Mohammad Elshinawy – How to Understand the Ahadith that Appear Harsh on Women

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah
Allah He was a marine within the name of Allah. Well praise and glory be to Allah and mais finest
peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and his family and
his companions and all those who tried his path may Allah azza wa jal grant us and He will life upon
his pet path, and the death upon his guidance and a reunion around him alone. I mean, may Allah
illuminate our minds and yours with the Quran and fill our days with guidance in following the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and fill our hearts with love for Allah and for his messenger
		

			and for the believers and mercy and compassion and justice to be extended out of our hearts for the
entire creation of Allah azza wa jal Allahumma Amin. So I just wanted to share a few thoughts this
evening. regarding a question that
		

			is very common actually that a sister posts to me about how she should understand or process or even
explain to others in an appropriate fashion.
		

			The ahaadeeth the statements of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the prophetic traditions
that appear to be tough on
		

			on women. And so many times that Hadith are cited and they are perceived or some people claim that
they are disadvantaging women, they are prejudice against women or otherwise. So I'm gonna try to
share four points to help us unlock some of these contentions and see past them be an ally to Allah,
without the retail approach of answering each specific Hadith. So first and foremost, is the Hadith
authentic or not, we are extremely privileged, it's of the way that Allah preserve this religion and
preserve his quote, and even that he preserved the explanation of the Quran, which was the tradition
of the prophets of Allah while you're setting up his statements, his actions,
		

			his tacit approvals when he was silent about in approval of. And so we have something that is very
unique to our civilization, the science and the discipline of Hadith, by which we verify and
authenticate that this has been transmitted to us reliably, all the way from the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam. So that traceability is important, is it authentic? Or is it not, if it's not
authentic, and there are tons of ahaadeeth out there, and there are many of them that are
misogynistic, that people try to add weight to or add authority for by claiming the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made them and the Hadith science is enough, are Hadith scholars are
		

			enough for pointing out which and how and why they are
		

			untraceable, cannot be traced to the prophets also known. So is it authentic? Or is it not that step
one, if it is authentic, then step two comes, which is what does this hadith actually mean? Because
there are so many a hadith that are taken out of context.
		

			They're just plucked from the place from in which they were stated, which makes a big difference.
contextuality makes a huge difference, because it could specify the application to a particular
person, or a particular situation, or a particular characteristic, the not to be the * or the
gender of females, in this case that we're talking about here.
		

			And then also intertextuality means what? To measure the texts against each other. No one should
ever take a hadith or an eye of the Quran, and read it in isolation. Rather, that's the work of the
scholars to collect everything on the subject first, and then with a community of read, understand
exactly what is the intended meaning here, is it literal? Is it specific? Is it figurative? Is it
specific? Is it absolute, qualified, unqualified, abrogated, or not? All of these things. Those are
the first two. And these actually are the easiest because they require very little work on your
behalf. A lot zoa gel has erected in every generation, the the inheritors of the prophets as the
		

			prophet SAW, Selim called them the scholars of Islam to help you filter through these ahaadeeth. And
it actually reminds me of a very good talk by Dr. Jonathan brown on European Institute, YouTube
channel called Heidi filters, which is extremely useful, far more useful in this short video can
ever be an even more useful than that video by Dr. Brown or his works in print on the ahaadeeth or
the Hadeeth, canon of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And now that I think of it, Dr.
Jonathan Brown is always speaking very highly of our good brother. Mufti. matassa is a man who's
also a researcher at yaqeen Institute. He has a great paper that can be read up on regarding the
		

			subject called giving it a second look, basically the approach to apparently problematic Howdy. So
that's the second thing. First thing is authenticity. Second thing is the actual meaning. Those are
the easy part. The more difficult part because it requires you to do some
		

			digging deep in you
		

			Which is you critiquing your criticism or doubting your doubt? or asking yourself what exactly is my
problem with this howdy?
		

			There's so much to explain on this, but the idea is so many times, even for example, a non Muslims
criticize How do you have the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or fact in the Quran? They make a
very dogmatic generalization, which is that, whether they realize it or not, which is that what they
consider acceptable or unacceptable, is very different from that which is possible or impossible.
And so when you confuse impossibility
		

			with unacceptability, right, because we consider as human beings,
		

			so many things absolutely acceptable or absolutely unacceptable. And we consider it such a given,
when in reality, this is just dogma, it's you can't really defend this, these are just the
impressions that our time and our place had on us our society. Well, our society in 2020 disagrees
with our society
		

			in 1950, so can you imagine across time and space, how much more of how much more contention there
would be on what we consider acceptable and unacceptable?
		

			And so just that one concept, I'm sorry for the the movie details in the background, visiting some
family in the countryside.
		

			And my brain just fried.
		

			So you need to always ask yourself, Is this an absolute truth? Is this an absolute given? Or is this
just pure dogma?
		

			Because, you know, for example, part of our time and place the the social engineering that happens
whether realize it or not, is that people are very critical of Islam in particular, and two very
		

			clear aspects about Islam that they've
		

			always had contentions within our age, which is Islam is relationship with women, and its
relationship with the other right, the non Muslim.
		

			And so considering that is a very common theme, a very common criticism, we should be honest enough
to say, maybe that has rubbed off on me and skewed the way I'm reading these ahaadeeth maybe it has
made me hypersensitive, in the case of a How do you find women hypersensitive? in how I read these
ahaadeeth or read into these are the things that aren't really there like prejudice against women?
		

			That is extremely possible. And I like to give people some examples.
		

			When our sisters feel that a certain howdy bothers them, because it seems to be leaning in the side
of the men and you feel like this is unfair. Did you ever feel that it was unfair? When the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and it definitely isn't unfair, I'm just talking about
		

			how you can hone in and get so locked in on a certain Hadith because of who you are, or because of
where you're coming from. And so did you ever feel that the Hadith that says your mother, your
mother, your mother, than your father, is a hadith that is prejudiced against men? It's definitely
not it is justified emphasis on the mother here. But it is not it doesn't appear at face value to be
just it's it's preferring one gender over the other. Did it ever feel problematic to you? When the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to us that unlike women, we men are not allowed to
		

			wear gold and silk Did it ever though this one's a bit more complicated.
		

			Feel like a disadvantage to women. When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gave them the
concession
		

			gave them the concession to not pray while they're having their menstrual cycle. While men never
have this concession, right? And so sometimes people may say, how come there are difficult I had
these on women? How come there's so many more ahaadeeth that are critical of women? Has that really
been evaluated? Has there been like a numerical analysis?
		

			Have we been as critical of ahaadeeth that seems to be disadvantaging men and reality it's not and
this is not the place to explain those things. And they don't disadvantage anyone. Our DNA is not
pro man or pro woman. It's pro both. It is pro justice, perfect equity. To the end of that
discussion for a later time. I just want you to notice that we are product of our civil and so you
need to realize that your environment has for sure left some sort of stain on you some sort of stain
on me, biases that we have and so we need to have the courage that's the third thing to the courage
to say. Why is this bothering me? Maybe the the product
		

			problem is with the lens, the frame of reference by which I'm evaluating these I had. The fourth and
last thing that I pray will be of help. And this also takes a lot of work is for us to ask ourselves
		

			what is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear a hadith that does not jive gel with the
sensibilities of our age?
		

			Is it that we are critical of the Hadith, or critical of ourselves? And this is an extension of
point three, but I want to highlight it so that it's not lost this advice that it was actually given
by Alibaba pylab
		

			radi Allahu taala on who he said to those who take from him reports regarding the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam mahadi, he said either had this to kumaun Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
when I narrate something to you regarding the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam for
Vaughn Newby he levy who are there who now who then assume of it, make sure you're assuming of this
statement, that which is most rightly guided, most pleasant and most God fearing.
		

			And so ask yourself, this handy that is bothering me or I'm struggling to make sense of, am I
interpreting it in the best possible light in the most correct light? Or does my head jump first?
What do I want to do? What am I inclined to do to assume the very best of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and what he meant by those statements to assume the very best of Allah azza wa jal
in the fact that he guided His Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam to the best statements, and that
he preserved his religion by preserving the Sunnah of His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa salam O
Allah, that starting point, reinstating our perspective regarding the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
		

			sallam is really where it needs to begin, the more we nurture that the more we will receive the
Hadith, the way the Sahaba received, the May Allah be pleased with them, you know, the statements
said by the prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam were said to human beings were said to human beings,
that were also products of their environment. And certain things he said, Did not jive with their
notions of gender norms. But he flipped that did not, you know, just was easily palatable, whether
it's the dissemination of or the state distribution, inheritance, whether it is the role of men and
women and the type of privileges and rights and responsibilities that men and women should have. But
		

			when he came, they knew this was coming from a good place, the most compassionate hearts of Allahu
alayhi wa sallam, and this was coming from an infallible place, if it was wrong, Allah would have
corrected it, he would not have left us in the dark. And so from there, you are able to understand
best and respond best to these Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So check
authentication, number one. Number two, try to understand through context and through
intertextuality. What this actually means. And then number three,
		

			ask yourself what are my biases? Am I saying this is impossible this can be simply because the
common sense the so called common sense, which is only common as a sensibility of our time here and
now says it's unacceptable when in reality, it's not impossible. It is not wrong. It is not
insulting, it is not misogynistic. We just simply assume it to be unacceptable. And then number
four, what is our perception? When we first hear howdy? Where do we try to under Where is our anchor
bias? Yes, bias? Where do we start? Do we start that this hadith must be correct. If it's authentic,
I just need to understand the meaning. Or I just need to get past my misunderstanding of how things
		

			ought to be. Whereas the statements of our laws and the statements of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam, they ought to be as they intended them because they are more worthy of being correct than
myself. And the reason I included in the end there and with it, I close, Allah zildjian and the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam because
		

			critics many times go after the Hadith of the Prophet SAW Selim saying they're prejudiced towards
women or, you know, uncivil or barbaric or otherwise, because they see this as relatively speaking
lower hanging fruit is easier to attack the sooner
		

			than to attack the Quran. For reasons that may be obvious. And so, they start with that, but we need
to realize that if we don't develop the proper filters, we don't develop the proper tools to see
through these criticisms to see through these whispers to see through these doubts, these very
contentions these misperceptions of the Hadeeth being harsh or inappropriate or unacceptable. They
will bleed into the hole and you will see at the core end
		

			itself has very similar nuances or differences or assertions regarding men and women. And so if
you're going to allow yourself to let problems fester regarding the authentic hadith as correctly
understood of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then you will eventually or very possibly have
a problem with the Quran itself. Because the message is one the sources one, even if the text itself
is variant, I'm going to stop there. I hope this was useful. And forgive me if it was not. And if it
wasn't goes to find the answer elsewhere. Don't let it fester. May Allah feed our faith in yours
with that which will solidify it and help us
		

			from allowing our hearts to be hijacked or confused regarding Him and His messenger? sallallahu
alayhi wasallam for as long as the journey of our life extends watercolor from everybody said I want
to go Morocco to La Habra cattle