Abū Shuqqa’s Approach to the Ḥadīth : Towards an Egalitarian Islamic Gender Ethics

Over the past three decades, many feminist and progressive Muslims have criticised the ḥadīth and dismissed them from their projects on egalitarian gender ethics in Islam. Fatima Mernissi (d. 2015) argued that all ḥadīths demeaning women are traditions of misogyny falsely attributed to the Prophet and accordingly are not authoritative sources of Islamic teachings (Mernissi 1991). Riffat Hassan (b. 1943) and Ali Asghar Engineer (d. 2013) also contended that the ḥadīth is a source of patriarchal Islam and are not authoritative enough to construct a notion of egalitarian Islam (Hassan 1991; Engineer 2001). On the other side, many contemporary religious scholars still utilise ḥadīth to perpetuate entrenched traditional interpretations of Islam that discriminate against women.

On the basis of traditional interpretation and some ḥadīths, many religious scholars have reduced the ideal Muslim woman, in this contemporary age, as completely invisible from the public domain. They forbid women to drive cars, walk in the middle of the road, travel alone, work in public (especially in radio or television stations), or participate in political activities. They have also conceptualised that the ideal Muslim woman a domestic role of being an obedient wife whose religious duty is to serve and please her husband. This ḥadīth-based interpretation is observed in the works of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Bāz (d. 1999) and of Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn (d. 2001) (Ibn Bāz 1988; 1994; and 1995; al-ʿUthaymīn 1989; and 1998), the most revered scholar for contemporary Wahhabī Muslims. This traditional interpretation is also visibly observed in the contemporary ḥadīth collections on gender issues by Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Hāshimī (d. 2015), Muḥammad Farīja, and Ṣādiq b. Muḥammad al-Hādī (al-Hāshimī 2013; Farīja 1996; al-Hādī 2009).

Other scholars seem uneasy with interpretations adopted about women by traditional religious scholars, but they also do not want to disregard the authority of ḥadīth in Islam. They generally accept the ḥadīth literature and prefer rather to circumvent the seemingly harsh element of literal meanings of ḥadīth texts. They attempt to find an ethical message from each ḥadīth to draw out a more women-friendly interpretation. This approach is noticeably observed in the works of many scholars, such as Ghāda al-Khurasānī, Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1996), Kaukab Siddique (b. 1943), Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī (d. 2022), Hiba Raʾūf ʿIzzat (b. 1965), and Mohja Kahf (b. 1967) (al-Khurasānī 1979; al-Ghazālī 1989; Siddique 1990; al-Qaraḍāwī 1991; ʿIzzat 1995; Kahf 2000).

Other Information

Published in: Ḥadīth and Ethics through the Lens of Interdisciplinarity
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004525931_011