DR.. TARIQ OMAR
Dr. Tarek Omer
The inferior view of women was part of the culture of Bedouin society before Islam, in and around the Arabian Peninsula, and may have been influenced by some vocabulary of Jewish beliefs, many of whose followers were living in the Arabian Peninsula at that time, most of which are beliefs that sin against women and put them in a lower position. So the woman was counting the fallen belongings and furniture, and from the total inheritance, then she ended up with her in the cradle.
And when Islam appeared in the Arabian Peninsula, it put forward a revolutionary discourse according to the standards of the time of its descent, so it criminalized female infanticide and equated all people, forbidding discrimination on the basis of color, race, tribe, or gender, and making piety the only criterion for differentiation between people (the most honorable of you in the sight of God is the most pious of you). This civilized discourse was able to unite those discordant tribes and races, in and around the Arabian Peninsula, and turn them into a great and sprawling empire in less than four decades. With the beginning of the second century of Hijra, Islamic jurisprudence began to be codified, mostly by jurists belonging to the Arabian Peninsula and influenced by its Bedouin culture. It was obvious that this Bedouin culture influenced the opinions of jurists and commentators, and some of them got involved in misconceptions and fabricated, weak or isolated hadiths. They built unfair judgments on some women’s issues. Surprisingly, Imam Al-Zuhri (the first century AH) says, “A man is not killed in his wife, because he owned her through the marriage contract”! We also find that the four imams considered the wife like a rented house, so they did not require the husband to treat her if she fell ill!! Without basing their judgment on any Qur’anic verse or hadith of the Prophet. This would not be a serious matter if we put it in the historical context as a preliminary reading of the texts affected by their place and time, but it remains a preliminary reading that should be followed by other advanced and renewed readings with the development of human civilization, and in a manner consistent with the overall civilized discourse of Islam that emphasizes the principles of justice, equality and human dignity, as The Holy Qur’an says, “We have honored the children of Adam.”
Therefore, diligence in interpreting texts and deriving jurisprudential rulings should have continued in a dynamic manner that evolves with the development of time, the change of place, and the different circumstances of life. This was accepted by the rulers of his time, which caused the door of ijtihad to be narrowed after him. Then came the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil (205-247 AH) who restricted jurisprudence to four schools of thought only, then completely prohibited ijtihad, and limited it only to interpreting the sayings of those four schools of thought…without deviating from it!
Then the perception worsened in the era of civilizational decline, starting from the middle of the fourth century AH until our current era, so women were seen as captives in the hands of men, and guardianship – mentioned in the Qur’an – was seen as a form of “oppression”, until we found a great imam such as Ibn al-Qayyim, who expresses The reality of his era – the Mamluks – so he says this amazing speech: “The master is subjugating his slave, ruling over him, and the husband is subduing his wife, ruling over her, and she is under his authority and rule is like a prisoner!!” Which completely contradicts His saying, “And they shall have the same as those upon them with kindness,” and His saying, “And We have placed between you affection and mercy”; He did not say authority and oppression. Unfortunately, a large and influential part of the current religious discourse, especially the discourse of Wahhabi-Salafi thought, still repeats this misconception, and gives the guardianship the concept of enslavement, which represents a radical reversal of the correct concept of religion from the marital relationship, and the relationship of women to society.
Our main problem, then, is that the Bedouin thought was able, through its cultural influence on the jurists and theologians, to include its view of women’s inferiority within the propositions of jurisprudence and Islamic thought itself, and then acquired the sanctity of religion in a way that guarantees its continuity among large segments of the nation (men and women). It is sad to see a significant segment of women defending this dark thought based on their wrong understanding of religion! It is also unfortunate that some others, and those who belong to the secular trend, when they want to obtain material gains in their marital relations, in a way that cannot be justified through sound human logic and the spirit of justice, immediately resort to obtaining justifications from reactionary religious fatwas and interpretations… and from the same jurists who consider women captive. at the man.
My certainty is that we must completely free ourselves from the captivity of these erroneous jurisprudential interpretations that are influenced by the Bedouin culture, which does not see women as having a role other than the enjoyment of men (in this world and the hereafter). Rather, we all have a duty to create new intellectual and jurisprudential contexts for the status, role and duty of women, inspired by the higher principles of the Islamic religion such as justice, equality (in rights and duties), and human dignity, in a way that achieves the ultimate goal of religion, which is “the interest of the nation.”
Thank you, and you are always welcome
Dr.. Tariq Omar
Research paper – presented at the Arab Thought Council meeting
McLean, VA – July 30, 2017
DR.. TARIQ OMAR
Dr. Tarek Omer
The inferior view of women was part of the culture of Bedouin society before Islam, in and around the Arabian Peninsula, and may have been influenced by some vocabulary of Jewish beliefs, many of whose followers were living in the Arabian Peninsula at that time, most of which are beliefs that sin against women and put them in a lower position. So the woman was counting the fallen belongings and furniture, and from the total inheritance, then she ended up with her in the cradle.
And when Islam appeared in the Arabian Peninsula, it put forward a revolutionary discourse according to the standards of the time of its descent, so it criminalized female infanticide and equated all people, forbidding discrimination on the basis of color, race, tribe, or gender, and making piety the only criterion for differentiation between people (the most honorable of you in the sight of God is the most pious of you). This civilized discourse was able to unite those discordant tribes and races, in and around the Arabian Peninsula, and turn them into a great and sprawling empire in less than four decades. With the beginning of the second century of Hijra, Islamic jurisprudence began to be codified, mostly by jurists belonging to the Arabian Peninsula and influenced by its Bedouin culture. It was obvious that this Bedouin culture influenced the opinions of jurists and commentators, and some of them got involved in misconceptions and fabricated, weak or isolated hadiths. They built unfair judgments on some women’s issues. Surprisingly, Imam Al-Zuhri (the first century AH) says, “A man is not killed in his wife, because he owned her through the marriage contract”! We also find that the four imams considered the wife like a rented house, so they did not require the husband to treat her if she fell ill!! Without basing their judgment on any Qur’anic verse or hadith of the Prophet. This would not be a serious matter if we put it in the historical context as a preliminary reading of the texts affected by their place and time, but it remains a preliminary reading that should be followed by other advanced and renewed readings with the development of human civilization, and in a manner consistent with the overall civilized discourse of Islam that emphasizes the principles of justice, equality and human dignity, as The Holy Qur’an says, “We have honored the children of Adam.”
Therefore, diligence in interpreting texts and deriving jurisprudential rulings should have continued in a dynamic manner that evolves with the development of time, the change of place, and the different circumstances of life. This was accepted by the rulers of his time, which caused the door of ijtihad to be narrowed after him. Then came the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil (205-247 AH) who restricted jurisprudence to four schools of thought only, then completely prohibited ijtihad, and limited it only to interpreting the sayings of those four schools of thought…without deviating from it!
Then the perception worsened in the era of civilizational decline, starting from the middle of the fourth century AH until our current era, so women were seen as captives in the hands of men, and guardianship – mentioned in the Qur’an – was seen as a form of “oppression”, until we found a great imam such as Ibn al-Qayyim, who expresses The reality of his era – the Mamluks – so he says this amazing speech: “The master is subjugating his slave, ruling over him, and the husband is subduing his wife, ruling over her, and she is under his authority and rule is like a prisoner!!” Which completely contradicts His saying, “And they shall have the same as those upon them with kindness,” and His saying, “And We have placed between you affection and mercy”; He did not say authority and oppression. Unfortunately, a large and influential part of the current religious discourse, especially the discourse of Wahhabi-Salafi thought, still repeats this misconception, and gives the guardianship the concept of enslavement, which represents a radical reversal of the correct concept of religion from the marital relationship, and the relationship of women to society.
Our main problem, then, is that the Bedouin thought was able, through its cultural influence on the jurists and theologians, to include its view of women’s inferiority within the propositions of jurisprudence and Islamic thought itself, and then acquired the sanctity of religion in a way that guarantees its continuity among large segments of the nation (men and women). It is sad to see a significant segment of women defending this dark thought based on their wrong understanding of religion! It is also unfortunate that some others, and those who belong to the secular trend, when they want to obtain material gains in their marital relations, in a way that cannot be justified through sound human logic and the spirit of justice, immediately resort to obtaining justifications from reactionary religious fatwas and interpretations… and from the same jurists who consider women captive. at the man.
My certainty is that we must completely free ourselves from the captivity of these erroneous jurisprudential interpretations that are influenced by the Bedouin culture, which does not see women as having a role other than the enjoyment of men (in this world and the hereafter). Rather, we all have a duty to create new intellectual and jurisprudential contexts for the status, role and duty of women, inspired by the higher principles of the Islamic religion such as justice, equality (in rights and duties), and human dignity, in a way that achieves the ultimate goal of religion, which is “the interest of the nation.”
Thank you, and you are always welcome
Dr.. Tariq Omar
Research paper – presented at the Arab Thought Council meeting
McLean, VA – July 30, 2017
