Why Muslim Women Are Re-interpreting the Qur'an (event)

How I wish I could attend this talk/book-signing! Anyone in or around San Francisco is encouraged to attend, if convenient or possible for them.

Join us at the ACCC [Arab Cultural and Community Center]  for a thought provoking presentation and discussion with Cornell University's research fellow, Nimat Hafez Barazangi on why Muslim/Arab Women are reinterpreting the Quran.
Summary: Muslim/Arab women have remained a passive force in changing the reality of the approximately 800 million Muslim/Arab women and the prevailing unjust practices in Islamic/Arabic thought. By reflecting on some historical reform movements, Nimat will use examples from contemporary events to argue that passive views and unjust practices concerning Muslim/Arab women remain because the premises and foundations of reform have not changed.
Nimat Hafez Barangi is a research fellow at Cornell University. Her forthcoming book: Woman's Identity and the Qur'an: A New Reading (The University Press of Florida, December 2004) was labeled by one of the reviewers as "the most radical book in the last 14th centuries of Islam". She edited Islamic Identity and the Struggle for Justice (University Press of Florida 1996, 2000) translated into Arabic, Dar Al Fikr, 1999) in which she also contributed "Vicegerncey and Gender Justice, and has published about thirty articles, essays, and book reviews.

Event Properties

Event date:	March 29, 2012 06:00 pm
Event End Date:	March 29, 2012 08:00 pm
Capacity	Unlimited
Price	Free
Location	Arab Cultural and Community Center

SOURCE: arabculturalcenter.org

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Maulvi Begum Sahib: The eunuch who found her calling as a Qur'an teacher

SUKKUR: Seventy-year-old Jameela has come a long way from playing as a child with eunuchs to teaching 450 children the Holy Quran every day.

Born a transgender in March 1941, Jameela never fit in at home or at school, so when an elderly eunuch, Pasham Fakir, offered to take her away she ultimately yielded and followed him.
She continued to live in what she later called ‘sin’ until May 1972, when her brother died in a robbery. “This proved to be a turning point in my life because I started learning the Holy Quran,” Jameela told The Express Tribune.

She was born in Syed Mohammad Yakoob Shah’s household in Pishin, Balochistan. “My father had two wives: my mother was from a Syed family, while my stepmother was from a non-Syed family,” she said. “My mother died when I was four and my aunt looked after me for two years after which my father sent me to live with my stepmother in Ranchore Lines, Karachi.”

Jameela’s stepmother sent her to an all-girl middle school near their house, but the young eunuch left school when she was in class three because she used to get teased for her “attitude and strange style of walking.”
After dropping out of school, she helped her stepmother with domestic chores. “When I was 10 years old, a eunuch named Pasham Fakir came to our house and asked my mother to hand me over to him but my mother refused.”

She said that Pasham kept coming back for her and they used to talk outside the house. “Then one day I just went him without telling my mother,” she said dolefully.


Pasham took Jameela to his house in Garhi Yaseen near Shikarpur and she began her ‘training’ as a eunuch.
“I lived with him for three years but I wanted to get away because I didn’t like his company,” said Jameela. “Luckily, the fakir took me to Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s shrine for the annual Urs celebrations, where eunuchs come together from every part of the country.”

This is where Jameela met her new guru, Fakir Ameer Zadi, also known as Saboo. “He looked quite decent so I told him I wanted to go with him,” she said. Saboo talked to Pasham and after paying Rs5,000, Saboo adopted Jameela.

Saboo took Jameela to Sukkur, where he lived in a double-storey house in Makrani Muhalla. With his permission, Jameela purchased a house at Takkar Muhalla for Rs4,000 in 1970. “I knew how to read Urdu, even though I had dropped out of school. One day I was reading the newspaper when I came across news of my elder brother Syed Muhammad Rasool’s death,” she recalled, her eyes filling up with tears. Rasool used to run a car showroom on Tariq Road, Karachi, and was murdered during a robbery.
Jameela said she rushed to Karachi to reunite with her family but they had left with her brother’s body for Pishin. “His death was a turning point in my life. A female neighbour taught me how to read the Holy Quran. With Allah’s grace, things just fell into place for me after this.”

In 1975, Jameela began teaching her neighbour’s child, four-year-old Aasia, the Quran. “Since she proved to be a brilliant student, other neighbours started sending their children to my house to learn,” she said. The number of students grew day by day and now Jameela has a total of 450 students, who she teaches in seven different shifts without any charge.

“I started teaching when I was 31 years old and at that time people used to call me Khala (aunt) Jameela. Then it became Amma (mother) Jameela and now that I am 70 years old, they call me Nani (grandmother) Jameela.”
Jameela added that her neighbours have always respected her, irrespective of their age or gender.
A student’s mother sends Jameela two meals a day and offers to wash and iron her clothes. Since she teaches her students free of charge, their parents give her money and clothes as gifts. Jameela said she was lucky enough to perform Hajj four times and Umrah once.
“I teach in groups for an hour each and the children start coming at 10 am until 5:30pm,” she said. There is no age limit for female students but Jameela said that she does not take boys older than 10 because she does not believe in intermingling between “big boys and girls.”

“Allah created me the way I am, but nowadays being a eunuch has become a profession,” she regretted, adding, “teenage boys turn into fake eunuchs by taking hormonal injections and this is a big sin.” If you meet 1,000 eunuchs, Jameela added, you will seldom find a real fakir.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2012.

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Bicara Tentang Jodoh

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim…

(Dengan menyebut nama agungMu yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang)

Bila berbicara tentang jodoh, tiap hati mempunyai pelbagai rasa yang berbeza-beza.

Cinta kepada manusia. Cinta kepada makhlukNya.

Sebuah perasaan suci yang dianugerahkan Pencipta Cinta kepada manusia, naluri untuk saling berkasih sayang keranaNya.

Jodoh itu sudah ada. Telah tertulis di dalam kitabNya. Cuma, sebelum menemuinya, ia menjadi rahsia.

“Seperti apa bakal pasanganku? Apakah ia sepertiku? Apakah ia sama denganku?”

Tiap persoalan terlontar. Tertanya-tanya sendirian kepada Tuhan.

“Ku ingin dia seperti ini. Ku ingin dia begini.”

Masing-masing inginkan ciri idaman. Masing-masing berbeza pandangan.

Bila berbicara tentang jodoh, ku cuma mampu tersenyum.

Selayaknya sebagai manusia, ku juga punyai rasa seperti mereka semua. Inginkan cinta yang abadi, kekal bahagia selamanya.

Bagiku…

Cuma inginkan seorang imam yang mampu membimbing tanganku kepada redhaNya

Cuma inginkan seorang mujahid yang bersama-sama denganku memikul beban dakwahNya

Seiring berjalan untuk meninggikan agamaNya yang tercinta

Yang hatinya ikhlas mengharapkan redha yang Maha Esa

Yang ingin membawa cinta suci ini kekal abadi hingga ke syurgaNya

Ya. Cuma itu yang ku mahu. Cuma itu yang ku damba.

Bagaimanapun fizikalnya, bagaimana pun latar dirinya, sungguh ku tidak layak meminta seperti kehendakku. Ku juga tidak mampu menilainya dengan kaca mata zahirku.

Kerana, hanya DIA yang layak menentukan segalanya. Cuma DIA yang Maha Tahu seperti apa ciri dan sifatnya yang sesuai dan pantas untukku. Bagiku, ku tidak berhak untuk memilih, tetapi DIA yang Maha Berhak memilih jodoh yang terbaik buatku dalam sujud cinta istikharah kepadaNya.

Firman Allah s.w.t bermaksud:

“Dan Tuhanmu menciptakan apa saja sesuai dengan kehendak dan pilihanNya. Tidak ada pada diri mereka (hak) untuk memilih.”

Teringat pula kata-kata seorang akhawat kepadaku.

“Kita hanya mampu memandang manusia dengan mata zahir. Tetapi zahir dan batinnya Allah yang lebih tahu. Mungkin dia cuma kelihatan biasa-biasa di hadapan manusia, tetapi siapa yang tahu imannya ‘luar biasa’ di hadapanNya?”

Ku terdiam tanpa kata. Benar sekali bicaranya.

Kita seringkali inginkan yang kelihatan yang sempurna di mata. Ada yang mengukur dengan rupa, ada yang mengukur dengan harta, ada juga mengukur dengan pangkat semata-mata.

Tapi itu cuma ukuran manusia. Sedangkan pandangan mata manusia seringkali tersalah dan tersasar. Ukuran bagi Allah cumalah iman dan takwa.

“Jadi, harus bagaimana memilih jodoh?”

Ukuran dan nilaian sebenar itu sudah ada digariskan dalam ajaranNya. Berbuatlah istikharah dan musyawarah, pasti tidak akan menyesal. Itu janji-Nya.

Sabda Baginda saw:

“Termasuk kebahagian bani Adam (manusia) ketika dia mahu beristikharah kepada Allah dan redha dengan apa-apa yang telah ditetapkan oleh Allah, dan termasuk kerugian Bani Adam ketika dia tidak mahu beristikharah kepada Allah dan membenci apa-apa yang telah ditetapkan oleh Allah” (Riwayat Imam Ahmad)

Sungguh, janji-Nya adalah benar dan Allah tidak akan sesekali memungkiri janji. DIA pasti tidak akan mensia-siakan hamba yang sentiasa menyakini dan berpegang teguh kepadaNya. Yakin dan percayalah, andai dirimu soleh, pastinya sang solehah yang akan menjadi bidadari hidupmu. Begitu jugalah sebaliknya. Hayati dan yakinilah janjiNya yang seringkali kita tadabbur dalam surah An-Nur ayat 26.

Oleh itu, peringatan untuk diriku dan diri teman-teman sekalian…

Teruskanlah ‘mensolehahkan diri’. Tiap amalan akan dikira, tiap peribadi dan akhlak pasti akan tercatat, tiap kebaikan dan kebajikan pasti akan dinilai dengan teliti oleh Ilahi. Kerana dengan kiraan-kiraan itulah, DIA akan meletakkan dirimu dengan pasangan hidup yang sesuai dan sepantas dengan amalan dirimu juga.

Berdoa tanpa jemu, berdoalah, namun bukan meminta untuk hidup bahagia bersama pasangan semata-mata di dunia, tetapi berdoa agar ditemukan jodoh yang dengannya dapat semakin menguatkan iman kita kepadaNya, agar semakin kita bertambah rapat dan cinta kepadaNya, agar semakin kita dapat menggapai redha Tuhan semata-mata.

Akhir bicara cinta…

"Ya Tuhan kami, anugerahkanlah kepada kami dari isteri kami dan keturunan kami menjadi penenang hati kami dan jadikan kami imam bagi orang-orang yang bertakwa." (Al-Furqan:74)

Munajatku: “Ya Tuhanku…Dalam resah dalam gelisah, dalam takut dan cemas, ku tetap ingin mengharap padaMu Ya Rabb. Ingin ku sandarkan segalanya padaMu. Zahir dan batinnya Engkau lebih Mengetahui. Engkau lebih tahu bagaimana dia di pandanganMu.

Jika pilihan yang Engkau pilihkan ini adalah yang terbaik buatku, agamaku, dakwahku, dunia dan akhiratku, maka ku ingin redha dengan ketentuanMu. Permudahkanlah urusan jodoh ini andai benar dialah jodoh yang telah Kau catatkan buatku. Dengan kuasa agungMu ku berserah diri dan bertawakkal kepadaMu…amin”

“Buatmu sang mujahid...

'bakal' pemilik cintaku setelah Allah dan Rasul

Bersabarlah menunggu kehadiranku dalam hidupmu

Apabila sampai saat dan ketikanya nanti

Suntinglah daku dengan keimanan dan ketakwaan dirimu yg teguh

sarungkan cincin di jariku dengan akhlak dan peribadimu yang luhur

 tuluslah mencintai diriku untukku semakin mencintai DIA

peganglah tanganku seiring berjuang di atas jalanNya

Dan jadikanlh daku bidadari hidupmu dengan memimpinku ke arah redha dan syurga-NYA...”

(ungkapan selepas kahwin bukan sebelum nikah ye! :)

~ Hati tenang dengan pilihanMu. Semoga terus ditetapkan hati ini hanya untukMu…~

p/s: Buat para pembaca yang dikasihi Allah sekalian, ingin sekali memiliki cinta abadi? Dengan rendah hati penulis ingin berbagi idea dan berkongsi tinta kalam penulis yang tersiar di:

http://www.iluvislam.com/karya/cerpen/4215-memiliki-cinta.html

Semoga kita semua kan memiliki cinta suci berpaksikan redha Ilahi… Insya Allah :’)

~Cuma ingin redhaMu Tuhan~

: hikmatul islam

: 10032012

: 0120 am

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Mujahadah Hati

Hembusan angin malam menyapa. Terasa kesejukan seketika. Sebatang tubuh cuba disandarkan di balik dinding putih itu.

Waktu sepertiga malam menjelma. Ya. Masa inilah yang sentiasa ditunggu-tunggu untuk bersamaNya. Untuk meluahkan segala yang terbuku di jiwa.

Diri cuba bermuhasabah. Merenung. Cuba ‘menembusi’ apa yang ada dalam hati.

Kelihatan hati itu kian pudar kejernihannya. Kian kelam dan suram. Kian malap dan gelap.

“Duhai hati,, kenapa hati engkau jadi begini? Di mana sinaranmu? Di mana ketenangan yang ada terisi dahulu?”

Hati kecil merintih-rintih bertanya. Sedangkan hati besar terdiam bisu.

Titik-titik dosa terasa terus menitik memenuhi ruangan hati. sehingga sinaran yang dahulu terang menjadi sirna.

Syaitan pula seakan bertepuk tangan dan bersorak riang tatkala melihat diri semakin lemah berkurangan iman.

Mana jiwa suci dan tenang itu? Tercari-cari tetapi tidak ditemui. Apakah jiwa itu telah hilang? Hati terus tertanya-tanya sendiri.

Ternyata mujahadah menjaga sekeping hati ternyata lebih sukar daripada memikul tanggungjawab dan amanah.

Kerana sekeping hati itu sifatnya berbolak-balik. Tidak pernah ingin tetap.

Benarlah. Andai ia diisi dengan kebaikan dan ketaatan, maka condonglah ia kepada petunjuk Tuhan.

Namun andai ia diisi dengan kelalaian dan kelekaan, maka mudah sahaja ia diresapi dengan kegelapan.

“Hati, kenapa engkau selalu begini? Kenapa engkau sukar sekali setia mencintai Ilahi??”

Astaghfirullah… Astaghfirullah… Astaghfirullah…

(Allah. Allah. Inginkan ‘qalbun salim’…Tuhanku…andai hati ini telah punah, tolong gantikan dengan hati yang baru agar ku sentiasa dapat merasai manisnya cintaMu…)

Zikirku tidak seperti taatnya semesta alam

Terus-menerus bertasbih memujiMu

Zikirku tidak seperti taatnya hidupan lautan

Terus-menerus berzikir menyebut asmaMu

Zikirku tidak seperti makhluk tumbuhan

Yang terus-terusan ingin mengagumiMu

Zikirku tidak seperti taatnya para malaikat

Yang tidak henti-henti menyucikan zatMu

Zikirku zikir yang tempang

Yang qalil (sedikit) sekali mengingatiMu

Yang qalil sekali ingin mengagungMu

setiap detik dan waktu

sentiasa dibelenggu dengan kealpaan dan kelalaianku

Namun begitu…

Ingin zikir ini terus berlagu untukMu

Kerana jiwa sentiasa ingin kembali padaMu

Semoga zikir ini terus beralun rindu untukMu

Hingga hujung waktu…

“Duhai hati! tenang dan sejahteralah dengan sentiasa berzikir mengingati Rabbi… jangan kau khianati cinta Ilahi dengan diganti cinta duniawi… Pulanglah duhai jiwa, kembalilah semula pada Sang Pencipta yang utama…”

p/s: “Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Ingatlah kepada Allah dengan mengingat (nama-Nya) sebanyak-banyaknya dan bertasbihlah kepadaNya pada waktu pagi dan petang. Dia-lah yang memberi rahmat kepadamu dan para malaikat-Nya memohonkan ampunan untukmu) agar Dia mengeluarkan kamu dari kegelapan kepada cahaya (yang terang). Dan Dia Maha Penyayang kepada orang-orang yang beriman”

(Al-Ahzab:41-43)

~Sungguh, mentaddabburkan ayat-ayat cintaMu membuatkan hatiku yang kering menjadi basah dengan siraman kasihMu Tuhan~

Munajatku:

Ya Rabbi, pada setiap hujung sendu
Engkau tahu
pada setiap luka darah di hati
Engkau tahu
pada setiap sakitnya iman keringnya ruhi
Engkau tahu

Allah…hambamu ini lemah

teramat lemah dan doif

jangan Kau uji hamba

dengan ujian hati yang tidak mampu hamba tempuhi

Tawani hati hamba kembali 

dengan belas cinta kasihMu

Sungguh, hati ini teramat parah ‘merindu’

tatkala diri jauh dariMu…

Ya Rahman,

Sentiasalah pegang hatiku ini hanya untukMu…amin”

 ~Cuma ingin redhaMu~

:hikmatul islam

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Islamic Law and Women - Part I: Introduction

I'm currently writing a paper on Islamic feminism and Islamic law, and so I'm reading what I find very troubling things in Islamic law, such as early Muslim scholars'/jurists' view of women, particularly in marriage. Understandably, the concept and role of marriage back then were much different than what they are today for at least the western world, and so when we come across views that deem marriage a sort of a kingdom that's headed by the husband (king) and the wife is not the queen but the caretaker of that kingdom (household), we get upset. But this isn't actually what I'm troubled by: it's how the jurists saw me (a woman) as almost completely incapable of making a decision on my own because I lack the intellect to do so. I'll give many examples of this in the upcoming posts, which will be a series of posts on Islamic law and women, but for now, lemme give you a brief intro to what I'm doing and where I'm hoping to get with this.

Some years ago, my sister and a (Muslim) classmate of hers were having a discussion on some aspect of Islamic law. When she expressed a difference of opinion, the classmate asked her, “Have you ever read Islamic law?” – as though Islamic law is a sourcebook that you can turn to, a book at all, or a guide, something that answers all of your questions.

(Un)fortunately, this is not the case: Islamic law is not a sourcebook; it is not published or codified in one text, and it does not have answers to all of our questions. Yes, it may have answers – but if anything, they go like this: “Well, according to Scholar X, this is the case, but according to Scholar Y, this is the case.” In other words, one really can’t argue that there’s one fixed solution or answer to question problem or question. And despite the claim that the doors of ijtihad have been closed since the 10^th century (ijtihad = independent reasoning, or re-interpretations of a certain or all Islamic rules/guidelines, even the Qur’an), Muslim scholars have discussed the same issues – and offered different viewpoints, often contradicting each others’ – from the 7^th century until today. Yes, the doors to ijtihad are believed to have been closed, but that doesn’t mean the debates have been closed, and many scholars see the illogicality in this claim and thus refuse to submit to it, refuse to let it silence their thoughts. 

Islam’s Sources - what "Islam" actually is
We are always told that Islam = the Qur’an and hadiths, that the Qur’an is the first, ultimate source of Islam and then come the hadiths.  In reality, however, this isn't completely true. The Qur’an plays a very minor role in our lives and in Islamic law, and I think this is because the Qur’an is very ambiguous and extremely difficult to understand. This isn’t to say that the scholars/jurists never did understand it – no, they did. But most of their opinions (which later became Islamic law) are not grounded in the Qur’an, most of the discussions they held among each other and that they wrote down were practical issues that came up and needed to be addressed. Unfortunately for most of those issues, they became the norms of Islamic law and now, one is not allowed to disagree with those opinions of the scholars that became majority at that time.

So, what exactly is "Islam" or Islam's sources? Mostly the early (and partially the medieval) Muslim jurists' opinions, to a lesser extent the hadiths, and to an even much lesser extent, the Qur'an. To believe that Islam = Qur'an is completely untrue, and it's not even mostly hadiths. I cannot and I am not dismissing the merit of these scholars, however: I acknowledge their intelligence, often their humility (but not always), and the extreme care they took while forming opinions. So their opinions aren't "just" opinions -- they are the basis of Islamic law. They are, in fact, facts.

I’ll give many examples in upcoming posts, but for now, consider this.

What does the Qur’an say about the whole “eye for an eye” issue? One would think it’s very clear and easy to comprehend – I mean, all there is to it is that you do onto others what they do onto you (unless you choose to forgive them, which is the better option and God will reward you for your patience and forgiveness), right? Wrong. If that’s so, then why is it an entirely different story in Islamic law? Islamic law looks at the gender, social ranking (class, status), religion, freedom or its lack thereof, age of the person killed. This becomes especially important when the blood money is concerned – i.e., when the victim decides to forgive the perpetrator but still demand some sort of recompense for the damage caused.

You know how the scholars (and ordinary Muslims) tell us that the whole “eye for an eye” doesn’t imply in cases where the effects might be worse for the initiator? For example, if Person A pokes Person B in the eye and his eyeball comes out of the socket, Person B is not allowed to do the exact same thing to Person A because of other results that might ensue from the revenge (such as possible damage that may be caused to the brain or the head). So, how do we know this? Because the scholars figured it. (However, the Qur’an makes it very clear that it’s best to forgive – it’s just that it’s realistic enough to understand that it can’t demand everyone to turn the other check, requiring everyone to forgive their criminals.)

[Importantly, let me point out that the "eye for an eye" verse can be read as a law that was specific to the Jews, since the introduction of that verse should not be ignored. And it's also been argued that that verse is talking specifically about murder cases. More on this later.]

Hence, a slave is not worth the same as a free person; a woman is not worth the same as a man; a homosexual is not worth the same as a heterosexual; a “normal” (heterosexual male/man or female/woman) is not worth the same as an intersex individual or any other sexual minority; a rich person is not worth the same as a poor person; a child is not worth the same as an adult. And so on. (I’m not deciding whether this should be the case or not; I’m only stating what it is according to Islamic law.) Interestingly, the Qur’an does not seem to make any reference to non-female and non-male members of the world, such as inter-sex individuals, and so for one to claim that the Qur’an covers every single topic in the world is an erroneous statement. One wonders, for example, what portion of the inheritance they are to gain, since the Qur’an recognizes only daughters and sons, no sexes/genders that fall in between. (And, contrary to popular opinion, inter-sex individuals do exist, and I’m referring here to those people who have neither or both the male and female reproductive organs.)

So, next time someone tells you that “in Islam, …” ask them what “Islam” refers to in that context. It can mean the Qur’an only, hadiths only, the scholars’ opinions, the consensus, a norm in a Muslim society or Muslim societies, the opinion of only one madhhab or all four, or even some reforms in a Muslim state (e.g., whether a married man can have another wife without his wife’s consent or knowledge).

Coming up in this series:

Part II: Origins of Islamic Law
a) Background/context
Part III: Sources of Islamic Law
Part IV: Women in Islamic Law
a) A woman’s Consent in a Marriage
b) the dower and how Islamic law sees it (caution: the Jurist/scholar al-Shafi, founder of the Shafi School of thought, termed the dower “price of the vulva.” The dower is the gift (usually money or jewelry) that the groom gives to his bride at the time of the marriage, and although it’s supposed to be given before the consummation of the marriage, some scholars say it’s okay if the husband gives it after the marriage. And whereas most Muslims today insist that the purpose of the dower is so that the wife will have enough to live on in case she gets divorced and doesn’t have a job or in case her husband dies and she has no other reliable financial support system, the truth is that, according to the early Muslim scholars, the dower is what gives the husband full control over his wife’s sexuality: he cannot have sex with her until he gives her the dower. Yet, what does the Qur’an say? This: And give unto the women (whom ye marry) free gift of their marriage portions; but if they of their own accord remit unto you a part thereof, then ye are welcome to absorb it (in your wealth). (Qur’an, 4:4) In other words, if the woman does not want to get the mahr/dower from her husband, it’s perfectly all right. But because Islamic law believes that the sole purpose of the dower is for the husband to access his wife at his delight, whenever he wants regardless of whether the wife is in the mood for it or not, it makes it obligatory for the husband to give the wife her dower. But I’ll discuss this in detail when I reach this section of Islamic law.)
c) Divorce
d) Child Custody
e) Punishment for Women Apostates (versus that of men apostates)
f) the jurists on the woman's dress code

Part V: The Role of Islamic Feminism in Interpreting Islamic Law

Feel free to offer your opinions as well as to correct me wherever I am wrong. I will appreciate it!
But bear with me - I have a lot to say, and I need to get it out of my system. I'll try to provide references for every claim I make whenever I believe it's necessary, but if I don't do so in cases where the readers deem necessary, please don't hesitate to point it out to me.

Thank you!

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