Al-Muhaddithat | The Female Scholars of Islam | Dr Mohammad Akram Nadwi | Cambridge Islamic College

How to talk someone out of joining ISIS

Where Are Pakistan�s Female Muftis And Islamic Scholars?

 

�I have a problem. My husband said �talaaq� (divorce) to me thrice in one sitting. Everyone says the divorce is final now although he revoked his decision within hours. I have too much at stake here, and want to stay in this marriage. I have heard that the words uttered thrice in the same sitting count as one according to some Muslim jurists. What do you say?�

These were the words of a desperate woman aged 31, and the query was directed to a female Islamic preacher.

While the preacher explained basics to her, the disclaimer at the end was: �To have a legitimate version, I would suggest you ask a Mufti.�

The girl was puzzled. This female preacher had the required knowledge and had studied Islamic Sciences in depth. Why could she not confirm it?

�Because I am not a mufti. No woman in Pakistan is. I am not certified to give you this answer. You will have to consult a male scholar.�

And so it is. In a country that presently has close to 250,000 female students studying Islamic sciences across the country, not one female mufti (an expert expounder of Islamic jurisprudence) is to be found in Pakistan. With the exception of Dr. Farhat Hashmi, even a thorough internet search will prove exhausting and futile if you try and search for mainstream Islamic scholars from Pakistan. Neighbouring India, with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, is stuck in the same lurch.

While women study, preach and uphold religious teachings and values, there is an unsaid line which they do not cross. Beyond that line is a man�s domain. In the hierarchy of serious religious scholarship and clergy, women remain submissive and at best supplementary in terms of Islamic intellectual thought. Thus, the narrative that has evolved over the centuries sorely lacks the female voice, not just in South Asia but world over. Islamic female scholars, both in the mainstream and esoteric circles, and both from a faith-based and a critical scholarship premise, have risen again. The mark has been made, but only in the upper tier of Muslim cultures. The change remains to trickle down.

�In our culture, the woman remains dependent on the man, even the educated and self-reliant ones. Traditional Islamic scholars do not want this to change. If women start learning and studying at the level of men, many existing ideological ideas will be questioned. Most traditional scholars want to stay in a state of permanent utopia. Two things are at play here: patriarchy and a monopoly over the corridors of the power that comes as an advantage of religious leadership,� says Ibrahim Qazi, a worker of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), one of Pakistan�s strongest right wing political parties.

JI, while seen as a hardliner group, has to its credit bringing the signature face-covered veiled women both into the political and evangelism arenas.

Though female voices have always been part of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition, they are not as audible as men�s voices. When asked the possible reason for this, Aurangzeb Haneef, scholar and teacher of Islamic Studies, feels that religion discouraging women is not one of them.

�In the formative and classical period, as well as going on into the medieval period, women�s contribution to the intellectual corpus is palpable. This is especially true for transmission of Hadith,� he says.

Haneef feels that in the modern period, the field has become increasingly dominated by men.

�While religious organizations such as JI have women representation, their organizational structures are not conducive to supporting women�s scholarship independent of men.�

Allowing women to enter this sphere could possibly alter gender-based power dynamics in Muslim societies. A case in point would be Laleh Bakhtiar, an Iranian-American author who is the first American woman to translate the Quran into English. The most debated in all of her translation is her interpretation of a verse of the Quran, where Bakhtiar translated the verse as �husbands should go away,� instead of the husband being allowed to hit the wife mildly if she crosses all limits (including committing infidelity in the opinion of many).

�I believe that it was because I was looking at the verses from a female perspective,� says Bakhtiar, in her answer to Al Jazeera.

While Dr Hashmi may not agree with some of the non-traditional interpretations of Bakhtiar and others, she has to her credit brought a surge of Pakistani women from all strata of society into the fold of deliberated Islamic study. The liberals in Pakistan often see Dr Hashmi as a strict hardliner. Yet, she has also had to face opposition from more strict and traditional schools of thought.

�It is sad that there is such a dearth of Islamic scholars who are women. It is very important that women come into this field and invest their time into research in Islamic Studies. In fact, there is nothing against a woman becoming a Muftiah,� says Dr Hashmi.

Her expertise is Hadith Sciences, and in this she is inspired by historical accounts of Muhaddithat (female hadith narrators and scholars). One of the recent literary works on the subject is by Akram Nadwi who has compiled a biographical dictionary called �Al-Muhaddithat: The women scholars in Islam.� As he began his research, he hoped to find 20 to 30, but ended up finding more than 8000 of them.

�It is easier to perpetuate male authority and to cite men (even on �women�s issues�) than to acknowledge women�s voices, particularly where women do not have the same easily recognizable credentials or public profiles as their male counterparts,� says Kecia Ali, Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. �One way to begin to chip away at this disproportionate emphasis on male scholarship is to bring women�s voices and contributions to the fore on many issues, not just those concerning women.�

But Haneef says that women have a natural advantage when it comes to such issues.

�Women can think, understand, and deliberate better on issues pertaining to women and gender relations.�

The role of women as mothers and nurturers makes them safe choices, for teaching and preaching, seen as lighter �fluff� work, but intensive research and redefining discourse is seen as too hardcore for the gentler sex. This is in sharp contrast with women at the time of the Prophet (pbuh), who were nurturers and home-makers, as well as scholars. One of the most prominent Islamic jurists of her time was his wife Umm Salama, known for her fatawa. Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, Chairman Pakistan Ulema Council, says that these examples must be followed.

�Muslims have inherited a big chunk of their knowledge of religion from these honoured women. Even today, women must play their role. But it is not necessarily patriarchy at work that is hindering this process. If women, themselves, decide to forge ahead in this field, no obstacle will stop them,� says Ashrafi.

One such woman is Emaan Asif, a business graduate who gave up her professional career by choice, and is currently studying to become an �Aalima, a degree in Islamic sciences awarded by traditional schools. Yet, Emaan has no scholarly ambitions for doing this. Her reason is simply to learn more about her faith and �become a better Muslim�. Her husband, Asif Misbah, supports her through the demands of this period of painstaking extensive study.

He feels one must venture into this field �as long as it does not compromise any fundamental life-role or leads to sharia non-compliance in any aspect, for both men and women.�

According to Haneef, the female voice is necessary and her perspective essential in the Islamic narrative.

�By virtue of her position, �Ayesha added aspects of the Prophet�s (pbuh) life to the Hadith corpus that were humane, personal, and intimate and might have been lost,� he says, citing the Prophet�s (pbuh) wife as an example.

While the change may have begun with a resurgence of women being seen in the area of Islamic scholarship, �it will be a long and discontinuous process,� says Ali. �But like anything worth doing, one must try.�

Bakhtiar is hopeful and feels that change takes time.

�We have to be patient.�

Source

Muslim Scholars Make the Theological Case Against the Islamic State

More than a hundred Muslim scholars and leaders from around the world released an open letter addressed to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Wednesday, telling the self-proclaimed caliph, in no uncertain terms, that the group's use of Islamic scripture is illegitimate and perverse.

The document, which was issued in Arabic and English on the website Letter to Baghdadi and is embedded below, begins with a list of practices employed by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) that its authors say are explicitly forbidden by Islam. They include torture, slavery, forced conversions, the denial of rights for women and children, and the killing of innocents.

The letter emphasizes that Baghdadi's claims to a caliphate spanning eastern Syria and western Iraq are void.

"Who gave you authority over the ummah [Muslim people]?" the letter asks. "Was it your group? If this is the case, then a group of no more than several thousand has appointed itself the ruler of over a billion and a half Muslims. This attitude is based upon a corrupt circular logic that says: 'Only we are Muslims, and we decide who the caliph is, we have chosen one and so whoever does not accept our caliph is not a Muslim.' "

Source

No discrimination between man and woman?

"Islam is the religion which gives woman highest level of priority in her life which she actually deserves. There is no discrimination of man and woman in Islam.

And their Lord responded to them, "Never will I allow to be lost the work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another. [3:195]

This verse clearly shows no discrimination between man and woman. But regretfully the leader of Islamic society who are known as scholars are contributing in such concepts which only oppress a woman from her real rights which is given by Allah and never be un-declared by Prophet Muhammad. 

Some Hadith source might show you women were oppressed like woman beating or slave sex concept where 1st wife would have to see her husband�s romance with slave without marriage or the polygamy concept where no special condition is necessary or the concept of wife can�t refuse her man�s call for intercourse in anyway (even she is sick too or passing in bad mode too) or women are source of fitna etc. Can you believe these are authentic hadith proclaimed by Prophet Muhammad? No other words beside Quran could be authentic in 100 %. These are all fabricated hadith where really a woman is oppressed!! After Prophet�s death People who were in support of woman oppression (as it is a law of society) mixed their own words with his noble words and made this hadith where a man is shown as superior to woman.

But if you really look in Quran word�s (direct translation of the verses) nowhere you will find such conditions. Allah says in verse 2:228 that man and woman have similar rights over them. 
What is less from man a woman is only the physical structure, woman are weaker than man. This weakness is only for the pleasure of carnal relationship between man and woman. For the strength of man which more than woman, Allah also gives the man more trials than us in the same verse �But the men have a degree over them, women� which means man are responsible for financial activity and also for giving their wives pleasure in every possible way and also they will be protector of their women in verse 4;34.

Now some Islamic website and scholars held their opinion basing on some fabricated hadith and by some wrong interpretation of quranic words in chance of woman persecution, that Polygamy can be practiced for lust only by offering it to a younger woman. Which is the wrong concept of islam they are delivering to people. Allah in Quran 4:3 told �With respect to marrying widows, if you are afraid of not being able to maintain justice with her children, marry another woman of your choice or two or three or four (who have no children). If you cannot maintain equality with more than one wife, marry only one or your slave-girl. This keeps you from acting against justice�. Where it is clear plural marriage can be practiced only then when a man will be able to sacrifice his boundless love for his 1st wife because of humanity to give protection another woman who is widow and has orphan child. If he can�t take care of her orphan child then he should marry that woman who has no child. Now, the possibility of childless woman only goes to a woman who is widow or divorced not a younger wife. Or he can marry his slaves (for giving her freedom). So, all of the points for polygamy are only for humanity, not for lust. And also about permission of 1st wife Allah clearly denotes in 4:19 not to make any difficulty in his wife�s life to those services which he can deliver her. The service is not only confined in mahr but also in love/sex/passion. Now if a man gets married 2nd time without 1st wife�s permission will not it create difficulty in her life? 

And also For loving 1st wife more than other wives whom they marry for humanity, they will not be accused in Allah�s eye as per the verse 4:129, only they need to serve them equally in other services except love which will only be for the 1st wife whom he married for love or sexual desire.

And also on slave sex which is proclaimed by Islamic mollahs are also a wrongful or lustful thought by contributing themselves in a belief man need more than 4 women in their life, so they are permitted to take infinite number of women in bed as concubines from slaves. This is the most hateful speech of them which conflict with quran. But in Quran verse 23:5-6 Allah told by noble word �right hand possess� to those female slaves who are attached to you wedlock or who are legally your wives from your slaves.
According to their thought Allah prepared beautiful hoor only for them, men in jannah as their lust is infinite or they are not satisfied with the number of women whom they get in duniya (including 4 wives and many concubines), But women will not get any hoor in jannah. Do u really think allah can discriminate in giving gifts to the believers (men and women) who will get jannah?? Or Allah can grow the attitude in man�s mind not to be chaste-full but to be lustful?
What actually quran says hoor is both for man and woman. Al-Ahzab verse 35,

�Surely the men who submit and the women who submit, and the believing men and the believing women, and the obeying men and the obeying women, and the truthful men and the truthful women, and the patient men and the patient women, and the humble men and he humble women, and the charitable men and the charitable women, and the fasting men and the fasting women, and the men who guard their chastity and women who guard their chastity, and the men who remember Allah much and the women who remember � Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a mighty reward.�
And also in quran 2:282 Allah told for adding 1 man with two women in case of financial witness. Here Allah doesn�t show woman are less intelligent/less dutiful. But here Allah told to guard those women from any danger by adding a man with them, from which they will not be able to protect as they are physically weaker than men. 
And also about the inheritance woman also have the right to get equal property as man in some circumstances too. 

(http://www.quran-islam.org/articles/part_3/writing_a_will_(P1413).html)
And also about beating wife: Quran never uses word for beating wife. 
(http://quransmessage.com/articles/a%20deeper%20look%20at%20the%20word%20dharaba%20FM3.htm)

- Farhana Hossain (Bangladesh)"

Taken from Muslim Feminists page on Facebook  

For  full comment pls see http://muslimfeminist587.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/islam-feminist.html
 

Muslim women in history: Thuml Al-Qahramana

Thuml Al-Qahramana

Often called the first female judge in Islam, Thuml lived during the 10th century. Her exact date of birth is unkown. Although said to be the first female judge, this is unverified but we know at least this is the first female judge on which there is a written record. 
She was called Qharmana due to her being the head of the women�s quarters in the palace, before becoming a judge. 

It was during the age of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir; his mother was appointed Queen. She was highly impressed by Thuml�s intelligence and knowledge of the sciences of religion and so ordered her to sit in what was called the "House of grievances " and appointed her head judge or chief of justice.

At first Thuml found intense resentment against her appointment but with the help of a fellow judge Abu al-Hasan Ibn Aloshnani and after making intelligent and fair judgments she was able to overcome the refusal of people and gain their confidence. The people began to trust her when they saw her ability to judge amongst them and they began to come in droves to receive a Just judgment from Thuml.

She oversaw the house of grievances on Friday. As well as all ruling from the House of Grievence has to be signed by her, or else they would not be implemented. She presided over a large council of judges and scholars and dignitaries.

Some historians and scholars who witnessed the times of Thuml in Baghdad, wrote that she was a great judge , and that the objections of the people quickly turned to love because of the reforms she carried out .

It is common to see that some historians described her as �harsh� and strange. This was more due to her lack of trepidation to implement the full extent of the law

She resigned in the year 922 AD and died in 928 AD

Source

Quote of the day....

 

 

Islam is based on naql (texts) and 'aql (intellect). Some people just have the texts � we call them naql-heads. 

 

 - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf  

American Islamic scholar and co-founder of Zaytuna College.

Our Mother, Our Teacher (Aisha bint Abu-Bakr)

Hadith of the Day: Teach Goodness

 

 

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "God and His angels, the dwellers of the heavens and of the earth, even an ant in its hole and fish (in the depths of the sea), invoke blessings on (a scholar) who teaches people goodness." Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 70

Of Aisha�s age at marriage

IT is said that Hazrat Aisha was six years old when her nikah was performed with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Makkah, and nine years old when she moved in to live with her husband in Madina after Hijra.

This piece of misinformation has led to the wrong view that child marriage has the sanction of Islam. It must be noted that establishing the authenticity of hadiths, the narrators� circumstances and the conditions at that time have to be correlated with historical facts. There is only one hadith by Hisham which suggests the age of Hazrat Aisha as being nine when she came to live with her husband.

Many authentic hadiths also show that Hisham�s narration is incongruous with several historical facts about the Prophet�s life, on which there is consensus. With reference to scholars such as Umar Ahmed Usmani, Hakim Niaz Ahmed and Habibur Rehman Kandhulvi, I would like to present some arguments in favour of the fact that Hazrat Aisha was at least 18 years old when her nikah was performed and at least 21 when she moved into the Prophet�s house to live with him.

According to Umar Ahmed Usmani, in Surah Al-Nisa, it is said that the guardian of the orphans should keep testing them, until they reach the age of marriage, before returning their property (4:6). From this scholars have concluded that the Quran sets a minimum age of marriage which is at least puberty. Since the approval of the girl has a legal standing, she cannot be a minor.

Hisham bin Urwah is the main narrator of this hadith. His life is divided into two periods: in 131A.H. the Madani period ended, and the Iraqi period started, when Hisham was 71 years old. Hafiz Zehbi has spoken about Hisham�s loss of memory in his later period. His students in Madina, Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifah, do not mention this hadith. Imam Malik and the people of Madina criticised him for his Iraqi hadiths.

All the narrators of this hadith are Iraqis who had heard it from Hisham. Allama Kandhulvi says that the words spoken in connection with Hazrat Aisha�s age were tissa ashara, meaning 19, when Hisham only heard (or remembered), tissa, meaning nine. Maulana Usmani thinks this change was purposely and maliciously made later.

Historian Ibn Ishaq in his Sirat Rasul Allah has given a list of the people who accepted Islam in the first year of the proclamation of Islam, in which Hazrat Aisha�s name is mentioned as Abu Bakr�s �little daughter Aisha�. If we accept Hisham�s calculations, she was not even born at that time.

Some time after the death of the Prophet�s first wife, Hazrat Khadija, Khawla suggested to the Prophet that he get married again, to a bikrun, referring to Hazrat Aisha (Musnad Ahmed). In Arabic bikrun is used for an unmarried girl who has crossed the age of puberty and is of marriageable age. The word cannot be used for a six-year-old girl.

Some scholars think that Hazrat Aisha was married off so early because in Arabia girls mature at an early age. But this was not a common custom of the Arabs at that time. According to Allama Kandhulvi, there is no such case on record either before or after Islam. Neither has this ever been promoted as a Sunnah of the Prophet. The Prophet married off his daughters Fatima at 21 and Ruquiyya at 23. Besides, Hazrat Abu Bakr, Aisha�s father, married off his eldest daughter Asma at the age of 26.

Hazrat Aisha narrates that she was present on the battlefield at the Battle of Badar (Muslim). This leads one to conclude that Hazrat Aisha moved into the Prophet�s house in 1 A.H. But a nine-year-old could not have been taken on a rough and risky military mission.

In 2 A.H, the Prophet refused to take boys of less than 15 years of age to the battle of Uhud. Would he have allowed a 10-year-old girl to accompany him? But Anas reported that he saw Aisha and Umme Sulaim carrying goatskins full of water and serving it to the soldiers (Bukhari). Umme Sulaim and Umme Ammara, the other women present at Uhud, were both strong, mature women whose duties were the lifting of the dead and injured, treating their wounds, carrying water in heavy goatskins, supplying ammunition and even taking up the sword.

Hazrat Aisha used the kunniat, the title derived from the name of a child, of Umme Abdullah after her nephew and adopted son. If she was six when her nikah was performed, she would have been only eight years his senior, hardly making him eligible for adoption. Also, a little girl could not have given up on ever having her own child and used an adopted child�s name for her kunniat.

Hazrat Aisha�s nephew Urwah once remarked that he was not surprised about her amazing knowledge of Islamic law, poetry and history because she was the wife of the Prophet and the daughter of Abu Bakr. If she was eight when her father migrated, when did she learn poetry and history from him?

There is consensus that Hazrat Aisha was 10 years younger than her elder sister Asma, whose age at the time of the hijrah, or migration to Madina, was about 28. It can be concluded that Hazrat Aisha was about 18 years old at migration. On her moving to the Prophet�s house, she was a young woman at 21. Hisham is the single narrator of the hadith whose authenticity is challenged, for it does not correlate with the many historical facts of the time.

Source

An Introduction to Hadith

For myself really I need to watch this series.

The Truth About Islam And Female Circumcision/FGM

I was very disappointed to watch a video from Shaikh Haitham Al-Haddad in which he insists female circumcision is Sunnah and wajib. He mentioned ahadith, but does not elaborate on the fact that they are 'weak' he also mentions any form of female circumcision is illegal in the UK, but then does not tell people to refrain from it in fact encourages it by repeatedly saying its Sunnah. This is highly irresponsible.

Most of all at the end of the video he admits he hasn't done all his research and cannot discuss the degrees of female circumcision or some of its alleged 'benefits'. This makes the video a farce.

I used to respect  this scholar for his pro-voting/political participation stance but now this and his alleged statement  �a man should not be questioned why he hit his wife, because this is something between them" has left me so depressed. It seems more and more men in our community are enemies of our women and advocates of patriarchy. 

I would urge everyone to read this excellent article from my brothers and sisters at the Asharis Assemble blog. It is by far best resource/explanation about female circumcision/FGM from an Islamic perspective I have ever come across.  As is the video posted at the top.

I hope other scholars and community leaders try to educate Shaikh Haitham or at least convince him to be more responsible and compassionate. He has done our community a lot of harm.

No man has the right to mutilate a woman, and to use our faith as justification is a grave sin and error. A woman is more than capable of thinking and acting for herself. I worry that Haitham Al-Haddad has many followers and they will be swayed to hurt their daughters. 

Indeed he is undoing the good work of activist such as Fahma Mohamed. 

Hamza Yusuf & Zaid Shakir - How Just Is Islam To Followers of other religions

Female Leadership and Diversity � Interview with Dr Ingrid Mattson

 Alhamdulilah I really admire this sister :)

Professor Dr Ingrid Mattson presently serves as Chair of the Islamic Studies Program at the Huron University College of The University of Western Ontario. She was previously the Director of the Macdonald Centre for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was the founder of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program � the only accredited program to train Muslim chaplains in the United States. From 2006 to 2010 she served as the President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), after serving two terms as Vice President � being the first woman elected to either position. Dr Mattson was born in Canada and earned her PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999.

Dr Mattson spoke to Al Nisa during the Symposium �Kent U Mij?� (Do you know me?) in the Theater de Meervaart in Amsterdam on 22 September 2012, in between her keynote speech on conformity and diversity among Muslim women, and an open question-and-answer session with the audience.

What makes a good Muslim leader?

There�s leadership in so many different sectors. The first thing is that leaders have this inability to just let problems remain; they see a need and they need to respond to it, and so they do something. A good leader has the ability to analyse a situation, understand it, assess what resources are available, and then come up with a practical solution.

A good leader is also looking to make him or herself replaceable, firstly by working on strengthening the institution in which he or she works (to extent that it�s appropriate and possible) and second, mentoring other people into leadership. Making sure that you have a strong organisation that could continue on without you, or that at least has the mechanisms for replacing you, and then personally mentoring or nurturing leaders.

Do you think there�s a gender difference when it comes to leadership?

There are generalisations, and they are not true in all situations. But I do think that women tend to be more consultative. They tend to try to convince people before going ahead, rather than simply making a decision and expecting everyone to go along. And that�s usually good. Although sometimes you do have to be decisive and you need to go ahead even if there isn�t buy-in.

Part of leadership is knowing when to go ahead with a decision that�s within your authority because you�re really convinced it�s the right thing, even if other people don�t understand it at that point. Between that and taking the time to really get buy-in from others, there�s a balance. I think men tend to be more of one style and women the other, and you don�t want an imbalance between those two.

While you were in ISNA, in which situations did you find yourself having more legitimacy or authority to speak on certain issues?

I think a lot of people felt that the fact that I was in a position to speak for at least my organization ISNA, if not little more broadly for the American Muslim community. I think a lot of people found that beneficial after September 11^th, because there was a great need to be able to explain Islam to Americans in terms that they understood. The fact that that�s my environment � I am Western and I�m Muslim � helped me to understand the concerns that were being raised. This helped with communication, which is natural, but it�s simply accidental that I was born in that environment.

However, there is one disturbing aspect to it, because sometimes there is an implied racism. A friend of mine who�s a rabbi and a really a good friend of the Muslim community once said, �Ingrid, it was very good that you were the leader of ISNA when you were, because you�re this small white woman so you�re not frightening in a way that maybe your predecessors were.� My predecessor and my successor were both dark-skinned Sudanese men.

Is a man scarier than a woman? Is a dark-skinned person scarier than a white-skinned person? If you ask any of my students, they will tell you I�m much scarier than either of those two people. I thought that was really terrible; just seeing my face made people comfortable. I think Muslim men of colour are the most despised people now, as their faces are associated with intimidation or violence. That is really, really sad.

How can female scholars achieve the legitimacy that male scholars do, even though they may have studied in the same places?

That�s unfortunate. I think that kind of ignorance about women scholars in our still needs to be corrected. People tend to want to make sure that what they�re getting is authentic. I think the more we learn about our tradition, the more this kind of reaction will be avoided. There�s a lot of information certainly available now about women in the isnad, like Dr. Akram Nadwi�s book Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam.

But there�s knowledge, and then there�s authority or influence. We have many women who have knowledge but if they�re not recognised by the community or given a position, then people may think that maybe they�re not really that qualified.

I once talked with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani of Seeker�s Guidance from Canada. In his organisation there are many women who have studied in Jordan and have ijazah in different fields of Islamic studies. He was frustrated because not much was being done with the knowledge that these women have. I told him the reality is that until the mosque establishes official positions (whether paid or not) recognising her as a shaykha or as a religious teacher in the community, people won�t be going to her. Why would they recognise them as authoritative if the leadership of the community doesn�t?

I think these two things are important: knowing our history to break up our inherited assumptions about religious authority, and establishing positions for these women.

So it�s important for knowledgeable women to be affiliated to an organisation. But if the current leadership is dominantly male, how does a woman negotiate that?

You have to find advocates. Allah (swt) says in the Qur�an that the believing men and women are awliya� or partners of one another (9:71). Nothing can really happen in the community without partnership. Women need to call on their teachers, or those in positions of leadership who can advocate with them. It can�t always seem like only women are asking about this; this is about building the community together.

There�s always going to be some people who resist it though. Either because they sincerely believe that men should be in authority, or, like all human beings, they don�t like to concede or share power with others. Or they�re just ignorant. But I�m sure there are some men who think this is wrong. You need to work in partnership with some men to change this.

Some people can be worked on and others will remain intransigent. Sometimes you can work within the system and sometimes you need to build your own thing while your community lends legitimacy and support.

Speaking of your own thing, I read that you have a dog. There are diverse opinions about it, so how do you deal with holding a minority opinion on an issue?

Well, my opinion comes from one of the fiqh (legal jurisprudence) positions. The majority of fiqh positions consider the saliva of all dogs to be impure, but the Maliki school considers only the saliva of wild dogs to be impure. The Maliki position does not consider domestic dogs to be najis (impurity). There�s strong justification for it in the Maliki school from the argument that the Qur�an allows us to use hunting dogs, and even eating animals caught in their mouths, for example.

So if you�re a Shafi�i or a Hanafi then you�re not going to be able to have a dog, and I�m not going to force anyone else to have one.  But certainly, I very deliberately wrote about the Maliki position to raise the issue of the problem of making a religious issue of purity into a taboo, and then even a phobia.

We have a big problem in North America, where we have many Muslim taxi drivers and are also blind and disabled people who use service dogs. These dogs help disabled people to move around in public spaces, but we Muslim cab drivers say things like �Dogs are haram� and they will refuse to accept them disabled people with service dogs in their cab.

This is just pure ignorance, because it�s not that dogs are haram, there�s nothing about putting a dog in a car. You�re not required to hate dogs. Your children leave najasa (impurity) all over, you�re not supposed to hate them right? I think it�s particular to Muslims in the West, although the widespread abuse of animals in Muslim countries is also haram. We really have to break this overreaction and confusion among Muslims.

Like the issue of dogs, do you think there are other issues that Muslims tend to fixate upon and leaving more urgent issues undebated?

Yes, very clearly. A former student of mine once told me how frustrating it was for her when she was homeless with three children. She was going to the mosque and even though people knew she was homeless, they were not coming to her � she had to come and ask for support. People would say �Well, we don�t have money for that�, yet money was being spent on all sorts of other things � fundraising for Muslims in other countries, or for certain improvements to the new building � when you have a homeless woman in the mosque.

I�m sure there will be people who will come after us and say that we were blind to certain needs. It�s not that any of us are beyond that. We�re all human and we all have limited perspectives, but this is why you need to have wide consultation and a mechanism to include as many voices as possible. The more people you include in the decision-making process, the better chance you have of avoiding at least a gross error in neglecting a true need in the community.

Are you working on any projects right now?

I�m working on a book that�s going to be called, tentatively, The Ethical Muslim. It gives tools for ethical thinking in Islam and provides case studies. I also have a new position in Canada as the new London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Like how I built that chaplaincy program at Hartford Seminary, I�m going to be looking to see what kind of religious leadership program would be suitable for Canadian Muslims in that environment, inshallah.

That sounds exciting. Finally, any advice for Muslim women who work in the public sphere but who are not visibly Muslim?

Wearing the hijab is just one part of being Muslim. More important is, are you bringing the character, behaviour, values and ethics of a Muslim to your workplace? Every Muslim should know the ethics of their field. If you are doing things correctly according to Islam and the civil law to the best that you can, you could even have an impact on your field, depending on how much authority you have. If you go to work and you�re doing things that contradict Islamic ethics or you don�t even know what the ethics of your field are � that�s problematic.

It can be a touchy subject � you don�t want to make it seem like you�re bringing religion into the workplace, but you should have an attitude of responsiveness. That if people sincerely want information, that you are available to them. It may seem burdensome � why do you have to explain your religion when others don�t � but that�s the world we live in.

Other minority groups have similar problems, so look at it as an opportunity. How many Muslims in the world have no chance to say anything? We are the elite in the Muslim world when it comes to educational opportunity and political freedom, so what kind of responsibilities do we have towards others? I don�t think you can just say you want to be a normal person. There are a lot of normal people (laughs).

That�s all, thank you for your time Dr. Mattson.

Thank you for having me, it was a pleasure.

Source