Education in Islam and Current Status of Muslim Women Empowerment

8/3/2019 Education in Islam and Current Status of Muslim Women Empowerment

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The importance and excellence of knowledge has been highlighted both directly and indirectly at

about five hundred places in the Holy Quran. Describing the responsibility of the Prophethood

of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), Allah Almighty says:

OLikewise, We have sent to you (Our) Messenger from among yourselves who recites to you OurRevelations and purifies and sanctifies (your hearts and ill-commanding selves) and teaches you

the Book and inculcates in you logic and wisdom and enlightens you (on the mysteries of

spiritual gnosis and divine truth) which you did not know. (Surah-al-Baqara, 2: 151)

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He is the One Who sent a (Glorious) Messenger (pbuh) among the illiterate people from among

themselves who recites to them His Revelations and cleanses and purifies them (outwardly andinwardly) and teaches them the Book and Wisdom. Indeed they were in open error before (hismost welcome arrival). (Surah-al-Jumua 62: 2)

Islam attaches so much importance to education that the Quran instructs the believers that all of

them should not go out for fighting, rather they should leave some of them behind who should

acquire sound knowledge of religion and should teach the others when they return from fighting(Surah-at-Tauba: verse 122) Jihad is obligatory on every adult male Muslim in case the security

of Islamic is in a state danger. But even in such a state of emergency and critical situation, the

importance of learning is not being ignored. The believers are being commanded that all of themshould not go forth together for participation in Jihad. It would be better if they leave some

contingent behind who should devote themselves to studies in religion and should acquire thecapability to teach others.

The Prophet of Islam released some of the prisoners who had been captured in the Battle of Badr,without ransom upon only one condition that each of them should teach at least ten Muslim

children how to read and write. This shows how the Prophet viewed the need of education and

literacy for all Muslim children.

According to Surah Al-Mujadila verse 11 of the Quran, Allah will give high ranks and rewardsto those believers who have acquired knowledge and learning. The Quran includes the learned

persons among the list of the witnesses who give evidence about the Unity of God. Do you know

who are the witnesses? They are Allah (Himself), the angels and the men of learning! Can therebe any higher rank than this? Obviously, no. (Sura Al-'Imran: 18). According to a Hadith, the

rank of a learned man is higher than that of a pious worshipper. According to another Hadith, the

man who goes out in search of knowledge is in the path of Allah (Jihad) till he returns.

The prayers of the Prophets and the righteous people have been mentioned in the Quran. Theprayer of the Prophet of Islam given in the Quran is about increase in knowledge. Allah

commanded His messenger to pray to Him in these words: ...My Lord! Increase me in


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knowledge (Surah-Twaha : verse 114). This has been the most popular prayer of the followers

of Muhammad (pbuh).

Most of the commentators of the Quran are unanimously of the view that is addressed to thewives of Muhammad (pbuh). The wives of the Prophet are being instructed to learn which is

recited in their homes of the Quran and wisdom. In the sublime company of the Prophet,whatever they learn by closely observing his conduct and attentively listening to his discourses

of wisdom, they should impart it to the members of Muslim Ummah very faithfully and withoutany omission or commission. (Sura Al-Ahzab: 34)

However, the basic principle of Islamic Sharia is that whenever a commandment is revealed, the

masculine form of word is used, but female gender is also included in this commandment. If this

principle is rejected then basic pillars of Islam such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and alms-duewill also become null and void for women. So this is a proved fact that though God Almighty

and the Holy Prophet (pbuh) used the masculine form of sentence to describe most of the

commandments, but women are also bound to act and follow those rules and regulations. Thus it

is obligatory on every Muslim male and female to acquire knowledge; hence the woman has gotas much right as the man has got for acquiring knowledge and education. For this reason the

injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah are equally applicable to men and women.

How many of us have ever heard or known that there were times spanning ages back when topmale Islamic scholars sometimes used to recommend their mixed groups of students, men and

women, to learn a particular text such as Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim from none other than

some specific woman scholar?

The history of Islam tells us that the wives of the Prophet did acquire sound learning of theQuran and the Traditions in the company of Muhammad (pbuh) and they played indeed a

commendable role, worthy of mention, in popularizing the teachings of the Quran and theHadith of the Prophet of Islam. Indirectly this injunction of the Holy Quran may also be taken tobe applicable to the Muslim women in general. The role of the mothers in training and educating

the future generations is therefore praiseworthy and thus the Quran empasizes upon them to get

educated themselves and thus educate in turn the next generation Ummah.

The Holy Prophet (pbuh) himself would meet the women on a particular day as requested bythem, then advise and educate them (the women) about commandments of Allah Almighty.

Therefore we can see that Holy Prophet (pbuh) himself made arrangements for education and

training of women, therefore, a mention of one day having been specified for women only in theProphets Mosque is found. (Sahih Bukhari). So how and why, we the men can and on what

ground, restrict women from educating themselves? Now if the doors of acquiring knowledge are

shut on women or unjustified restrictions are imposed upon their acquisition of knowledge,which religion will they act upon or what kind of contact will they have with the Prophets

religion because the religion the Holy Prophet (pbuh) brought with him is characterized by

knowledge in its entirety.

Zaynab bint Sulayman gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished women traditionistsof the time, and counted many important men among her pupils. Almost without any exception,


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the compilers of major collections of hadith also lists a good number of women traditionists and

scholars as their teachers. "A survey of the texts reveals that all the important compilers of

traditions from the earliest period received many of them from women shuyukh: every majorcollection gives the names of many women as the immediate authorities of the author. And when

these works had been compiled, the women traditionists themselves mastered them, and

delivered lectures to large classes of pupils, to whom they would issue their own ijazas."

Fatima bint Muhammad received from her contemporary Hadith specialists "the proud tittle ofMusnida Isfahan (the great Hadith authority of Isfahan)." Shuhda 'the Writer' was a famous

calligrapher and a traditionist of great repute. Her lectures on Sahih al-Bukhari and other hadith

collections were attended by large crowds of students; and on account of her great reputation,some people even falsely claimed to have been her disciples.

Sitt al-Wuzara became well-known as an authority on Bukhari. Her acclaimed mastery included

Islamic law as well. Crowned as 'the musnida of her time', she delivered public lectures on the

Sahih and other works in Damascus and Egypt.

In fourteenth century, Zaynab bint Ahmad used to deliver public lectures the Musnad of Abu

Hanifa, the Shamail of al-Tirmidhi, and the Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar of al-Tahawi. Do we

remember the great traveler Ibn Battuta? He studied hadith with her and various other women

during his stay at Damascus.

Sayyida Aisha Siddiqa, mother of the faithful, was a hadith-narrator, scholar, intellectual and

jurist of great standing. She is believed to have reported 2,210 Sunnah. Abu Hurayra, Abdullah

ibn Amr and Anas ibn Malik were the only ones from amongst male hadith narrators who had

narrated more Sunnahs than she did. This shows that women could not only teach women butalso men after fulfilling certain preconditions.

There were women scholars whose field of expertise went far beyond Hadith. "Umm Hani

Maryam, for instance, learnt the Qur'an by heart when still a child, acquired all the Islamicsciences then being taught, including theology, law, history, and grammar, and then traveled to

pursue hadith with the best traditionists of her time in Cairo and Mecca! She pursued an

intensive program of learning in the great college of Cairo, giving ijazas to many scholars, Ibn

Fahd himself studied several technical works on Hadith under her."

It is so regrettable and sarcastic that now this Hadith literature in particular is used to hold back

and deny the role, rights and status of Muslim women and confine them to the corners of our

households only. The erosion of womens religious education in recent times, reflects decline in

every aspect of Islam. flaccid headship and a focus on politics rather than scholarship has leftMuslims totally ignorant of their own history. Today, Muslim women are hardly ever welcome

in the public life and especially in the mosque, let alone being part of our pool of educators,

experts and mentors. This has created serious dissatisfaction among the women in the Muslimworld, which has turned some of them into bitter opponent against religion in general and Islam

in particular. The existing condition is a clear distortion of Islamic teachings and its guidance.

The absence of women scholars has also caused a great inequity and disparity in our Islamic


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discourse in general and Islamic law (fiqh) in particular, by leaning toward the most extremely

restrictive positions, opinions and provisions for the women.

Contemporarily, nevertheless still there are a few Muslim women, particularly educated in theWest or in the western tradition, who are establishing themselves as scholars of Islam. This is a

very inspiring and motivational progress in Islam. They are making critically noteworthycontributions toward a new legacy of quality scholarship, especially in the field of gender issues.

However, their emergence is not internal to Islam, and the broader Muslim society is yet toembrace them as part of the religious establishment, toward which they turn for religious

scholarship. Of course, there is the conventional religious establishment, orthodox in its nature

which is putting resistance against such development of scholarship and womens participation,to protect their long-established turf.

Women need to give

very serious

concentration and men

must come forward tofacilitate women's

development in thefield of education and

scholarship. Muslim

men need to demandsuch changes as our

society is still male-

chauvinist in its typical

nature, as our Islamic pursuit for positive

change can't be eitherinclusive or reasonablewithout women being

our full and equal partners. We need to establish an environment where Muslim men, side by

side with Muslim women, can engage in Islamic education and discourse, as students as well asteachers and engage in a relation of harmony and justice, for the greater benefit of the society.

This does require no less than a revolutionary change, but it is also an Islamic must. It is like

turning Islam in our lives downside up, because Islam as we understand and practice it has been

morally spiritually and, theoretically capsized. Muslims of the world again need to join togetherto revive this glorious practice of women's scholarship. Without them, our society would be

fundamentally incomplete and imbalanced, which will be reflected in every respect of our lives.

That is why we again need women scholars back in our society.

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Education in Islam and Current Status of Muslim Women Empowerment