Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective

146 Pages·1999·1.34 MB·English

by  Amina Wadud

Qur'an and Woman
QUR'AN AND WOMAN
Rereading the Sacred Text from a
Woman's Perspective
AMINA WADUD
NEW YORK OXFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1999
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es
Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
First published in 1992 by Penerbit Fajar Bakati Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Copyright ©
1999 by Oxford University Press Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue,New York, New
York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wadud,Amina.
Qur 'an and woman : rereading the sacred text from a woman's
perspective / Amina Wadud.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN
0-19-512836-2
1.Women in the Koran. 2. Koran—Theology. I. Title
BP134.W6W28 1999
297.1'2283054--dc21 98-49460
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all who struggle to hear the voice of their faith expressed by the
Qur'an—especially the Sisters in Islam.
Contents
Preface
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Introduction: How Perceptions of Woman Influence

Interpretation of the Qur'an
Background
Methodology: A Hermeneutical Model Language and Prior Text The Prior Text of
Gender-specific Language Perspectives on Woman
Distinctions between Men and Women Key Terms and Concepts in the Qur'an A Word about
Quotations and Translations of Qur'an
Chapter Outlines
1 In the Beginning,Man and Woman Were Equal:
Human Creation in the Qur'an
Creation and the Language of the Unseen
Creation of the First Parents

The Creation of Humankind
The Origins of Humankind: Ayah; Min; Nafs; Zawj
The Dualism of the Creation
The Events in the Garden

Conclusion
2 The Qur'anic View of Woman in This World
How the Qur'an Teaches the Reader through the Events in the Lives of the Individuals It
has Mentioned The Signifance of the Women Mentioned or Referred to in the Qur'an
Woman as an Individual Distinctions between Individuals: Taqwa Distinctive Female
Characters in the Qur'an
3 The Equity of Recompense: The Hereafter

in the Qur'an
The Hereafter and Creation
Values of the Hereafter
Stages of the Hereafter
Death
Resurrection
Judgment
The Equity of Recompense
Recompense of the Individual
The Final Abode
Hell
Paradise

Companions in the Hereafter

Hur-al-'ayn in Qur'anic Discussions of Paradise
Zawj in the Hereafter
The Hereafter from Allah's Perspective ('inda Allah)

Summary
4 Rights and Roles of Women: Some Controversies
Functional Distinctions on Earth
Woman is not just Biology
Darajah

Faddala

Nushuz: Disruption of Marital Harmony
The Significance of Context and Chronology in Qur'anic Social
Reforms for Women
Divorce
Patriarchy
Polygamy
Witness
Inheritance
Male Authority
Child Care
Conclusion
Appendix: List of Female Characters Mentioned in the Qur'an
Bibliography
Index
Preface
T
HE research for Qur'an and Woman started as early as 1986. At that
time, I was quite naive about how significant it would be to pursue a
female inclusive reading of the Qur'an. I was also unaware of how to
develop such a reading. Although interest in the question of woman in
Islam was not unique, attempting to pursue an answer to that question
exclusively by examining the notion of woman in the Qur'an turned out
to be nearly unprecedented throughout fourteen centuries of Islamic
thought. However, in these times of post-modernist critique when the
very foundations of knowledge are challenged to move beyond certain
value laden tendencies, such a method can be viewed as part of a larger
area of discourse by feminists who have constructed a valuable critique
of the tendency in many disciplines to build the notion of the normative
human from the experiences and perspectives of the male person.
One objective behind my research was to establish a definitive
criteria for evaluating the extent to which the position of women in
Muslim cultures accurately portrays the intention of Islam for women
in society. It was easy to designate the Qur'an as the ultimate criteria
available within the Islamic intellectual legacy, as well as its most
authoritative reference point, because it enjoys an overwhelming
consensus among Muslims—however variously understood—as the
word of Allah, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad for the purpose of
guidance to all humanity. Hence, it could be used as criteria for
checking if the status of women in actual Muslim societies could be
defined as Islamic.
Because women are not deemed as important as men in most Muslim
majority or minority communities, Muslim women do not enjoy a
status equal to men. If the definitive basis for what Islam means is
determined by what Muslims do, then women and men are not equal.
However, I reasoned that only explicit Qur'anic indication that women
and men were other than co-equals could require acceptance of this
inequality as a basis of faithfulness to Islam. Mer-cifully, the more
research I did into the Qur'an, unfettered by centuries of historical
androcentric reading and Arabo-Islamic cultural predilections, the
more affirmed I was that in Islam a female person was intended to be
primordially, cosmologically, eschatologically, spiritually, and morally
a full human being, equal to all who accepted Allah as Lord,
Muhammad as prophet, and Islam as din. What remained was to
advocate the details of this research as legitimate grounds for
contesting the unequal treatment that women have experienced
historically and continue to experience legally in the context of Muslim
communities.
The confirmation of women's equality that resulted from my studies in
the Qur'an was overwhelming and the research evolved into the
publication of the book Qur'an and Woman. At the time of its publication
in 1992, when my scholarly role in Islamic studies was advancing, I was
beginning the activist phase of my work in the gender jihad as a Muslim
woman. Indeed, Qur'an and Woman became a major contribution to and
my entryway into the discourse over rights in both the Muslim and global
contexts.
It seems simple enough: Muslim cultures prefer to consider men and
women as distinct members of humanity: equality, hierarchy, or
complementary mutuality notwithstanding. How could the Islamic
intellectual ethos develop without giving clear and resounding attention to
the female voice, both as a part of the text and in response to it? Perhaps it
was the absence of this resounding attention, historically, that resulted not
only in negating the significance of this voice but also deeming it to be
awrah, or taboo. I consider this negation a violation of the very dignity of
woman as a human being and as khalifah, or trustee before Allah. It makes
little difference if it was not intended to marginalize her; it was still a
violation.
Since the publication of the first edition of Qur'an and Woman, my
understanding of the politics of gender discourse within Islam as well as
within the larger global context has broadened. In this preface to the U.S.
edition, I will indicate the reciprocal relationship between the
developments of my understanding of those dynamics and the impact or
significance of Qur'an and Woman. It will also be my task to emphasize
how a Qur'anic hermeneutics that is inclusive of female experiences and
of the female voice could yield greater gender justice to Islamic thought
and contribute toward the achievement of that justice in Islamic praxis.