The Legacy of an Empowered African Woman

by Umm Zaheen

On January 20, 2009, Americans witnessed history in the making as the first African- American man became the 44^th president of the United States. This event is historic not because of the color of President Barack Hussein Obama’s skin, but rather that people looked past his skin color and foreign name and looked at his character and qualifications. It was only 50 years back that he wouldn’t even be considered worthy of sitting next to a white person on the bus or being served in a public restaurant. It was through the sacrifices and struggles of the people during the civil rights movement that African-Americans and other minorities in this country were finally allowed to enjoy some parts of the American dream. This is an important lesson for Muslim-Americans, who in the past eight years have also witnessed greater amounts of discrimination and distrust by the larger American society. Learning from the civil rights movement, it is through vigilance, unity, and peaceful but open protest that we will also get our voices heard and the injustices overturned. As people of faith, we also know that it will be our full trust in God that will help us get through the darker and tougher times, as we see our brothers and sisters around the world suffering from injustice, violence, and poverty.

While President Obama’s story can be inspiring to many of our youth, I would like to turn our attention to another inspiring African whose actions and faith have left an even greater legacy. Based on both Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions, Hajar, also known as Hagar in the Bible, lived in ancient Egypt during time of Prophet Abraham between the dates of 2008 BCE to 1637 BCE. During this time, Pharaohs controlled Egypt and the areas around the Nile from the delta all the way to what is current day Sudan. Archeologists term this time period as the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, when the Theban forces from southern Egypt under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers who had controlled the northern region, and began a sort of renaissance in ancient Egypt.

While the racial background of the Pharaohs is still debated, there are some scholars who suggest that Egyptians at the time of Abraham were black Africans. One of the evidences for this assumption is that during the 5th century, Greek historian Herodotus referred to the ancient Egyptians as “melanchroes” (black-skinned). Whether they were black or brown, the Pharaohs had developed a grand civilization that still baffles historians today.

In most traditions, Hajar was the daughter of one of these Pharaoh’s who was killed by a new tyrannical Pharaoh, and as a young girl, she was taken as captive of war to serve the palace. However, some Christian traditions relate that Hajar was the daughter of the Pharaoh himself who captured Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Either way, Hajar lived in the palace when Sarah and Prophet Abraham entered Egypt in search of food during a famine in their region. Word had spread out that the most beautiful woman had entered the land. While surely the Egyptians had many beautiful women in their region, it may have been that Sarah’s presence was noticed due to her fairer skin color.

Unbeknownst to Abraham and Sarah, the tyrannical Pharaoh had the reputation of capturing any woman at his pleasure, whether she was single or married. If she was married, he would have her husband killed immediately. Prophet Abraham and Sarah had already survived several attempts to their lives as they tried to spread their message of monotheism. But they had found almost no followers in their region except Abraham’s nephew, Prophet Lot. Being one of the few people who believed in the ancient message of Adam, Noah, and the past prophets, Abraham knew that his death would mean also the death of the message. Therefore, to safeguard the message of unity, Abraham had to lie to the Pharaoh’s army and say that Sarah was his sister when the men of the Pharaoh came for her. Sarah was taken to the palace to be yet another concubine. However, when the Pharaoh came to touch Sarah, she sought refuge and protection in God. God answered her prayer and paralyzed the Pharaoh whenever he approached her. The Pharaoh, scared and dumbfounded, finally released Sarah. In order to appease this powerful “sorceress”, as he might have considered her, he also gave her Hajar to be her slave. Living in the palace, Hajar most likely heard about and perhaps even witnessed this incident because soon she also came to believe in the one God of which Abraham and Sarah preached. Her life in the palace proved to her, similar to the life experiences of Prophet Moses, that the Pharaoh was nothing but a mere human with no extra ordinary powers.

Abraham, Sarah, and Hajar left Egypt and went back to the region of Palestine. The meaning of Hajar in Hebrew means “stranger”. It may have been a title that was placed on her when she moved with them as she was probably darker skinned than the rest of the community in Palestine and stood out as a new stranger. Several years had passed while Hajar lived with Abraham and Sarah and they got to know of her good character. Thus, when Sarah thought that she had passed the age to bear a child and that Abraham would be left without an heir to pass on the message of monotheism, she told Abraham to take Hajar as a second wife, who was still young enough to bear children. Prophet Abraham agreed to this and made Hajar his wife, with equal status to Sarah. Then to his great pleasure, Hajar gave birth to Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born son. While Ishmael was still an infant, however, Abraham saw a vision in a dream that he was to take Hajar and his only son to a desolate desert land of his ancestors and leave them there. He was promised by God that they would be taken care of and from them would rise a great nation. Perhaps he saw this dream several times to confirm that this was not some random hallucination but a message from the Almighty God. Having this vision and close connection to God, Abraham saw no other choice but to obey.

Unfortunately some have placed the blame on Sarah, saying that she became jealous of Hajar’s new status and asked Abraham to send her away. On deeper reflection and knowing the history of Abraham and Sarah, that version of the story seems quite against the character and unbecoming of any of these righteous figures. First, Sarah was not an ordinary wife as it was she who had suggested the marriage of Abraham and Hajar in the first place. At her late age, Sarah was less interested in her marital life as she was about keeping the message of monotheism alive. She was not a weak woman controlled by her whims and desires as that version would have us believe. It would have taken much strength, faith, and character to have lived through such hardships as she did being a Prophet’s wife. Thus, wishing to send Ishmael away at this infant stage would have defeated her original motivation to bring up the next generation of Prophets. Secondly, Abraham would never leave his new wife (who was also a believer) and only son (the future of the religion) in a barren land unless it was dictated by God himself. Thirdly, for her faith and good character, God blessed Sarah with Isaac thirteen years later, who would also become a prophet. God would not have given this blessing to Sarah if she had such a low character as the one described by some.

Therefore, as the “friend of God”, Prophet Abraham obeyed his vision and mounted his second wife and their son on a camel with some food and water and headed 700 km south from Palestine towards Yemen. During this long trek, Hajar must have known that Abraham intended to “resettle” her and her son somewhere else. She might have imagined that it was another believing or friendly community. But when they stopped in the middle of nowhere, in a barren and harsh land with no water, people and food, she questioned Abraham “O Abraham, where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person whose company we can enjoy, nor is there anything here?” Abraham could not respond as there was no human logic, only a divine vision which he was afraid to explain to her. She asked him three times, but being a believing woman, she finally asked him “Has God asked you to do so?” Abraham stopped, turned back and said, “Yes!” Feeling a degree of comfort in this answer, Hagar asked, “O Abraham, to whom are you leaving us?” Abraham replied “I am leaving you to God’s care”. Hajar then showed her strong faith by responding that, “I am satisfied to be with God!”

Now if this happened to any of us, we would have thought our husband was out of his mind acting on a dream. We may have pleaded and thrown ourselves at his feet or gone hysterical out of desperation. Not this brave and strong willed woman. She had already seen or heard of how God saved Sarah from the Pharaoh. She had heard the story of how God saved Abraham from the fire. So she knew that the same God will also test her and save her and her son from this predicament. She had complete trust in God.

When Abraham left, Hajar was completely alone with only a baby to care for. She did not have a “Mahram” or male relative to defend or help her. She could not depend on her father, her husband or her son to protect her. In fact, her son’s survival depended on her. She had only God and herself to count on. The story is usually related that out of desperation for water, she ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa. But Hajar had already shown that she did not act in desperation but in faith when Abraham turned around and left. The food and water they had left was soon depleted. While she had complete trust in God, she knew she could not stand still but must seek God’s sustenance. So she first ran up to higher ground on one side of the valley and then to the other side. She did this seven times, yet she did not see anything. If we were in a hot desert, either low or without water, our first instinct would be to conserve our energy. If we climbed once or even twice on the same hill and saw nothing, we’d most likely quit in frustration and hopelessness. But Hajar knew that God would not let them die. Because her faith was so strong, she kept seeking for God’s grace. By running seven times up and down those hills, she showed a will and determination that few of us have. It was this faith and hope that made Hajar pass the test. God would not have honored Hajar with the legacy of the Sa’i, (part of the Hajj ritual), if Hajar showed lack of resolve and perhaps blasphemy for her situation. Any one of us may have found that we would have lost our faith in God if we were put in such a dire situation, as so many of us do with even smaller tests. If she was desperate, she would have gone once or twice and then given up. But it was her determination and trust in God that kept her seeking and she would have continued to run up and down those hills had it not been that she heard a noise near her son’s feet.

God answered her prayers and sent angel Gabriel, the same angel that brought the revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad, down to strike the ground and spring up the well of Zam Zam. Hajar heard the sound of the spring coming under Ishmael’s feet. A hadith of Prophet Muhammad says that if Hajar had left the spring alone, it would have become a rushing river. However, Hajar said to the water “zam zam” which means “stay...stay” and it became just a well. This hadiths may suggest to some that Hajar had interfered with a miracle of God out of her own ignorance. Yet, the real meaning of this hadith indicates that God had given this African slave woman the same power as He would later give to Moses when he split the Red Sea. With her mere two words, the water obeyed her commandments and stayed in place. If God had wanted the zam zam to be a gushing river, what would the words of anyone stop it? But God had given this privilege to Hajar for her unyielding faith.

God had promised Abraham that his wife and child would be kept safe in a community of people and that a great nation would arise from them. As such, God sent some birds to the area which then were attracted to the presence of water and circled around it. A passing caravan of the Jerhome tribe from Yemen saw the birds and sent two people to investigate. They came back to tell of a new source of water, which is considered the lifeline of the desert, and that near it was only a single woman and a baby. This warring tribe of men could have calculated that they could easily subdue or kill the woman and child and then take over the well themselves. But strangely, this tribe came to Hajar in a peaceful and respectful manner and asked for her permission to settle near the well. Stranger yet was her answer. She told them that they could settle there only on the condition that the well of Zam Zam belonged to her and her son, with no fear of the consequences of such bold claims. They, however, easily agreed to this condition.

While many have considered this behavior of the tribesmen and Hajar as strange, when we consider the whole situation, it was not so strange after all. The Jerhome tribe had recently emigrated from Yemen, a region who had just witnessed a devastating flood when their dam broke and destroyed their rich and fruitful land which they had enjoyed for centuries. They had received warnings from their own messengers that if they did not desist their corruption and evil ways, that they would lose everything. The Jerhome tribe felt that the destruction of their crops was a punishment from God and now they were forced to seek their sustenance away from their original land. So when they came upon a lone woman with an infant and a water source that had never been there before, they could have only guessed that this was divine intervention; thus, they dared not again incur the anger of God on themselves by harming this miracle woman and her child. On the other side, Hajar had witnessed with her own two eyes the miracle of the zam zam water, and felt fully empowered with her faith in God. She understood that God was there to protect her and her child, so no one, however many, would be able to harm her. Thus, while she was happy for the human company which they offered, she had also grown up in a palace and was the daughter of a Pharaoh. She used her intelligence and experience when she told them that she would remain as the owner of the Zam Zam Well, the main source of life in that region. If she had given up that ownership, which was a gift from God, then she knew that her and her son’s position in the new society would be far diminished. But as the Well’s owner, she and her son would in essence be the new royalty of the new found city. Sensing the divine protection and impressed by her confidence, the Jerhome tribe agreed to this condition and settled on the land which is now known as Mecca.

Ishmael was thirteen or so when Abraham and Sarah were visited by angels to give the good news of their son Isaac. Therefore, it would make sense that Abraham had come to visit Hajar and Ishmael in Mecca beforehand as again Abraham was given another vision in a dream that he was to sacrifice his only son, which he abandoned in the desert several years ago, to God. When Abraham arrived to the same area, to his surprise, he found a flourishing society around the well of Zam Zam. He went to visit his son and wife and was warmly welcomed, rather than rejected or ignored for his previous actions. This was the first time Ishmael had seen his father since he was one years old. Yet, Ishmael had nothing but love and respect for his father. Abraham was taken back by this loving generosity and strong faith. He probably had expected at least some hostility from the son he had left in the desert and never visited. But when Abraham shared his vision with Ishmael about offering him as a sacrifice, his son said nothing except "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills, one of the steadfast!" (Quran 37:102). It is very similar to Hajar’s response when she said, “I am satisfied to be with God.”

While the name of Hajar is not mentioned in this passage, and she may have not known at that time Abraham’s reasons for returning, Ishmael’s ready acceptance of his father’s vision reflects the upbringing Ishmael had received under his mother, his first and for his case only teacher. Hajar was left with the full responsibilities of raising her son as a single parent. She could have chosen to be upset at her predicament and tell Ishmael negative stories about his father and how he had abandoned them and left them to die in the harsh desert environment. But Ishmael’s reaction showed that he knew his father to be a truthful and trustworthy man, a man with whom God speaks, a man to be admired and followed. He could have known that only if his mother had made sure Ishmael knew the good character of his father and that it was God who chose for them to be in Mecca and that Abraham was a true man of God by obeying His commandments.

When God accepted both Abraham’s and Ishmael’s submission to His will, He replaced Ishmael with the ram. Ishmael had also passed his test and now was considered a prophet like his father. Afterwards, he and his father were commanded to establish the first house of prayer to Allah, at a site next to the well of Zam Zam and the two hills of Safa and Marwa. As mentioned earlier, the people of Jerhome were also God fearing men and women. They had great respect for Hajar and her son Ishmael who grew up among them. Therefore, they extended that respect to his father who was a stranger to them. They did not protest that Ishmael and his father were building the Kaaba, next to their precious well of Zam Zam, as that well belonged to Ishmael and his mother. Additionally, because of their respect for Hajar and Ishmael, they accepted the religion of monotheism and the ritual of circumambulating the House of God. Abraham would not have gotten this grand respect had it not been for Hajar.

The descendants of Ishmael continued to have control of both the well of Zam Zam and the Kaaba, and were the religious heads of the region up until the time of Prophet Muhammad some 2,500 years later. This could not have been possible if it was not for the bravery and astuteness of Hajar, the founder of the holy city of Mecca, the first owner of the miracle well of Zam Zam, and the great ancestor of Prophet Muhammad. While Abraham was the father of the three monotheistic religions, Hajar and Sarah were the mothers.

God has kept her legacy alive for over almost 4,000 years to the present time so that we may not forget about this great woman. Every single day, millions of Muslims come to the city of Mecca to do their Umrah or Hajj pilgrimage, and they circumambulate the Kaaba and then run between the two hills of Safa and Marwa seven times, which is called the Sai, in her remembrance.

There are several lessons we can learn from her story. First, we can see that Islam’s roots were established on a multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-linguistic basis. Ishmael was the son of Prophet Abraham, a Chaldean, and an African Egyptian slave woman, and brought up among the Arab people of Yemen. The annual pilgrimage of Hajj continues to reiterate the oneness of human kind and shows that our different colors and languages add to the beautiful diversity of the world, and should not be reasons for animosity but rather appreciation. It also shows that greatness is not based on skin color, socio-economic background or gender, but from one’s righteousness and faith.

Secondly, her life story reaffirms the high status women have in Islam, who are considered equal under the eyes of God. God could have easily told Abraham to go dig the well of Zam Zam and wait for the tribe to come before departing back to Palestine. Yet, God had chosen this special blessing for an African slave woman. Hajar passed her test when she showed true resilience and faith. She learned that she should not depend on any man, but rather she should put all her trust in God, who was the only true protector and savior. As God saved Abraham from the fire, Sarah from the Pharaoh, and Hajar from the desert, it is God alone who provides our sustenance and God alone that is worthy of worship. This countered the many beliefs at that time that women should always be subservient to men and should worship them or obey them devoutly, with no questions asked. God showed us centuries back that women were intelligent human beings equally worthy of respect and blessing and could play part in politics, ownership and self reliance.

Lastly, we learn the true effects of being empowered. Hajar could have given up her search for water after one or two tries, but she believed in God and believed in herself. She would not just watch her son die of thirst and hunger without trying her best to prevent it. Hajar also came from a noble and knowledgeable background. She understood politics, understood human nature and understood how to best position herself in any situation. She did not cower with fear and desperation as Abraham walked out of view, leaving them in the desert. She did not cower with fear when a group of strange men approached her and asked for her to share her water. This empowerment came from her Taqwa. When you know deep down inside that God is with you and watching, you learn to only fear and trust Him and no one else.

While Obama’s actual legacy yet remains to be seen as it’s only been a day he’s been president, all of us can learn from the legacy of this greatly empowered African woman, our mother Hajar.

Islam's Women Scholars

by Yoginder Sikand

One indicator of the development of a society is its female literacy rate and, related to this, the number of its female scholars. On both these fronts, India’s Muslims are among the lowest of all the communities in the country. This unfortunate fact provides a basis for negative stereotyping of the community, particularly in matters related to inter-gender relations. This, however, is ironical, given that Islam is one of the few religions to have declared education to be a duty binding on all its followers, men as well as women. The irony is further heightened by the fact that early Islamic history provides examples of numerous Muslim women scholars who made valuable contributions to the intellectual life of their communities.

That little known story is precisely what an Urdu book I recently read with avid interest is all about. Penned by a Pakistani alim, Maulana Syeed Ghulam Mustafa Bukhari Aqeel, the book, titled ‘Muslim Khawatin Ki Ilmi Khidmat’ (‘The Intellectual Contributions of Muslim Women’) contains vignettes about scores of early Muslim women scholars, who could serve as major sources of inspiration to Muslims, including Muslim women, today if only they were more widely known, a task that the Maulana takes upon himself.

Many of these early Muslim women scholars were experts in various Islamic sciences, in contrast to today’s case where we have few, if any, such female scholars. The book refers to Ibn Hajar Asqalani as writing that the early centuries of Islam record more than 1500 female scholars of Hadith, including several wives of the Prophet and his companions as well as women in succeeding generations. Many of these were also narrators of Hadith reports. Fatima bint Qais is said to have had long debates with the caliph Umar on an issue related to fiqh, and, so the book says, the majority of the ulema gave preference to her view. Similarly, the noted historian Khateeb Baghdadi mentions 32 famous female scholars of his times, and one of them, Karina Bint Ahmad Maruzia, taught him the collection of Hadith by Imam Bukhari. Likewise, the noted Muhaddith Imam Zahri described Umra Bint Abdur Rahman, a woman brought up by Hazrat Ayesha, as ‘an unending sea of knowledge’.

Several of these women scholars had male students, something quite inconceivable for many Muslims today. Thus, Ayesha Bint Sad bin Al-Waqas, a scholar of Hadith, had a large number of students, including the great Imam Malik. Imam Shafi, so the book tells us, would attend the lectures of Hazrat Nafisa, grand-daughter of Imam Husain. The Abbasid Caliph Malik Marwan would sometimes attend the lectures of a woman scholar Sahima Bint Yahya al-Osabia.

Other women wrote books on religious and other subjects, many of which, unfortunately, have been now lost. Fatima Nishapuri wrote a tafsir or commentary on the Quran; Zainab Bint Usman bin Muhammad authored several books on fiqh; Razia, sister of al-Hakim of Andalusia, wrote extensively on History and Geography; Aisha Khas, a noted calligrapher and musician, translated several books from Sanskrit and Greek and so on. The book also mentions several Indian Muslim families from royal families who were accomplished authors, mainly in the fields of Sufism, history and royal biography.

In this early period of Islamic history, numerous women founded madrasas, including some specifically for Muslim women. Thus, says the book, the first madrasa, as separate from a mosque as a centre for education, was founded by a woman, Fatima Bint Muhammad al-Fahari, in Morocco in the mid-ninth century. The enormous structure of the madrasa could accommodate some thirty thousand worshippers praying together.

Other notable women founders of madrasas in this period included Maryam Bint Yaqub, who established a girls’ madrasa in Seville, where besides the Islamic sciences, subjects like Philosophy, History, Geography, Mathematics, Astronomy and various crafts were taught; Bint Qazi Shihabuddin al-Tabari, whose madrasa catered to orphans; Tazkira Rabai Khatun’s madrasa in Egypt for poor girls; a school for training women in martial arts set up by Geti Ada Begum, daughter of Murad Khan, ruler of Zabulistan; and the Dar ul-Zubaida, a madrasa built on the spot of the Dar ul-Arqam, the place outside Mecca where the Prophet would himself teach his followers, built by Talib ul-Zaman Habshia, a female slave of the Abbasid Caliph Nasirbillah.

With such illustrious role models from their past, Muslim women today searching for their rights need not look elsewhere for inspiration. These early Muslim women show how Islam, as they and the men who supported their endeavours understood it, positively facilitated women’s scholarship and intellectual pursuit. In a context as in India today, where the number of female Islamic scholars is negligible and even books on Islam and women are still written almost wholly by men and are often shaped by patriarchal prejudices, these women provide numerous lessons that we could well profit from.

Posted by Madrasas in India: Reformist Perspectives at 3:44 AM

Women Scholars of Hadith

posted on

http://www.islamfortoday.com/womenscholars.htm

Dr. Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi

History records few scholarly enterprises, at least before modern times, in which women have played an important and active role side by side with men. The science of hadith forms an outstanding exception in this respect.

Islam, as a religion which (unlike Christianity) refused to attribute gender to the Godhead,¹ and never appointed a male priestly elite to serve as an intermediary between creature and Creator, started life with the assurance that while men and women are equipped by nature for complementary rather than identical roles, no spiritual superiority inheres in the masculine principle.² As a result, the Muslim community was happy to entrust matters of equal worth in God's sight. Only this can explain why, uniquely among the classical Western religions, Islam produced a large number of outstanding female scholars, on whose testimony and sound judgment much of the edifice of Islam depends.

Since Islam's earliest days, women had been taking a prominent part in the preservation and cultivation of hadith, and this function continued down the centuries. At every period in Muslim history, there lived numerous eminent women-traditionists, treated by their brethren with reverence and respect. Biographical notices on very large numbers of them are to be found in the biographical dictionaries.

During the lifetime of the Prophet, many women had been not only the instance for the evolution of many traditions, but had also been their transmitters to their sisters and brethren in faith.³ After the Prophet's death, many women Companions, particularly his wives, were looked upon as vital custodians of knowledge, and were approached for instruction by the other Companions, to whom they readily dispensed the rich store which they had gathered in the Prophet's company. The names of Hafsa, Umm Habiba, Maymuna, Umm Salama, and A'isha, are familiar to every student of hadith as being among its earliest and most distinguished transmitters.⁴ In particular, A'isha is one of the most important figures in the whole history of hadith literature - not only as one of the earliest reporters of the largest number of hadith, but also as one of their most careful interpreters.

In the period of the Successors, too, women held important positions as traditionists. Hafsa, the daughter of Ibn Sirin,⁵ Umm al-Darda the Younger (d.81/700), and 'Amra bin 'Abd al-Rahman, are only a few of the key women traditionists of this period. Umm al-Darda' was held by Iyas ibn Mu'awiya, an important traditionist of the time and a judge of undisputed ability and merit, to be superior to all the other traditionists of the period, including the celebrated masters of hadith like al-Hasan al-Basri and Ibn Sirin.⁶ 'Amra was considered a great authority on traditions related by A'isha. Among her students, Abu Bakr ibn Hazm, the celebrated judge of Medina, was ordered by the caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz to write down all the traditions known on her authority.⁷

After them, 'Abida al-Madaniyya, 'Abda bin Bishr, Umm Umar al-Thaqafiyya, Zaynab the granddaughter of Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn Abbas, Nafisa bint al-Hasan ibn Ziyad, Khadija Umm Muhammad, 'Abda bint Abd al-Rahman, and many other members of the fair sex excelled in delivering public lectures on hadith. These devout women came from the most diverse backgrounds, indicating that neither class nor gender were obstacles to rising through the ranks of Islamic scholarship. For example, Abida, who started life as a slave owned by Muhammad ibn Yazid, learnt a large number of hadiths with the teachers in Median. She was given by her master to Habib Dahhun, the great traditionist of Spain, when he visited the holy city on this way to the Hajj. Dahhun was so impressed by her learning that he freed her, married her, and brought her to Andalusia. It is said that she related ten thousand traditions on the authority of her Medinan teachers.⁸

Zaynab bint Sulayman (d. 142/759), by contrast, was princess by birth. Her father was a cousin of al-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid dynasty, and had been a governor of Basra, Oman and Bahrayn during the caliphate of al-Mansur.⁹ Zaynab, who received a fine education, acquired a mastery of hadith, gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished women traditionists of the time, and counted many important men among her pupils.¹⁰

This partnership of women with men in the cultivation of the Prophetic Tradition continued in the period when the great anthologies of hadith were compiled. A survey of the texts reveals that all the important compilers of traditions from the earliest period received many of them from women shuyukh: every major collection gives the names of many women as the immediate authorities of the author. And when these works had been compiled, the women traditionists themselves mastered them, and delivered lectures to large classes of pupils, to whom they would issue their own ijazas.

In the fourth century, we find Fatima bint Abd al-Rahman (d. 312/924), known as al-Sufiyya on account of her great piety; Fatima (granddaughter of Abu Daud of Sunan fame); Amat al-Wahid (d. 377/987), the daughter of distinguished jurist al-Muhamili; Umm al-Fath Amat as-Salam (d. 390/999), the daughter of the judge Abu Bakr Ahmad (d.350/961); Jumua bint Ahmad, and many other women, whose classes were always attended by reverential audiences.¹¹

The Islamic tradition of female hadith scholarship continued in the fifth and sixth centuries of hijra. Fatima bin al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn al-Daqqaq al-Qushayri, was celebrated not only for her piety and her mastery of calligraphy, but also for her knowledge of hadith and the quality of the isnads she knew.¹² Even more distinguished was Karima al-Marwaziyya (d.463/1070), who was considered the best authority on the Sahih of al-Bukhari in her own time. Abu Dharr of Herat, one of the leading scholars of the period, attached such great importance to her authority that he advised his students to study the Sahih under no one else, because of the quality of her scholarship. She thus figures as a central point in the transmission of this seminal text of Islam.¹³ As a matter of fact, writes Godziher, 'her name occurs with extraordinary frequency of the ijazas for narrating the text of this book.'¹⁴ Among her students were al-Khatib al-Baghdadi¹⁵ and al-Humaydi (428/1036-488/1095).¹⁶

Aside from Karima, a number of other women traditionists 'occupy an eminent place in the history of the transmission of the text of the Sahih.'¹⁷ Among these, one might mention in particular Fatima bint Muhammad (d.539/1144; Shuhda 'the Writer' (d.574/1178), and Sitt al-Wuzara bint Umar (d.716/1316).¹⁸ Fatima narrated the book on the authority of the great traditionist Said al-Ayyar; she received from the hadith specialists the proud tittle of Musnida Isfahan (the great hadith authority of Isfahan). Shuhda was a famous calligrapher and a traditionist of great repute; the biographers describe her as 'the calligrapher, the great authority on hadith, and the pride of womanhood.' Her great-grandfather had been a dealer in needles, and thus acquired the sobriquet 'al-Ibri'. But her father, Abu Nasr (d. 506/1112) had acquired a passion for hadith, and managed to study it with several masters of the subject.¹⁹ In obedience to the sunna, he gave his daughter a sound academic education, ensuring that she studied under many traditionists of accepted reputation.

She married Ali ibn Muhammad, an important figure with some literary interests, who later became a boon companion of the caliph al-Muqtadi, and founded a college and a Sufi lodge, which he endowed most generously. His wife, however, was better known: she gained her reputation in the field of hadith scholarship, and was noted for the quality of her isnads.²⁰ Her lectures on Sahih al-Bukhari and other hadith collections were attended by large crowds of students; and on account of her great reputation, some people even falsely claimed to have been her disciples.²¹

Also known as an authority on Bukhari was Sitt al-Wuzara, who, besides her acclaimed mastery of Islamic law, was known as 'the musnida of her time', and delivered lectures on the Sahih and other works in Damascus and Egypt. ²² Classes on the Sahih were likewise given by Umm al-Khayr Amat al-Khaliq (811/1408-911/1505), who is regarded as the last great hadith scholar of the Hijaz.²³ Still another authority on Bukhari was A'isha bint Abd al-Hadi.²⁴

Apart from these women, who seem to have specialized in the great Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari, there were others, whose expertise was centered on other texts. Umm al-Khayr Fatima bint Ali (d.532/1137), and Fatima al-Shahrazuriyya, delivered lectures on the Sahih of Muslim.²⁵ Fatima al-Jawzdaniyya (d.524/1129) narrated to her students the three Mu'jams of al-Tabarani.²⁶ Zaynab of Harran (d.68/1289), whose lectures attracted a large crowd of students, taught them the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the largest known collection of hadiths.²⁷ Juwayriya bint Umar (d.783/1381), and Zaynab bint Ahmad ibn Umar (d.722/1322), who had travelled widely in pursuit of hadith and delivered lectures in Egypt as well as Medina, narrated to her students the collections of al-Darimi and Abd ibn Humayd; and we are told that students travelled from far and wide to attend her discourses.²⁸ Zaynab bint Ahmad (d.740/1339), usually known as Bint al-Kamal, acquired 'a camel load' of diplomas; she delivered lectures on the Musnad of Abu Hanifa, the Shamail of al-Tirmidhi, and the Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar of al-Tahawi, the last of which she read with another woman traditionist, Ajiba bin Abu Bakr (d.740/1339).²⁹ 'On her authority is based,' says Goldziher, 'the authenticity of the Gotha codex ... in the same isnad a large number of learned women are cited who had occupied themselves with this work."³⁰ With her, and various other women, the great traveller Ibn Battuta studied traditions during his stay at Damascus.³¹ The famous historian of Damascus, Ibn Asakir, who tells us that he had studied under more than 1,200 men and 80 women, obtained the ijaza of Zaynab bint Abd al-Rahman for the Muwatta of Imam Malik.³² Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti studied the Risala of Imam Shafii with Hajar bint Muhammad.³³ Afif al-Din Junayd, a traditionist of the ninth century AH, read the Sunan of al-Darimi with Fatima bin Ahmad ibn Qasim.³⁴

Other important traditionists included Zaynab bint al-Sha'ri (d.524/615-1129/1218). She studied hadith under several important traditionists, and in turn lectured to many students - some of who gained great repute - including Ibn Khallikan, author of the well-known biographical dictionary Wafayat al-Ayan.³⁵ Another was Karima the Syrian (d.641/1218), described by the biographers as the greatest authority on hadith in Syria of her day. She delivered lectures on many works of hadith on the authority of numerous teachers.³⁶

In his work al-Durar al-Karima,³⁷ Ibn Hajar gives short biographical notices of about 170 prominent women of the eighth century, most of whom are traditionists, and under many of whom the author himself had studied.³⁸ Some of these women were acknowledged as the best traditionists of the period. For instance, Juwayriya bint Ahmad, to whom we have already referred, studied a range of works on traditions, under scholars both male and female, who taught at the great colleges of the time, and then proceeded to give famous lectures on the Islamic disciplines. 'Some of my own teachers,' says Ibn Hajar, 'and many of my contemporaries, attended her discourses.'³⁹ A'isha bin Abd al-Hadi (723-816), also mentioned above, who for a considerable time was one of Ibn Hajar's teachers, was considered to be the finest traditionist of her time, and many students undertook long journeys in order to sit at her feet and study the truths of religion.⁴⁰ Sitt al-Arab (d.760-1358) had been the teacher of the well-known traditionist al-Iraqi (d.742/1341), and of many others who derived a good proportion of their knowledge from her.⁴¹ Daqiqa bint Murshid (d.746/1345), another celebrated woman traditionist, received instruction from a whole range of other woman.

Information on women traditionists of the ninth century is given in a work by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi (830-897/1427-1489), called al-Daw al-Lami, which is a biographical dictionary of eminent persons of the ninth century.⁴² A further source is the Mu'jam al-Shuyukh of Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar ibn Fahd (812-871/1409-1466), compiled in 861 AH and devoted to the biographical notices of more than 1,100 of the author's teachers, including over 130 women scholars under whom he had studied.⁴³ Some of these women were acclaimed as among the most precise and scholarly traditionists of their time, and trained many of the great scholars of the following generation. Umm Hani Maryam (778-871/1376-1466), for instance, learnt the Qur'an by heart when still a child, acquired all the Islamic sciences then being taught, including theology, law, history, and grammar, and then travelled to pursue hadith with the best traditionists of her time in Cairo and Mecca. She was also celebrated for her mastery of calligraphy, her command of the Arabic language, and her natural aptitude in poetry, as also her strict observance of the duties of religion (she performed the hajj no fewer than thirteen times). Her son, who became a noted scholar of the tenth century, showed the greatest veneration for her, and constantly waited on her towards the end of her life. She pursued an intensive program of learning in the great college of Cairo, giving ijazas to many scholars, Ibn Fahd himself studied several technical works on hadith under her.⁴⁴

Her Syrian contemporary, Bai Khatun (d.864/1459), having studied traditions with Abu Bakr al-Mizzi and numerous other traditionalists, and having secured the ijazas of a large number of masters of hadith, both men and women, delivered lectures on the subject in Syria and Cairo. We are told that she took especial delight in teaching.⁴⁵ A'isha bin Ibrahim (760/1358-842/1438), known in academic circles as Ibnat al-Sharaihi, also studied traditions in Damascus and Cairo (and elsewhere), and delivered lectures which eminent scholars of the day spared no efforts to attend.⁴⁶ Umm al-Khayr Saida of Mecca (d.850/1446) received instruction in hadith from numerous traditionists in different cities, gaining an equally enviable reputation as a scholar.⁴⁷

So far as may be gathered from the sources, the involvement of women in hadith scholarships, and in the Islamic disciplines generally, seems to have declined considerably from the tenth century of the hijra. Books such as al-Nur al-Safir of al-Aydarus, the Khulasat al-Akhbar of al-Muhibbi, and the al-Suluh al-Wabila of Muhammad ibn Abd Allah (which are biographical dictionaries of eminent persons of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries of the hijra respectively) contain the names of barely a dozen eminent women traditionists. But it would be wrong to conclude from this that after the tenth century, women lost interest in the subject. Some women traditionists, who gained good reputations in the ninth century, lived well into the tenth, and continued their services to the sunna. Asma bint Kamal al-Din (d.904/1498) wielded great influence with the sultans and their officials, to whom she often made recommendations - which, we are told, they always accepted. She lectured on hadith, and trained women in various Islamic sciences.⁴⁸ A'isha bint Muhammad (d.906/1500), who married the famous judge Muslih al-Din, taught traditions to many students, and was appointed professor at the Salihiyya College in Damascus.⁴⁹ Fatima bint Yusuf of Aleppo (870/1465-925/1519), was known as one of the excellent scholars of her time.⁵⁰ Umm al-Khayr granted an ijaza to a pilgrim at Mecca in the year 938/1531.⁵¹

The last woman traditionist of the first rank who is known to us was Fatima al-Fudayliya, also known as al-Shaykha al-Fudayliya. She was born before the end of the twelfth Islamic century, and soon excelled in the art of calligraphy and the various Islamic sciences. She had a special interest in hadith, read a good deal on the subject, received the diplomas of a good many scholars, and acquired a reputation as an important traditionist in her own right. Towards the end of her life, she settled at Mecca, where she founded a rich public library. In the Holy City she was attended by many eminent traditionists, who attended her lectures and received certificates from her. Among them, one could mention in particular Shaykh Umar al-Hanafi and Shaykh Muhammad Sali. She died in 1247/1831.⁵²

Throughout the history of feminine scholarship in Islam it is clear that the women involved did not confine their study to a personal interest in traditions, or to the private coaching of a few individuals, but took their seats as students as well as teachers in pubic educational institutions, side by side with their brothers in faith. The colophons of many manuscripts show them both as students attending large general classes, and also as teachers, delivering regular courses of lectures. For instance, the certificate on folios 238-40 of the al-Mashikhat ma al-Tarikh of Ibn al-Bukhari, shows that numerous women attended a regular course of eleven lectures which was delivered before a class consisting of more than five hundred students in the Umar Mosque at Damascus in the year 687/1288. Another certificate, on folio 40 of the same manuscript, shows that many female students, whose names are specified, attended another course of six lectures on the book, which was delivered by Ibn al-Sayrafi to a class of more than two hundred students at Aleppo in the year 736/1336. And on folio 250, we discover that a famous woman traditionist, Umm Abd Allah, delivered a course of five lectures on the book to a mixed class of more than fifty students, at Damascus in the year 837/1433.⁵³

Various notes on the manuscript of the Kitab al-Kifaya of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, and of a collection of various treatises on hadith, show Ni'ma bin Ali, Umm Ahmad Zaynab bint al-Makki, and other women traditionists delivering lectures on these two books, sometimes independently, and sometimes jointly with male traditionists, in major colleges such as the Aziziyya Madrasa, and the Diyaiyya Madrasa, to regular classes of students. Some of these lectures were attended by Ahmad, son of the famous general Salah al-Din.⁵⁴

---

The above article originally appeared as Chapter 6, pp. 142-153, in Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development, Special Features & Criticism by Dr. Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi (Sir Ashutosh Professor of Islamic Culture, Calcutta University; published by Calcutta University, 1961). A revised edition is now available, rearranged and modified under the title, Hadith Literature: Its Origins, Development & Special Features published by Islamic Texts Society (Cambridge, 1993). The original edition is out of print.

^Footnotes:

1. Maura O'Neill, Women Speaking, Women Listening (Maryknoll, 1990CE), 31: "Muslims do not use a masculine God as either a conscious or unconscious tool in the construction of gender roles."
2. For a general overview of the question of women's status in Islam, see M. Boisers, L'Humanisme de l'Islam (3^rd. ed., Paris, 1985CE), 104-10.
3. al-Khatib, Sunna, 53-4, 69-70.
4. See above, 18, 21.
5. Ibn Sa'd, VIII, 355.
6. Suyuti, Tadrib, 215.
7. Ibn Sa'd, VIII, 353.
8. Maqqari, Nafh, II, 96.
9. Wustenfeld, Genealogische Tabellen, 403.
10. al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, XIV, 434f.
11. Ibid., XIV, 441-44.
12. Ibn al-Imad, Shsadharat al-Dhahah fi Akhbar man Dhahah (Cairo, 1351), V, 48; Ibn Khallikan, no. 413.
13. Maqqari, Nafh, I, 876; cited in Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 366.
14. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 366. "It is in fact very common in the ijaza of the transmission of the Bukhari text to find as middle member of the long chain the name of Karima al-Marwaziyya," (ibid.).
15. Yaqut, Mu'jam al-Udaba', I, 247.
16. COPL, V/i, 98f.
17. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 366.
18. Ibn al-Imad, IV, 123. Sitt al-Wuzara' was also an eminent jurist. She was once invited to Cairo to give her fatwa on a subject that had perplexed the jurists there.
19. Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil (Cairo, 1301), X, 346.
20. Ibn Khallikan, no. 295.
21. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 367.
22. Ibn al-Imad, VI. 40.
23. Ibid., VIII, 14.
24. Ibn Salim, al-Imdad (Hyderabad, 1327), 36.
25. Ibn al-Imad, IV, 100.
26. Ibn Salim, 16.
27. Ibid., 28f.
28. Ibn al-Imad, VI 56.
29. ibid., 126; Ibn Salim, 14, 18; al-Umari, Qitf al-Thamar (Hyderabad, 1328), 73.
30. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 407.
31. Ibn Battuta, Rihla, 253.
32. Yaqut, Mu'jam al-Buldan, V, 140f.
33. Yaqut, Mu'jam al-Udaba, 17f.
34. COPL, V/i, 175f.
35. Ibn Khallikan, no.250.
36. Ibn al-Imad, V, 212, 404.
37. Various manuscripts of this work have been preserved in libraries, and it has been published in Hyderabad in 1348-50. Volume VI of Ibn al-Imad's Shadharat al-Dhahab, a large biographical dictionary of prominent Muslim scholars from the first to the tenth centuries of the hijra, is largely based on this work.
38. Goldziher, accustomed to the exclusively male environment of nineteenth-century European universities, was taken aback by the scene depicted by Ibn Hajar. Cf. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 367: "When reading the great biographical work of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani on the scholars of the eighth century, we may marvel at the number of women to whom the author has to dedicate articles."
39. Ibn Hajar, al-Durar al-Karima fi Ayan al-Mi'a al-Thamina (Hyderabad, 1348-50), I, no. 1472.
40. Ibn al-Imad, VIII, 120f.
41. Ibind., VI, 208. We are told that al-Iraqi (the best know authority on the hadiths of Ghazali's Ihya Ulum al-Din) ensured that his son also studied under her.
42. A summary by Abd al-Salam and Umar ibn al-Shamma' exists (C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, second ed. (Leiden, 1943-49CE), II, 34), and a defective manuscript of the work of the latter is preserved in the O.P. Library at Patna (COPL, XII, no.727).
43. Ibid.
44. Sakhawi, al-Saw al-Lami li-Ahl al-Qarn al-Tasi (Cairo, 1353-55), XII, no. 980.
45. Ibid., no. 58.
46. Ibid., no. 450.
47. Ibid., no. 901.
48. al-Aydarus, al-Nur al-Safir (Baghdad, 1353), 49.
49. Ibn Abi Tahir, see COPL, XII, no. 665ff.
50. Ibid.
51. Goldziher, Muslim Studies, II, 407.
52. al-Suhuh al-Wabila, see COPL, XII, no. 785.
53. COPL, V/ii, 54.
54. Ibid., V/ii, 155-9, 180-208. For some particularly instructive annotated manuscripts preserved at the Zahiriya Library at Damascus, see the article of Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani in al-Mabahith al-Ilmiyya (Hyderabad: Da'irat al-Ma'arif, 1358), 1-14.

Muslim Women Scholars Must Bloom Again

posted at

http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IC0407-2404

By: Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq

Ever since becoming conscious about Islam on one hand and the contemporary social reality on the other, I have often been disturbed by realizing that, in many aspects, there is a huge gap between what Islam stands for and what the social reality is. A vital area where this gap is so pronounced is gender issues. After tying the knot with my beloved wife and then joining the parents club through two most wonderful daughters, I was compelled to take a much closer look at gender issues.

I have remained keen over the years to learn more about these issues. However, I have been increasingly dissatisfied as I continued to discover directly from the Qur'an, Qur'anic literature, Hadith, Seerah and history that what we are generally adhering to, and traditionally defending and promoting in regard to gender issues stands in sharp contrast to the Qur'anic and Prophetic vision as well as the heritage.

There is a general notion among the religious establishment of Islam, and derived there from, among the common Muslims, that Islam recognizes superiority of men over women. Even in Sayyid Abul Ala Maudoodi's well-known and highly respected Urdu commentary, Tafhimul Qur'an, verse 4 of Surah an-Nisa erroneously got translated into English as following: "Men are superior to women ... not in the sense that they are above them in honor and excellence..." [Tr. by Ch. Muhammad Akbar, Islamic Publications, Lahore, 1997 ed.; Vol. 1, p. 121; note: a more recent translation from Islamic Foundation, UK has a different rendering]. Even though some qualifier and clarifier have been added in the preceding rendering, the very expression, "men are superior to women" - in whatever sense it may be - is questionable, because if honor and excellence are excluded from the scope of "superiority," what exactly is the meaning and basis of superiority or excellence then?

Indeed, completely discounting birth-related distinctions, he commented on verse 13 of Surah al-Hujurat: "... In that (Islamic) society there is no distinction based on color, race, language, or nationality. ..." One should be impressed by Maulana Maudoodi's articulation as to the sweeping implication of the verse that destroyed the foundation of any other concept of superiority/excellence. However, is it not proper to include gender in that list, too? Once again, unless we are willing to accept the implication that this Qur'anic declaration (49:13) - Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (the person who is) the most God-conscious. - applies to males only, it is only Islamic that Maulana Maudoodi's comment should have read, inclusive of gender, as following: "... In that society there is no distinction based on color, race, language, nationality or gender. ..."

Muslims routinely take the position that Islam does not recognize any unfair distinction based on color, race, language, or nationality. Unfortunately, however, even in this age of gender consciousness, we are failing to uphold and present Islam in consonance with the full scope of the Qur'anic vision and the Prophetic heritage.

Not too long ago, a friend of mine from Los Angeles, California (teaching at a university there) called me and among other things, lamented the fact that his otherwise devoted Muslim family is finding a difficult time to have rooms assigned for them in Masjid with appropriate or adequate ventilation. Might a little bit of natural light and wind be hazardous to our women's as well as our spiritual health and well-being?

There are many Muslim countries where women going out for their regular needs find little or no facility for women to wash and pray. Several years ago I participated in the Shura (consultative) committee of one of the Islamic Centers in USA. By the vote of the community, the elected chairman of the Shura was joined by his wife (also elected as a member) in the Shura as well. At the very first meeting, one of the brothers - who must have felt that the presence of the sister, even with her husband present, was a violation of Islam - to protect his own piety and lodge his silent but otherwise conspicuous protest, stood up and left.

Several years ago, I visited a Masjid in one of the Midwestern states in USA, where I found the facilities for washing for men was not that good but survivable. However, due to neglect or poor maintenance, whatever might be, my young daughter, going around by herself into the women's section, later on, came out crying at what she experienced there. A non-Muslim woman in one of the places of America was refused the taxi-service by a Muslim driver because she had a dog with him. It did not matter that she was blind. The brother, feeling duty bound (?), offered a prodigious lecture to this blind, non-Muslim lady. Although there are many examples to the contrary, there are some disturbing patterns that Muslims themselves should be confronting and scrutinizing in a self-critical and proactive manner.

The literacy rate is already poor in the Muslim countries and the rate for women is disproportionately lower. Let us not talk about the poor women in various countries who are without any protection and whose life, honor and property are anybody's game. Women were robbed of their professional and out-of-the home positions under strict public code in Taliban's "Islamic" Republic of Afghanistan. In contrast, Muslim women in Iran are doing relatively a lot better, but the top-tier religious hierarchy is still a drag on the society's overall progress. In the heartland of Islam with Makkah and Madina, controlled by a externally-installed dynasty and dominated by Wahhabism, women don't have the right to drive. It is so ironic and outrageous, because the sacred city of Makkah was founded through the valiant and exemplary struggle and sacrifice of a lone woman, Hajera, the wife of Ibrahim and the mother of Ismail (a). Yet, now a woman does not have the right to drive by herself.

More seriously, quite often we hear about women being meted out capital punishment for illicit sexual relations. Usually, women bear the brunt of the orthodox Shariah codes, even though we all know that even when raped, women, for a multitude of reasons, can't be so easily expected to step up and claim to have been raped. In many countries, women are routinely deprived of their property and inheritance. As personal and family matters, women rarely can secure their rights even from their relatives. In many Muslim countries, women are routinely subjected to physical violence, often lethally, which is condoned or tolerated by the broader society as personal or family matter. Vulnerable women are routinely married to be added to a husband's collection and also divorced at random as it pleases the husbands. The existing laws, values, customs and power structures - in combination - make and keep women weak, vulnerable, marginalized, and even oppressed.

Of course, women are completely absent from the pertinent discourse to shape and reshape the Islamic laws and codes. Islamic movements in various parts of the world are chanting about the progress they have made in promoting the cause of the women in accordance with Islam and vainly arguing how Islam is rightfully superior in dealing with women's rights. As they are still groping with the issues whether women should veil themselves (i.e., use niqab, face-covering), they have no problem with men playing games, such as soccer, with albeit "longer" shorts! In some Muslim countries, leading Islamic parties still stubbornly insist that women must cover their face as well. They might be super-lenient in regard to interpreting Islam in matters of political expediency, but regarding women's issues they have to be most extremely conservative. Many such organizations are also promoting separate women's educational institutions as well as separate women's organizations for Islamic causes. At the same time, Islamic parties in many Muslim countries remain at bay without broad support, especially from women, while they have to contend with challenges from many home-grown, viciously anti-Islamic feminists. Indeed, a whole new generation of men and women is growing up with the entrenched impression - and even conviction - that Islam is seriously biased in terms of gender issues. These are Islamic MOVEments that seem rather unable to MOVE in a contemporary context.

I should clarify that my arguments and opinions herein are to be applicable within the context of Islam. For example, when I am referring to the insistence by Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh on veiling of women, it is because I consider this veiling (face-covering) Islamically unwarranted and the insistence unacceptable. Such position is based on extreme conservatism, especially when it comes to gender issues. Let me raise some further questions now. Are men really superior to women according to Islam? Why don't we have women Islamic scholars, experts, and Mujtahids (jurisprudents)? To solve the problems of women, do we need, or is it Islamic, to have separate Islamic schools/colleges/mosques? Is it alright for women to give lectures to a mixed gathering of Muslim men and women? How about doing so at Islamic Centers/mosques?

I hope that I have not already rung too many alarm bells. Based on my study of the Qur'an, Hadith, Seerah and history, I have concluded quite a while ago that what we are promoting, both by saying and doing, today are mostly opposite to what Islam teaches. Then, several years ago it was by chance I came across a book Struggling to Surrender by a new American Muslim, Dr. Jeffrey Lang. The book was captivating. But apart from its richness in terms of the experience he frankly shared and thoughts he provoked, it was an important eye-opening experience for me in regard to gender issues. We are generally aware that Muslim women, such as Hadhrat Aishah, Fatima, Khadija (r), and others, have played distinguished role during and immediately after the Prophet (s). In that book, there were some brief references to a forgotten, but very distinctive role Muslim women have played in Islamic history.

My interest was deeply aroused. I followed up by reading the original reference, Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development, Special Features & Criticism by Dr. Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, a late scholar from Calcutta University [Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1993]. This book had a chapter titled "Women Scholars of Hadith," [pp. 117-123] which was an eye-opener for me.

For the first time I realized one of the most basic defects in our contemporary Muslim attitude and thinking in regard to gender issues. We all know that beyond the few towering women personalities in the earliest part of the Prophetic era, we can hardly name any woman scholar. It is well-known that in our contemporary century, Islamic scholars, Imams, experts, as well as leaders of Islamic movements, have not been educated by men and women. Going back further, even noted scholars such as Shah Waliullah Dehlavi and Shaikh Ahmad of Sarhind, popularly known as Mujaddid Alf Sani did not (correct me, if I am wrong) have any woman among their educators. It was simply not possible, because "women scholars" of Islam - teaching men and women, in public context, where many of them were, overall the best of the best of their time, not just among women - have become an extinct species.

What am I saying? Learning of Islam by men from men AND women? Tell me, isn't it true that the founder of Tabligh Jamaat (Maulana Muhammad Ilyas), founder of Ikhwan al-Muslimoon ( Shaikh Hasan al-Banna), Saudi Arabia's late chief Mufti Shaikh Ibn Bazz, or even the founder of Jamaate Islami (Sayyid Abul Ala Maudoodi) did not have among their educators any contemporary women scholar? How many of us have ever heard or known that there were times spanning many centuries when top male Islamic scholars sometimes used to recommend their mixed groups of students, men and women, to learn a particular text such as Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim from none other than some specific woman scholar? If we have not, the attitude of these generations of Muslims, including their leaders, scholars, mentors, vis-ˆ-vis women, can be better understood.

The role of women scholars of hadith is unique in the human history, prior to our modern times. There is simply no parallel to this special and valuable role played by women scholars in the development, preservation and dissemination of Islamic knowledge. In the words of Dr. Zubayr Siddiqi, "History records few scholarly enterprises, at least before modern times, in which women have played an important and active role side by side with men. The science of hadith forms an outstanding exception in this respect. ... Islam produced a large number of outstanding female scholars, on whose testimony and sound judgment much of the edifice of Islam depends. ... Since Islam's earliest days, women had been taking a prominent part in the preservation and cultivation of hadith, and this function continued down the centuries. At every period in Muslim history, there lived numerous eminent women-traditionists, treated by their brethren with reverence and respect." [p. 117]

Muslims are generally familiar with a handful of female luminaries from the time of the Prophet. However, what they are generally unfamiliar with is a large number of women scholars over many centuries after the first generation. This is an unforgivable lapse for the Ummah.

Just to mention a few, hopefully, would spark our interest in learning about this neglected dimension of our remarkable history. Do we know that Umm al-Darda (d. 81/700) was regarded by some of her contemporary leading male traditionists as "superior to all the other traditionists of the period, including the celebrated masters of hadith like al-Hasan al-Basri and Ibn Sirin." 'Amra was specially recognized for her authority on traditions related by A'isha and among her many notable students was Abu Bakr ibn Hazm, the celebrated judge of Medina, who was ordered by none other than the caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz himself to write down all the traditions known on her authority. [p. 118]

Zaynab bint Sulayman (d. 142/759) "gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished women traditionists of the time, and counted many important men among her pupils." [p. 118] Almost without any exception, the compilers of major collections of hadith also lists a good number of women traditionists and scholars as their teachers. "A survey of the texts reveals that all the important compilers of traditions from the earliest period received many of them from women shuyukh: every major collection gives the names of many women as the immediate authorities of the author. And when these works had been compiled, the women traditionists themselves mastered them, and delivered lectures to large classes of pupils, to whom they would issue their own ijazas." [pp. 118-119]

It is so unfortunate and ironic that now this hadith literature in particular is used to suppress and deny the role, rights and status of women and confine them to the corners of our households. During the fourth century, there were women scholars, whose classes were always attended by many other scholars of great repute. Karima al-Marwaziyya (d. 463/1070), is one of those names that we should proudly know and remember, "who was considered the best authority on the Sahih of al-Bukhari in her own time. Abu Dharr of Herat, one of the leading scholars of the period, attached such great importance to her authority that he advised his students to study the Sahih under no one else, because of the quality of her scholarship." Among her students were al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, a noted Islamic scholar and historian. [p. 119]

Fatima bint Muhammad (d.539/1144) received from her contemporary hadith specialists "the proud tittle of Musnida Isfahan (the great hadith authority of Isfahan)." Shuhda 'the Writer' (d.574/1178) "was a famous calligrapher and a traditionist of great repute ... Her lectures on Sahih al-Bukhari and other hadith collections were attended by large crowds of students; and on account of her great reputation, some people even falsely claimed to have been her disciples. [p. 119]

Sitt al-Wuzara became well-known as an authority on Bukhari. Her acclaimed mastery included Islamic law as well. Crowned as 'the musnida of her time', she delivered public lectures on the Sahih and other works in Damascus and Egypt. [p. 120]

In fourteenth century, Zaynab bint Ahmad (d.740/1339) used to deliver public lectures the Musnad of Abu Hanifa, the Shamail of al-Tirmidhi, and the Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar of al-Tahawi. Do we remember the great traveler Ibn Battuta? He studied hadith with her and various other women during his stay at Damascus. [p. 120]

Learning was by both men and women. So was teaching, and the environment definitely was not a segregated one, where the learning as well as teaching took place. There were hardly any notable men during those centuries who did not receive teaching from women scholars as well. Furthermore, it was not just one or a few isolated cases. But there were a large number of women whose contribution to the field of learning and teaching remains an honored tradition that we may have altogether forgotten and neglected. Worse; many of us become vehemently opposed to it.

The famous historian of Damascus, Ibn Asakir, studied under more than 1,200 men and 80 women. He obtained the special ijaza of Zaynab bint Abd al-Rahman for the Muwatta of Imam Malik. The famous Qur'anic commentator Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti studied the Risala of Imam Shafii with Hajar bint Muhammad. Zaynab bint al-Sha'ri (d.524/615-1129/1218) studied hadith under several important traditionists, and in turn taught many students - "some of who gained great repute - including Ibn Khallikan, author of the well-known biographical dictionary Wafayat al-Ayan." [pp. 120-121]

Further account of the women scholars' contribution can be found in the works of Ibn Hajar, the author of the most important commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. In one of his works, he provides short biographical accounts of no less than about 170 prominent women of the eighth century. Most of them were hadith scholars and under many of whom the author himself had studied. According to him, some of these women were acknowledged as the best traditionists of the period. For example, Juwayriya bint Ahmad, studied a range of works on traditions, under scholars both male and female. She then taught at the great colleges of the time, and then offered famous lectures on various Islamic disciplines, which used to attract an audience of high reputes. Some of Ibn Hajar's own teachers and many of his contemporaries attended her discourses. Another teacher of him was A'isha bin Abd al-Hadi (723-816). She was regarded as the finest traditionist of her time. Students from diverse backgrounds used to travel long distances "in order to sit at her feet and study the truths of religion." [p. 121]

In a book al-Daw al-Lami, biographical dictionary of eminent persons of the ninth century, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi (830-897/1427-1489) provides information about the great women scholars of that period. In another book, Mu'jam al-Shuyukh, Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar ibn Fahd (812-871/1409-1466), provides biographical notes about "1,100 of the author's teachers, including over 130 women scholars under whom he had studied." Many of these women scholars were of the highest repute and trained many of the great scholars of the following generation. [p. 121]

There were women scholars whose field of expertise went far beyond hadith. "Umm Hani Maryam (778-871/1376-1466), for instance, learnt the Qur'an by heart when still a child, acquired all the Islamic sciences then being taught, including theology, law, history, and grammar, and then traveled to pursue hadith with the best traditionists of her time in Cairo and Mecca. ... She pursued an intensive program of learning in the great college of Cairo, giving ijazas to many scholars, Ibn Fahd himself studied several technical works on hadith under her." [pp. 121-122]

A'isha bin Ibrahim (760/1358-842/1438) studied traditions in Damascus and Cairo, and "delivered lectures which eminent scholars of the day spared no efforts to attend." [p. 122]

For various reasons that should be subject of a serious study, the "involvement of women in hadith scholarships, and in the Islamic disciplines generally, seems to have declined considerably from the tenth century of the hijra." [p. 122] There are several other biographical dictionaries that list names of women scholars of the subsequent period, but in vastly reduced numbers. Yet, as part of an endangered group, there were women who continued their valuable contribution. Asma bint Kamal al-Din (d.904/1498) wielded great public influence. She delivered public lectures on hadith, and trained women in various Islamic sciences. A'isha bint Muhammad (d.906/1500) taught hadith to many students. She was a professor at the Salihiyya College in Damascus. [p. 122]

The last known woman traditionist of the first rank, Fatima al-Fudayliya, also known as al-Shaykha al-Fudayliya, settled at Mecca. She founded a rich public library there. "In the Holy City she was attended by many eminent traditionists, who attended her lectures and received certificates from her." [p. 123]

History records that these women scholars "took their seats as students as well as teachers in pubic educational institutions, side by side with their brothers in faith. The colophons of many manuscripts show them both as students attending large general classes, and also as teachers, delivering regular courses of lectures." These were NOT gender-wise segregated institutions either. "[O]n folio 250, we discover that a famous woman traditionist, Umm Abd Allah, delivered a course of five lectures on the book to a mixed class of more than fifty students, at Damascus in the year 837/1433." [p. 123]

Although one can't draw a superficial connection between the decline of the Islamic civilization and the gradual disappearance of the women scholarship and participation, the reality is that our collective foundation of knowledge and heritage is based on the proud and noble contribution of scholarship of both men and women, as students and teachers, side by side, and there must have been substantive consequence from this loss of women scholarship.

The conditions of the Muslim world in general, and that of Muslim women in particular, stand in sharp contrast with the Islamic vision and heritage that continued through many centuries after the Prophet. Today, Muslim women are rarely welcome in the public life and especially in the mosque, let alone being part of our pool of educators, experts and mentors. This has created serious disenchantment among the women in the Muslim world, and turned some of them into bitter opponent to religion in general and Islam in particular. The existing conditions are a clear perversion of Islamic teachings and guidance. The absence of women scholars has also caused a great imbalance in our Islamic discourse in general and Islamic law (fiqh) in particular, by leaning toward the most extremely restrictive positions, opinions and provisions for the women.

In our contemporary time, there are Muslim women, particularly educated in the West or in the western tradition, who are establishing themselves as scholars of Islam. This is a very encouraging development. They are making critical contributions toward a new legacy of quality scholarship, especially in the field of gender issues. However, their emergence is not internal to Islam, and the broader Muslim society is yet to embrace them as part of the religious establishment, toward which they turn for religious scholarship. Of course, the religious establishment continues its orthodox resistance against such development of women scholarship and participation to protect their traditional turf.

In order to adequately empower women from the Islamic perspective, women need to equally and fully participate in our society, beginning with education and scholarship. The principle of Shura (mutual consultation) requires that those whose lives are affected by various decisions/opinions of Islamic laws and dictates ought to be full participants in the pertinent discourse. Women need to take interest in and men come forward to facilitate women's development in the field of education and scholarship. Muslim men need to demand such changes, as our Islamic pursuit for positive change can't be either complete or balanced without women being our full and equal partners. We need to cherish an environment where Muslim men, side by side with women, can engage in Islamic education and discourse, as students as well as teachers. We need women in all fields of Islamic and other studies, where men must excel in a competitive environment. We need to take this pursuit seriously, until we have qualified Islamic jurisprudents (mujtahids) and scholars among women, side by side with men, whose joint input would reshape our Islamic discourse and laws.

This does require no less than a revolutionary change, but it is an Islamic must. It is like turning Islam in our lives downside up, because Islam as we understand and practice it has been turned upside down. Muslims need to coalesce together to revive this glorious tradition of women's scholarship. Without them, our society would be fundamentally deficient and imbalanced, which will be reflected in all walks of our lives. That is why we again need women scholars back: THEY MUST BLOOM AGAIN.

[The author is an associate professor of economics and finance at Upper Iowa University. Homepage: http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm; email: farooqm@globalwebpost.com.]

A Secret History of Muslim Women Scholars

posted on: http://www.mwlusa.org/topics/history/secret_history.htm

By CARLA POWER
February 25, 2007

For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the stock image of an Islamic scholar is a gray-bearded man. Women tend to be seen as the subjects of Islamic law rather than its shapers. And while some opportunities for religious education do exist for women — the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo has a women’s college, for example, and there are girls’ madrasas and female study groups in mosques and private homes — cultural barriers prevent most women in the Islamic world from pursuing such studies. Recent findings by a scholar at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies in Britain, however, may help lower those barriers and challenge prevalent notions of women’s roles within Islamic society. Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a 43-year-old Sunni alim, or religious scholar, has rediscovered a long-lost tradition of Muslim women teaching the Koran, transmitting hadith (deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and even making Islamic law as jurists.

Akram embarked eight years ago on a single-volume biographical dictionary of female hadith scholars, a project that took him trawling through biographical dictionaries, classical texts, madrasa chronicles and letters for relevant citations. “I thought I’d find maybe 20 or 30 women,” he says. To date, he has found 8,000 of them, dating back 1,400 years, and his dictionary now fills 40 volumes. It’s so long that his usual publishers, in Damascus and Beirut, have balked at the project, though an English translation of his preface — itself almost 400 pages long — will come out in England this summer. (Akram has talked with Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the United States, about the possibility of publishing the entire work through his Riyadh-based foundation.)

The dictionary’s diverse entries include a 10th-century Baghdad-born jurist who traveled through Syria and Egypt, teaching other women; a female scholar — or muhaddithat — in 12th-century Egypt whose male students marveled at her mastery of a “camel load” of texts; and a 15th-century woman who taught hadith at the Prophet’s grave in Medina, one of the most important spots in Islam. One seventh-century Medina woman who reached the academic rank of jurist issued key fatwas on hajj rituals and commerce; another female jurist living in medieval Aleppo not only issued fatwas but also advised her far more famous husband on how to issue his.

Not all of these women scholars were previously unknown. Many Muslims acknowledge that Islam has its learned women, particularly in the field of hadith, starting with the Prophet’s wife Aisha. And several Western academics have written on women’s religious education. About a century ago, the Hungarian Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher estimated that about 15 percent of medieval hadith scholars were women. But Akram’s dictionary is groundbreaking in its scope.

Indeed, read today, when many Muslim women still don’t dare pray in mosques, let alone lecture leaders in them, Akram’s entry for someone like Umm al-Darda, a prominent jurist in seventh-century Damascus, is startling. As a young woman, al-Darda used to sit with male scholars in the mosque, talking shop. “I’ve tried to worship Allah in every way,” she wrote, “but I’ve never found a better one than sitting around, debating other scholars.” She went on to teach hadith and fiqh, or law, at the mosque, and even lectured in the men’s section;
her students included the caliph of Damascus. She shocked her contemporaries by praying shoulder to shoulder with men — a nearly unknown practice, even now — and issuing a fatwa, still cited by modern scholars, that allowed women to pray in the same position as men.

It’s after the 16th century that citations of women scholars dwindle. Some historians venture that this is because Islamic education grew more formal, excluding women as it became increasingly oriented toward establishing careers in the courts and mosques. (Strangely enough, Akram found that this kind of exclusion also helped women become better scholars. Because they didn’t hold official posts, they had little reason to invent or embellish prophetic traditions.)

Akram’s work has led to accusations that he is championing free mixing between men and women, but he says that is not so. He maintains that women students should sit at a discreet distance from their male classmates or co-worshipers, or be separated by a curtain. (The practice has parallels in Orthodox Judaism.) The Muslim women who taught men “are part of our history,” he says. “It doesn’t mean you have to follow them. It’s up to people to decide.”

Neverthless, Akram says he hopes that uncovering past hadith scholars could help reform present-day Islamic culture. Many Muslims see historical precedents — particularly when they date back to the golden age of Muhammad — as blueprints for sound modern societies and look to scholars to evaluate and interpret those precedents. Muslim feminists like the Moroccan writer Fatima Mernissi and Kecia Ali, a professor at Boston University, have cast fresh light on women’s roles in Islamic law and history, but their worldview — and their audiences — are largely Western or Westernized. Akram is a working alim, lecturing in mosques and universities and dispensing fatwas on issues like
inheritance and divorce. “Here you’ve got a guy who’s coming from the tradition, who knows the stuff and who’s able to give us that level of detail which is missing in the self-proclaimed progressive Muslim writers,” says James Piscatori, a professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University.

The erosion of women’s religious education in recent times, Akram says, reflects “decline in every aspect of Islam.” Flabby leadership and a focus on politics rather than scholarship has left Muslims ignorant of their own history. Islam’s current cultural insecurity has been bad for both its scholarship and its women, Akram says. “Our traditions have grown weak, and when people are weak, they grow cautious. When they’re cautious, they don’t give their women freedoms.”

When Akram lectures, he dryly notes, women are more excited by this history than men. To persuade reluctant Muslims to educate their girls, Akram employs a potent debating strategy: he compares the status quo to the age of al jahiliya, the Arabic term for the barbaric state of pre-Islamic Arabia. (Osama Bin Laden and Sayyid Qutb, the godfather of modern Islamic extremism, have employed the comparison to very different effect.) Barring Muslim women from education and religious authority, Akram argues, is akin to the pre-Islamic custom of burying girls alive. “I tell people, ‘God has given girls qualities and potential,’ ” he says. “If they aren’t allowed to develop them, if they aren’t provided with opportunities to study and learn, it’s basically a live burial.”

When I spoke with him, Akram invoked a favorite poem, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray’s 18th-century lament for dead English farmers. “Gray said that villagers could have been like Milton,” if only they’d had the chance, Akram observes. “Muslim women are in the same situation. There could have been so many Miltons.”

Carla Power is a London-based journalist who writes about Islamic issues.