How can Christians witness effectively to Muslims?

            

Post 29:-- 

This post is my answer to the  last of the series of questions put to me by the editors of Christian Courier.  The previous one is in Post 27.  After this, we will have to move onto new territory.  If you have any subjects you’d like to see discussed, feel free to contact me either in the Comment section or via email to my   boerjf@hotmail.com. 

 Muslim Attitude to Christian Witness

Muslims are often offended and insulted when they hear Christians talk of witnessing to Muslims or mission to Muslims. Do they not have the ultimate religion? The perfect religion and the final Prophet?  That being the case, why should anyone consider missions to Muslims?  I ask my Muslim readers to think it through a bit more.  You are most likely living in a multi-religious community that embraces religions of all stripes.  You may think about your religion as the only absolutely true religion, but chances are great that your Hindu or Christian neighbour thinks the same of his/hers.  If you have the right to be absolutistic, so do the others and, in fact, they do, especially the secularists among them.  And while you claim the right to missionize your neighbour, your neighbour claims the same right.  Theologically, that is before God, they may not have that right, but politically you have to allow them that right in a multi-religious pluralistic setting.  I allow you to witness to me, but I also demand the right to witness to you.  The idealistic way is for both of us to do that not merely with an attitude of mere tolerance, but with mutual respect and appreciation, in an atmosphere of sharing rather than declaring.  Today our post constitutes advice to Christians how they can best share with you.  I invite you to tell me how you would like them to witness to you and why.

Look for the Best, not the Worst

As last week, a story of Nigerian wisdom to begin with, this time Christian.  Pastor Ezekiel Nyajo, a young pastor when I arrived in Nigeria in 1966, knew how to keep his audience spellbound, including me. His first call was to the CRC of Ibi, a Muslim town on the Benue River in Taraba State.. He enthusiastically began an evangelistic campaign in which he soon learnt a few important basics. One that he shared with me and I never forgot:  If you wish to evangelize people from another religion, discover the best things and the strengths of that religion and build on or relate to them, not on its worst and weakest aspects.  I want all you readers to remember that maxim when you approach Muslims.  Absolutely true and absolutely necessary to adhere to.   

Absolutism vs Openness
Secondly, you must be aware that most Muslims have from their earliest childhood on been indoctrinated to believe in the absolute superiority of their religion vis a vis all others, including Christianity.  Now that may have been true of my generation of Reformed Christians as well, but I sense that a certain degree of humility, true or false,  has crept into the hearts and minds of my generation and that is advancing among subsequent generations growing up in and living with the realities of multi-culturalism and multi-religion.  We tend not to be quite so absolutist about other religions anymore. Without necessarily having thought through the issues arising from such humility, we are slowly sliding into greater openness to them.  

 This, you must know, is not the case with Muslims, not even with non-practicing cultural Muslims. It is not a hopeless situation, but it seldom happens in response to direct evangelistic witness. They will hardly give you a chance; they will preach at you without stopping. It is not the way to go.

Some Recommendations
If your church wishes to engage in evangelism to Muslims, I recommend two simultaneous approaches, both communal and individual.  If possible, let your church involve a spiritually sensitive ex-Muslim who knows Islam well, continues to adhere to much of their culture and has retained his respect and love for Muslims.  Let him be your front runner. and resource person to whom you come for advice.  There may come a time you can invite a group of Muslims for a church or restaurant dinner and be prepared to have it reciprocated. As to Muslims in your neighbourhood, seek them out, get to know them, invite them into your social life, including your home.  Attend some of his/her events in order to get closer, show interest and, eventually have him attend some of yours.  Do not talk religion all the time, but have general conversations on a variety of topics.

(2) Befriend Muslims in your community and develop an active and trusting social relationship with them. Demonstrate your Christian way of life and answer any question they may pose, but do not overtly evangelize or witness to them. Feel free to ask them questions in a respectful way. This may encourage them to ask questions as well.  Go to a movie together, a meaningful movie. Play chess. Do a picnic. Invite them into your house for a breakfast or dinner. Whatever fits their social life. Remember, often women to women works best and men to men.  Keep asking your front runner for information and advice. 

Muslims Converting through Dreams
Throughout the Muslim world, thousands of Muslims have come to Christ through dreams that are remarkably similar. A white-robed figure tends to appear to them who identifies Himself as Christ and invites them to follow Him.  This is often the result of having heard about Christ through some channel—radio, TV, a book, a conversation that could have been with you.  You just sow the seed and leave the harvest to Him. Pray, but don’t worry about it.  He has His own ways. 

Mission and International Politics and Economics
There is also the global situation that has filled Muslims with mistrust and, often, hatred towards the West and its Christians. We must be aware of the imperialistic way in which the West has treated the Muslim world.  The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are seen as mere continuations of a long imperialist tradition that sought to exploit them and impose secularism on them. Some writers, even in the CC, apparently want to ignore or deny the true impact of that history. However, we must acknowledge it not only, but also do all we can to transform our national governments and corporations into peaceful and just directions that are more in conformity with the way of Christ.  Christians must be seen and heard by Muslims to be doing so.  At least, if we are interested in correcting the image of Christ that Muslims everywhere have.  To Muslims, politics and economics are tools of mission. The Christian dualistic separation of these two is an unbelievably naïve and, pardon the expression, stupid approach.  You want to improve the image of Christ in the Muslim world? Then work hard at reforming/transforming our international politics and economics.  There is a great need for Christians to so contribute to the international politics and economics of their own nations quite apart from witnessing concerns.  It is simply the right thing to do.  Failure to do so will surely confirm the general  Muslim suspicion that Westerners are out to destroy and undermine Islam.  Witness and mission must go together with politics and economics on a global scale.  Their separation leads to trivializing the Gospel and our witness. Witness is no child’s play!

The Muslim in You (3)

Post 28—

Back in Posts 17 (Dec. 12, 2010) and 18 (Dec. 18, 2010), I wrote on this subject but interrupted it with other subjects.  Sounds like I am full of interruptions, doesn’t it?  But I did promise I would come back to it.  This is the day and the post.  You do well to go back to those earlier ones to refresh your memory.  In addition, the subject is directly related to Post 27, the one preceding this one, where I ask and provide a sketchy answer to the question what Christians can learn from Islam.

More Muslim Contributions to World Culture

In addition to the aspects of Muslim culture and religion already treated in those previous posts, there are a number of other significant contributions and accomplishments with which Islam has blest both Christianity and Western culture.  In Post 17, I refer to Stephen Glain’s Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants, in which he has a chapter on Syria that, chaotic as it is today and far behind in modern development, was at one time a major centre of international culture and economics.  I return to the same pages, this time with a few more specifics. 

Science and Culture

Syria’s capital, Damascus, was known as the “Queen of Cities” and the “Garden of the World” during its heyday. In the 8^th century A.D.—yes, I continue using this term, since no one has explained satisfactorily to me what is so common about the CE--, Damascus was the centre of “the largest empire the world had yet known and more prosperous than ancient Rome,” wrote Glain.  “The world’s most accomplished scientists, physicians, artists and musicians came to Damascus” to enjoy the patronage of the Caliph, he went on.  “Astrologers measured the…movements of the stars,” while “poets and preachers celebrated the virtue of romantic love.” (Of course, given the shaky state of Western monogamous marriages based on this mythical romantic love, it is legitimate to ask whether this has any virtue at all.) It is even claimed that “Medieval Arabs pioneered the theory of blood circulation,” a millennium before “the royal physicians of Victorian Britain.”  This is where the seeds of many modern sciences and disciplines sprouted.

Still on Glain, Iraqis also helped to pass on, spread and further developed various cultural and scientific products they borrowed from Persia, India, Greek and others.  Syrian glass products and Samarkand paper were carried by their ships all over the known world while the emerging Muslim bourgeoisie popularized chess from India and polo from Persia and thus helped internationalize these pastimes by breaking them free from their original cultures.  As Glain records it, though not without ambiguity, the Iraqis adopted an “arithmetical system” from India and used it “to pioneer algebra.  The counting system—today’s Arabic numerals—would be re-exported to Europe in the thirteenth century by an Italian. Leonardo Fibonacci, who studied in North Africa under a Muslim teacher.”

Universities

J. Dudley Woodberry, in his Foreword to Encountering the World of Islam, an anthology edited by Keith E. Swartley, tells us how the early Muslim universities in Cairo created charitable endowments that would pay professors’ salaries. These endowments developed into “endowed chairs” that eventually became the model for such chairs in international academia and supported much academic learning over the centuries, not the least in the West.  (For an interesting description of life and classroom a century ago at the  famous and ancient Cairo Al-Azhar University, one of the universities referred to above, you can read Abraham Kuyper’s account of it in our joint e-book, A Kuyper & J. Boer--Faith, Science, Miracles, Islam: Four Kuyperian Essays. Go to www.lulu.com and search for A. Kuyper & J. Boer.  Or go to www.ccel.org and search for A. Kuyper: The Mystery of Islam.)

Arousing Your Curiosity

I believe you get the point even, though I have not by any means exhausted the subject.  Why do I emphasize this Western Muslim heritage?  Why would a Christian like me engage in this?  You’ll just have to keep your curiosity in check for a while, but in due time I will explain. 

What Christians Can Learn from Islam

Post 27 

Offer of Free Lecture

Today we deal with question no. 5 in my Christian Courier series.  Once again, I apologize for the interruption.  Life sometimes becomes too hectic for me to cope.  I take on too many responsibilities or obligations and then find I need to temporarily change course.  This time around it was a trip to Ibadan, Nigeria, where I was invited to deliver an annual lecture to Christians about sharia.  My title was “Re-tooling Our Approach to Sharia: A Wholistic and Pluralistic Perspective.”  Readers interested in that issue may contact me at < boerjf@hotmail.com > to request an electronic copy.  If you do forward this request, please be sure to mention this blog post and tell me what province or state and what country you are from.

Islam's Reminding Function

So, what can Christians learn from Muslims?  Many things, actually.  If you have read my earlier post “The Muslim Within You,” you have already become aware of how, far back in history, the Western world adopted various major ideas and institutions from the Muslim world.  Today my concern is not something that took place way back there in history but what is taking place or could take place today in your own life.  

Years ago, in Nigeria, I met a Muslim biking along the long driveway leading to our mission compound. I greeted him in the local style and he stopped to chat in the Hausa language. In the course of the conversation, I told him about my plans for the next day.  I was going to do this and that, I confidently announced.   He was silent for a moment, cocked his head slightly and then asked, “Allah fa?”  “What about God?”  Does He not figure in your plans? 

I felt deeply embarrassed.  Here was a Muslim for whom I was paid to bring the Gospel and he brought the Gospel to me!  I was brought up in a culture where the term “Deo volente,” Latin for “God willing,” laced daily conversation.  Immigrating to Canada where that term is rarely used, I had dropped it somewhere along the line.  And, now, here was this Muslim reminding me of a neglected component of my own inherited worldview and language. 

Presence of God

That seemingly insignificant interchange has stuck with me ever since.  “Allah fa?”  Yes, indeed, what of God in our ordinary daily lives?  His name interlaces most Muslim conversations, not, as in the West, as barbaric profanity, but as an expression of our dependence on Him in everything. Of course, deep down I knew that God is there all the time, but the secular culture in which I grew up on Vancouver Island made me careless and drop the lingo—and with it blunted the edge of this spiritual awareness. It was still there, but marginalized, so that this Muslim gentleman was offended. He reminded me. 

A major function Muslims can play for Western Christians is that of reminder.  We have been so deeply influenced by the pervasive secularism around us that much of our Christian sensitivities have been blunted and Christian standards marginalized, if not plain forgotten, or, worse perhaps, actually rejected as outmoded or politically incorrect. Politically incorrect they most assuredly are, but outmoded? We know the Name of Jesus is holy and needs to be revered, but when He is insulted in public life by sheer derision or outright exclusion, we shrug our shoulders. Muslims cannot tolerate such carelessness and infidelity. A few years ago the Anglican Church in the UK was silent when someone publicly insulted Christ, but the Muslim community stood up and denounced the insult.  After all, Jesus is seen as a Muslim Prophet second only to Muhammad.  When someone is perceived as insulting Muhammad, even non-practicing Muslims can get on their high horse and cause riots.  But Christians just shrug their shoulders in indifference as if it were an inconsequential matter. 

Pioneer Reformed Challenges to Secularism

The generation that founded the Christian Courier, the semi-monthly that originally published this series, was deeply offended by Canada’s secularism and challenged it by establishing Christ-honouring alternative social institutions. They took their issues to the highest courts of the land and achieved some remarkable victories.  Half a century later, the structures they built still exist not only, but are fully Canadian, flourishing and effective institutions. Today, only half a century later, most of their descendants know little of and care less for those issues.  Some of them are now run by Canadians from other Christian traditions that became excited by the broad vision of these early Reformed pioneers.

Muslim Challenge to Reformed and Other Christians

Muslims continually challenge this secularism and remind us of God across all of life.  They have their prayer times and little stops them from performing them.  Certainly not shame or embarrassment.  Neither are they embarrassed about being identified as Muslims and, thus, religious.  In fact, they are proud to be Muslim.  We may sneer at some of their female fashions, but who sees Christ in us with our fashions?  Where has modesty gone?  Women, without any apology on my part to those concerned with the politically correct, do you realize how many of you befudge the reputation of Christ among Muslims with your fashions?  Muslims remind us of modesty not only but of the general need for morals, both private and public.  Of course, men who casually ascend Christ’s pulpits in torn jeans and flip-flops similarly downgrade His holy Name by their lack of respect, another concept we have almost forgotten (Unless it is a conscious decision to identify with a population where such dress is standard.). While many Christians have largely succumbed to the secular demand for separation of religion from both politics, government and the market place in general, Muslims boldly march into the market place with religion up front, even with Muslim banks. In contrast, we deride such banks that uphold moral standards that go beyond the financial bottom line.  When Muslims speak mission, they do not talk merely of church planting; they actively claim the entire world for God.  To the descendants of those early pioneers I ask, “Does this sound familiar to you?  Are you reminded of some things from your background?  Might you even experience some slight twangs of conscience?”

Muslims serve to remind us of the need to re-install God in our daily lives at every level. I should put it differently, for God does not need to be re-installed, for He is there and everywhere, whether we are conscious of Him or not.  He needs to be re-installed in our consciousness. Islam reminds us of that.

We Reformed ought to respect them for it, observe them, listen to them and be reminded once again of our roots.  Perhaps we can even cooperate with them at selected fronts.  

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Muslim Women: A Secular Solution (4)

Post 26—

Intreoducing Ayaan Hirsi Ali 

This is my fourth post on Muslim women and, for now at least, the last.  Time to move on.  The last post presented the views of mostly traditional Nigerian Muslims. The one before that was an article written by a modern Indian Muslim.  Today’s is about a radical woman who was brought up as a Muslim and struggled with the Muslim perspective as she experienced it, but whose current Muslim credentials I cannot vouch for—the Somalian Dutch Ayaan Hirsi Ali. When a person publicly expresses doubt about the existence of Allah, as Ali does in the preface to her book, The Caged Virgin, I am not sure Muslim authorities will still consider her a bona fide Muslim.  I describe her as “radical” because she tries to get to the “radix” or root of things. Though this post is for now the last one on women, it will certainly not be the last on Ali.  She is too interesting and challenging to ignore in a Christian-Muslim environment.

Folk Religion

 Ali wrote a number of books during her sojourn in my native land, The Netherlands.  They go totally against the grain of all that is politically correct, including the issue of women in Islam.  While in The Caged Virgin she writes on the position of women in Islam in general and calls for their emancipation, in Infidel she writes her own story and development. She grew up in a very folksy Muslim environment.  Folksy Islam, like folksy Christianity, is a mixture of a very conservative form of the religion and the local culture.  It usually means that the official structures, both religious and social, are shaped by the religion but the dominant spirit underlying it all and providing its dynamic is shaped more by the culture than by the religion. Both those structures and that spirit are usually very rigid and resistant to change.  If change does come, it is often regarded as an attack on the religion rather than on the culture. If that culture is cruel with respect to women, then the religion will display the same cruelty, except in the case of a religious revival, when the social furniture can get shuffled around into new configurations.  My comments here are based not only on observation and reading, but also on personal experience as a Christian living in tight folksy Christian communities. 

I am not about to summarize all the problems, difficulties and sufferings of Muslim women as experienced and described by Ali.  You can find those stories everywhere, in books, especially Ali’s own, in the popular media and on the internet.  They are horror stories, many of them. 

Ali's Solution

But what is Ali’s solution?  She urges Muslim women to “Stand up for Your Rights,” the title of her first chapter in The Caged Virgin and she encourages the West to aid them in this process.  This is not a call for a violent and bloody revolution so much as a call for enlightenment. She is jealous of the Western Enlightenment inheritance and wishes a similar process for Islam. That means first of all for Muslims to take a critical look at themselves.  They must regain a “balance between religion and reason.”  She opts for the secular solution: “We must structurally drive religion back to the places where it belongs: in the mosque and in the home” (The Caged Virgin, pp. 13-14); a most unMuslim solution—or un-Kuyperian, for that matter.

Islamic Diversity

One of the theses throughout this blog is that, except for some deep core tenets, it is difficult to pinpoint the true Muslim perspective on almost any topic.  Ali writes, “There are as many Islams as there are Muslims.”  “…a single Islam does not exist” (The Caged Virgin, p. 9).  If that is true of Islam in general, as I in the company of many others have argued, it is also true of the “Muslim view of women.”  This mini-series is a demonstration of this diversity. For this reason, Christians must be careful when they discuss Muslim issues, whether women or anything else. 

Secondly, Christians must become more aware of the nature of folk religion within both their own religion as well as in Islam, in both their historical as well as current versions. 

Possibility for Change

Adhering to these two guidelines may help us become aware of the beam in the eyes of both religions, keep us from hasty condemnation and judgement, and make us optimistic with respect to future developments.  If one religion, Christianity, once so resistant to change but became more malleable due to the forces of the Enlightenment and its aftermath, why not view Islam as changeable as well?  There are any number of books that give good reason to expect an enlightenment of Islam. The current revolutions among Arab nations are indications that some form of enlightenment and change may be acomin'.  

I am aware that neither Ali’s call for the secular solution nor my apparent approval of the Western Enlightenment will not sit well with some of my fellow Kuyperian readers.  I will address that in due time, after I have completed my series from Christian Courier.

 

I

 

Conservative Muslim Views on Women and Their Roles

Post 25—

Apology and Plan

I once again apologize for the time lapse between this and the last post. I was under such intense work pressure that I just had to let go for a while.I may as well tell you now that I expect to be in Nigeria the full month of May and am not sure I will have the facilities or the files I need to write new posts while there. So, perhaps one or two posts over the next week and then off to Nigeria. When the next one after that? We’ll see. Possibly early June.

The last post features an article about women in Islam by a modern Indian Muslim, Dr. Ashgar Engineer. This post features the views of a few Nigerian Muslims of more traditional stripe. This material can be found in vol. 6 of my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations, pp. 277-280. If you contrast the last post to this one, you will find that it is hard to identify the Muslim perspective on women. There is a wide range of perspectives, often conflicting, with the one side likely to berate the other as unIslamic. Once again, will the true Muslim please stand up?

Pattern of the Arguments

There is a pattern to the arguments and/or practices of these social conservatives.
They tend to begin with an emphasis on the equality of women with
men, with the high place of honour women occupy. Women are entitled
to all human rights. Then these writers move on to the primary
and most honoured and influential work of women, namely that of
education. The education referred to means almost exclusively the
training a mother gives to her child at home. And, of course, to protect
her honour, she needs to be shielded from the gaze of all men,
except husband and close relatives, either in purdah or in burqa. And
voila—that free, equal and highly honoured creature ends up after all
in her traditional role of housewife. Not by conscious choice, of
course; the situation is defined by the men in her family. Their traditional
status is so ingrained that most women hardly know anything
different. They all base themselves on sharia—as they see it, the popular
version. They would not think of demanding changes. This is the
world they know and makes them comfortable.

A Very Manly View

An article by Abdulkadir Orire, at the time Grand Khadi(Supreme Court Justice)of Nigeria's Kwara State, introduces you into the world of the fully obedient
woman. According to Orire, the husband relates to his wife
as a farmer does to the soil. He “has to take great care of the soil, after
he has chosen the fertile good and best one. He has to choose his own
time to plant and the mode of cultivation.” He makes sure he does
not exhaust the soil. “He should be wise and considerate and does not
run riot. That means he should require every kind of mutual consideration
from his wife.” The wife, in turn, must “obey her husband in
all matrimonial issues” as long as they do not harm her or violate the
commands of God. She must not leave the house without his permission.
He is a lucky man who is “pleased with her sight; who, if he
orders her to carry out a command, she willingly obeys him; who, if
he is away, she protects for him her person and his property.” She is
to keep him and home happy. “She should try to appear to him beautiful
as well as carry out his orders patiently and dutifully.”1

That’s a classic picture that many readers will expect. That’s the
picture the media paint over and over again. It is not false; such situations
exist, perhaps more often than it would be politically correct
to admit. Orire, of course, is a man.

Rabi Wali: A Moderate Woman’s Views and Protest

The rest of this post is taken up with the writings of Rabi Wali.
She seems a bit ambivalent about the place of
women and appears to want to eat from both sides of the fence.
Some might call her approach “middle of the road.” “Through the
sharia, we see that a nation is made up of groups of people living
together as free and equal citizens submitting to the Will of Allah.”
“In terms of social and economic development, the family is the
nucleus of a nation” and its “cornerstone.” For a nation to be
healthy, it needs a firm cornerstone. “The leaders of the family are
[thus] the source of any progress, development, prosperity and
strength of the community.” Wali then asks a number of questions
about the role of women in the above scheme. “Do they have
equality with men concerning all the activities of nation building
or not? Do they have the same rights? And must they do the same
duties in order to be equal? What is the relationship between man
and woman in the family structure?” There is a hadith in which
someone asked the Prophet about the “rights of our women on us.”
He replied, “Feed them and clothe them as well as you do yourself
and do not beat them and do not abuse them.”

The Qur’an and Hadith also tell us
that women are partners in building a family with mutual consultation.
The women are allowed and expected to do everything
that would raise their spiritual and material levels like
their male counterparts. The women of the early Islamic period
were participating very actively in political affairs to the extent
that they could demand their rights from the highest leader.
The wives of the Sahaba were going and coming freely
from their economic activities. Thus, Islam allows Muslim
women to strive and reach the highest levels within the confines
of sharia and the comfortable limits Allah provides for
her. Men are required to make everything easier for them.
On the other hand, the woman is encouraged by Islam to
appreciate the fact that she is also required to give her full
share to the all-round development of the marriage. She
should endeavour to make the house a paradise on earth for
all the members of the family. This is easier for her because of
her biological makeup. Her natural role as mother and comforter,
her character should be essentially gentle, beautiful,
loving, forgiving and merciful and should be recognised and
utilised to the best interest of the family. The husband and
wife should complement one another. Women are not deficient
mentally. They should be the best teachers during the most
important period of a human life, the formative years that is
before conception to five years.

Therefore, despite the fact that Islam allows women to take
the role they wish, it is in their best interest and the interest of the
society that their chief role should be that of building the miniature
nation peacefully, with as little tension and conflict as possible.
This is the stand of Islamic justice, love and tranquility from
individual families leading to a just, loving and strong nation.

The Reality

Unfortunately, that is not always how it is among Nigerian
Muslims, Wali laments. Women are the backbone of the economy. They farm, they
tend livestock, they process food, they fetch water, they trade,
they contribute in taking care of the family in every sense
through their commercial activities in arts and crafts.
Yet they are never fully recognised seriously in decision
making. Although things may be changing, formal education
is not considered as part of a woman’s right. She is on
the whole considered a commodity with marriage as her destiny
as far as she is young and beautiful at the end of which
she is discarded.

Conspiracy of Silence

Then there is also the fact that women have been denied
the proper Islamic knowledge of their role. So they just have
to accept whatever is dished out to them by their menfolk in
fear of being branded as “woman liberators,” a term which
has been imported from the Western world and which is
meant to confuse, rather than clarify the issue of woman’s
identity. The religious interpretation appears to be a conspiracy
of silence even on her lawful rights from the husband or
fabrications supported by misquoted and misinterpreted
verses and Hadith.

Islam, Family and Modernity

Post 24:--

In the last post I promised you an article written by Asghar Ali Engineer of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism in Mumbai, India. Engineer is a prolific writer about Islam, history and society. I am grateful for his permission to reproduce his article as an example of the more liberal Muslim approach to women's issues. Tomorrow, inshallah, I will reproduce writing(s) from a more conservative wing on the same subject. Between the two of them, these articles exemplify what I have written in Post 23.

Asghar Ali Engineer:

Sometime go I happened to go to Turkey for an international conference on Family. I wrote an account of my journey to Turkey but here I want to talk about my presentation in the conference. It was an impressive international conference from around 50 countries and 300 scholars, social scientists and activists. Several papers were read and discussed on various aspects of family. The common concern was that the institution of family is getting weakened and family being the very foundation of our civilization, it must be saved from disintegration.

I was asked to talk about Islam and institution of family. In fact the Prophet of Islam did not approve of life of celibacy except in some situation. He also disapproved of renunciation of world (ruhbaniyyah) and preferred living in the world and facing all the situations. Various pronouncements of the Qur’an relate to family life, marriage, divorce and children. Qur’an also says if you have no means to marry and sustain your family lead pious life until Allah gives you necessary means. Also, Qur’an prescribes punishment for illegitimate sex fornication, rape and adultery.

According to Islamic teachings, sex is permissible only within the institution of marriage as sex only for pleasure, is not permissible; sex is basically meant for raising family. Today in western countries, people do not want to take responsibility for raising family but want to have sex for pleasure and hence ‘live in’ arrangement has come into vogue and this concept of live-in has dealt great blow to the institution of family. In this arrangement both man and woman can walk away any time they like.

Thus the basic idea is not to have any responsibility towards each other, much less towards children. In fact every attempt is made to avoid begetting children and, if at all, children are born, the whole responsibility will come on a single parent, especially on mother. The result is man tries to have multiple partners to enjoy sex and woman is burdened with children and faces psychological stresses and strain.

Sex cannot be an end in itself as it happens in live-in arrangement. There are, according to Qur’an two important purposes of marriage – to raise family and provide companionship to each other. The very philosophy of marriage is based on love and companionship. Qur’an says, “And of His Signs is this, that He created mates for you from yourselves that you might find quiet of mind in them, and He put between you love and compassion. Surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect.” (30:21

Thus the institution of family, according to the Qur’an, should be based on higher and noble values of life .Simply to gratify sexual desire can never lead to higher civilization and stability in one’s life. Stability, compassion and love are the very basis of human civilization and family is an important institution in building civilization. Family, as far as possible, should not break and that is why according to the Prophet’s hadith divorce is most disapproved among permissible things and also according to another hadith heavens shake when man pronounces divorce to his wife because divorce delivers blow to very institution of family.

Today in the contemporary world institution of family is increasingly getting weakened due to certain contradictions arising in our life due to modernity. In modern period women too work and become quite independent and hence refuse to bow down to wishes of her spouse. In the past women were quite economically dependent on husbands and felt more secure in bowing down to his wishes. Husband was thought to be master and crown of her head (sartaj). Today women are from middle class families highly educated and work with high salaries and so they refuse to bow down before their husbands.

So many orthodox Muslims feel this is the result of women getting educated and earning for themselves. It is destabilizing families. This is wrong conclusion because we are embedded in patriarchal values. In fact if women have to have dignity and self-respect they should not be asked to submit to husband’s authority. Any institution based on authority rather than higher values cannot be stable and cannot lead to higher civilization. Qur’an while giving women right to earn and property, also gives her equal dignity and self respect and makes it clear that family should be based not on authority of husband but on love and compassion for each other.

If these values are meticulously practiced both husband and wife have mutual respect and consult each other before taking any crucial decision, woman’s education and earning would make family much more stable and prosperous. If our culture remains patriarchal and husband’s authority supreme, family in which woman is highly educated and cares for self respect and dignity, would tend to come under strain and break. Even in highly modern societies women has no role in decision making on crucial matters and hence family life comes under severe strain and percentage of divorce goes up because woman refuses to submit.

Thus solution does not lie in abandoning the institution of family and go in for live-in relationship. There will be no genuine love and compassion. Solution lies in according equal dignity to women and equal role in decision making. This alone will strengthen institution of family. Thus if philosophy of family as propounded by the Qur’an is followed institution of family will not fall apart. It will be strengthened instead.
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Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai

Women in Islam: Standard and Practice

Post 23--:

I continue the series that originally started in Post 19. Please check out the context of this material there.

The questions I was to answer were:
(a) How does the Qur’an say women should be treated?
(b) How does the above conform to or contradict what is practiced in many
Muslim countries or cultures?

Here is my response to those questions:

I interpret the questions as intended to evoke a discussion about Muslim suppression of women, since that is such a major Christian concern.

If you ask the same question about the Bible, you will get a wide variety of (contradictory) answers. There are OT texts about women from which pretty well all Christians distantiate themselves. For one thing, they are written from a male point of view—what the male should do for, with or to women. They were subject to men and valued mainly as wives and mothers. A father could sell his daughter into slavery. A father could annul his daughter’s vows or pledge, as could a husband his wife’s. Adultery could lead to stoning, but for both partners. The husband had various unilateral rights over his wife. A woman was worth half a man. Women could be taken as booty after victorious battles. They could become ceremonially unclean. Etc., etc. In the NT, women were restricted in their leadership roles. Christians have long rejected all or most of these ideas for sound Biblical and theological reasons, somewhat parallel to the Islamic doctrine of abrogation.

You find similar situations in the Qur’an and in the Muslim community. There is a wide range of interpretations from the literal to contextual-historical. Just as Christians have largely rejected the OT perspectives on women, especially those they see as oppressive, so do many educated Muslims argue their way out of similar Qur’anic texts. Most Muslim men tend to agree that women are honourable but fragile creatures that need to be protected from other men. Hence, the elaborate precautions to which some are subjected in terms of movement and dress code, while others dress and move about as they please. Most men regard women as too emotional and therefore insist that they, the men, should do the thinking and make decisions for them. They are seen as powerful when they play their legitimate role as mothers and wives who bring up and teach the next generation. They are allowed to conduct business and own property, but not at the expense of their primary role in the family. There is currently a dynamic at work in many Muslim communities that tends to restrict women more than was the case in the past, especially with respect to dress. One American female Muslim medical doctor practicing in Saudi was absolutely amazed at the restrictions placed on women in Saudi and condemned it outrightly as a retrograde form of Islam.

At the levels of militant fundamentalism and folk Islam, the literal interpretation tends to hold sway. Folk Islam is intimately mixed up with local pre-Islamic cultures. Its adherents often identify these foreign accretions as part of core Islam, with the result that anyone critiquing some cultural tradition may be accused of attacking Islam itself. In Saudi, public amputations constitute public entertainment after Friday prayers, but many educated Muslims are horrified.

The reality is that there is hardly any consistent pattern around the Muslim world. In many Muslim communities, women play a much larger role than the above would lead us to expect, while in most countries stoning and amputation form only a distant memory. And yet there have been several female Muslim heads of state in the largest Muslim countries! If Islam or the Qur’an were really as reprehensible and violent in its core as we witness today in some quarters, then the high civilization and culture they once reached would hardly have been possible.

A major difference between Christianity and Islam is that the former has experienced the philosophical developments from the Renaissance on—initially spurred on by Cordovan Islam—up to the current climate in the West. Before those developments, Christian individuals, religious leaders and nations were cruel and intolerant in ways hard to believe today, even though we already had the Bible. The change towards more civilized relationships is due as much to those philosophical developments as to our reading of the Bible. Most Muslims have not gone through this development.

How should women be treated according to the Qur’an? Your answer will be determined by the approach you prefer, literal or contextual-historical. Does the practice of some countries reflect the Qur’an correctly? To the extent that it is the result of a literal interpretation and mixed up with traditional cultural accretions, in agreement with more liberal Muslims, I would say “No.” But those who practice various forms of suppression of women, will, of course, answer “Yes!” They are the literalists. So, how and on what basis do I, a non-Muslim, answer these questions? Which is the true Islam or the right interpretation of the Qur’an?

I will interrupt my series and continue the subject of the treatment of women in the next post by reproducing an article on the subject by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, an Indian moderate Muslim scholar.