Womanhood in Islam

FEAR OF God and honoring one’s fellow men—this is the twin foundation of Islam laid down in the Quran in these words:

Mankind, fear your Lord who created you from one soul and created man’s mate from the same soul, from these two scattering on earth many men and women. Fear God, in whose name you entreat one another, and be careful not to sever your ties of kinship. God is watching over what you do.³²

The words, “and created man’s mate from the same soul” have been explained as meaning that first Adam was created from earth; then a rib was taken from his body, out of which Eve—his mate—was formed. But there is nothing in the Quran to support this theory. It is a biblical explanation, not a Quranic one. Here is what the Book of Genesis has to say about the creation of Eve:

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.³³

From this biblical tradition comes the theory that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. This story has been given credence by some commentators of the Quran, who have used it to explain Eve’s creation “from the same soul as Adam.” But this notion does not stand up in the face of established fact, and it has been proven that, over the centuries, the Bible has been subjected to alterations and additions. Its present form is no longer as the prophets originally taught it. Along with prophetic inspiration, it has received a fair injection of human interpolation. For this reason, one cannot rely on explanations given in the Bible, nor is it proper to explain verses of the Quran in the light of biblical statements.

Neither in the verse of the Quran quoted above, nor in any other verse of the Quran, is there any mention of Eve having been created from Adam’s rib. The Quran says only that Eve was created from “it.” What this “it” refers to is the point in question. Most of those commentators who have penetrated deep into the meaning of the Quran have taken “It” to refer to “species”: Eve was created—not from Adam himself—but from the same species as Adam. This is the explanation given—among others—by Abu Muslim Asfahani, and it is this explanation that fits in with other verses of the Quran.

In several verses of the Quran the word for “soul” (nafs) has been used to mean “species.” Such verses provide a clear elucidation of the verse quoted above. A selection of them is given here:

God has created for you spouses, of your own kind.³⁴

And of His signs is that He has created for you—of your own kind—spouses, that you might take comfort in them.³⁵

Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you spouses of your own kind, and the cattle He has also created in pairs.³⁶

From a perusal of these verses, one can see that the same word has been used for the spouses of ordinary human beings as was used for Adam’s spouse in the verse quoted above. Just as Eve was created from Adam’s nafs, so other women have also been created from the same nafs—or kind—as their male counterparts.

Clearly there is no question, in these other verses, of inferring that every female spouse has been created from the body of the male. There is no alternative but to take the word nafs, occurring in these verses, as meaning ‘kind.’ God has created for you spouses of your own kind, the Quran is telling us, in order that they may provide you with true companionship in your journey through life.

To summarize, women and men are from the same species. Biologically speaking, women have not been extracted from the bodies of their male counterparts. God fashioned them according to His Will, just as He fashioned men in accordance with His Almighty Will and Power.

SAYINGS OF THE PROPHET

Now we come to certain sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, in which the Arabic word dil’ has been mentioned for the word “rib.” The first thing that has to be remembered here is that these traditions are about ordinary women, and do not refer to the creation of Adam and Eve. It is the manner of every woman’s creation that is being dealt with, not specifically that of Eve. One of the relevant sayings is as follows:

Treat women well, for they have been created from a rib.³⁷

Now this cannot be taken to mean that women have actually been created from a rib, for this has no connection with the point conveyed in the rest of the sentence, which is that women should be treated well. A correct interpretation of the word ‘rib’ has to be one that fits in with the underlying purpose behind the Prophet’s statement.

The statement, “women have been created from a rib,” should be taken metaphorically, not literally. What the Prophet wished to convey was this: “Women are akin to a rib and should be treated with due consideration.” There is another tradition which explains what this means. “A woman is like a rib,” said the Prophet, “if you try to straighten it, it will break.”³⁸

This saying of Prophet Muhammad related in the Sahih of both Bukhari and Muslim—the most authentic collections of traditions—makes it clear that women are like ribs; they are not actually created from ribs. The allusion is figurative not literal. Light is also cast on the meaning of the metaphor. Ribs break when one tries to straighten them. So it is with women. Rather than try to straighten them, it is, better to let them be.

“Women have been created from ribs,” and “Women are like ribs,” are just two different ways of saying the same thing. There is a difference in the mode of expression of the two statements, but there is no difference in meaning. It is common, in every language for metaphors to be expressed directly, without the use of the words “like” or “as.” For instance, if one wishes to pay tribute to a person’s bravery, one can say that he is like a lion. But there is not as much force in saying that a person is “like a lion” as there is in saying that he “is a lion.” Examples of such usage abound in every language, including English. A notable one is to be found in the poem, “Morte d’Arthur,” by the celebrated poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson:

... More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of, wherefore, let thy voice,
Rise like a fountain for me night and day
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.

In this last line the poet does not mean that the world is physically tethered to the feet of God by chains, but merely wishes to indicate the unbreakable bonds that exist between God and this world. In referring to the chains as “golden,” he suggests the very great beauty and value of these bonds. By referring to the “feet” of God, rather than any other part of Him, he suggests the humble position of man in God’s divine scheme. It is, indeed, a very rich metaphor. To return to the metaphor of the rib, in saying that if one tries to straighten a woman one will break her, the Prophet was referring to her delicate nature. Physically, women are weaker than men: psychologically, they are more highly strung, more prone to emotional upset. This is a fact of life which everyone realizes, irrespective of whether he is educated or not. A father, for instance, will not be as hard on a daughter as he might be on his son, for he knows that boys are made of sterner stuff than girls. The latter tend to break under severe pressure. For this reason, females are more prone to suicide than males. Sometimes a trivial matter can drive a woman to suicide or cause her to have a nervous breakdown. In likening a woman to a rib, the Prophet was expressing this fact of life in metaphorical terms. Ribs have a slight curve in them. There is good reason for them to be made that way. They should be left in their natural state. No attempt should be made to straighten them.

The Prophet used a parable to explain the delicacy of women’s nature, pointing out that they should be treated in accordance with their nature. Their delicate emotional constitution should always be borne in mind. God has created them that way, and He has done so for good reason. They should be treated kindly. If they have to be told something, it should be done tactfully, in a gentle tone. Abruptness and severity will break them, as a rib is broken by any attempt to straighten it. Once, when the Prophet was on a journey, he saw some women riding on a camel. The man leading the camel made to drive the animal on faster, forgetting that this would cause undue discomfort to his passengers. So, the Prophet said to the camel driver: “You have glass cases there. Be gentle with them.”³⁹

MODERN RESEARCH

In recent times, it has been accepted as fact, on a purely academic level, that fundamental, inborn differences do exist between men and women. A detailed article on the status of women in the Encyclopaedia Britannica includes a section on “Scientific Studies of Male-Female Differences.” Here the author points out physical differences in the respective constitutions of the male and female of the human species. “With respect to personality traits,” he writes, “men are characterized by greater aggressiveness, dominance and achievement motivation, women by greater dependency, a stronger social orientation, and the tendency to be more easily discouraged by failure than men.”⁴⁰

And there are a number of latter-day scientific experiments to back this up. Researchers have found greater dependence and docility in very young girls, greater autonomy and activity in boys. One such experiment was conducted in the U.S. When a barrier was set up to separate youngsters from their mothers, boys tried to knock it down; girls cried helplessly.

There are personality differences between the sexes too. Some distinctions turn up remarkably early. At New York University, for example, researchers have found that a female infant stops sucking a bottle and looks up when someone comes into the room; a male pays no attention to the visitor.

Scientific researchers almost unanimously agree that hormones help determine how people feel and act. Thus, the male-female differences are entirely genetic in nature. The passivity found in women is due to the particular nature of the female hormones. Differences between male and female hormones exist from birth: they are not acquired later, as would be the case if they stemmed from differences in environment.

The tenets of Islam are based wholly on nature. This is because Islam is the religion of nature. The laws Islam requires us to follow are, in fact, our own instinctive human requirements expressed in legal terms. And the teachings of Islam with respect to women are no exception. They too are based on nature. Modern, psychological, biological and anatomical research proves women to be more passive than men. This is the way their Maker has fashioned them. The nature of their womanhood, the special part they have to play in society, demand that they should be just as they have been made—that is, relatively delicate as compared to men.

It is this fact of nature on which Islamic teachings have been based. Because of women’s delicate constitution, Islam teaches men to be gentle with them. That way they will not lose heart or become too despondent to perform their special duties in life. Women are not like iron and steel ribs: they are fragile and delicate. It is best to let them be, in their natural state. If one treats them as though they were tough metal, one will only break them.

REMARK OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE

Giving his verdict in the Muhammad Ahmad-Shah Bano case, Mr. Y.V. Chandra Chud, Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court, has written a special note in which he says:

Some questions which arise under the ordinary civil and criminal law are of a far-reaching significance to large segments of society which have been traditionally subjected to unjust treatment. Women are one such segment. “Na stree swatantramarhati” (The woman does not deserve independence), said Manu, the law giver. And, it is alleged that the “fatal point in Islam is the degradation of woman. “To the Prophet is ascribed the statement, hopefully wrongly, that “woman was made from a crooked rib, and if you try to bend it straight, it will break; therefore treat your wives kindly.”⁴¹

I would like to make it clear that the phrase in this passage, “hopefully wrongly,” does not mean that this saying has been wrongly attributed to the Prophet. It means rather that although the Prophet said that woman is born of a “crooked rib,” those who want to establish equality between man and woman should take heart, as this saying of the Prophet was contrary to the fact. This phrase of the Chief Justice is meant to deny the statement itself and not the attribution.

Only a man of law can give a final opinion as to the relevance of this remark of the Chief Justice from the purely legal point of view, but it is certainly not correct from the academic point of view. He has quoted this saying of the Prophet to support his claim that Islam advocates the unjust treatment of a segment of society, whereas, on the contrary, this saying enjoins men to treat women with justice. The remark of the honorable Chief Justice does apply to Manu’s statement, but it does not apply at all to the sayings of the Prophet.

When it has been clearly stated that women should be treated gently, how can it be claimed that unjust and unfair treatment of women was advocated in a saying of the Prophet (as it clearly was in Manu’s dictum)?

So far as a woman’s being like a rib is concerned, mention of this is made only to support fair treatment of women rather than the reverse. It has been clarified above that this was only an example. In view of the particular psychology of women, it was cited to show that if she was subjected to rough treatment, it would go against her nature and would result in perversion rather than reform.

In this saying of the Prophet the likening of woman to the rib was a simple metaphor. The misunderstanding arose because of the biblical statement brought in to explain it. While this saying had nothing to do with the biblical conception of woman, what has been said in the above hadith is a natural fact which has often been expressed in different ways, as in the words of Matthew Arnold: “With women the heart argues, not the mind.”

SUMMARY

God “created man’s mate from the same soul” means simply that women are of the same species as men. God created them that way so that there should be harmony between the two sexes. If men and women had been derived from different species—if one had been made from fire, for instance, and the other from earth—then the two would have been unable to get on together. Family life would have lacked peace and harmony: men and women would have been unable to struggle hand in hand to build a better world.

As for the saying of the Prophet likening women to a rib, it is a parable illustrating the need to treat women gently on the basis of their particular, natural constitution. The Prophet Muhammad delivered this advice time and time again, in different words, and it is something that he himself practiced throughout his life.

In the time of the Prophet, women used to attend the night prayer, and sometimes they used to take their small children along with them. The Prophet used to pay special attention to strict and full observance of prayer. Yet so great was his consideration for women that sometimes, when he heard babies crying, he would cut short the prayer. He once said: “Sometimes I stand up for prayer, my intention being to make it a long one. Then I hear a baby crying. So I cut short prayer, not wanting to make things difficult for the child’s mother.”⁴²

32. The Quran, 4:1.

33. Bible, Genesis, 2:21-23.

34. The Quran, 16:72.

35. The Quran, 30:21.

36. The Quran, 42:11.

37. Al-Bukhari, Sahih, Kitab an-Nikah (Fath aI-Bari, 9/207).

38. Ibid., 9/207.

39. Al-Bukhari, Sahih, Kitab al-Adab, (Fath al-Bari, 10/454).

40. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984), 19/907

41. Criminal Appeal No. 103-1981—dated April 23, 1985.

42. Al-Bukhari, Sahih, Kitab as-Salah, (Fath al-Bari, 2/160).