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raushan
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
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 Topic initiated on Monday, October 20, 2008 - 10:27 AM 
Female-Led Prayers: A Step Forward for Women?
In fact, in our crusade to follow men, we, as women, never even stopped to examine the possibility that what we have is better for us. In some cases, we even gave up what was higher only to be like men.
Fifty years ago, we saw men leaving the home to work in factories. We were mothers. And yet, we saw men doing it, so we wanted to do it too. Somehow, we considered it women’s liberation to abandon the raising of another human being in order to work on a machine. We accepted that working in a factory was superior to raising the foundation of society—just because a man did it.
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mbellos
NIGERIA
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 Posted - Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - 5:59 PM 
Assalamoeleikumwarahmatullah.Can anyone comment on this Article.Woman's Reflection on Leading Prayer: Yasmin Mogahed
'Given my privilege as a woman, I only degrade Myself by trying to be
something I'm not--and in all honesty--don't want to be: a man. As
women, we will never reach true liberation until we stop trying to
mimic men, and value the beauty in our own God-given distinctiveness.'
On March 18, 2005 Amina Wadud led the first female-led Jumuah (Friday)
prayer. On that day women took a huge step towards being more like
men. But, did we come closer to actualizing our God given liberation?
I Don't think so.
What we so often forget is that God has honored the woman by giving
her value in relation to God not in relation to men. But as western
feminism erases God from the scene, there are no standard left but
men. As a result the western feminist is forced to find her value in
relation to a man. And in so doing she has accepted a faulty
assumption. She has accepted that man is the standard, and thus a
woman can never be a full human being until she becomes just like a
man-the standard.
When a man cut his hair short, she wanted to cut her hair short. When
a man joined the army, she wanted to join the army. She wanted these
things for no other reason than because the 'standard' had it. What
she didn't recognize was that God dignifies both men and women in
their distinctiveness-not their sameness. And on March 18, Muslim
women made the very same mistake.
For 1400 years there has been a consensus of the scholars that men are
to lead prayer. As a Muslim woman, why does this matter? The one who
leads prayer is not spiritually superior in any way. Something is not
better just because a man does it. And leading prayer is not better,
just because it's leading. Had it been the role of women or had it
been more divine, why wouldn't the Prophet have asked Ayesha or
Khadija, or Fatima-the greatest women of all time-to lead?
These women were promised heaven-and yet they never lead prayer.
But now for the first time in 1400 years, we look at a man leading
prayer and we think, 'That's not fair.' We think so although God has
given no special privilege to the one who leads. The imam is no higher
in the eyes of God than the one who prays behind.
On the other hand, only a woman can be a mother. And God has given
special privilege to a mother. The Prophet taught us that heaven lies
at the feet of mothers. But no matter what a man does he can never be
a mother. So why is that not unfair?
When asked who is most deserving of our kind treatment? The Prophet
replied 'your mother' three times before saying 'your father' only
once.
And yet even when God honors us with something uniquely feminine, we
are too busy trying to find our worth in reference to men, to value
it-or even notice. We too have accepted men as the standard; so
anything uniquely feminine is, by definition, inferior. Being
sensitive is an insult, becoming a mother-a degradation.
In the battle between stoic rationality (considered masculine) and
self-less compassion (considered feminine), rationality reigns
supreme.
As soon as we accept that everything a man has and does is better, all
that follows is just a knee jerk reaction: if men have it-we want it
too. If men pray in the front rows, we assume this is better, so we
want to pray in the front rows too. If men lead prayer, we assume the
imam is closer to God, so we want to lead prayer too. Somewhere along
the line we've accepted the notion that having a position of worldly
leadership is some indication of one's position with God.
A Muslim woman does not need to degrade herself in this way. She has
God as a standard. She has God to give her value; she doesn't need a
man.
In fact, in our crusade to follow men, we, as women, never even
stopped to examine the possibility that what we have is better for us.
In some cases we even gave up what was higher only to be like men.
Fifty years ago, society told us that men were superior because they
left the home to work in factories. We were mothers. And yet, we were
told that it was women's liberation to abandon the raising of another
human being in order to work on a machine. We accepted that working in
a factory was superior to raising the Foundation of society -just
because a man did it.
Then after working, we were expected to be superhuman-the perfect
mother, the perfect wife, the perfect homemaker -and have the perfect
career. And while there is nothing wrong, by definition, with a woman
having a career, we soon came to realize what we had sacrificed by
blindly mimicking men. We watched as our children became strangers and
soon recognized the privilege we'd given up.
And so only now-given the choice-women in the West are choosing to
stay home to raise their children.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, only 31
percent of mothers with babies, and 18 percent of mothers with two or
more children, are working full-time. And of those working mothers, a
survey conducted by Parenting Magazine in 2000, found that 93% of them
say they would rather be home with their kids, but are compelled to
work due to 'financial obligations'. These 'obligations' are imposed
on women by the gender sameness of the modern West, and removed from
women by the gender distinctiveness of Islam.
It took women in the West almost a century of experimentation to
realize a privilege given to Muslim women 1400 years ago.
Given my privilege as a woman, I only degrade myself by trying to be
something I'm not--and in all honesty--don't want to be: a man. As
women, we will never reach true liberation until we stop trying to
mimic men, and value the beauty in our own God-given distinctiveness.
If given a choice between stoic justice and compassion, I choose
compassion. And if given a choice between worldly leadership and
heaven at my feet - I choose Heaven. |
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hkhan
UNITED KINGDOM
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Posted - Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 7:31 AM
I think its not just the matter of competing. its the effect of changing society and responsibilities women were given by men themselves to start with. they pulled her out of the house to join her in earning more money(alhakumuttakasur..)
if a woman is out today from 9 to 5 working by the side of man, she rightly thinks why cant she join them in the prayers-where else to pray. not necessarily in the front rows. i think most are happy to pray in the back rows.
similarly , wen she has to compete for the jobs side by side with men, as opposed to the same criterion of merit, why to keep her behind in religious matters?
During the sky-high inflation across the globe today, most families cannot afford to leave their women in the luxury of being just a consumer; hence double burden of house work and earning. here she needs hand by husband and other family members to share her house duties including raising children. however lots of flexibility in work, self employment and working from home should be made available so that she can help her family in reasonable time whilst ful-lfilling her prime duties at home. |
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hkhan
UNITED KINGDOM
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Posted - Friday, October 24, 2008 - 6:42 AM
As-Salamu Alaikum,
Yasmin Mogahed’s article, endlessly pasted across cyber-space, is shallow, uninformed and lacking in veracity or intellectual challenge. It’s just journalistic jingoism with the implicit assumption that feminism is underpinned by some form of ‘penis envy’. (I mean, really, seriously?)
Frankly, I’m disappointed.
Many feminists would be quite insulted by Ms Mogahed’s suggestion that they are seeking their identity through, or in comparison to, men.
She also suggests that ‘we’, and by this I assume she is referring to women in general and feminists in particular, have accepted that work outside the home is superior to the nurturing of children, as if women haven’t being doing both for centuries; very much a reactionary view from the Muslim enclaves of the Western, urbanite elite.
She ignores the cultural and class variations in the everyday experiences of women’s lives and has no grasp of the socio-economic imperatives or the massive historical changes in the latter half of the twentieth century that have shaped the possibilities for women at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Now if, for instance, you read Dr Wadud’s work, you may perhaps find a more stimulating, thought-provoking and certainly challenging debate.
Al-Hamdulillah, as one of the few attending the conference last weekend, I had the chance to meet Dr Wadud. I found her to be an intelligent and knowledgeable woman, profoundly and deeply committed to her faith; a woman of spirituality and humbleness as well as a sister full of empathy, humour and light.
This, of course, does not mean that I agree with everything she says, or writes, or does. It merely means that I found a Muslim sister worthy of respect.
I think Daud Bone has already made this point, succinctly and well; – I just wanted to reinforce it.
He also made the excellent point that there has been no serious or complete or intelligent rebuttal of her stance.
Part of the miracle of the Qur’an is that it is the final message – for all people; for all times. Surely then the Islamic paradigm is dynamic rather than static?
Can anyone point to an explicit prohibition on women leading the prayer?
Wa Salam,
Erica.
ericatimoney@tiscali.co.uk |
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aboosait
INDIA
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Posted - Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 11:40 AM
quote:
..........Can anyone point to an explicit prohibition on women leading the prayer?.............
As-Salamu Alaikum,
The following are excerpts from the detailed statement issued by the Assembly of MuslimJurists in America:
It was never recorded that a single woman, across Islamic history, has performed such an action, nor even demanded to do it; not in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), nor in the time of the Companions, or their followers, not even in later generations and centuries. This by itself constitutes a clear proof of the invalidity of this opinion, and anyone who calls for it or helps to implement it is a heretic.
If any of this has legitimacy, the most qualified women to actually do it were the Mothers of the Believers; most of them were knowledgeable brilliant scholars. It is enough to talk about the eloquent, articulate, bright, and knowledgeable of `A’ishah, daughter of Abu Bakr, wife of the Prophet, Mother of the Believers. If there was any shred of evidence that this action is good and permissible, these shining examples among Muslim women would have taken the lead to it. There were numerous women scholars across Islamic history, jurisprudential references and narration experts; they were honest, trustworthy, and experts in what they accomplished. Imam Az-zahabi said, “It was never recorded that a woman propagated false hadith attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).” He also mentioned that “I am not aware of any woman that were accused of propagating falsehoods or ones whose narrations were disregarded.” Among the teachers of Imam Ibn `Asaker were 80 women. The same is for Imam Abu Muslim Al-Farahidi, who reported the narration of 70 women. Imam Shafi`i, Al-Bukhari, Ibn Khalkan, and Ibn Hayyan all had women among their teachers. None of these noble women scholars ever attempted to lead the Friday Prayer nor deliver the sermon, even though they were superior in knowledge over many of their contemporary men in jurisprudence, religious knowledge, and narrations from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
Muslim women participated in all aspects of Islamic work throughout Islamic history: as scholars and jurisprudential references, as participating in all kinds of worship, as workers in the field of relief and emergency aid, and in the enjoining of good and forbidding of evil. But never were they imams for Friday Prayers or have ever delivered Friday sermons.
It is a logical and Shari`ah-based conclusion that only men are allowed to perform such a function as leading the Friday Prayer and delivering the sermon. Whoever disputes this fact can take as much time as he wants to dig out one single example form the volumes of Islamic jurisprudence across the centuries, and he will miserably fail.
Lastly, those who are calling for such acts are taking as an excuse a narration that Umm Waraqah was given the permission by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to lead her household members in the Prayer. This narration, even assuming that it is authentic, has nothing to do whatsoever with the Friday Prayer. It is talking about some very specific circumstances where a woman can lead the Prayer inside her home, and has no relation to Friday Prayer and general congregations. |
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