This article follows up on Syeda Hameed’s article, ‘A Woman Can Lead Friday Prayers….’ dated Feb. 01 and provides exegetic basis to its claim.

The Qur’an does not connect gender with faith (33:35), offers both men and women a level playing field in earning divine approval (4:124), does not describe menstruation as any lacking in spirituality (2:222), appoints, men and women as protectors (wali) of each other (9:71). The relevant Qur’anic verses based on Yusuf Ali’s translation are listed below:

“For Muslim men and women,- for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast (and deny themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah’s praise,- for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward.” (33:35).

“If any do deeds of righteousness,- be they male or female – and have faith, they will enter Heaven, and not the least injustice will be done to them” (4:124) .

“They ask thee concerning women’s courses. Say: They are a hurt and a pollution: So keep away from women in their courses, and do not approach them until they are clean. But when they have purified themselves, ye may approach them in any manner, time, or place ordained for you by Allah. For Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean” (2:221)

Note: The reference to purity only relates to physical cleaning and hygiene [1]. Accordingly the Prophet allowed Asma, the wife of Abu Bakr to participate in the farewell hajj less than a fortnight after her delivery that occurred when she was on way to Mecca (from Medina) in the hajj caravan that the Prophet was leading himself. She was obviously in state of menstruation. [2] The Prophet is also reported to have told Aisha when she got into her period before entering Mecca that God had decreed it for all women, so she could perform all the ceremonies like the rest except for the Tawaf around the Kaba”[3]. He used to lean on Aisha’s lap and recite the Qur’an while she was in menses [4].

“The Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another: they enjoin what is just, and forbid what is evil: they observe regular prayers, practice regular charity, and obey Allah and His Messenger. On them will Allah pour His mercy: for Allah is Exalted in power, Wise” (9:71).
The Qur’an rules out any notion of spiritual or cognitive inferiority of women to men through its following illustrations:

·         The episode of Adam’s exit from the paradise (2:30-38) has no mention of an Eve emerging from his rib, or, prompting him to eat of the Forbidden tree, or earning divine curse for a treacherous role as in the Bible.
·         In the context of the revelation, it empowered Meccan women to take oath of allegiance with the Prophet (60:12) without having their husbands or any male guardians standing by as witnesses.
•      It calls for Muslim women as well as men taking an oath, along with their Christian counterparts, over an issue of utmost spiritual significance: the birth of Jesus (3:61).
•      Women, like men, can act as a witness in equal capacity as men except for commercial contracts, owing obviously to the harsh trading realities of the era that was even harsher for the women (2:282).
•      Women, like men, can have independent income and possess properties (4:32).
•      Women, like men, can pursue universal knowledge and develop their potentials as God’s deputy (Khalifah) on earth (2:30, 6:165, 27:62, 35:39) – created in the finest model and favoured above much of God’s creation (95:4, 17:70).
•      The Qur’an cites the example of a woman (not named) ruling over a land (Sheba) in consultation with her chieftains, and later embracing the true faith (27:32/33, 27:44).

It is clear from the foregoing review of relevant Qur’anic verses and Qur’anic illustrations that it puts no bar against women to leading prayers, including Friday Prayer. Whether the prayer will be attended by only women or both men and women will obviously depend on gender dynamics of the era, but the Qur’an does not prescribe any gender based segregation in public place or place of worship.

It is true that the classical Sharia Law of Islam does not permit a woman to lead men in prayer such as the Friday prayer. This is corroborated by the eminent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in his following response [6] to a question raised on the subject:

 “Throughout Muslim history it has never been heard of a woman leading the Friday Prayer or delivering the Friday sermon, even during the era when a woman, Shagarat Ad-Durr, was ruling the Muslims in Egypt during the Mamluk period.

It is established that leadership in Prayer in Islam is to be for men. People praying behind an imam are to follow him in the movements of prayer—bowing, prostrating, etc., and listen attentively to him reciting the Qur’an in Prayer.”

But it is equally true classical Shariah Law of Islam only represents the cumulative opinion or consensus of the jurists of Islam, and is neither divine nor binding on the Muslims until eternity [5]. Thus, with passing of generations, the learned jurists and scholars of Islam can always come up with new insights, interpretations and opinions on religious issues that are not expressly or implicitly covered in the Qur’an. Accordingly, answering a question on the permissibility of a woman leading Friday Prayer, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Alfi Distinguished Professor of Islamic Law, UCLA School of Law, writes [7]:
“It seems to me that if a female possesses greater knowledge than a male–if a female is more capable of setting a good example in terms of how she recites the Qur’an and also in terms of teaching the community more about the Islamic faith, a female ought not be precluded from leading Jum’ah simply on the grounds of being female.”

In sum, as Muslim women in many parts of the world including University campuses never enjoyed such level of security and prospects of learning about Islamic message as in this era, they must not be barred from leading Friday Prayer merely on gender ground.
1.     Sahih al-Bukhari, English translation by Mohsin Khan, New Delhi, 1984, Vol.1, The Book of Menses, Chapter 1.
2.     Lings, Martin (Abu Bakar Siraj al-Din), Muhammad, George Allen and Unwin, U.K. 1983.p.332.
3.     Sahih al-Bukhari, English translation by Mohsin Khan, New Delhi, 1984, Vol.1, Acc. 302.
4.     Ibid, Acc. 296.
5.     AN EPILOGUE TO THE RECENT ANTI-SHARIA LAW RALLIES ACROSS AMERICAN CITIES: The Dichotomy between Sharia Law of Islam (Islamic Law) and the Sharia of Islam
http://www.newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/an-epilogue-to-the-recent-anti-sharia-law-rallies-across-american-cities–the-dichotomy-between-sharia-law-of-islam-(islamic-law)-and-the-sharia-of-islam/d/111595
6.     https://archive.islamonline.net/?p=1230
7.     https://www.searchforbeauty.org/2010/04/05/fatwa-on-women-leading-prayer/

Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009.

Courtesy: New Age Islam

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Image Courtesy: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

It is well known that Islamic civilization had seen phenomenal advancement of knowledge during the Abbasid Period (roughly mid-8th to mid-13thcentury) – known as its Golden era. The Muslims drew on the resources that came to their hands – the Greco-Roman heritage and the scholars of other religions who were either native citizens or gravitated to Baghdad from different parts of the world to study universal sciences and fields of knowledge that were forbidden in their lands. Thus, they inaugurated and sustained an intellectual revolution that is captured in these words by two of the most eminent scholars of this era:

“Islam, which is only half a dozen centuries younger than Christianity, created a long and brilliant civilization, which is responsible for much of the way we are today. … When a few medieval monks were desperately trying to preserve what little they knew of Greco-Roman civilization, academies and universities flourished in the splendid cities of the Muslim lands”– Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, Islam, Empire of Faith, BBC Series, UK 2001, p. 11.

“Science is the most momentous contribution of Arab [Muslim] civilization to the modern world; but its fruits were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish [Islamic] culture had sunk back into darkness did the giant to which it had given birth, rise to its might. – Robert Briffault (1867-1948), Making of Humanity, p. 202.

With this summary introduction to Islam’s role in the advancement of universal knowledge, we come to the caption of this article that speaks for itself.

What has happened in the intellectual realm of Islam over the last few centuries is just the reverse of what Islam saw during the half a millennium of the Abbasid period. The historical background to this retrogression can be summed up as follows:

The surrender of Baghdad (1258 AD), the capital of the pan-Islamic Caliphate to the Mongol forces saw, apart from the gruesome massacre of its inhabitants, total eradication of its intellectual resources. The vast Abbasid libraries were burnt to ashes and the House of Wisdom -the unrivalled international center of learning of the era was destroyed. The ensuing centuries (14th – 17th) saw an explosive outburst of intellectual activity and free thinking in Europe that was driven by use of reason and thirst for Enlightenment and knowledge – known as ‘renaissance.’ This resulted in phenomenal growth in literary, artistic, philosophical, intellectual, commercial and military fields. This, in the ensuing centuries (18th-20th) ushered Europe into an era of great inventions and discoveries, proliferation of experimental research; exploitation of the forces of nature, and conversion of raw materials into an endless array of products in increasingly efficient and automated plants culminating in the modern urbanized industrialized world that is light-years ahead of the medieval ages.

As Europe was availing the fruits of its advancement and transforming its cold, dark and ramshackle villages into shining imageries of paradise (in the words of poet Laureate Muhammad Iqbal) and dotting its towns and cities with splendid museums, libraries, hospitals, universities, and rows upon rows of picturesque residential houses complete with all amenities – gardens, parks, shopping arcades, pharmacies, community centers – among other things, the orthodox Ulema remained in a state of denial and declared all scientific and civilisational advancement of Europe as the handiwork of Shaytan.

Accordingly, they divided the domain of knowledge between worldly and religious, forbade the learning of all European languages and abhorred all scientific and technological knowledge and advancement. Their hostility against the so called European knowledge was so intense that among other things, they burnt down an observatory in Turkey in 1580 – just a year after its erection, and closed down the first printing press in the Islamic world in the same city in 1745. Even as recently as the later part of the nineteenth century, the Ulema in British India fought tooth and nail against the establishment of a modern university by Syed Ahmed. Ironically, to this day Muslims are bogged down with a religious education curriculum that is centered round the secondary sources of Islam rooted and stagnated in the medieval ages and often treat universal sciences in the sidelines.

This division of knowledge between Scientific/ secular and religious is nothing short of a denial to probe the ‘Signs of God’ as repeatedly invoked in the Qur’an. There are verses that speak about the movement of heavenly bodies in their orbits (21:33, 31:29, 39:5), water cycle (2:164), embryonic development in a woman’s womb (23:12-14), immiscibility of soft and saline streams of water (25:53, 27:61, 55:19), reduction in oxygen content of air at higher altitudes (6:125), graduated darkness in ocean depth (24:40) for example – that simply cannot be understood without scientific knowledge.

Besides, God alone is the source of all knowledge and it was in this very spirit that the Muslims explored and advanced all prevalent branches of knowledge during their golden era (Abbasid period) drawing freely on non-Muslim sources. So dismissing scientific or secular knowledge in later centuries was a suicidal retrogression that gradually eroded the foundations of Islamic civilization, conduced to its colonization, and in the post-colonial era, rendered it politically weak, turbulent and unstable, and educationally and industrially backward – and with turn of events in this era, a potential breeding ground of terror, violent sectarianism and extremism. In the words of Altaf Hussain Hali, the famous poet and thinker of British India – ‘If one has to see a nation’s downfall exceeding all limits – it is Islam’s incapability to rise after its fall,” (translated from Urdu).

Hence, to stem the tide of Islam’s continuing decline, there is an urgent need to treat the pursuit of all universal sciences and knowledge as part of God’s trust to humanity This is to be accomplished by incorporating all branches of universal, secular and scientific knowledge in the Islamic religious schools (madrasas), so that those graduating from these schools should qualify to join the secular academic world and become doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, scientists and professionals in other fields and thus reinvigorate the foundations of Islamic civilization. The vast theological content of madrasa curriculum that is rooted in the medieval ages can be reduced to one core ‘religious’ subject covering the universal dimensions of Qur’anic message and some social works (community service) –  for, to be a good Muslim, a growing school student does not need any knowledge of the secondary sources of Islam as taught in the madrasas – other than familiarity with the Pillars of Faith that he acquires at home or in the local mosque even without going to any school. However, as Islam’s secondary sources, notably the hadith is of highly technical – having evolved more than a thousand years ago, “it should be reserved for enlightened specialists who have attained sufficient maturity, knowledge, and training to distinguish between weak and reliable Hadith, and not to confuse them with the Word of God.” – Essential Message of Islam, p. 363

Let this short article be an eye opener for the Custodians of Islamic Faith who play a decisive role in deciding the curriculum of the madrasas world-wide.

Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009.

Courtesy: New Age Islam
 

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