Female Moral Agency and Self-Determination in the Quranic Ethos

By V.A. Mohamad Ashrof, New Age Islam 9 September 2025 Abstract This paper conducts an interpretive analysis of the Quran and foundational prophetic traditions to argue that female self-determination is not a modern concession but a core theological and ethical principle within Islam. Using the prophetic declaration concerning a woman traveling alone from San'a to Hadramawt (Musnad Ahmad 19381) as its guiding hermeneutical lens, this study posits that her unimpeded agency is the ultimate criterion for a just and divinely-ordered society. The paper traces this prophetic vision back to its Quranic origins, examining the universalist concepts of the human being (al-insan) as a moral agent, the divine trust (Amanah), and individual accountability (Mas’uliyyah). It further explores the concrete manifestations of this agency in the economic, social, and political spheres as detailed in the Quran, and offers a critical re-reading of traditionally restrictive concepts such as Qiwamah (guardianship) and mahram (male escort). The paper concludes that the constriction of female autonomy represents a fundamental deviation from the liberative trajectory of the divine message, and that the realization of a woman's full moral agency is the definitive measure of a community’s faithfulness to its sacred texts. Envisioning Justice: The Prophetic Paradigm of Female Autonomy in Islam In the annals of Islamic tradition, a pivotal narration from the Prophet Muhammad serves as a profound and revolutionary benchmark for the civilizational aspirations of his community. Responding to a follower’s impatience with the nascent community’s perceived vulnerability, the Prophet articulated a vision of success that eschewed martial glory and material wealth in favour of a deeply humanistic and radical standard. He prophesied a time when God would "complete this matter (Islam) until a woman travels from San'a to Hadramawt, fearing nothing but God, and the wolf for her sheep" (Musnad Ahmad 19381). This statement is far more than an eschatological prediction of peace; it is a sophisticated ethical criterion that positions the absolute self-determination of a solitary woman as the ultimate measure of a just society. The choice of this specific image—a lone, economically active woman traversing a vast and dangerous territory, secure in her person and property, her conscience oriented solely toward the Divine—is a deliberate act of moral re-envisioning. It challenges patriarchal paradigms of power and protection, suggesting that true Islamic justice is not achieved until its most historically marginalized members are fully empowered as autonomous moral agents. This paper argues that the prophetic vision of the autonomous woman is not an aspirational anomaly but the logical culmination of the Quran’s foundational theological principles, which establish every human being (al-Insan) as an independent moral agent in a direct and unmediated covenant with God. Through a hermeneutical analysis of Quranic concepts of accountability (Mas’uliyyah), divine trust (Amanah), and economic sovereignty, this paper will demonstrate that female self-determination is a spiritual and ethical necessity, and any constriction of this agency represents a deviation from the ultimate trajectory of the divine message. This inquiry will proceed in four parts: first, a deep exegesis of the prophetic hadith as the hermeneutical key; second, an exploration of the Quranic theological architecture of universal moral agency; third, an examination of the concrete manifestations of this agency in scripture; and fourth, a critical deconstruction of traditional interpretations that have obscured this liberative core. Reorienting the Vision of Justice The hadith of the woman of San'a functions as the master key for unlocking a Quranic hermeneutic of liberation. Its power lies in its subversion of conventional metrics of success and its centring of the vulnerable as the true measure of a society's ethical health. A deconstruction of its components reveals a comprehensive charter for female self-determination. The protagonist is a Za'inah, a woman undertaking a significant journey of her own volition. As the grammatical subject of the verb "travels" (Tasira), her will is the engine of the action. She is not escorted, sent, or managed; she is a self-directing agent, embodying the Quranic principle of individual striving (53:39). Her journey’s geography—the vast expanse from San'a to Hadramawt—symbolizes a boundless sphere of legitimate presence. This directly counters any ideology that seeks to circumscribe a woman’s world to the domestic or the local, affirming her right to traverse the entirety of God's earth (67:15) as a full participant in public life. The philosophical core of the vision lies in the redefinition of her psychology: she "fears nothing but God". This is a statement of profound liberation. It signifies, first, the complete dismantling of the social structures of patriarchal violence and predation that have historically instilled fear in women. The ideal society has rendered the threat of man-made harm obsolete. Second, it reorients her moral compass from an external locus of control (social norms, honour codes, male authority) to an internal one: her direct, unmediated relationship with God (Taqwa). When a woman's only fear is God, she is no longer governed by the arbitrary will of human beings but by her own conscience, making her a truly autonomous moral agent. This aligns with the theological objective of liberating humanity from the worship of all false idols, including the idol of patriarchy (Barlas, p.207). Finally, the seemingly minor detail of "and the wolf for her sheep" (Wa Al-Dhi'ba 'Ala Ghanamiha) cements her status as an independent economic actor. She is not merely a traveller; she is a shepherdess, a proprietor of assets, a manager of her own wealth. This shatters the image of female dependency and affirms her economic sovereignty. The only threat to her livelihood is a natural one, not the exploitation of men or the discrimination of unjust systems. This vision of a physically mobile, spiritually autonomous, and economically independent woman serves as the prophetic standard against which all claims of Islamic justice must be measured. It is not about creating a society where women are over-policed "for their protection," but one where the ethical consciousness of all members makes such policing superfluous (Abou El Fadl, p.245). Universal Moral Agency The prophetic criterion is not a standalone ideal but is built upon an intricate and consistent theological framework within the Quran that establishes universal moral agency for all of humanity. The scripture’s foundation is the concept of al-Insan—the human being—as the recipient of God's covenant, a term that transcends gender. This universalist premise is most powerfully articulated in the verse of the Divine Trust, or Amanah. The Quran narrates that this monumental trust—the capacity for free will and the burden of moral choice—was offered to the cosmos, which recoiled from its weight. It was al-Insan, the human species, that accepted it (33:72). As Amina Wadud has argued, the use of this inclusive term is theologically critical, as it signifies that the core responsibility of moral agency was bestowed upon humanity as a whole, not just its male half (Wadud, p.35). Consequently, a woman is a full bearer of this trust. To deny her the autonomy to exercise the moral reasoning and choice inherent in the Amanah is to obstruct a divinely endowed faculty and declare her less than a full moral agent in the Quranic sense. This trust is inextricably linked to the role of vicegerency (Khilafah) on Earth (2:30), an active mandate to enact justice and cultivate the world as God’s representatives. This role, too, is assigned to the human species, making women equal partners in this sacred mission. A theology that confines half of God’s vicegerents to a state of dependency and restricted agency is a theology that hamstrings the divine plan for humanity. The cornerstone of this framework is the principle of individual accountability (Mas’uliyyah). The Quran is relentless in its emphasis that "no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another" (53:38), that "every soul will be held responsible for what it has earned" (74:38), and that God does not burden a soul beyond its capacity, with each soul receiving the consequence of its own deeds (2:286). This theological axiom systematically dismantles any notion of mediated salvation or accountability. A woman’s moral standing before God is a direct result of her own faith and actions, not those of her father, husband, or son. This makes self-determination a spiritual necessity. If she is to be judged for her choices, she must be free to make them. The Quran reinforces this by directly addressing women as co-equal partners in faith. The litany in 33:35, which meticulously pairs men and women across ten virtues and promises them an equal reward, is a definitive theological statement. It confirms that the path to salvation is identical for both genders and is contingent upon individual spiritual labour. Similarly, the description of "believing men and believing women" as mutual allies (Awliya) of one another (9:71) establishes a model of reciprocal partnership, starkly contrasting with hierarchical models of male authority. This entire architecture of universal agency, direct accountability, and mutual partnership culminates in the principle of "no compulsion in religion" (2:256). The freedom to believe, which is the most fundamental act of self-determination, logically extends to the freedom to act upon that belief in all spheres of life. The Tangible Spheres of Self-Determination The Quran does not confine female agency to abstract theology; it grounds it in concrete legal, economic, and social rights, providing the tangible framework for the life of the woman of San'a. Economic Sovereignty: The prophetic vision of the woman as a shepherdess managing "her sheep" is a direct reflection of the Quran's revolutionary economic provisions for women. The scripture establishes her right to her own earnings in 4:32, declaring that "to men is allotted what they earn, and to women what they earn." This guarantees her status as an independent economic entity. It institutionalizes her right to inherit property (4:7, 4:11-12), ensuring her access to capital in a world that often denied it. The marriage gift (Mahr) is designated as her exclusive property, which she alone has the right to manage or remit (4:4). These provisions, which were transformative in their 7th-century context, created a legal basis for the economic sovereignty that is a prerequisite for genuine self-determination. The historical reality of early Muslim women as successful entrepreneurs, like the Prophet’s first wife Khadijah, demonstrates that these rights were not merely theoretical (Mernissi, p.44). Narrative Exemplars of Agency: The Quran provides powerful narrative models of self-determined women who serve as enduring exemplars. The Queen of Sheba (Bilqis), in her encounter with Solomon (27:23-44), is a masterclass in autonomous leadership. She exercises independent political judgment, engages in consultative governance (Shura), wisely chooses diplomacy over war, and ultimately makes an independent spiritual choice to embrace monotheism. She is a model of intellectual, political, and spiritual agency. Other narratives reinforce this theme. The mother of Moses acts on her own initiative based on divine inspiration, making a courageous and world-altering decision (28:7). Maryam (Mary) engages directly with the divine, questions the angel, and bears her burden with a steadfast, self-reliant dignity (19:20-26). These are not stories of passive or submissive women; they are chronicles of women exercising profound moral agency in the face of extraordinary challenges. Political and Civic Agency: The Quran extends this agency into the political realm. It institutionalizes women's direct pledge of allegiance (Bay’Ah) to the head of state, with no male intermediary required (60:12). This public act confirmed their status as individual citizens with their own political loyalties and responsibilities. Furthermore, the Quran validates a woman’s right to public contestation. The opening of Surah Al-Mujadila ("The Woman Who Disputes") immortalizes the plea of a woman who disputed an unjust custom with the Prophet. The verse states that God "heard the statement of the one who disputes with you" (58:1) and responded by revealing new legislation. This establishes a powerful precedent for a woman’s voice to be heard at the highest level and to effect legal and social change, cementing her role as an active civic subject. Deconstructing Obstacles Despite the robust Quranic and prophetic case for female self-determination, patriarchal interpretations have historically erected significant barriers to its realization. A coherent argument must therefore engage with and deconstruct these restrictive readings. The most frequently cited justification for male authority is the concept of Qiwamah from verse 4:34, often translated to mean that men are "guardians" or "in charge of" women. However, a contextualized hermeneutic reveals a different meaning. The term Qawwamun denotes "providers for" or "maintainers," and the verse itself makes this role conditional on men's financial expenditure ("because they spend from their means"). As scholars like Asma Barlas and Fazlur Rahman have argued, this refers to a functional responsibility of financial provision within a specific family structure, not an inherent ontological superiority or a license for control over a woman’s person, property, or choices (Barlas, p.98). It describes a role of maintenance, not mastery. To allow this single, conditional verse to abrogate the Quran's overarching ethos of mutuality (9:71) and individual accountability (53:38) is a violation of sound hermeneutical principles, which demand that the specific be interpreted in light of the general. A second major obstacle has been the jurisprudential requirement for a male guardian (mahram) during travel, a rule derived from hadith that reflect the perilous conditions of the time. This ruling, framed as "protection," has been used to severely curtail female mobility. However, the hadith of the woman of San'a serves as the ultimate prophetic refutation of this rule as a timeless, absolute principle. The Prophet's vision for a completed Islam is precisely a society where such a guardian is no longer necessary. The ideal form of protection is not a male escort but a just social order. Therefore, the mahram requirement should be understood as a causa occasionalis—a ruling tied to a specific cause (danger)—while the ultimate goal, the telos of the law, is to create a society that has transcended that cause. To insist on the universal and perpetual application of the mahram rule is to admit defeat, to confess an inability to achieve the very standard of justice the Prophet himself established as the goal. The Ethical Horizon: Realizing Female Autonomy The prophetic vision of a woman traveling unimpeded from San'a to Hadramawt is the definitive criterion for a completed Islamic society. It is a vision of absolute female self-determination—physical, spiritual, social, and economic. This paper has argued that this vision is not a utopian anomaly but is the ethical and theological culmination of the Quran's most foundational teachings. The scripture establishes women as independent moral agents, directly accountable to God, endowed with the same divine trust and capacity for vicegerency as men. It provides the legal, economic, and political framework for their autonomy and offers powerful narrative models of their agency in action. Therefore, any interpretation, cultural practice, or legal statute that curtails a woman's freedom of movement, her economic independence, her intellectual expression, or her moral agency under the guise of "protection" stands in stark contradiction to the ideal set forth by the Prophet himself. The journey to moral agency is the central theme of the human experience in the Quran. The lone woman’s journey from San’a to Hadramawt is not just a prophecy to be awaited, but a divine standard to be met. It is the ethical horizon toward which a truly just community must eternally travel. The realization of her unfettered soul is not peripheral to the mission of Islam; it is its very heart. Bibliography Abou El Fadl, Khaled M. Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2001. Barlas, Asma. "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Quran. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019. Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1991. Rahman, Fazlur. Major Themes of the Quran. 2nd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Wadud, Amina. Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ------ V.A. Mohamad Ashrof is an independent Indian scholar specializing in Islamic humanism. With a deep commitment to advancing Quranic hermeneutics that prioritize human well-being, peace, and progress, his work aims to foster a just society, encourage critical thinking, and promote inclusive discourse and peaceful coexistence. He is dedicated to creating pathways for meaningful social change and intellectual growth through his scholarship. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/debating-islam/female-moral-quranic-ethos/d/136767 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism