Women Inspired By The Beloved 08

smilla rahmanir rahim o salat wa salam O Allah Shafi mousseline syedna Mohammed Ali Asahi Omen tobiano. We'll be assigning Li oma D.

Sisters and brothers, I wanted to put a theme about women who excelled in knowledge, hence the Word, Excel. Of course, I was eager not to put across the wrong message and to say to you that I am promoting for a particular discipline or field of knowledge. It happens that most of the examples are about scholarly women in Sharia and in religion.

But I am promoting Excel, promoting the values of seeking knowledge promoting persistence, patience, commitment, discipline, in whatever field of knowledge you are engaged in. So these are the lenses that I'm using to select my heroes to introduce you to my guests to introduce you to the figures that I've chosen in history.

Six simple points, six simple statements. Number one, increase in knowledge is the greatest route to excel and to succeed, I think this is fair enough to women excelled in fields of knowledge that are usually perceived to be the domain of men.

Three women even superseded men in these fields, and were masters and teachers in the field.

And before, knowledge is not exclusive to religious sciences, but to all aspects of benefit to society. Here I'm trying to broaden the concept of

all knowledge.

Number five, you don't have to be excelling in one particular field, which this woman or the other excelled in, I'm not promoting these women and what they excelled in. I'm not here promoting Hadith or Quran, I'm promoting something else in them in these women.

Therefore, you should learn from their stories and experiences about discipline and patience, which is needed in all fields of inquiry.

GCSE a levels, university masters, m Phil, PhD, professorship, medicine, nursery, Hadeeth, for our business, banking, whatever,

all need at can perfection,

and mustering and patience. Number six, the important issue therefore, and this is, to me the most important aspect, the important issue is to realize one's potential. And then to excel in it.

Like Arusha at Emory, I said did not excel in religion. He's not a CFO or aphakia. she excelled in literature.

So this is what I'm talking about.

Let's then move into women that excelled in fields of knowledge. Let me at the outset before I talk to you about women who excelled, let me go through how women were perceived by some male scholars. One of the important male scholar is an imam of verbi. He's a well known historian, and he's a well known muhaddith. And he wrote lots of biographies on his scholars during his time and the time before him.

He has a book called Misa noelia t doll, which is a book listing all the mohabbatein all the narrators of Hadith, and then between inverted commas, he would say to you, he would then assess this muhaddith to you, he is trustworthy, he is not trustworthy, he is doubtful, not necessarily liar. But doubtful could mean or not trustworthy means that he forgets a lot. It's a big science of assessing people. Good and bad is not enough. You have to justify why he is good, or why he is bad.

The Book of morality that has 1000s of muhaddith in 4000 of those who are unreliable,

are males.

Only.

And then Amanda hubby comments by saying, I don't know of any woman who was known to be not trustworthy, or doubtful or a liar. You should congratulate yourself in that.

I don't know then why women lie about the age but this is something else. So that's good news that we have great data.

Why would the Mahabharata lie at the prophet SAW seller

Why should a man lie? Well, because he's a man according to me, not to me. So 4000 pliers, not a single one is a woman. I thought I would begin with this good news.

There were many scholars that you know of male scholars that are proud to tell you who were teachers were. And some of the teachers were women. Someone who is called a soccer and half of a soccer half is is not his name. It's a title, half as his as a half of the foreign half of a second is a well known scholar called a soccer, well known historian.

And well known muhaddith

he had hundreds of teachers.

He's over 80 teachers were women. 80 of the teachers that he had were women.

I stopped for a while and thought and said,

I did GCSE. I did a levels. I did. Ba, m Phil, Ma, and then a PhD. And then I listed all the names of my teachers, James, john, Tim. And then I listed the names of my female teachers.

They were 345.

against 20 3040, he had 80

of teachers, 80 teachers. And you know what is amazing is not just the number what is amazing is that in a patriarchal, male society, and in a discipline that is a male discipline, he is proud to list a name to you to tell you, these were my teachers. A lot of them were women. He's proud to say this to his wife, he's proud to say this to his colleagues in a coffee shop in a cafe, he spread. One law he brothers, I asked the brothers sisters, please go away. I asked the brothers. Would you be proud going and saying to a brother, I'm going to this sister to attend the talk. Or my teacher was so so you might be proud. But although this is a liberal, liberal culture, what about this

culture of Imam Abu Dhabi, saying women never lie of Mr. Maybe nasaka saying 80 something of my teachers were women.

And if an attacker

was living in the eastern part of the Middle East, he never traveled to the western part or never had teachers from the western part. Some historians say that the female teachers in the western side were more than the teachers female that is in the east. And so when we say Eastern we mean Iraq, Mecca, Medina, Syria, Damascus, when we say Western side, we mean Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and andalas, Spain. So even when you go to the west, not to London, not to Birmingham, no, to the west of the Muslim world, female were even more than 80.

I then began to research. I was looking for men, great men. I said, Look to appeal to the audience. You have to mention great men. But look behind the shoulder of this great men and use these great men to introduce women behind their shoulders. So who are the great men that you know, you know, someone called ignore him? Don't you know, Josie? One of his teachers was a woman that was called Fatima bint Johar. You know, I'm a mom. Maybe Tamia, don't you? Well, even even Tamia might not have had a female teacher.

But he had a female troublemaker in knowledge. troublemaker between inverted commas coming and asking him difficult questions. And he thought that this woman was a genius, more genius than a lot of the men. And some historians say that he used to prefer specially for her. And this is something by the way I know and appreciate as a teacher, sometimes, I'm going to teach 30 students on a daily basis, but there is this girl, oh, there is this boy. And when she is absent, I am the happiest of the happy. Because I know that when she comes she's going to ask difficult questions. And she's not going to nod her head as easily as you think you have to persuade unmarshal and mobilize lots of

dates and lots of names and lots of for her to say, Okay, I'll think about it.

Men or women, I'm talking about people who make you think and these are the best audiences. These are the best students. I'm not asking you to be argumentative. But just to always question question question in a constructive sense. So far from I've been to a bus was this woman that used to question used to attend a continuous circle and even Tamia used to be proud of her and used to mention her and you are aware that even Tamia never got married, but he has

respectable relationship with Fatima Fatima was not just a between inverted commas troublemaker she had very healthy contact with other women. She used to be a good day is used to teach them so she was a scholar in her own right even Amanda hubby. He says in his book when he talks about photo avatar best photo album is a well known scholar By the way, he says, and I visited her many times and look

male visit female in a context of respect, and companions, etc. But he says what kudzu to her, what are Japanese em to Hahaha, and I was impressed and fascinated with her aura with her Sure, with her attitude. Amanda Hadley, by the way does not sell words for free. He does not Oh, you are nice. You're a mom, that hubby is a very, very critical muhaddith and when he says to you, you are a cool guy. That means you are you better you You are a cool guy. And when he says you are rubbish, you better commit suicide, meaning that he means what he say. And most probably he is right. So don't ask him for a reference

unless you are sure that he likes you. So for a moment that hobbies to say, what kudzu to her, what are Giovanni sent to her? What the hasura and Haha, sure, I think this will add to her CV for the web, but she doesn't care anyway, because she was great anyway.

But I'm telling you what the male community was saying about both even taymiyah and Al Horford at the heavy

asagao he is another well known scholar, he had 68 teachers, Imam sooty, a very well known Professor muhaddith and

he had 33 teachers.

It's knowledge that excels you on the top of society, not your sex, gender, ethnicity, origin,

or your social background.

And therefore, because of that, those male scholars never felt ashamed of saying my teacher was Fatima. My teacher was a decent human being who happens to have been a woman. Then I said to myself, okay, are you going to talk to us about scholarly women? Well, this is something that has been exhausted now. Lots of tapes, lots of women's scholars, I was then beginning to think, no, I should be looking for scholars who have taught men

again, it's like made men but now taught men, if you want if you want another title for this theme, taught men educated men, men.

Be quiet, sit down, relax. And I will teach you this is exactly what I'm getting. This was the model that I was looking for. The immediate example is the example of hafsa Eben Syrian again, who was the sister as you now know, of Mohammed, even Syrian, the great professor and interpreter of dreams, she is a great Tabby for your information. So she saw companions.

She saw eye shadow the Allah on her. And she accompanied I shall dwell on her. And she learned from Arusha or the olana a male figure, who is well known figure who is called he has a bit more Alia and Mussolini. He has almost any a great spiritual scholar. He says, my direct to a hidden boo Allah hafsa it's an amazing quote from a brother

imagine a brother today

says my best speaker or scholar or role model is sister Amina.

You know sister Amina, don't you?

You don't Well, it's just a name I made it up.

But why not? Why don't we have sister Amina in the future? Why always brother ex? Brother Why? from the United States so brother? I don't know from Yemen. No brother. Why? Why don't we have eloquent women? Don't we have knowledgeable?

Yes, says I have never witnessed in my life. A human being who is better than hafsa

at his time, you know who was living at his time? I met him in cerium. Her brother and it has an anniversary. Do you know it has an anniversary? Okay, I'm not going to dramatize the hustle bursary books are written on him

has Ambrosius ever as a fascinating he's muted, but I want you to appreciate this statement. So they said two years. What about an arsenal, bursary, and even sirim he repeatedly said it said voila, he I still think I've never seen someone greater than half so why

hafsah is amazing. Have you learned the Quran at the age of 12? hafsa don't try this at home, otherwise the council might throw you away from the house hafsa dug her grave in the house. And sometimes she would sleep in that grave.

Don't go and burn your carpets and Father, what are you doing sister, I've been to this course. He said to me go and dig your house. But what I'm trying to tell you is that those people by the way, the lives that are here or even inside their households

every day, she reads half of the Quran

5015 juice. I am aware of brothers who when they lead to verses and they they think that they are angels flying on this earth.

And I am aware of active brothers who tell me that for the last three months, I have never opened the Quran. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't necessarily want you to read half of the Quran every day. I know you have the language you have don't have the time you're still pictoral or use a family you don't enjoy it. I know I know. I know. But I'm making a point connect with the Quran

even if on a tape recorder or a Walkman or whatever Connect. But as far as she's concerned, she has a graveyard in our house. And she reads half of the Quran every day. You understand now why he thinks she's better than everyone else on this earth.

Whenever you consult for your dreams Mohammed even seen

whenever people consult Mohammed even Syrian himself not on dreams but on the Quran. He says go and ask my sister hafsa.

It's amazing for a man to direct other men

to a female member in the family. Go and ask my mother, go and ask my sister, go and ask my wife. Who would do that?

Another example, I'm introducing to you someone who is a great scholar, and books have been written about him. And I can talk all day about him. And maybe you know him and maybe you don't he is called sorry.

Sorry, didn't you say you had a very beautiful daughter. so beautiful, so pious. Do you know who proposed to his daughter? Do you know?

The one who was sitting with a judge? Who was the husband of Amil Benning, what was he called? He has eat, he proposed to her. He proposed to her father and her father, because he thought he's not a fit husband.

He owned a lot of money, by the way. But the father still felt he's not a fit husband. I wish all fathers hear this. Anyway. He fought he's not a fit husband. He prays he has a beard. But he's not perfect.

So he said no.

And of course he has he disliked it because of that.

Who did she marry? once said, went to the circle that he was leading. He had a circle. And one of his faithful student was absent in that circle. So he asked about him.

The following day, he came he said, Yeah, sure. I could not come yesterday why my wife passed away.

And he didn't say to him anything. He said, Would you take my daughter?

Look at these different values, different values, he rejected a potential Calif, a potential Prime Minister who will move from I don't know which street in London to 10 Downing Street, if you want the election, and he gave her to someone who lived in a council flat, who was extremely poor, I'm trying to dramatize the social background.

So he said to him, would you be prepared to marry my daughter? He was shocked. He knows he knows who he is she.

In fact, I think that he might have fought proposing many years ago, but he was afraid that the teacher would reject that his teacher. And this is a moment of agony because of the departure of his wife. And the good news is that would you like to marry my daughter?

And he said, of course. How would I say at least it means that you will be my father in law.

And he said, Okay, and then he went home,

the student and someone knocked the door.

He opened the door.

And he found sorry Dublin was

The shear

with a covered woman.

And sorry, gently pushed his daughter into the house. And he spoke to his student. He said, I don't want you to spend the night alone.

And he wants to consummate the marriage today. He proposed today, and he got married in the same day, Mashallah is excellent. I wish I was a student.

So the student was shocked. You know what he did? He went on the top of the house and started screaming. A woman in my house, a woman, I'm not ready for her. I didn't clean the house, fish and chips everywhere. I actually I'm not ready. Until his mother came.

She learned that he got married. She said, what law he

don't consume a marriage, I will take her, I will clean her, I will prepare for you. And she brought her to him. And she was covered. And the door was shocked. And he uncovered her. And she was glowing before his face. This is the first time that he sees his wife.

The following day,

he began to wear his clothes, the clothes of them, like Malika Ennis, and turban himself. And she said to him, where are you going?

He said, I am going to your father, to learn from your father.

She said, stay. And I will teach you the knowledge of my father, the entire knowledge of my father, I will teach it to you. What an excellent teacher, Marcia, imagine your wife, you have popcorn with your wife. And you are, you don't need to sit in a circle and stretch your legs and say what a boring speaker. It's a beautiful woman who is teaching you and who happens to be your wife.

Have you seen an open university that is more interesting and attractive University than this.

You don't need to go to university just stay at home work from home study at home. And she actually taught him the entire knowledge of Satan himself. Of course, that means what that means that she herself was a faithful student to her father, and that she superseded this student that her father treated as the best student. So for the daughter to teach the best student, that means that she is an A grade student.

I've just got an interesting lady that I would like to introduce to you before we move into him or aspiration.

I was aware and conscious that I'm speaking to people who come from Europe, you're speaking to a European audience. So I wanted to bring an example of European models of women who excelled in knowledge. Of course, historical examples, I found a lot of information on women from Spain from in Dallas. So I spoke a lot during this course about people from Baghdad and from Mecca and Medina. This is the eastern part of the Muslim world. Now, I would like to introduce to Andalus or Spain, and tell you also that there were great women in Dallas or in Spain. Before I tell you about stories of a couple of ladies, couple of women, let me actually introduce to you and Dallas during their

time. And I am going to use a statement that was written by a Dutch orientalist called dozie, d O, Zed y, who wrote a book in 1844, quite an old book. And one of the things that he was saying in this book is this is for you to appreciate the society, the European Muslim society, and at the end in Dallas, during the Muslims time. He says, most of the individuals, men or women used to know how to read and write

at a time where only the elites and priests in Europe could do so. So he's comparing between the layman in Dallas and between people in Europe. He says virtually any andalusi in any Muslim European men or women could read and write at a time, where in Europe, Christian Europe that is

writing and reading was confined to the elites, and primarily the religious elites or the priests. He says something else, he says.

And Delos is the first city in the European world to introduce this institution called Public Library in any borough in any area.

In London or in the UK, there has to be a GP a clinic and a public library. It's unfortunate that this is not the case today, in say, a lot of the Muslim Arab countries, yes, there is a clinic but not necessarily a public library. And usually when you go to public libraries, they are closed, or books are dusted old books out of date. So as to say to you, please, next time, don't come here. There. He says the Dutch orientalist, he says, public libraries in Dallas were everywhere, he says, and Dallas by itself and and there was a small city, look at it in the map.

During that time, he says Angeles alone had 60 public libraries. And Grenada, he says, had about 70 public libraries. And then he compares them with the number of public libraries in Europe. And of course, there is no comparison. And this is an orientalist is not a Muslim, or it's not myself. And then he says, and Deleuze at that time had 30 million Muslims. So it was a proper urban city 30 million Muslims. So for women to become known in and Dallas was not easy. A we are talking about a very big population 30 million, and B, we are talking about a very educated population. So while I can tell you that X and Y knows how to write and read in Mecca, this is okay. This is a skill,

because there is a few number of population and the society is Bedouin, here I'm talking about an urban society, educated society, modern society. And therefore it's not really an achievement to say, this woman knows how to read and write. So I cannot mislead you now by introducing to you a woman and say, she can read and write you will say stop, come on, according to those the everyone could read and write. So there has to be something unique that women could do.

I have two women, one have excelled in everything to do with religious sciences. This woman, I am sorry to say that no one knows her name.

I found her in a book that was called Nyssa Al Andalus. Women of endeavours. And the book is just about women in Enders. And it's about names, names, names of scholars, names of even singers, names of poets, names of everyone who excelled in that society. It's like who is who in and tells. You might not agree with everyone and what she did or used to do. But that's it. These were the notables of their time.

This Daughter of this well known scholar who's called Five alpha to be or fires from Cordoba, she excelled in all sorts of knowledge, science of Tafseer language, Luca, the science of poetry, and she took all that from her father. So it's like the daughter of sorry, who said, she also learned from Osment

and spiritualism and the soul. And

sometimes, a woman complains, or sister complain that this is a patriarchal society, you are under the authority of your father, and then the father passes away, you are under the authority of your senior or Junior Brother, and then you get married, you are under the authority of your husband, the husband passes away, you are under the authority of your son. So we are always oppressed by these males, whoever, whatever the title, maybe that's true. But maybe,

if you consider these as institutions, they will be institutions to you. So you can say, okay, it happens that I'm the daughter of this Father, what can I learn from this father, that happens that I am the wife of this husband? Now I, what can I learn from this husband? And certainly, surely, he can teach you something. I'm not here talking about football or hockey, I'm talking about this male, that sometimes you feel you're not happy. He carries opportunities. He carries potentials that you can benefit from, I'm trying to make you look at things around you from a positive way, rather than you having this habit of perceiving everything to be negative. So this is an example of a woman who

learned from her father who got married and learn from her husband. And then and this is what is fascinating. This is a mother. She has children. And I know that this is now you will tell me problematic, but I don't know how she managed to do it. Maybe she waited until they got married and then she was more freer to walk and go and travel. But this woman actually traveled a lot. I'm talking about a European woman. And andalusi and women, not about doing from the Middle East. No, she's a European andalusi and coming from a socially respected background. She

utilised her position in antennas and met all the scholars in endeavours.

Would you do that? Would you go to London and utilize all the scholars Oh, you will say I would not listen from that scholar because he's a man of beta, I will not listen to that scholar because he does not use color.

Then you will not learn anything, stay at home and connect to this color through the internet. And that's it. You have to go, we have to go and travel and meet him. He might listen to something that is of use to you. So this woman My point is that she went to all the dodgy scholars and all the decent scholars and all the scholars, and she met them and learn from them. And after utilizing all of them, she went outside and Delos and traveled to her Napa Grenada. And she went to Danya. Danya is a city in Spain, populated by Muslims.

She targeted a scholar that was based in dunya. So she traveled all the way from Dallas to dunya. When she arrived at dunya to meet the scholar, they said to her, we are sorry, sister, this scholar passed away today.

And sisters and brothers. This is a woman who did not come first class British Airways in a couple of hours. This is a woman who travelled months and months on the top of a camel to meet the scholar in dunya. So for her to hear the news that he is dead.

But nonetheless, she's after knowledge.

What did she do this positive woman she attended his janazah and then she began to ask who is the inheritor of his knowledge? Who is the carrier of his knowledge?

They say to her his carrier. He's inherited is a well known student, faithful student. Do you know what she wanted? She wanted to know animal karate, how to read the Quran in different karate. There are several karate wash and Huff's. And so she wants to learn all the karate. When she arrived to dunya he died. The scholar that was the master of the karate, she said who inherited the knowledge. They said to her, his faithful student, a Buddha who will balance See, you know why he's called valency because he's from Valencia. Valencia is another city in Spain. And these are like, Look European Danya Valencia. It's not like like Baghdad, Cairo, Mecca, Medina, I'm talking about a

European case for you here. So she went to Valencia. She's after knowledge.

And then she mastered the seven pillar art. And after that, she thought, enough of the West. I've been to Dallas. I've been to balancing, of course, all within Spain. She didn't think about Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard, because at that time, they didn't have enough public libraries. They didn't have enough people who could read and write. So why would she go she would go to the eastern side. So she went to hide. But from Valencia to Hajj, she went and stopped into Cairo, Baghdad, hence, Damascus. And you can see the route in the map. This is a route that is being taken by a woman traveler. A woman traveller, excuse me for saying this, who could be attacked and raped, who

could be killed by muggers, a woman, a woman who was in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night. But she's going for that cause I know that you might tell me that there were male guardians, I don't know. But I am saying that for a woman to be months and months and years and years outside from her household

is something amazing.

And she met all the scholars in these cities. And she died in Egypt, and she was buried in Egypt has nothing to do with and Dallas anymore. This is the story of a fascinating woman. I'm going to end with the story of that other girl. This girl is simple. Her name, I don't know her name. She was a servant. She's in a lesser degree than even an oppressed wife. She's a servant, she can be bought and sold Abdur Emma jharia if you want.

But we know that she was the servant of Al hakam. And unhackme was the halifa of Al Andalus who was different than the halifa of the Muslim world and that is had their own qualified lawyers whoever we know her as the servant of an haccombe. So she is unfortunately identified through a male figure, but that's not important for her. What was important you know what?

She was able to master how to use the astrolabe. astrolabe is a very ancient astronomico computer for

Solving problems relating to time and the position of the sun and the stars in the sky. astral apps are used to show how the sky looks at a specific place at a given time. This is done by drawing the sky on the face of the astral app and marking it so that positions in the sky are easy to find. To use an astrolabe you adjust the moveable components to a specific date and time. Once set, the entire sky, both visible and invisible, is represented on the face of the instrument. The history of the astrolabe begins more than 2000 years ago, the principles of the astral lab and goes on and on and on

this woman for three years she learned how to use the astral lab so much so that and hakken

was amazed with her ability, skill and technique to use the astrolabe. And he said to her you role in this palace is to teach my students my male, my female to teach all those who I would like you to teach how to use the astrolabe. This example is fascinating because here I am promoting marketing to you someone who excelled in other than Sharia in other than Quran and Hadith. While I if I had stories of chemistry of biology, I would not have hesitated. But this is the story that I found of a servant of a slave girl that mastered astronomy, physics, and the astrolabe, akula, Colorado. istockphoto lalibela infrastructural Noah for right