Maryam Amir – Are women Fitna
AI: Summary ©
The concept of fitna is a "monster" movement that affects society and has negative impacts on women. The speaker discusses the importance of fitna in publicity and how it can affect everyone. The speaker also discusses the importance of the Prophet's teachings and how it affects society, as well as the struggles of women who experienced similar struggles and the importance of not giving up on one's own feelings.
AI: Summary ©
One time when I was in a event. It was, it was a very, very mashallah
happy occasion. A friend of mine was getting married, and she had
asked a relative of hers to sit and give a short lecture. Her
relative was very, her very religious mashaAllah,
so she gave a lecture, and the entire lecture was based on an
ayah of the Quran, and she used a translation of the ayah in order
to
explain
this verse in translation should be, Oh you who believe, so again,
Oh you who believe, are who men and women
that Oh you who believe
from amongst your spouses, spouses, a wife or a husband,
sometimes there can be enemies. Sometimes your spouse can be an
enemy. This, this is true. Sometimes your spouse can be your
enemy in so many different ways. And then the next ayah, after that
talks about wealth, and it talks about children being a fitna. So
fitsna is a trial, a test, a temptation. It can be understood
with lots of different meanings, but these general concepts. So the
first one is talking about from amongst your spouses and your
children, there can be this difficult relationship. So that
calls us to do what, to be self accountable, to hold ourselves to
account, to be be intentional in our relationships. Hold ourselves
accountable in the relationships that we have. It calls to so much
this beautiful sister, may Allah, bless her, she had read a
translation of this verse. I know this translation exists in two
different translations because I've read it too. It doesn't say,
Oh, you who believe from amongst your spouses there are enemies. It
says, Oh, you who believe from amongst your wives there are
enemies. And then for almost an hour, she gave a lecture at a
bridal shower
where her relative was getting married, and she had invited many
non Muslim friends, and she spoke about how in the Quran, your wife
is mentioned as your enemy, so you have to be careful when you
interact with your husband. It is your responsibility to make sure
that he is not an enemy to you.
Now I understand. I'm hearing from all of you, all you can hear all
of you say that.
And many of us may giggle. Many of us may say, Man, that's really,
really sad.
I think for me, the saddest thing was a woman who was possibly in
her 50s, having read a translation of the Quran for how many years,
internalizing that Allah is calling women in general, who are
wives a potential enemy, that that one sided responsibility
consistently falls in our presentation at times of texts on
women more so than on believers in general. And when she gave this
lesson, I was thinking about the fact that sometimes I've heard
people say, well, it's just shamanism, it's just misogyny. Men
translate these texts, and they want it to be translated in this
way. And I understand that in every culture, every space, there
are those who really do not want women to have access. But in the
two translations that I've read with this, one is a man, and the
other is translated by women. May Allah, bless them. Excellent
effort. They tried their best. No one has the intention that they're
trying to translate the Quran in a way that's going to be harmful.
It's translating the Quran. Maybe they made a mistake in their
translation, but we have this from women, and we have this from men,
and the impact of it is generational.
So when we come to text and we stop and we say, what does that
actually mean. What we also have
to maybe think is this phrase, how would the woman companions
understand the revelation?
How would the woman themselves understand when the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would make a statement, or when the
Quran has a revelation, how would they understand the verses?
Because when we look at the fact that this verse doesn't mention
fitna, it doesn't the next verse does, and the next verse it talks
about children and wealth, they can be a source of trial, of
temptation, of difficulty, but that concept of fitsna. Have you
heard that word before?
Who do you normally hear associated with?
Is there a single verse in the Quran where Allah calls women a
fitna?
There is not.
Are there any narrations of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
sallam, where he calls woman fitna?
There is
absolutely there is.
But what does it mean
when we don't understand the meaning? It impacts the way that
we interact with one another? One time I was here at MCA, many of
you grew up at MCA, and maybe you remember that Imam sohaibwe, when
he was the Imam here may Allah bless him and protect him and his
family. He would give the talks in the front of the men's prayer
hall. Did you all? Were you all here at that time? Anyone? And we
would go to the women's prayer hall and our beloved, blessed
children, may Allah bless them and protect them and make them, make
them those who free Aksa in our lifetime, Amin ya, Rabbi ardamin,
that them in the prayer hall. How many of you are like I cannot hear
a single
thing. May Allah bless them. They need to run. They need to play.
And we, as the woman, couldn't really hear Imam Sohaib, on his
own, said, By the way, sisters, feel free to come into the prayer
hall listen to the lecture from here we open that door,
we sat down. It makes me so sad to even have to express it like this.
And when we walked in, I don't know if any of you were there that
night. Were you there? Do you know exactly what I'm talking about?
There was a young brother in the front, and he very quietly said,
and we didn't hear this. We didn't we couldn't hear this. In the
back, he very quietly, said, fitna just walked in.
And Imam Suhaib got on the mic, and he said a young brother in the
front just said, fitna just walked in. And
he said, Brother, the fitna is in your heart.
These sisters are coming here to listen to a talk about Allah in
the masjid. Like, what kind of mentality do you have to have? But
also, he was a young brother, so where is he getting that mentality
from?
When we look at this concept of fitna, the Prophet sallallahu,
alayhi wa sallam, only has two narrations in which women are
mentioned with fitna that are authentic. There are a number of
narrations that are not authentic. And one of them, for example,
doesn't mention the word fitna. But have you heard that faulty
model the Allahu Anhu was asked by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi was
telling them, what is the best action for a woman? Have you heard
this? What
is the best action for a woman, and what's the answer you tell me
for her to what not be
No. But thank you for trying
not to be
for men not to see her and for her not to be seen by men. Have you
heard this now that I say it, you're like I actually have heard
that.
Okay, some of you haven't. Some of you have. It's a very famous
statement, it is not authentic. There are different
chains of its narration. None of them are authentic.
But when we take a famous statement like this,
and then we look and we see, how can we apply policy? So what does
that mean? It's different from a young brother in the masjid saying
fitna just walked in.
Then if an imam of the masjid had said it in a space of scholarship,
and then decided to talk to the board and said, We need to make a
decision to protect the community from fitna. We have to protect the
community. We need to make a policy. Then the policy is created
that affects everybody because of a misunderstanding of a statement
that wasn't authentic in the first place. I shall know the Allahu
Anhu has an authentic statement in which she says that if the prophet
told Allahu alaihi wasallamor in her lifetime witnessing how the
women were, he would have prevented women from going to the
masjid. Have you heard this statement before? Some of you
have, I have heard this statement you so many times. Even Aisha said
it in her lifetime. Imagine if she was here now. Imagine if she was
here now. Maybe you've heard this before. Of course, we know that
our times as we keep going, you know, we get further and further
from the time of the Prophet. So I said some do they get better? Do
they get worse?
The piety of the beginning is a totally different type of piety,
but the reward of the later is a greater reward.
It's so much harder for you to hold on to your religion, and
you've never seen the Prophet sallallahu a Salam. And look at
the people of Raza,
Allahu, Akbar, the people of Gaza,
all of us have changed because the people of Raza and the people of
Sudan and the Muslims who are struggling and suffering and the
vulnerable everywhere and who are being oppressed, and yet they are
still holding on to their religion. They are wearing their
hijab in their house. 24/7, in case they are killed, they want to
die with it on. This is a level of iman that I don't think any of us
have maybe some of us have seen, but many of us didn't know.
But this reality of being further and further away from the message
and affecting society is one. But let me ask you a question. I
shuttle the Allahu anha was just a general. Was in the generation of
the Prophet says, I'm speaking to the generation after him. So the
law, while they will send them in Medina, did people have relations?
Ships that were not acceptable Islamically in the time of the
Prophet, saw them. Yes, they did.
Was there alcohol and people drinking and getting drunk in the
time of the Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi wasalam, yes, there was.
Were there times where men and women would just hang out in
inappropriate ways? And it lead to even more? Yes, there was. So what
was it in the time of Aisha that was different from the time of the
Prophet? So roll the Allahu anha. Because do we have those things
happening right now? We do. Could we say that that's so different
from the time of the Prophet? So I saw them. No.
So some scholars say during the time of Aisha, there was something
in specific that women were doing that were specific to her time
period that was not seen in the time of the Prophet, sallAllahu,
alayhi wa sallam, and that's why she made that statement.
And of course, we know, like Ibn Hajar mentions, that Fatima radila
is a huge scholar, a huge scholar amongst the Companions, a huge
scholar of our Ummah, but she's also not the Prophet. So I Salam,
and anything someone says afterwards cannot
abrogate what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said.
And there are scholars who today say, if the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam was here, if Aisha was here, well, the and she
saw how much women have to struggle to hold on to their
faith, how they are tested outside and inside, how sometimes they
want to come to the masjid just to weep, and they can't even find a
quiet place to cry. She wouldn't have said that the Prophet saw
some. Would have prohibited women. She would have said it's an
obligation the Prophet. She would have said that the Prophet saw
them, would have said it's an obligation for women to go to the
masjid,
cuz this is where we connect our hearts back to Allah when we need
to shatter. Who is going to put us back together except ALLAH,
Subhanahu wa
so now this concept of fitna affecting policy because of a
misunderstanding of how Aisha even meant her statement is one that we
see actively. But when did the Prophet saw them actually
mentioned the word fitna with women, there are two narrations.
They're very similar. We're not going to talk about one of them
because it's just very similar. It's a similar answer, but it has
more context to it, just because of time. So I'm going to just
mention one, and that it's talking about the greatest trial that men
have been left for in this ummah
after the Prophet saw them, is who
women? You mentioned bene with sarayo because of the other Hadith
mentions that specifically. But women, when you hear this hadith,
or when I hear this hadith, when I've been told this hadith, I have
heard it just like that. Young man said, women just walk the fitna
just walked in. Women are fitna for their existence. Our existence
is just too hard. And if any of you are on social media and you've
seen the debates about the tabaroj, or about the jackets over
your Jill Bab, or about all these conversations on just being like
way too much, because you should never sleep without your hijab on
there might be a jinn that can see you.
We know that the reality is that whether or not our community fully
explains the concept of fitna, it has been understood to mean that
we are a trial or a temptation to men
and Doctor Khaled Muslim who's a Mufti in Saudi he explains this
hadith
in a very different light,
and he talks about how one of the greatest responsibilities for men
or women,
as a father
or as A husband
as a son, men have responsibilities towards woman.
A man has certain accountability he is going to have for the woman
in his family. If he does not fulfill that accountability, if he
harms a woman with his words, emotionally, financially, in any
way, he will be held accountable.
So what is the meaning of this hadith? Yes, we do have certain
power that we need to be aware of how we use it. That's
understandable an aspect of the Hadith. But there is also a
greater aspect which scholars address, and that is, we are a
fitna, if men are unable to fulfill their duties towards us,
because they will be asked about how they were responsible and
accountable to us on the Day of Judgment, it is a test on men how
they are going to treat women.
That's why it's so heavy and great,
this understanding of women
is one that the Prophet saw them taught us in his own interactions,
we don't see that there were circumstances where the prophet
saw them blamed women.
There was a young woman who came. This is a famous narration in
which the Prophet saw them was in had.
Much now these are after the days that you have to wear a ram. They
were already out of IRAM. He is sitting on his riding animal. His
cousin is behind him. His name was Al faul.
A young woman approaches to ask the Prophet saw them a question.
And mashallah, she's a beautiful woman. The narration mentions
she's a beautiful woman.
And there's two different narrations on how this takes
place. The first one is that she goes to talk to the Prophet. Saw
some and El fabil is just Masha Allah. He's just really looking at
her.
And so the Prophet saw them gently turns his face away.
And the other narration,
Al fadal is looking at her, and she's looking at him, and he is
looking at her, and she's looking at him, and the Prophet saw the
jelly, turns his face away. What did the Prophet saw them not do.
The
Prophet Islam didn't tell her to leave.
Prophet swam didn't tell her to find someone else to ask her
question. The Prophet saw them, didn't say Al Fado,
leave
and Sister, don't ever ask a question. The Prophet saw them,
taught them how to interact with one another in a responsible,
respectful way. He gave her salalahu alayhi wa sallam, a safe
space to ask her question. He never called her a fitna. He never
reaffirmed. See, this is why women are fitna sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam. He simply taught alfadul accountability. It's the same
concept we see in the masjid of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam. By the way, this narration, the first and the
narration I'm sharing, almost every single one of them are in
Bukhari and Muslim, and if they're not, then they are an authentic
hadith. If I ever share something that's not authentic, I will tell
you like I told you about Fatima radiAllahu anha, but in the masjid
of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, there were a group of
young men that would come and pray in the back rows, because there
was a beautiful woman. She's described in the narration as a
beautiful woman. She would pray in the front row of the woman's
section. They would go in just to pray in the back rows of the men's
section so that in salah they could look at her.
Now this narration is by Ibn Abbas Radi Allahu anhu,
and no policy was enacted because of this, the Prophet, sallAllahu
alayhi wa sallam, didn't tell her, please do not come to the masjid.
The Prophet, saw some didn't tell her, we're nakab. When you come to
the masjid, we love our sisters who are naqb so much. May Allah
raise their rings. I'm just simply saying this is not what he asked
her to do. Sallallahu alayhi wa Sal in this instance, he didn't
say, we need to now build a wall between men and women. He didn't
say, sallAllahu alaihi waslam Sister, it's really better for you
to pray at home or women. It's better for you to pray at home,
because the instant instances when the Prophet says talked about
women praying at home were very few, and they were very specific
to one person, and that was very different from women who actively,
constantly came to attend the masjid, because we have so
hundreds of narrations of women companions who went out of their
way in the in the crazy weather, in the dark nights of Medina to
get walking more than five miles to get to the masjid of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The point is the prophet
toy Salam, instead taught his community how to interact with one
another. In fact, there was a narration, again, this is in
Bukhari, when there is a companion who was at the market selling
dates. A young woman approaches him, looking at his dates. He
says, I have better dates. Back at my house. They go to his house.
Things happen at the house. He is overwhelmed with regret. This is
in Bukhari. He is overwhelmed with regret. He goes to Abu Bakr, oldy,
Allahu, anhu, and he says, what happens? Then he's, you know, when
you're feeling really, really bad. So you call Layla, although I
would never call Layla without Asmaa. So you call both of them at
the same time, and you're like, I did this thing. And then you hang
up, and you're like, I feel like I should also tell my mom. And then
you call your mom, and then you're like, I feel like I should tell
feel like I should tell someone else. I still feel really guilty,
that feeling of like, I need to tell someone else and get advice.
He then went to Umar Radi Allahu anhu, and he got advice. The same
thing, ask for forgiveness. He felt so bad. He went to the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam. What did the Prophet? Saw
them tell him, Prophet saw them. Told him,
Is this how you treat
your sister whose husband is going out on a military expedition?
Did he blame her?
Of course, she was involved.
Did she sin? Yes. Is she accountable? Yes, did the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say she is a fitna? No, he asked him,
Is this how you treat your brother, his wife, who has gone on
a military expedition for us? SallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam,
those are not the exact words that I just made up right now, salola
Harley was salam
the full.
Focus was about interacting in a way that would help the community
understand the sanctity of this responsibility towards one one
another. Can I give?
How can I give the woman? What did they do? They gave when we
understand the reaction of the woman companions roll the Allahu
Anhu. We can understand that if we are presented with something that
we don't quite feel makes sense, we can do two things. Number one,
always I don't know anything. Allah knows best. There might be
something I don't understand. I might not even comprehend it. I
might not intellectually understand it. I don't depend on
my intelligence. I depend on the Divinity of Allah. I depend on the
fact that I know this is from Allah. I know this is from the
Prophet. So I Salam. I may not fully understand it, but I accept
it. Number one, always humbling ourselves to realize that there
may be things people told me at one time they had questions about
the Quran. Now what's happening in Gaza, those same people are
telling me, I totally understand all of it now. I didn't understand
it before. Now I understand sometimes our minds just can't
comprehend everything. So we don't depend fully on our minds. At the
same time, Allah tells us think. Allah tells us ask. So when there
is something that we're presented with and it doesn't seem like we
fully get how that would make sense. Let's also ask more. Maybe
that's a particular perspective. Maybe that's not all of how
Islamic scholars have looked at this issue. Maybe that's a
cultural situation. How did the woman react? Because these are the
woman who when Asmaa raw, the Allahu anha, the one who helped
the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam and Abu Bakr escape as
who the people of Mecca saw as political rebels they're running.
And she's helping these, these refugees. SallAllahu, alaihi
wasallam, Abu Bakr, all the Allahu anhu, and they're going to seek
asylum. And she's in her third trimester of pregnancy in the
desert when she is questioned by one of the rulers of the Quraysh,
and he slapped her so hard that her ear started ripping and blood
was gushing despite the fact that she was pregnant. This is not a
woman who's going to hear people say terrible things about Islam or
terrible things about being a Muslim woman and stay silent.
She's going to ask Zainab rule the Allahu anha, the daughter of the
Prophet Sallallahu acelam, when she's trying to flee Mecca and go
to Medina. She was pregnant. The Quraysh pushed her from her riding
animal, she fell and she miscarried.
This is the daughter of the Prophet SAW. This is in buchare.
How many of us have ever known, how many of us have lost babies?
How many of us have had miscarriages, and we've never
known that the own daughter of the Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi, with
them has gone through that pain. May Allah bless all of you with
rejoining with your beautiful children in the highest paradise
without hisab and anyone that you have lost, ya rab, and all of the
people of ghaza and everyone who is suffering and struggling
everywhere, I know all of us have losses. May Allah rejoin us with
them in the highest paradise. Mean, but wouldn't it be gentle to
know that the Prophet saw his son's own daughter went through
this type of pain, and it's okay. It doesn't mean that you're
spiritually deficient. It
doesn't mean that Allah is angry with you. Why would he promise you
that that baby would pull you into Jannah? Why would he promise you
that that baby is going to drag you into jannah inshallah, if it
wasn't something that was only helping you in your helping is a
tricky word in this circumstance, but something that he's going to
reward, he's not punishing you for.
The Prophet saw them, showed us how he mentored these women, these
women who like rufadel, radiAllahu anha, she was a surgeon at the
time of the Prophet, saw sa Ali Bin wad was injured in Uhud, and
he asked her, sallallahu alaihi wasallam to be the doctor who took
care of the wounds. This is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam,
who asked that the tent be put up next to the masjid of his of his
masjid so Islam, so he could visit very often.
This is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, who could have
asked to be placed in the masjid when he was passing away, or to be
placed in any part of Medina, but he asked to be placed with Aisha,
radiAllahu anha. He chose to die in the lap of a woman. RadiAllahu
anha, he honored her, and he honored woman with that decision,
roll the Allahu anha, sallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam. And I'm not
saying it was a conscious decision that the Prophet SAW, some saw in
this way, because only Allah knows where someone's actually going to
pass, but that is where Allah chose that he will pass, and that
is an honor for us. And I shadow the Allahu anha. We don't visit
her. When we go to Medina,
we don't go to see her grave. It's not because Islam doesn't allow
us. It's because Saudi's government doesn't allow us. When
I was a kid, I went into the liar they were allowing women to go. My
mom went and she took me and we went together. They've closed that
off since then, but we would be visiting Aisha in.
Mashad the Prophet saw them where Omar Al the buried, because that's
where she wanted to be buried. She wanted to be buried with her
husband, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and her father, Abu Bakr
the lahawan. And when amaldiloan, who was passing away, he asked
for permission to be sought from her for him to be buried in her
spot.
And she granted it to him out of her love for him as her brother,
radiAllahu anha.
These are the women who sacrificed everything that they were so that
we today could, Inshallah, proudly say that we are believers, that we
are Muslim women. So if you ever hear something that makes you
question or doubt or wonder. Remember, how did the Prophet SAW
interact with women? How did the woman respond? And always remember
that in the Quran, Allah tells you, he tells you
that you are chosen. He has chosen you for a quality that he sees
inside of you that you might not even see inside of yourself. Allah
chose you to be a Muslim woman in this time, in this place, in this
period, for a reason.