Ali Ataie – Women in the Old Testament, the New Testament & the Quran
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
But the Christian right, especially these neocon ideologues,
they mention a lot of things about Islam
with relation to women.
I wanna mention a few things by comparison
with not a lot of commentary because we
don't have a lot of time,
but Islam gave women the right to vote
in inherent,
and own property and businesses,
initiate divorces, choose and refuse husbands,
equal status with men in the eyes of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So, many of these
practices like FGM,
mutilation of women and things like that, honor
killings,
preventing women to be educated,
these things are cultural practices that have nothing
to do with the Islamic tradition. These are
things that are perpetrated by Muslims and Muslim
majority societies. There was a brother one time
who was in a habit of beating his
wife and kids
and not in this community
and we approached the brother and we said,
Why are you doing this? He said, That's
part of my culture. That's how I was
raised.
My father did it to us.
Right. So I said, You know brother, this
part of your culture is complete garbage.
We have to be frank with people.
If it contradicts the religion, lam yadrib rasoolallahu
alaihi sallam
biadihi shay an khat. The prophet sallallahu alaihi
sallam did not strike anything with his hand
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam illa anujahida fisabilillah
except if he was engaged in jihad fisabilillah.
Wala imraatan wala hulaman wala walladan Did not
strike a woman not one time, nor a
child, nor a servant SallAllahu Alaihi Wa Salaam
So we might have to make these things
clear to people. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
he says in the final pilgrimage Hajjatul Wada'a
and you can imagine
one of his central themes of his
final pilgrimage sermon because he knows there's 100
of thousands of people there and this is
what's going to be remembered and transmitted.
The last words of a person are what's
going to be transmitted. One of the central
themes of the farewell pilgrimage sermon, the Khutbah
was women
and he said, Istahu Subin Nisaikhayra.
Treat women well, treat women well.
Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Alaihi Wasallam
He said, there are 3 things from the
dunya, 3 things from the world that I
like, a good smell, the prayer and women.
And he's not talking about anything licentious
or anything like that, like the orientalists have
said. He's talking about the feminine qualities
that he himself Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he embodied
these jamaali qualities.
When the father of Zayd ibn U Haritha
came to claim him,
Zayd who is the indentured servant, slave, whatever
you want to call him, the adopted son
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, He wanted
to stay with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So the father of Zayd said, You choose
slavery over freedom? I'm your father.
I'm your father.
And Zayd said, He is my father and
my mother. About the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
because he was nurturing
because he did not raise his voice. Fabbi
marahmatim minallahi lin tellahum It is part of
the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
you have lean,
that you have gentleness.
Salallahu alayhi alaihi wasallam. That he
has rifq, he has gentleness salallahu alayhi wasallam.
He has his feminine qualities. He has mercy.
Wamaarsamakila
rahmatan.
Rahmatan is a feminine noun.
He is mercy.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala didn't say wamaarsanaq
illa antarhamalalameen
or something like that. He didn't say we
have not raised you except that you might
show mercy and use a firl, use a
verb. He says you are mercy,
you are rahmatan
thatuhur rahma His very essence is rahma SallAllahu
Alaihi
Waala Alihi Wasallam.
So, this is very interesting because if we
read the Torah, for example, the book of
Genesis,
the book of Bereshith, chapter 3, the fall
of man is very clearly blamed on the
woman.
It's very, very clear.
So, what does it say?
When Adam is confronted by God, this is
what he says to God in the Hebrew
language. He says, Isha Asher Natata Imadi.
This is because of the woman that you
gave me.
Right? This is because of the woman and
there's an emphasis on you. Ata,
anta. This is because of you.
He's actually blaming God.
This is the narrative in the Torah. It's
very interesting. And then God goes to the
woman and says, Mazot Asit?
What did you do?
What did you do?
So then God punishes the woman with painful
childbirth.
And then he punishes the man, why?
He says, Because you heeded the voice of
your wife.
The lesson? Don't listen to your wife according
to the Torah. This is not the Quran.
This is the book of Genesis.
This is in the Torah, the book of
Bereshith.
Because you heeded the voice of your wife,
cursed is the ground for your sake.
Very interesting. What does the Quran say? Fadelahumabihurur
That shaitan hooma, this is muthanna.
This is an object pronoun.
Right? It's dual.
That shaitan,
he deluded both of them.
Both of them, not one of them. Both
of them. And they made Tawbah,
when they made Tawbah, they made it in
the plural.
This is in the plural. Both of them
are making this Tawba. And of course we
don't believe that Adam alayhi salaam because he's
a prophet willfully disobeyed Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
This is impossible for a prophet. The prophets
are ma'asoom.
They're incapable of consciously disobeying
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They were tricked, they
were deceived, they were made to forget by
the Shaytan.
That's how we understand the story.
Want to quote something interesting,
this is from Tertullian of Carthage, a 2nd
century Christian polemicist
and heresiologist.
This is what he says in his commentary
on Genesis.
He says, You, speaking to women directly,
You are the devil's gateway.
You are the 1st deserter of the divine
law.
You are
she who persuaded him Adam
whom the devil was not valiant enough to
attack.
You destroyed so easily God's image
man. On account of your desert that is
death even the son of God had to
die Astaghfirullah.
In other words,
women are guilty of deicide.
You understand deicide?
God had to die
because of woman.
This is the this is
a exegesis of a
pre Nicene major Christian scholar
looking at Genesis chapter 3
very very interesting. We'll look in the New
Testament though because that's Old Testament. Let's look
in the Christian scriptures because Christians believe in
the Old Testament
but everything's been abrogated. The Ahkam, all of
the Ahkam in the Old Testament is Mansuk
according to Christian Theology. So first Timothy chapter
2, this is Paul writing now. He says,
A woman must learn in silence and in
all subjugation.
She cannot teach men. It's a usurpation of
authority. For Adam was made before Eve. Adam
was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in transgression.
Very interesting. Women cannot teach men anything. Of
course, in our tradition one of the foundations
of the deen of Islam especially Ahlus Sunnah
wal Jama'ah is on mother Aisha Radiallahu Ta'ala
Anha who's one of the 6 Sahaba who
related over 1,000 Hadith. Our deen is built
upon her.
Radhi Allah Ta'ala Anha, she's one of the
7 Muftis. There are 7 Muftis at the
time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who
gave fatwa. There are only 7 of them
not all of them. There were 7 muftis,
6 men and 1 woman And she used
to give fatwa behind the hijab to male
sahaba that are twice her age. Radhi Allah
Taala Anha. This was an amazing intellect.
And then Paul says,
this is the Greek. He says, So they
say,
Very interesting.
Not translated well in the vast majority of
English translations.
He says, she can become saved, she can
go to heaven
if she bears children.
According to Paul, how does a woman go
to paradise?
You stay silent
and pregnant.
First Corinthians chapter 11.
The head of the woman is the man,
the woman was created for the man.
She must cover her head in church, if
not, it should be shaved.
Speaking in church is shameful. I'll tell you
it's interesting true story. I was in a
church one time called Saint Paul Methodist Church,
and I was on stage with the pastor,
and we were talking about prophecy, Old Testament
prophecy,
I think it was something, Deuteronomy 18 or
something. Is it the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam?
Is it Isa alaihi wasallam? We're having a
very congenial, friendly, academic debate. This woman in
the back stands up and starts shouting at
me. Shouting in the back of the church
at me.
And this is interesting because
you know this is she's interrupting the entire,
event and so she was shouting out at
the top of her lungs and I couldn't
really make out what she was saying. When
she had finished I said, Do you know
what the namesake of this church is?
What is the namesake of this church? She
said, St. Paul!
And I found out later she was actually
a physician. This is a highly educated woman.
A Saint Paul Methodist. I said, you know
what Paul says?
What does Paul say? What you just did
is shameful.
You need to sit down.
And if and if we if we catch
you praying without your head covered, I'm gonna
order 1 of the presbyters to come shave
your head.
Because we're following Saint Paul. That's what Paul
says to do.
And she was saying something all I heard
was the pro the name of the prophet,
salam, a few times and I didn't Thank
God I didn't hear what she was saying.
Very very interesting.