Are women intellectually inferior?

13/10/2005 |www.adduonline.com
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the Islamic rulings regards the permissibility of women taking up the role of judges. The 'moderate' brigade which consists of those apostates smitten with western culture gave their fatwas from their minds. Those from the Islamic camps did not do any better when they presented their scholarly views on the topic. Most of them started their research into the subject with the conclusion that women are not allowed to judge. Then they proceeded to scramble for evidences to justify this preset mindset. In their final conclusion they also tried to give possible ''reasons'' why they think Allah prohibited women from judging. This is an extremely dangerous thinking process which could lead to kufr. If we are to assume that women are prohibited (if there is such a ruling) from judging due to their biological make up or inferior intellect, then this is completely erroneous. Such a reasoning has not been mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah.
Are Women less intelligent than men?
Some hadiths have been mistranslated to infer such notions. We will examine some of these.
Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) of EId-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, ''O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women).'' They asked, ''Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle?'' He replied, ''You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands.''
Two points regarding this:
1). We do not base our actions on the Knowledge of Allah (swt) or the Will of Allah. If the Prophet (saaws) said that most of the dwellers of Hell-fire are men, then so be it. What concerns me as an individual is that Allah (swt) gave me the Shariah (Islamic laws), and He equipped me with a mind to choose to obey Him or to disobey him, and I will be held accountable on the Day of Judgment based on the choices that I made. And unless I am insane or mentally incapable of making decisions, then I should expect that I will be held accountable for the decisions that I make in this life. All the Prophet (saaws) said was mention a statement of fact, based on some of Allah's Knowledge regarding the Hereafter which was imparted to him.
2). Majority could mean 50.001%. Again, this should not affect our obedience to Allah (swt). And we cannot say that Allah (swt) is ''unfair'' because His Knowledge does not compel us to act in a certain way. If I were a teacher, and the first day of class I said to myself that three students are going to fail, and at the end of the semester the same students that I predicted would fail did indeed fail, this in no way means that I forced them to fail. Did my knowledge of them failing have any influence on their decision to study throughout the semester, how much time they decided to dedicate to their studies, what books they decided to read, etc? Absolutely NOT!! I simply had the knowledge to predict that certain students are going to fail based on first glance, and I have the ability to determine, because of my expertise, that certain people are going to fail based on certain indicators that I can detect. Similarly, Allah's Knows what will happen, but unlike my knowledge, Allah's Knowledge is 100% accurate and is All-Encompassing. However, Allah's Knowledge does not in any way force us to commit a certain action; all it means is that Allah Knows everything that happens and that will happen. We have no way of knowing whether we will be from among the dwellers of Hell-fire or not; however, we have the choice to strive in order to avoid being from those people by believing in Allah and obeying Him in the best possible manner, and this should be our focus. Even if I were to verbally announce to those students in my class that ''you are going to fail,'' still in the end, the decision to fail is theirs.
Hadith:I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you. ''The women asked, ''O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?'' He said, ''Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?'' They replied in the affirmative. He said, ''This is the deficiency in her intelligence.''
This is a mistranslation of the hadith. There is no deficiency in the intelligence of the women because Allah endowed all human beings (man and woman) with the capacity to think. If there is a deficiency in intelligence, then this means that the individual is insane or mentally retarded, and that individual is actually exempt from accountability on the Day of Judgment. All the hadith is mentioning is that the testimony of women is half the testimony of man IN SOME ISSUES. In matters related to finance, the testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man. However, in other issues, the testimony of women and men are equal (for instance if they witness a crime). And in other issues, the testimony of man will not be accepted. In issues related to women or women's community, the testimony of a man will not even be considered.
''Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?'' The women replied in the affirmative. He (swt) said, ''This is the deficiency in her religion.''
Again, this is a mistranslation. All it is stating is a factual statement, that women pray and fast less than men due to certain reasons. But this does not mean that the taqwa of the woman is less than the man. If I told you that I had two employees and said that one works less than the other, you can suggest all kinds of theories and ideas as to why one employee works less than the other, until at the end of the day, I break the news to you: ONE WORKS FULL-TIME, AND THE OTHER WORKS PART-TIME. All I said was a statement of fact, that one works less hours than the other, but it may happen that the part-time employee is much more productive with his time, does a much better job, shows much more concern about his job and about the company, and is a better quality person overall than the full-time employee. Similarly, the Prophet (saaws) is mentioning a statement of fact, that at the end of the day, women pray and fast less than men because they cannot pray during certain situations; thus, the overall number of prayers and fasts will be less, and any dummy can see that. However, it may be that the woman pays more attention to her prayers than the man and concentrates more during her prayer, and she behaves much better when she fasts than the man. And by the way, women not praying and fasting during her menses is NOT something that she will be punished for; in fact, if she does not pray or fast during her menses, then she will be obeying Allah and will get the reward.
Conclusion
Our position on this issue is : In the Islamic system, there are 3 types of judges - Qadi aam, Qadi Hisba and Qadi Madhalam. The first two categories are permitted for both men and women. However women are not allowed to take up the duties of Qadi Madhalam because the function of this judge is similar to ruling and the action of ruling is prohibited for a women. This prohibition is not due to her biological make up or due to the fact that she menstruates. There is no such reasoning given in the Quran or Sunnah and it is not our business to invent reasons or speculate about Allah's ''intentions''.The reason why they have erred in their analysis is because their attempts to give an Islamic opinion was more driven by their zeal to refute anything coming from the kuffar agents. It is true the kuffar may have some other objective in mind when pushing such reforms. But we should give the correct ruling whether such a ruling agrees or conflicts with the kuffar. What if the kuffar were to say that Muslims have to pray and fast ? Will these scholars try to refute the validity of prayer or fasting because the kuffar have made the statement.
Ends.