The
Qur’an, which is the primary source of shari’ah, does not refer to hijab (veil)
for ordinary women at all. On the other hand, it advises women not to display
her zeenah(adornments) publicly (24:31) but refrains from defining what
constitutes zeenah or adornment. It has been defined by various
commentators depending on their cultural environment. Qur’an does not even say
whether they should cover their heads, let alone faces. It says, on the other
hand “except what appears thereof” leaving space for interpretation. There is
near agreement among commentators that face and two hands should remain
open. However, it advises women to cover their breasts. -- Asghar
Ali Engineer
By
Asghar Ali Engineer
Recently Darul Ulum Deoband issued a fatwa saying
that if a woman works in any government or public office with other men, the
income will be haram (prohibited) for her family. This fatwa was published
prominently in Times of India, a leading newspaper. This stirred a
hornets’ nest and a large number of Muslim women and men, including some ulama
opposed the fatwa and Darul Ulum had to say it never issued such fatwa and that
it had only responded to a question about women working in public
offices.
There are two things involved here. One is that
Muslims no longer unquestioningly accept whatever our Ulama say in such matters,
particularly relating to women and their rights. Even some Ulama questioned the
legitimacy of this fatwa. Secondly, and this is disturbing aspect, our Ulama are
totally text-oriented, not problem-oriented. Whatever text was produced by our
predecessors under very different conditions has become sacred for them and must
be adhered to irrespective of drastic changes in the
society.
Most of the Ulama who defended the fatwa argue
that women can work in what they keep on calling shar’i hudud (limits of
shari’ah). Firstly question arises why apply theseshar’i hudud only to
women? And secondly who will define these limits? For these ulama any mixing of
men and women is an act of fitna (mischief). For them a woman’s character and
integrity has no meaning or significance at all. If she raises veil from her
face in a mixed gathering, she is transformed into a
fitna.
There are several instances in the Holy Prophet’s
life when men and women came together and Hazrat A’isha even led the battle of
Jamal (Camel) and there were hundreds ofsahaba (companions) were around
and no one told her not to venture out of home to take part in the battle. Shifa
bint-e-Abdullah, a leading lady, was appointed by Hazrat Umar as market
inspector and no one protested. What was she doing as a market inspector?
Dealing with women alone?
The Qur’an, which is the primary source of
shari’ah, does not refer to hijab (veil) for ordinary women at all. On the other
hand, it advises women not to display her zeenah(adornments) publicly
(24:31) but refrains from defining what constitutes zeenah or adornment.
It has been defined by various commentators depending on their cultural
environment. Qur’an does not even say whether they should cover their heads, let
alone faces. It says, on the other hand “except what appears thereof” leaving
space for interpretation. There is near agreement among commentators that face
and two hands should remain open. However, it advises women to cover their
breasts.
This above verse is preceded by advice to both
men and women that let believing men that they lower their gaze and re4strain
their sexual passions (protect their sexual organs) and let believing women
lower their gaze and protect their sexual organs. (24:30) In fact this is most
important part of these two verses. The verse 30 is often ignored in which men
is equally responsible for lowering his gaze and restraining his sexual
passion.
Instead entire responsibility is put on women
that they should cover themselves including their faces lest they should become
source of fitna (mischief). Qur’an has put this responsibility on both men and
women to restrain themselves. It is unfortunate that when it comes to women we
totally ignore even what can be called maqasid al-shari’ah (i.e.
intentions of shari’ah) and only woman is held responsible for her
behavior.
Throughout the Qur’an men and women have been
described as equally responsible for their deeds (a’mal) and will be
given equal reward or punishment for whatever they do. If one needs any clarity
on this let him carefully study the verse 33:35, besides several other verses in
the Qur’an. If men and women are equally responsible for all their deeds both
men and women will be equally responsible for their sexual conduct also and men
would be equally source of fitna, not women alone as in our fiqh
today.
In fact what our ulama call shar’i hudud were
fixed by men who considered women as secondary to men and unequal in status due
to cultural attitude towards women in the medieval era. The whole fiqh has to be
thoroughly revised in keeping with the true spirit of Qur’an. Also, one needs to
develop proper methodology and frame-work to understand Qur’anic intentions in
totality, not in pieces, as our commentators have been
doing.
Sticking to medievally understood shar’i hudud
and culturally defined one, instead of religiously defined, will not serve the
purpose any more to avoid such fatwas in future.
Centre for Study of Society and
Secularism, Mumbai
9:52 PM
Sultan Shahin
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