What's happening in many Muslim countries today regarding women's rights is awful and must be addressed.
However, your comment describing these Muslim countries as "Islamic countries " is off the mark.
These countries, whether Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc do not truly practice Islam as it should.
Case in point - education. Not just for women but for all. If these countries really practice Islam, there would be no illiteracy problem there.
Islam places great emphasis on education and places no barriers to women being getting educated.
Without a doubt that it will surprised many that when women in the western world were nothing but chattels, Muslim women were already attaining the status of religious scholars and many of them were teachers to men who later became great scholars themselves.
When most other religions prohibited their women from studying scriptures, Muslim women made name for themselves in this arena.
One example is that of 'Amra bin 'Abd al-Rahman whose students included Abu Bakr ibn Hazm, a celebrated judge in Medina.
Another example is that of Zaynab bint Sulayman (died in 759 AD)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.
The Islamic tradition of female hadith scholarship continued in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Islamic calender. Fatima al-Qushayri, was celebrated not only for her piety and her mastery of calligraphy, but also for her knowledge of the prophetic traditions.
Even more distinguished was Karima al-Marwaziyya (died 1070 AD), 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.
As a matter of fact, writes Godziher, 'her name occurs with extraordinary frequency of the ijazas for narrating the text of this book.' Among her students were al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and al-Humaydi (428/1036-488/1095).
According to Dr Mohammad Akram Nadwi, who is based in Oxford, his research into Muslim women who were hadith scholars yielded 8 000 ( eight thousand ) female hadith scholars in the last 1 400 years of Islam. He had compiled their history into a 40 volume dictionary.
A wise reflection of these facts assuredly must put to rest any notions that Islam prohibited women from getting educated.
The problem is getting Muslims to understand this.
More education for girls in Islamic countries!
1 comment:
What's happening in many Muslim countries today regarding women's rights is awful and must be addressed.
However, your comment describing these Muslim countries as "Islamic countries " is off the mark.
These countries, whether Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc do not truly practice Islam as it should.
Case in point - education. Not just for women but for all. If these countries really practice Islam, there would be no illiteracy problem there.
Islam places great emphasis on education and places no barriers to women being getting educated.
Without a doubt that it will surprised many that when women in the western world were nothing but chattels, Muslim women were already attaining the status of religious scholars and many of them were teachers to men who later became great scholars themselves.
When most other religions prohibited their women from studying scriptures, Muslim women made name for themselves in this arena.
One example is that of 'Amra bin 'Abd al-Rahman whose students included Abu Bakr ibn Hazm, a celebrated judge in Medina.
Another example is that of Zaynab bint Sulayman (died in 759 AD)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.
The Islamic tradition of female hadith scholarship continued in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Islamic calender. Fatima al-Qushayri, was celebrated not only for her piety and her mastery of calligraphy, but also for her knowledge of the prophetic traditions.
Even more distinguished was Karima al-Marwaziyya (died 1070 AD), 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.
As a matter of fact, writes Godziher, 'her name occurs with extraordinary frequency of the ijazas for narrating the text of this book.' Among her students were al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and al-Humaydi (428/1036-488/1095).
According to Dr Mohammad Akram Nadwi, who is based in Oxford, his research into Muslim women who were hadith scholars yielded 8 000 ( eight thousand ) female hadith scholars in the last 1 400 years of Islam. He had compiled their history into a 40 volume dictionary.
A wise reflection of these facts assuredly must put to rest any notions that Islam prohibited women from getting educated.
The problem is getting Muslims to understand this.
Faris Shamil
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