Ingrid Mattson – Speaks about women in Islam 14

Hi. Welcome to Perspectives on Faith. I'm your

host, Metin Tekka.

This week, we're coming from Hartford Seminary

in Connecticut.

We have with us today doctor Ingrid Madsen.

She's a professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford

University,

and she's also the president of the Islamic

Society of North America.

Doctor Madsen, thank you for coming on our

show.

You're welcome. Would you describe the gender stratification

of the society in which prophet Mohammed grew

up in?

What you have to understand about pre Islamic

Arabian society, first of all, is that

it was a society

in which there was no rule of law.

There was no political structure that was governing

the Arabian Peninsula.

The,

only

ruling powers were tribes

that were in mutual,

rivalry.

These tribes became

or operated in in a way similar to

a gang structure.

What that means is that the only way

to have power,

the only way to promote your interest

is by using brute force.

The tribes are are highly territorial

and are in constant conflict with each other.

A society like this

values

strength,

force,

and is highly militarized.

What that means is that,

for women,

their position

is is

secondary to that of men,

who who, through their strength

and through their,

violence,

exercise their will.

So the basic structure of this society is

one in which women,

as

mostly noncombatants,

are in a secondary position to men.

So why would women respond positively

to the message of Mohammed?

The prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him,

both through his attitude and as the messenger

of God

with the Quran that that he received from

from God,

brought a message that women,

are equal to men,

in their value.

And not only that, that that in fact,

how you value a human being

is not through

their

brute strength,

not through their

ability to

dominate,

but in fact, their ability

to submit themselves to God. So there's a

whole different

paradigm shift,

of what makes a human being valuable.

In pre Islamic Arabia, what made a human

being valuable

was to be

a,

a dominant

warrior, someone who,

who by whatever means necessary,

subjected other people to his will.

What the Koran says is that the person

who is valuable in is

the one who is most noble in the

eyes of God is the one who has

most awareness of God.

That awareness is something that can be gained

by either a man or a woman.

That, that your gender has nothing to do

with whether you have the ability,

to submit yourself to god. So there's a

completely different,

assessment

of the value of a human being,

according to the Quran,

the Quranic paradigm.

Could you provide examples

of these women's

responses

initial responses to Mohammed's message?

Well, as is well known, the first person

who responded

to,

the prophet Muhammad's message was his wife Khadija.

Khadija who was

really in all ways a full partner to

the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. She

was

a mature woman

who was,

financially

independent,

who was who had her professional career.

And she and and her husband

really weren't always

full partners, raising their family, having their business.

She knew him, as a woman knows her

husband, better than anyone. And when he received

the call,

by by God,

to come and bring this message, she was

the first to respond to him and supported

him and believed in him.

But,

you know, it didn't stop there. In fact,

women

were among the early supporters of the prophet

Mohammed.

You had not only women like Khadija who

was a free woman of high status,

but a woman like Sumayya

who was a slave woman, who was in

a highly degraded position,

and for whom this message of Islam

was one of her dignity.

Even in a if it appeared by

by all objective

measures that she was the most degraded

person in Meccan society.

How were these women participating in the public

realm

of Mecca?

Muslim women in Mecca,

experienced

hardship to the same degree that men did.

We find that, for example,

the first martyr in Islam was Sumayyah,

who was murdered

in a brutal fashion

by her

by Abu Jahal

for being a Muslim.

Because there was no

recognition in Mecca, in the political order of

Mecca of individual human rights, it was possible

for someone,

a so called free man, to kill a

slave with impunity.

Among the other women were Khadija

and the other women of,

the

Banu Hashim, the clan of the prophet Mohammed,

peace be upon him,

who,

were boycotted by the rest of Quraysh for

3 years,

who had to live on the outskirts of

Mecca and were deprived of,

meaningful sustenance. In fact, we know that Khadija,

died because she was weakened by the boycott.

She and other women suffered along with

the male, believers,

in that situation.

Women also,

were among the delegation

that

left Mecca

at the command of the prophet Mohammed to

seek refuge with the,

the ruler of Abyssinia,

a good Christian king

who gave refuge and comfort

to the Muslims who were persecuted in Mecca.

Women were there with the men. So Muslim

women were beside,

the men at in at all stages,

in the Meccan period.