Alima Ashfaq – Strong Women In Islamic History

			are Muslim woman oppressed? What were women like in the time of the Prophet? I had the pleasure of
discussing this topic with Allah mesh fact during her visit to Toronto from the UK for the being me
conference. Allah is the founder and director of Im allamah. And women of m a movement to revive the
love of knowledge. She is also an instructor at the online Islamic University. Here's our interview
with her now.
		

			Welcome to the show Allah. Thank you. So I'm going to ask you a very heavy type of a question. How
can we deal with this notion that Muslim women are oppressed? Okay. And I want to start by some
advice that Mr. Uppsala he gave me, I deliver lectures on regularly in the UK, and at times
internationally. And he said to me, when you go into that audience, it is very delusional. And it's
unfair for you to have the expectation that you are totally going to change their perception of
women in Islam. But what you can do is you can plant the seed, you can plant the seed. And when we
look back at Islamic history, we we truly learn that Islam is not oppressive. We have an example we
		

			have, it starts off by hawala, a student who is you know, the wife of Adam Eve, from an Islamic
perspective, which is very different to the the Christian outlook not to take any devotion away from
them is that and Eve was, was to blame for Adam at Esalen for being thrown out of you know, heaven.
So from the beginning, Islam, Islam cheeseand changes that and you go back to the Sunnah of the
Prophet, Adi slet. Islam, he is a liberal. From the very beginning, he changed the perception with
the Hadith and I'll mention one is that those who have daughters, you know, who have one daughter,
two daughters, and they look off to them, they will be a shield for them on the on the day of
		

			judgment in Buhari. And when you look at that, what is a shield? a shield defends you, what do you
do you clean a shield regularly, any father who wants to go to Paradise, he will be looking after
his daughter. So from the very beginning of Islam, the prophet peace be upon him, he changed their
perception. And I'll mention one example some robinton A Hague and Muslims. So sometime in The
Hague, an amazing example. She was chosen to go around the marketplaces in Medina and to make sure
they are they are enjoying, she was enjoying good and forbidding evil, some robinton a heke. Meaning
in our equivalent, she was a police woman, she was outside her home, she was strong, she was
		

			confident, the men and women was scared of and this is all the time of the Prophet. This is the time
of the Prophet. And you know, after you had examples, you have a shift. You have so many amazing
women. So how do we dispel those misconceptions, you go back to Islamic history, you go back and you
see these countless women and us in the UK. One thing I always say is the alternative narrative
narrative and the alternative reality that the West puts forward to us. It's not, it's not something
that we want, because we have objectification, we have sexualization of women. Whereas what Islam
does, it paints an amazing picture. And whenever I and the last point, when I whenever I deliver a
		

			lecture, I always say I don't begin that women are pearls and women are women have to be covered.
You know why? Because the non Muslim is sitting in the audience. They're like, Okay, what about this
woman over here? What about in like Pakistan or India in Saudi women are not allowed to drive? You
know, that's what they're thinking. So they're not going to pay attention to me. However, you can
plant that seed you can give those examples. And Dr. Tremont nedry, he makes an amazing statement.
He says, you know, rarely in other cultures and rarely in other religions, do we judge their
failures by their faith. The problem we have with them with Islam is everyone's judging the failures
		

			of the Muslim community, by you know, by what people do by what individuals who are Muslim do so we
have to, you know, detach ourselves from, you know, what Muslims do and look at what Islam does.
Islamic history changes and I can give you countless, it's a how do we see you I heard you mentioned
twice about, you know, it's important of planting the seed. Well, how do you like what is that seed
and how do you actually do it? The way you plant that seed, so it depends on the individual, there
are those individuals that are concerned and you know, they are Muslim and they're concerned. There
are some amazing literature that are amazing auto audio series on the line. akkad you've got al
		

			Mohanty said, Dr. Ackerman. nedry you've got Dr. Ahmed, Farooq Abdullah, he's got great women in
Islam. You've got Dr. Hisham, awardee. He's got women around the beloved. You've got Imam Abdullah
that does some amazing lectures on women. You've got Aisha Bulli, she does the biography of 1000s of
women
		

			You know, so we have these amazing resources that you should if you need to start a journey through
them. And once you get through them, you will realize that narrative that is taught about Muslim
women within the Muslim community, and the non Muslim community is not necessarily reflective of the
dynamics of the prophetic society. So once you get and I will say, anybody go through those
resources, come back and tell us if you think Muslim women are oppressed, it's not the case. And
it's how we judge the Quran and how we judge the sinner, you have to judge it from a non biased
perspective, when you're non biased. And when you're, you know, when you look at it in a wholesome
		

			way, he will be able to appreciate it. Without that you will always assume that Muslim women are
oppressed. So I wanna I know you were here for a conference meeting, and you focused on the life of
Ayesha rhodiola. Haha. So can you share with us I guess, some more con? Well, not that the examples
you've given so far own concrete but more practical examples? Because she suffered a lot as well.
Right? Yeah, Chateau de la Hannah, she went through everything. And if we want to understand the
status of women in Islam, we do it through her because she is the spiritual link between us and the
Prophet are these letters and I'm, for example, you had an holub infallible female companion, came
		

			to a Chateau de la and her and she said, my husband, he won't stay with me lovingly, but he will
divorce me either. She was like, she was upset meaning here, he rhodiola rhodiola and her is being
the marriage counselor, and a Chateau de la and how she was hurt because this is a woman that's
concerned, she went to the Prophet peace be upon him and she said, you know, hola came to me, may
Allah be pleased with her. And her her husband is treating her unjustly. And a chronic first was
revealed to say that you either stay with them, or you you divorce them, you are not allowed to
abuse a woman in that way. Allah subhanaw taala. He's watching. And I was reading the verse today,
		

			actually. And within the verse, it says that if you like, forgive them, you know, it's if you
forgive them, God is all pardoning, because hola did not want to split up from her husband, she
loved him, and he loved her, but there were domestic issues in place. So for that reason, they, you
know, they came together, and they, they had that loving relationship, but look how he rhodiola and
how she, she deals with that. She was slanted. And away from that is a Chateau de la and her she was
an amazing scholar, she generated 2210 Hadees a Chateau de la and her she taught at male scholars.
So here the men had no problem taking from women. They weren't like, Oh, I can't take from her
		

			because she's a woman. You know, she was teaching the men she was conversing with them, or might
have been hooked on May Allah be pleased with him, would come to her and seek her advice, or men
would seek her advice. And one example I have to show it's like so amazing, is during the time of
earlier, the Alon, the Muslim community, you know, they were going through a few domestic issues.
Everybody does. And it's in the wisdom of God, they took place, because the fact that they took
place, we we know how to deal with domestic issues. So there's always wisdom there. And, you know,
she, she, another female went to Hajj, and she tried to give some water to Othman Mallaby pleads
		

			with him. And they didn't let her for a Chateau de la and he says, I'm going to hedge. And I'm like,
don't go to hide, you know, it's you. It's not a place for you like, * yeah, I like to hedge. And
I'm going to tell them exactly how I feel. Look how confident she was a Shara Viola and her, you
know, she teaches women that you can have a role in society. And the greatest thing we learn from
Aisha is her Connect connection with Allah, you know, that we as Muslim women, the more successful
we are, the more connected we need to be to God. Because what this society does and what all
societies have done is they divorced the woman from, you know, divorced, a woman from her
		

			femininity, in the name of progression. So, you know, motherhood will deprive you of, you know,
having a career getting married will deprive you from and, you know, you won't have that life
anymore. And that's not just a Muslim, no universal, there are articles about how Yeah, once you
have children, then you can't progress. It's a certain level in your career, us in the West way
exhausted, by the way, because we we want to work, we want to, we want to have that career. We're
looking after our children, whereas what Islam has done is and this is an injunction, that the
responsibility is on the men like that's a responsibility upon them. And you know, we it's how we
		

			view the heads like oh my god, men are given the right to go out to work, and women aren't know it's
a responsibility.
		

			It's hard, it's tough. And whereas women, they have the right to work, and they have the right to
not to work. I know many women that are forced out in the workplace, because they that it's the
culture that men women need to work. So Islam gives them that if you want to work, you can, if you
don't, you don't have to your husband should provide for you. But your responsibility as parents is
your children. No, they are your responsibility. But that does not stop you from being successful.
And that's why we have the mahadi said, You have countless women who, you know, they were involved
in society. An important point is a majority of them had the Fed their fathers were immigrants, they
		

			were scholars, they were mostly they were called these, meaning the most conservative men had the
most active daughters. But in our time, the most conservative individuals are apparently too strict,
and they end up oppressing their women the most. So we have to go back in Islamic history. And when
we do, like, this is just like a tidbit. Like, like so excited. How do you I know you're also
teaching a course.
		

			Online? Can you share with us a little bit about that if people are interested in learning more?
Okay, so I'm teaching ultimate minute with Islamic online university. And this course has changed my
life completely. Because the when I put in the course, together, I'm reading a journal, I'm like,
Oh, my God, I need to read another one. I need to read another one. So the first one, the first
session was, why is gender a legitimate topic? Because there are individuals that think why do we
have to speak about women? You know, why do we always go on about the topic of women, it's
incredibly legitimate when through comparative religion from a Western perspective and an Eastern
		

			perspective, as well as a historical one. And the reason why I did that is so you appreciate the
renascence during the Prophet, at least let us in him and then we went on, you know, how does the
Quran and Sunnah transform attitude related to women? We go on we deal with the misconceptions, you
know, conceptions within the Muslim community, like a woman's voice is our Ah, you know, you deal
you know, women aren't allowed in the masjid. And if I can be clear, that's not true. That's
		

			an interesting point is you know, I'm gonna be in hot tub the second halifa he had a wife, you know,
his wife Heidecker, so, Ahmedabad, hombre de la and he didn't like his wife going to the masjid. But
he never forbade her. We understand it was a domestic issue, meaning, you know, like husband, I
don't want you to go there. You know, a wife like, I don't want you to go with it. It's a domestic
issue. It's not an Islamic and but American hottub never forbade his wife. He never stopped her from
going to the masjid. And when I'm in hot tub, you know, when he passed away. They say it's reported
that article within the masjid meaning until the day he passed away, he didn't stop her from from
		

			going to the mosque. And someone came to it, you know, like people influence these like, why do you
go to the mosque and I'm gonna doesn't like you going. She says, if he told me not to go, I wouldn't
go, actually the wife if my husband told me not to do something. And I'd be like, okay, fine, I
won't do it. It makes you happy and it's not going to kill me. So Fine. We should like he if he want
the day, he tells me not to go. I won't go. He never told her. So here on Marvin Hertzog the second
halifa is one of the strongest characters in Islam, we paint him as harsh he was not harsh. It was
incredibly amazing. He never stopped his women, and you have individuals and brothers and men and at
		

			times women who don't have as much knowledge who spirituality is not that high. They're stopping
women in the name of what vested interests, power structures to keep the women out. Because when
women become involved for that, for them, it's something that they can't tolerate. It's something
that they don't know how to tolerate. So, and it's amazing, like I'm throwing these in. So yeah,
amazing. I can like throw stuff at you like all day, and you're like, wow, but the whole point is,
you appreciate that the faith is more dynamic and more wider than our perception of what it is. So
people can go if they if they want to take this course and learn more. It's on your website, Islamic
		

			online university, Islamic online university, you can search it and it should come up. Perfect.
Thank you so much. It was so inspiring, and I'm really looking forward to the course. Thank you.
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