THE DEBATE ON ANTI-WOMAN DISCOURSE IN THE HADITH LITERATURE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33102/johs.v2i1.9Abstract
In Islam, Hadith has been regarded as a secondary source after the Qur’an and covers various aspects including the rights and protection for women. It refers not only to the words of the Prophet but also covers on his attitudes, behaviour and advices towards women. Many have recorded that he was the kindest and the gentlest to his wives, and he had shown the best action to women as a whole. However, there are arguments on few hadiths which reported as authentic but have been claimed as anti-woman hadith because of its bias content and discrimination against women. This issue has been gradually raised since the nineteenth century and has been seriously debated in the twentieth century until present day. This paper aims to discover the discourse on anti-woman issue or also known as misogyny, particularly in the Hadith literature. The misogyny is clearly against the equality between genders, but the question is whether the Hadith intrinsically hostile to women or is it the interpretation of the Hadith that has a serious problem in gender discrimination? Therefore, this study attempts to examine some scholar’s interpretation in understanding the related hadiths which have been claimed as anti-woman. Those hadiths have been exclusively selected from SaḥīhÌ£ al-BukhÄri due to a reason that it carries the highest rank in terms of its reliability and authenticity among the collections of hadith. The finding shows that although there might be anti-woman discourse in SaḥīhÌ£ al-BukhÄri, however, there are imbalance numbers of hadiths to prove that the Hadith encourages gender bias. Moreover, new approach is needed in evaluating and understanding these hadiths concerning women.
Keywords: Anti-Woman, Gender, Hadith, Misogyny, Woman
Downloads
References
Abou El-Fadl, K. (2003). The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam. In O. Safi (Ed.), Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (pp. 33–77). Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Afshari, R. (1994). Egalitarian Islam and Misogynist Islamic Tradition: A Critique of the Feminist Reinterpretation of Islamic History and Heritage. Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, 3(4), 13–33. http://doi.org/10.1080/10669929408720047
Ahmad, K. (1997). Hadith Re-Evaluation (Trans.). Universal Unity. Retrieved from http://www.barry-baker.com/Articles/documents/HADITH.pdf
Al-’Asqalani, I. H. (1960). Fath al-Bari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari. (M. F. ’Abd al-Baqi, Ed.). Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifah.
Al-Bukhari, M. I. (1997). The Translation of Sahih al-Bukhari. (Muhsin Khan (Trans.), Ed.). Riyadh: Darussalam.
Al-Hibri, A. (1982). Study in Islamic Herstory, Or How Did We Ever Get into This Mess. In A. Al-Hibri (Ed.), Woman and Islam. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Ali, K. (2006). Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Quran, Hadith and Jurisprudence. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Ali, S. M. (2004). The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View. Albany, New York: State University of New York.
Allen, R. (Ed.). (2001). The Penguin English Dictionary. London: The Penguin Books.
Al-Qaradawi, Y. (2006). Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy. Herndon: IIIT.
Al-Zarkashi, I. (1980). Al-IjÄba li IrÄda mÄ Istadrakathu ʾAÊ¿isha ʾalÄ al-á¹¢ahÄba (Aisha’s corrections of the statements of the companions). Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami.
Azami, M. M. (1977). Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature. United States: American Trust Publications.
Azami, M. M. (1992). Studies in Early Hadith Literature. Indianapolis, US: American Trust Publications.
Barlas, A. (2001). The Qur’an and Hermeneutics: Reading the Qur’an’s Opposition to Patriarchy. Journal of Qur’anic Studies, 3(2), 15–38.
Barlas, A. (2002). “Believing Women†in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Quran. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Guillaume, A. (1966). The Traditions of Islam: An Inroduction to the Study of the Hadith Literature. Beirut: Khayat.
Hasan, M. M. (2012). Feminism as Islamophobia: A Review of Misogyny Charges Against Islam. Intellectual Discourse, 20(1), 55–78.
Hassan, R. (2002). Is Islam a Help or Hindrance to Women’s Development. In J. Meuleman (Ed.), Islam in the Era of Globalization: Muslim Attitudes towards Modernity and Identity (pp. 189–209). London: Routledge.
Ibn al-á¹¢alÄḥ, U. ‘Abd al-R. (1986). Muqaddimah Ibn al-á¹¢alÄḥ. (Nur al-DÄ«n ’Itr, Ed.). Syria: Dar al-Fikr.
Jawad, H. (1998). The Rights of Women in Islam. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://doi.org/10.1057/9780230503311
Juynboll, G. H. A. (1996). Some Isnad-Analytical Methods Illustrated on the Basis of Several Woman-demeaning Sayings from Hadith Literature. In Studies on the Origins and Uses of Islamic Hadith (pp. 343–383). Hampshire, Britain: Ashgate Publishing.
Malik, W. (2010). Islamic Feminism. Critique: A Worldwide Journal of Politics, 1–19. Retrieved from http://lilt.ilstu.edu/critique/Fall 2010 docs/Islamic Feminism Final.pdf
Mernissi, F. (1991a). The Veil and the Male Elie: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Right in Islam. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Books.
Mernissi, F. (1991b). Women and Islam: An Historical and Theological Enquiry. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Mir-Hosseini, Z. (2003). The Construction Of Gender in Islamic Legal Thought and Strategies for Reform. Hawwa, 1(1), 1–28. http://doi.org/10.1163/156920803100420252
Peru, F. A. (2014, March 6). Respons kepada Hasrizal Abdul Jamil: Isu Anti Hadis. The Malaysian Inside. Retrieved from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/rencana/article/respons-kepada-hasrizal-abdul-jamil-isu-anti-hadith-farouk-a-peru
Ramli, M. A., Khalil, S. A., Jamaludin, M. A., Man, S., Abdullah, A. B., &
Mohd Nor, M. R. (2013). Muslim Exegeses Perspective on Creation of the First Woman: A Brief Discussion. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 13(1), 41–44. http://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.13.1.1757
Rehman, T. (2005). Muslim Feminism: A Case-Study of Fatima Mernissi’s Works and Thought. University of Birmingham. Retrieved from http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.497481
Roded, R. (2012). Human Creation in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an – Feminist Exegesis. Religion Compass, 6(5), 277–286. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2012.00352.x
Siddiqi, M. Z. (1993). Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features. (A. H. Murad, Ed.). Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society.
Sookhdeo, P. (2006). Issues of Interpreting the Koran and Hadith. The Quarterly Journal, 5(3), 57–82.
Stork, M. (2004). A-Z Guide to the Ahadith: A Must-have Reference to Understanding the Traditions of the Noble Prophet Muhammad. Singapore: Times Edition-Marshall Cavendish.
Stowasser, B. (1994). Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sulaimani, F. A. A. (1986). The Changing Position of Women in Arabia under Islam during the Early Seventh Century. University of Salford. Retrieved from http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14814/1/361089.pdf
Tobin, T. W. (2007). On Their Own Ground: Strategies of Resistance for Sunni Muslim Women. Hypatia, 22(3), 152–174.
Tuksal, H. S. (2014). Misogynistic Reports in the Hadith Literature. In E. Aslan, M. Hermansen, & E. Medeni (Eds.), Wiener Islamstudien, Volume 3: Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians (pp. 133–154). Frankfurt: Peter Lang AG.
Wadud, A. (2006). Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
The copyright of this article will be vested to author(s) and granted the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, unless otherwise stated.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
