Ingrid Mattson – Women of Islam 3 of 4
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The transcript discusses various examples of conservative women who use the Quran to prove their view on the rights of men and women. The transcript suggests that conservative women should not feel shy when they provide incorrect information, but also emphasizes the importance of reading the Quran carefully to determine the deeper meaning of the universal value of the Bible. The transcript also mentions that some women may not be able to continue to earn because they may not have children.
AI: Summary ©
Can women such as Khadija,
Fatima, and Aisha be role models for women
of the 21st century?
These women are role models for all Muslims,
men and women,
1st and foremost.
Khadija
is an example of of a woman who
is,
who is
who
is an accomplished woman,
an accomplished person,
well rounded,
who who balances
life and family,
career and family,
and also is willing to put all of
that,
on the line for what she believes in.
That's something that that all Muslims can learn
from, including men. There are many men who
have a highly imbalanced life,
and that's something that they need to consider.
Are they really balancing
faith, family, career?
Aisha, brilliant, brilliant woman
who
had a keen intellect
and used that
for the for the rest of her life
after the death of the prophet Muhammad peace
be upon him.
She
used her time to teach,
to lead the community.
She was a teacher.
She
was a military commander.
She was someone who stood up,
and spoke truth to power.
It is the caliphs who came to her
door and asked her for advice.
She corrected
other Muslim men when she,
when she knew that they were wrong and
that they were they had a misunderstanding
of words of the prophet Muhammad, peace be
upon him. So there are many, there are
many occasions when Aisha
gave the correction
to other men when they had a misunderstanding
of something that the prophet Mohammed had said
or done. Could you provide us with examples
of that?
Well, there's
many examples. One example
is
when when,
Aisha,
peace be upon her,
heard that,
one of the Sahaba had said,
had narrated that the prophet Mohammed, peace be
upon him,
he thought that he had said that if
a
if a,
a woman
or a black dog walks in front
of a man when he's praying that his
prayer is invalid.
And
Aisha refuted that and she said,
I used to
lie down at night
and the prophet Mohammed was praying his night
prayers
and I had my legs extended in front
of him, in front of his qiblah.
And when he would make sujood, I would
pull my legs up.
And then when he stood up, I would
put my legs out in front of him
again to prove
that that this was had to be,
an invalid
report,
that it was not true because Aisha herself
was in front of the prophet Mohammed
when he was praying. So there are many
other occasions
and examples where she corrected,
mistaken reports
from the prophet Mohammed.
So this is this is an example for
for all Muslims,
but of course, especially for Muslim women
that they,
should not feel shy
about correcting men when they're distorting Islam or
giving a mistaken
understanding
of Islam.
Are there notable passages from the Quran or
Hadith that you feel captures the true value
of women?
Well well, let me just say that,
let me start again.
The Quran is
is the word of God. God is
who is living and eternal.
So his words are always relevant to us.
They always speak to us.
And our
social and political situation
changes,
but in the Quran and in the example
of the prophet Mohammed, we can find
guidance and lessons at all time.
The Quran is clear. It's filled with examples
of
the equality, the spiritual equality and value of
men and women. But what's important to remember
also,
and this is where many people go wrong,
is that the Quran also contains
verses
that address
specific situations
that occurred during
the time
of the prophet Mohammed and his community.
What that means is that it takes a
great deal of scholarship and effort, insight,
and guidance from God to be able to
distinguish
what are particular
lessons,
what are particular
judgments,
and what are universal
lessons.
All of the Quran has a lesson, but
sometimes
we have to extract
the fundamental principle or the universal value
from
a verse.
Let me give you an example.
There's no such thing as dihar anymore. I
mean, no one
no Muslim man
says you are to me as the backside
of your mother.
Right? We know that that's forbidden. The Quran
forbids that. Even
within the 1st or second century of Islam.
This is not something that
other than perhaps
people, some tribal people in the Arabian Peninsula,
no one did. So does that mean that
verse has no relevance to our life other
than to ban or prohibit that specific
practice?
I think if we consider that then we
would
really
be missing the point of the Quran.
What do we what do we see in
that verse? We see
a condemnation
of
of a certain attitude
towards your wife.
That a man who would utter this formula
after he's been married to a woman,
she's given birth to his children,
She has been patient with him
through his ups and downs in life. And
now suddenly he puts her in this situation.
Can we not think of other situations,
maybe times in our own lives,
in our own society, when we see
men being ungrateful,
to their wives,
when their wives get a little bit older,
suddenly feeling that they're outdated and outmoded
and
and forget,
or choose not to remember
that their wives were patient with them and
put up with maybe the times when when
they were not at their most attractive or
most successful.
So this is really the challenge
for someone who really wants to be guided
by the Quran
is to read the Quran
attentively
with this understanding
of what
what is the
deep message of the Quran and what does
it say for our lives.
If we don't do that,
then we will miss some lessons and specific
rulings and we will also inappropriately
apply
some some
verses in the Quran,
to our lives.
Doctor Mattson, what are some of the rights
women's rights that Islam gave to women?
Certainly, the Quran doesn't present women
in any way as inferior to men.
However,
however, it's very important to understand that there
are men, there are Muslim men who have
used the Quran
to prove this point.
There are,
many examples of Muslim men in contemporary period
as well as in classical Islamic Quran commentary
who use the Quran
to prove their view or their
perspective
that women are inferior to men. And if
we don't understand that, then
then we aren't going to be able to
address that misuse of Islam.
So for example,
there are,
commentators who have looked
at the Quranic verse
that,
that men have a daraja above women
to say, well, that proves that men are
superior
to women.
In fact,
what that verse says is that men what
that verse implies or means
is that within the family, within the household,
men have a responsibility
to take care of,
to provide the
support, the maintenance for the household.
So that is their obligation
because God has given them an an ability
beyond that of women generally
to be able to continue to earn. And
this isn't true for for all men and
women.
Of course, there are women who who do
not marry. There are women who do not
have children.
So for them,
they might have the same ability as men
to earn an income,
to save,
to have, you know, in contemporary terms, a
retirement plan.
But factually, realistically, what we see in in
all countries
is that generally, because,
many women do end up having children,
is that their ability to accumulate capital is
much less than men. That's why most countries
have some kind of