Free Muslim Women
If the media and its ensuing stereotypes are to be believed then Islam does not have very much to offer women, except for a life of misery, oppression and slavery. However, if one bothers to look closely at Islam then it has an abundance to offer men and women alike.
There is little doubt that many Muslim women are subject to abuse and subjugation - without making sweeping generalisations, many women in some so called Muslim lands are denied the rights given to them by Islam - rights to which they are entitled as human beings and as women. However we must separate Muslims from Islam; we must separate theory from practice. In Islam this separation is possible - Islamic legislation has given women unprecedented status, even if Muslims did not always live up to these amazing standards.
Let us take a quick look at some of the rights of women in Islam, comparing them with some of the legislation relating to women in Britain:
Education
Considered by many these days as a basic human right, in Islam both men and women are duty bound to seek education for the Prophet Muhammad said: "The search for knowledge is a duty on every Muslim." (Bukhari) So, while there were no places at British Universities until the late 1870s (Ox. Ill. His. Brit. p493), there have been records of Islamic Universities with women students throughout the history of Islam: Nafisah was an early 8th century hadith scholar and the great jurist Shafi participated in her circle at Al-Fustat. Shaika Shuhuda another 8th century scholar was a lecturer at Baghdad University - the Oxford and Cambridge of its time. Nazhun was a 12th century scholar and of course we cannot forget Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet who in the 7th century was one of the greatest relaters of hadith.
So, whilst Muslim women were attending universities and were lecturers and scholars in the 8th century, 80% of London Women and 100% of East Anglican women were illiterate in 1640 - figures taken from A. Fraser page 129 and D. Cressy page 178.
Political Participation
Women in the UK managed to gain the right to vote in 1918, but that was only for women over thirty. They did not manage to gain full voting rights equal with men until 1928. These gains were not achieved easily though - to gain the vote the Suffragettes marched, rallied, chained themselves to railings, went on hunger strike and eventually one of them jumped in front of the Royal Horse on Derby Day. Muslims women however each had the right to give or not to give their allegiance from the beginning - and this right was given them without them having to march, rally, not eat or jump in front of a horse.
Property
Up until 1801 British women did not have the right to own anything - not even themselves. For up until this time a husband had the right to sell his wife. In Sweden in 1984 a man was entitled to half his wife's earnings. Islam though has allowed women to own their own property from the outset. Everything a woman earns belongs to her. She is not a chattel to be bought and sold, but rather an individual human being, responsible to no one for her income except for God. A married woman may remind her husband: "What's his is theirs, what's hers is her own!"
It would be easy to go on with a list of the rights of women in Islam - but how does Islam really benefit women?
Islam has given women the right to be themselves! They are equal before God - on the Day of Judgement they will be answerable as individuals and cannot say "my husband told me to do it", "my, father, brother, uncle - led me astray". Nor will they be treated unfairly because they are women - women have souls in Islam - and there has never been any debate about that in Islamic history unlike in Christianity!
Islam offers to women, as it does to men, a belief in God, and this upholds everything. Belief in the Creator gives life a wholeness, and a balance, for it means that we do not look at everything in the short term - the intrinsic whole is this world and the Hereafter. This belief in God, this taqwa - God consciousness - thus shapes everything in Islam.
Men and women in Islam are protecting friends of one another; they are garments of each other hiding each other's faults. The Qur'an says:
"Verily, for all men and women who have surrendered themselves unto God, and all believing men and believing women, and all men and women who are true to their word, and all men and women who are patient in adversity, and all men and women who humble themselves before God, and all men and women who give in charity, and all self-denying men and self-denying women, and all men and women who are mindful of their chastity, and all men and women who remember God unceasingly: for all of them has God readied forgiveness of sins and a mighty reward" (Surah 33: verse 35).
This verse offers women so much; it offers them paradise on the basis of their own actions. It demands of them good character, tells both men AND women to be active; and instils in them the sense of individual responsibility.
So, Islam offers to women, as it offers to men - paradise as a reward, it offers a complete picture which considers both this world and the hereafter - built solidly upon the foundation of a believe in The Creator. A relationship with one's Creator brings untold peace - for men and for women.
Islam allows women to know themselves as they are. Thus in Islam women are equal to men, but they are not the same. Men and women are equal before God - they are the protecting friends of one another, they are garments of one another, hiding one another's faults; but they are not the same. In Islam - imitation is not liberation.
Women are not men - an obvious statement, but one which is often overlooked. Islam offers a balance - which can be seen if one looks to nature - black and white, up and down, day and night etc. etc. Two halves to form a whole. Balance is absolutely vital. But, after the industrial revolution women and men are becoming more and more alike. Men have become cogs in the system. Women have also been pulled into the consumerism of an industrialised society and have been forced into the work place, but still receive no help at home - a recent study showed that 9 out of 10 men were not 'New Men' and did not help out at home (The Times, Nov. 1995).
Western society has ignored the balance and told women that for them to have status they must achieve what men achieve. Western society has created a new image for women based on the male - and this is very objectionable. Rather than highlighting her individual strengths, she is told to compete according to male criteria in order to have value. But she is not given any help to cope with her additional responsibilities. "Work, have a career to achieve status - but we will not provide crèche facilities, or time off during school holidays." We are now facing a situation where, as the President of Bosnia, Alija Ali Izebegovic, said:
"Modern civilisation has disgraced motherhood... It has preferred the calling of a salesgirl, model, teacher of other people's children, secretary, cleaning woman and so on to that of mother. It has proclaimed motherhood to be slavery and promised to free women from it." (Islam Between East and West p.144-145)
So, we have put down the feminine and are saying: 'masculine criteria is the best, indeed only thing to judge by, feminine criteria is second class - useless'.
But in Islam both are equal, but they are different. So in Islam we do not have the situation where: -the logical is perceived as better than the lateral; the firm is perceived as better than the tender; the analytical is perceived as better than the intuitive. In Islam women do not say: "I'm only a housewife" - Where did this ONLY come from? - It came from taking the masculine criteria as best. Why is being in the rat-race superior to being a mother? Because we see the masculine as superior to the feminine. Where is the spirit of the Malcolm X (Malik El Shabazz) quote:
"If you educate a man you educate one person; if you educate a woman you educate and liberate a nation".
Women in Islam of course have a role beyond that of motherhood - one does not spend 25 years preparing for and another 25 years recovering from motherhood - but the point is do not demean motherhood; and do not demean and belittle the feminine. Islam offers to women pride in the feminine. The equal but different roles of men and women in Islam have to be understood, and in understanding - individuals can be themselves, and thus find a balance and true happiness.
And this peace and security allows and gives room for the development of a woman's potential based on her own strengths.
Islamic Fundamentalism in the Sunnee and Shee'ah World
Dr. Hasan At-Turaabi, Madrid, Spain: 2nd August 1994
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Introduction
Allow me to start in our own habitual manner by offering a word of Grace to God and then offering a word of greeting to the audience: salaam or peace. Not only to the immediate audience but also to this country which I am visiting for the first time. Allow me in the first place to introduce myself, not personally, but as a typical fundamentalist. I come from one of the largest countries of the world. It's both Arab and African. It's multilingual. Arabic is the lingua franca, but there are more than a hundred other languages. It is more than 85% Muslim but there is also a substantial Christian community and even more of African religions. It's a country with a huge potential, so it is not it's present state that matters but it's future. In agriculture and petroleum, one of the ten most powerful countries in the future, perhaps. Now it is the second state which has declared itself Islamic and it is exciting concern and interest world-wide. Those who are very sympathetic from all over the world visit to see how a poor country, with a poor Islamic legacy of history, goes Islamic and how other countries, that are richer in history and materially, are not proceeding that fast. Myself, I have been an Islamist for about forty-five years, not only ageing but developing actually, more vital now than I was before. I am familiar with the traditional knowledge of Islam, not only do I know the Qur'an by heart and have read hundreds of ancient books, some written 500 years ago, or earlier, but I am also, as you know, familiar with Western culture.
My career is also diverse. I am not only the leader of an elite movement, and a mass movement later, and now in a country which is governed Islamically, but also as a fundamentalist I became a Minister three and a half times and also went to prison for more than seven years, which I enjoyed very much! I know every Islamic movement in the world, secret or public. But I also meet Heads of State of Arab countries, Muslim countries and many non-Muslim countries. I meet the media a lot and I address platforms all over the world and that says something about fundamentalism itself, about Islam itself.
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Historical Change and Decadence
I will approach fundamentalism as a movement of historical change. You know that every sector of humanity has played a role: the Greeks with their philosophy, the Romans both before and after becoming Christians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Arabs, the Muslims, and today, the Europeans, and tomorrow, perhaps, others as well. This is always changing. Although people whenever they are in leadership, they think this is "the end of history." But history is evolution and change.
After the early centuries of the rise of the Islamic religion and civilisation, the latter centuries were centuries of decline and shrinkage of Islamic spirit, intellect and action. Faith at first was aligned with the belief in the Oneness of God and the oneness of life as a programme of worship to God in the Here and in the Hereafter, beyond death. That was belief. But gradually, religion became less of an inspiration that mobilises life and organises life. It became just an identity. You became only historically a Muslim, and that allowed space for non-religious spirits to develop into our culture. Religion at first was an active energy of the intellect: jurisprudence was always developing, philosophy, logic, all was developing and therefore, people were developing. Natural sciences, medicine, astronomy, algebra, was always developing. Then it declined. The Muslims became ignorant of the natural sciences and even stagnant in their intellectual, jurisprudential research. It became only a legacy. Religion at first was a bond of brotherhood, of the ummah, not of the nation or the country, the whole ummah. And beyond that, a relationship with mankind. Not only Muslims, but all mankind. But shrinkage caused religion to become a number of sects and denominations. The Muslims became either sectarian or of the Soofee orders. Soofees, following this Imaam or shaykh or priest - as you call it. Schools of jurisprudence were established leading to the rigid observance of one school or the other. Non-religious associations such as nationalism and patriotism crept in. Religion essentially was Sharee'ah. It was a way of life. The closer you are to God the more civilised you are. It should continuously promote your life and your civilisation to become closer to God. But, unfortunately, Sharee'ah became only a legacy. Therefore, civilisation declined and we became vulnerable to invasions by other civilisations, naturally. I'm saying this to explain the background of fundamentalism.
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The Rise and Fall of Religions
All religions are capable of rise and fall. All cultures rise and fall. However, there are special Islamic potentialities for return, religious potentialities. Our doctrine, our creed - Devotion to God - although eternal in its values., it is always vulnerable to decadence on our part and therefore has to be renewed continuously. Islam is not the religion of Muhammad, Islam means devotion to God. It is not only the religion of Muhammad but the religion of Abraham, which decayed and later on had to be renewed by Moses, and it decayed, then it had to be renewed by Jesus, and it decayed, then it had to be renewed by Muhammad. He was the last Prophet. But he told us that it would continuously become decadent and fall behind the times and you'll have to keep renewing it and modernising it perpetually.
The sources of Islam are preserved intact, absolutely correct. This Qur'an was directly dictated to the Prophet, written by scribes of the Prophet and learnt by heart by generation after generation. Even today, hundreds of thousands of Muslims know the Qur'an by heart - even by those who do not know the Arabic language. So it's always directly accessible to the Muslims.
The model of the Prophet himself is reported correctly. Christians know far less about Jesus Christ than we know about the Prophet Muhammad. Everything, his private life, how many white hairs he had, his family life, his politics, his administration, war - everything is kept. And you can return to it easily. It is a complete way of life. His model is complete. Not three years, but twenty-three years in persecution, immigration, encirclement, victory, state, community, economic development, expansion, attending to wars with Ambassadors and others - a complete way of life. There is also the disillusion, the shock of our decline that provokes us to rise again. We rise religiously because we realise that our rise was associated with the rise of our Islamic spirit. When our Islamic spirit declined, our religious intellect declined, and there was also a material decline in our civilisation. Europeans sometimes think they only developed after the Renaissance, only after they departed from religion, they left the Church behind them, their sciences were on the rise, their imperial expansion, their democracy, their liberal economic and scientific development. For Muslims, religion and development rise together and fall together.
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The Western Challenge
But, the most immediate challenge that is responsible for the response of fundamentalism is the Western challenge, and you all know that the history of a society stagnates if there is no challenge. African societies that were never challenged culturally, politically or economically, just stagnated. But anyone who is faced with a challenge, he is provoked and he responds by mobilising his energy. This is exactly the reason for the rise of Islam today. It is an immediate response to the Western challenge. Imperialism all over the Muslim world had overpowered the Muslims and washed Islam outside public life: education, government and the economy. Islam was confined, it had to take refuge in private life. Later on, after the so-called formal independence, Europe remained, by remote control, the dominant imperial force that challenged the Muslims generally.
The world is now very close, the transport, the media, communications, it's all very close. Subsequently, the challenge is very close and you have to respond to it. Unfortunately, the early immediate reactions to Western imperialism and domination were at first, patriotic: national struggles for independence. But the champions of national struggle after they achieved formal independence, and they raised the flag of their new state, were bankrupt. They had nothing to offer. The early Arab nationalists played their role. They trumpeted slogans about Unity, Pride and Independence - but, what else? What do you have to say about economic development? About justice? About political systems? What about Arts? Culture? Knowledge? Nothing. It was just an emotion about unity and defence. Later on came Socialism: (Saying) "Let us cooperate together as more than one state to stand up against the Western challenge." So, Arab Muslim countries against the West, turned to the East. They looked to the Soviet Union and there was a wave of Socialism in almost every Muslim country. But Socialism there fell before it fell in the Soviet Union. It immediately collapsed. The Socialist governments were just as corrupt and inefficient as the post-independence Nationalist and Liberal governments. So you can understand why there came to be a vacuum for fundamentalism and Islamism.
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Islamic Revival
The movement of Islamic revival has phases. Firstly, spiritual revival. That's why they call it the revivalist movement, an identity and an awakening of the Islamic spirit. Then a Renaissance, an intellectual renaissance. Not the old, traditional literature but (saying) "come let us produce new literature and address it to contemporary problems and challenges." And then a resurgence of new action, not just preserving your religion defensively, but a resurgence. There were a few intellectuals, pioneers of fundamentalism in North Africa, in the Middle East, in India and later on came the organised Islamic movements. Most of them were elitist movements because the elites were the ones that were directly exposed to the West. Therefore, they were the ones who responded first to the challenge; not the masses. Later on they became mass movements. The latest movements are mass movements. e.g. the Iranian revolution, the Algerian FIS. But all Islamic movements at first start by educating their members in ritual practice and moral conduct. Only lately have they addressed this message of the re-education of the soul to the masses. Only a few could overcome our traditional custom of leaving women behind. But some Islamic movements were responsible for the movement of womens' liberation in Muslim societies, in the name of religion itself. And using the model of the Prophet's wives, they crushed the customary conduct of segregating women or ignoring women.
Modern Islamic movements don't believe in schools of jurisprudence. They don't define themselves as Shee'ah, or Sunnah, or of this Soofee order or that Soofee order. They recognise this as quite a heritage and they can learn a lot from such history. They don't want to break with history altogether, but they want to go forward and develop.
Fundamentalists also are conscious that Islam is not a religion to govern only Muslims and to occupy the world as Muslims, as an Islamic humanity. So they are actually more tolerant of non-Muslims - very developed in their approach as to how non-Muslims can relate to an Islamic society. Most of them still talk internally, domestically, to the Islamic audience, but some of them have gone beyond and are now talking to the world.
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Islamic Movements versus Decadent Regimes
Finally, I would like to say a word about how Islamic movements relate to the old systems, or regimes, domestically and internationally. Islam teaches that you have to talk, have a dialogue, in order to have a state of peace. Basically, to have cooperation with the other. Don't sever yourself, don't break away from the other at all. If he's a Muslim whom you disagree with, or a non-Muslim, or someone who doesn't believe in any religion at all, talk to him and make peace prevail as a means of communication with him. But, if he takes the initiative of aggression or force, then don't turn the other cheek, don't surrender to him. Reciprocate and defend yourself, word for word, force for force. That is literally what the word jihaad means. You can take the initiative in the peaceful relationship with the other, and you have to take the initiative to talk to him before he talks to you, but don't take the initiative of aggressive force at all. But take the defence, that is the principle.
Naturally, all social change is like that. The old regimes don't like changes, they want to maintain power. Anything new is a threat, whether it is Islamic, Socialist, or whatever else, they are a threat. And therefore, they would rather step on it and persecute it and not allow it any liberty. This is unfortunately, the experience of the fundamentalist movement world-wide. I know the fundamentalist movement from Indonesia to Morocco, and I know the movements in countries where Muslims are in a minority, from Japan to America. At the beginning, there is always a pressure on this new movement, always. Islam is better developed through evolution, because it's a religion. Like Christianity, it's a religion. It has to be introduced gradually, peacefully and conscientiously. Not by force. But unfortunately, if you're encircled, persecuted by force, then you have to repel that aggression. I'll give you examples of Islamic movements that were developing peacefully.
In Algeria, the FIS started peacefully and they wanted to compete as just another party. They were at a disadvantage and they had no place in the media. I went to Algeria, so I know. Not a single newspaper, not even a share of television and radio. But, once it was realised that they would win the election, after the first round of elections, they were immediately crushed, completely. In Egypt, they started that way. The Muslim Brotherhood was very peaceful. Every member was listed and reported with the police, just as an ordinary organisation. A social organisation. But what happened to them? After 1948, and ever since, you know what is happening to them. And that goes for Syria, Iraq, and all over the Muslim world, unfortunately.
In some places there is a measure of freedom. In Yemen there was a measure of freedom, and now they are a party in coalition with the major party in government. In Jordan, to some extent, they were members of the coalition and there is still today, an atmosphere of peace and liberty. In the Sudan, there was quite a measure of peace, except when the Communists took over. And gradually Islam developed in the Sudan, not under this regime as the papers tell you. It started with the ex-Communist President Numayri. Many, many years back, from elites to mass movements to prevalent public opinion. It crept into public policy and government and has been gradually introduced ever since.
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The Western Response To Islam
The West is democratic, but if democracy anywhere gave birth to an Islamic state, they would abort it immediately. Unfortunately, many Western powers do not believe that democracy is an absolute value, a universal, absolute value. There are other values as well. So, "if democracy breeds Islam, then let us frustrate it completely." This has happened time and again in Turkey and it happened in Algeria. I'm sure it would happen anywhere else.
Human rights? "Not for all human beings. If fundamentalists are in jail, tens of thousands of them, in more than ten countries of the world, let us close our eyes, let us forget about that. But anyone else who is persecuted, who is sent to jail, we should try to defend him, we should mobilise world public opinion and the UN against any attack on his human rights!"
Judging by the experience of the Islamic State of Sudan, Sudan is more open to the world than it has ever been before. It is more tolerant of minorities, Christian minorities, than any other country in the world. It is the only country in the world where the law is decentralised and personalised. There is no national law of the family. Every family can have it's own law according to it's own choice and even those aspects of penal law that are derived directly from the Qur'an are only applied to those areas with a majority Muslim population. There is more Christian-Muslim dialogue in the Sudan than ever before. But communication and dialogue is a two-way process, the other has to listen and respond. If he will not listen to you and will condemn you according to his own prejudices, it's only unfortunate.
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The End Of History?
I don't think that anyone can stop history. I don't think we are now at "the end of history" because America is at the top and it is the supreme god of the world and therefore this is the end of history. We know it's not the end of history, but if someone wants to remain there, then that's up to him. But the world will change and history will evolve forever until God ultimately destroys the earth and humanity completely. But in the name of fundamentalism, I like speaking to the other much more. I want the other to understand me because there is much that is common. When I speak to Christians, not those that are only historically Christians but those that are religious, I find them much closer to me. I've read the Bible more times than the average Christian reads it. In those jail years I read it closely and I found that it is a translation, one book is almost a translation of the other. So, religion is basically based on the same, common, eternal values. We should not take religion as an identity, in contrast to each other, to confront each other and to fight against each other.
Finally, just as it is our habit to start with a word of peace, so it also is to conclude with a word of peace. As-salaamu 'alaykum - as we say in our language.
Notes
1.The above is an abridged transcript of a talk Dr Hasan at-Turaabee gave in Spain to a group of academics and journalists. Full transcript available from the Sudanese Embassy in London.
2.Dr. Hasan At-Turaabee was born in Kasala, Eastern Sudan in 1932. His father was a judge and an expert on the Sharee'ah. At-Turaabee obtained his Ph.D in Law from the Sorbonne, where he studied from 1959 to 1964. At-Turaabee soon emerged as one of the leading figures in the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwaan). Under his leadership the Ikhwaan gradually became the most powerful modern Islamist group in the Sunnee world. In June 1989, a group of middle-ranking army officers led by Brigadier 'Umar al-Basheer, acted to bring down the foreign-imposed government of Saadiq al-Mahdee. The Ikhwaan are widely regarded to have been instrumental in shaping the new programme of full-scale Islamisation and social reconstruction adopted by the government of 'Umar al-Basheer.
3.At-Turaabee is, with good reason, considered to be amongst the most influential thinkers in the International Islamic movement today.