.

◦ Research shows where women have valued

social (public) roles, even solely

traditionally-gendered roles, extremist views

of all types tend to be reduced.

◦ One mourchidate, Fatima Nezza, put it this

way:

“If you train a man, you train one person. If you train

a woman, you train an entire community.”

In North America

Like everyone else in the world there is a wide spectrum of Muslims with different attitudes about gender equality, gender egalitarianism, and women’s role in the Muslim community.

But even in conservative mosques or organizations (just like in conservative churches) women help run the community in essential ways.◦ Serving on mosque boards

◦ Organizing events

◦ Giving pre-sermon talks at Friday Prayers

◦ Running educational programs for adults and children

◦ Running social programs

◦ Running university programs

Female ImamsWoman-led prayer movement in North

America began in the 90’s in Toronto led by

El-Farouk Khaki, a LGBTQ activist.

In 2005,

Amina

Wadud led

her

(in)famous

Friday prayer

in New York

which shook

the Muslim

community

worldwide

There are gender-equal and LGBTQ

Muslim organizations all over the world

that support religious authority for all

El-Tawhid Juma Circle (Canada, US)

Women’s Mosque of America (US)

Safra Project (Great Britain)

Inclusive Mosque Initiative (Indonesia, Malaysia, Great Britain)

Inner Circle (South Africa)

Queer Muslim Network (MENA)

LGBTQ Pakistan (Pakistan)

Queer Somalis (Somalia)

Ahwaa (Bahrain)

And others…

Thanks!

“We used to prohibit our girls from going out [for the `Eid prayer]. ” (taking the opposing side)

But then, [Hafsa said], I went to visit a woman who had come to stay at the palace of the Bani Khalaf[the governor's palace]. (connecting herself and the first transmitter to elite political authority)

The woman was telling people about how her brother-in-law fought alongside the Prophet and that her sister [Umm `Atiyya] had nursed the wounded. She reported that her brother-in-law fought alongside the Prophet in twelve battles, and that her sister had been there for six of them. Her sister said, 'We used to care for the sick and treat the wounded.'” (proximity to Prophet and elite moral authority)

For Muhammad, it seems the onus was on

men to control themselves in the presence of

women.

al-Fadl bin Abbās rode with the Prophet on the back of the Prophet’s camel on the way to perform the last pilgrimage to Mecca. al-Fadlwas a handsome man. The Prophet stopped along the way to answer people’s questions.A beautiful woman came to ask the prophet a question about the performance of the pilgrimage. al-Fadl was very attracted to her and was staring at her. The Prophet turned back and saw the way that al-Fadl was looking at her; so the Prophet reached his hand back to catch the chin of al-Fadl and turned his face away so that he would not look at her (Bukhari, Book 74, #247).

"Once [the sister] asked him directly (proximity guaranteeing accuracy), 'Oh Messenger of God, is there any harm in a woman not going out [to the `eid prayer] if she has no outer wrap (jilbab)?'

"She asked, 'Oh God's Messenger, is there any harm in a woman not going out [to the `eidprayer] if she has no outer wrap (jilbab)?' (the way the question is asked assumes that women already attend the mosque for the `eid)

"He replied, 'Her neighbor should loan her one of her own wraps to wear, so that she may also be present for [it's] benefits and the believer's supplications.' (meaning: attending benefits moral character, phrasing suggests she should go)

“[Hafsa added,] So when Umm `Atiyya [herself] came, I asked her about what I had heard. (still taking opposing side…she is not convinced yet, and she shortens the chain of transmission guaranteeing greater accuracy)

"Umm `Atiyya replied, 'On my father's life, yes.' [Hafsa said,] [Umm ʿAtiyya] never mentioned the Prophet without saying, 'On my father's life'. (moral authority)

"'The Prophet said, 'Adolescent girls who are only seen by related men and servants, curtained off [from non-family members] and menstruating women should go out on the `eid. The menstruating women should keep away from the prayer area. But all of them should be present for [its] benefits and the believers supplications.'' (strengthens argument by insisting that even women one does not expect to go should go)

She uses several techniques in her argument:

1. She rhetorically takes the opposing side, then explains how her mind was changed.

2. She establishes her own religious authority and the women from whom she transmits the report by pointing out:

a. their connection to political elites,

b. their proximity to the Prophet, and

c. the unassailable moral authority of the primary transmitter as a woman who went into battle with the Prophet.

3. She makes a specifically legal argument based on analogy.

"Hafsa said, 'So I said to Umm `Atiyya, 'Even those who are menstruating?'' (still taking the opposing side suggesting she is not yet convinced and so drives the point home)

"Umm `Atiyya replied, 'Yes. Are they not also present at `Arafat [during the pilgrimage], and for this [ritual] and for that?'" (analogical legal reasoning)

***

And so, Hafsa won the right for women to continue to attend the mosque for the ʿeidprayers in Basra at that time.