Muhammad: A Misogynist
I
am accusing Muhammad of misogyny. Far from
being a champion of women�s rights, as Muslims often present him,
Muhammad insulted women and worsened their situation in
Arabia who before Islam had more rights and freedoms. Muhammad took
away the rights that the tribal societies of
Arabia
had granted their women. Consequently Muslim women are abused. They
have fewer rights than slaves and animals. They are the
property of men, be it their fathers, brothers, husbands or sons. In
no society and in no moment of history, women were/are as denigrate and
belittled as they are in Islam.
Status
of Arab Women before Islam
Unfortunately
Muslims left no trace of the pre Islamic literature of
Arabia
. They dismissed that era as Jaheliyah
(age of ignorance) and destroyed every trace of its history.
Therefore it is not easy to unravel the truth and know the exact
status of women prior to Islam in that land. We have only the Islamic
sources as our source. Even from these sources we can have a
faint glimpse of that era and witness the fact that women had more
rights before Islam than after it.
Let
us start with Khadijah the first wife of Muhammad. This
woman was a widow; she was wealthy and ran her own successful
mercantile business. She
employed men to work for her. Muhammad
started as her employee. This
shows that women, prior to Islam, could own and manage businesses. The
men of the Quraish did not think it is degrading to have a woman as
boss. As a hadith reports, it was Khadijah who proposed marriage
to Muhammad. This is yet
another indication of the level of freedom reached by women in the
pre-Islamic
Arabia
. In Islamic societies,
even today, such a thing is taboo.
One more example that shows women had more rights
in pre Islamic society of
Arabia
is Hind the wife of Abu Sufyan a distant cousin and an archenemy of Muhammad. It
is reported that in the Battle of Uhud, Hind was leading the women of
the Quraish, who were valiantly encouraging their men to fight and stop
the aggression of the Muslims.
As the fighting increased, the Quraish women,
began to beat their drums to rouse their men on. Abu
Dujanaj, one of the fighters of Muhammad,
has reported: "I saw
someone urging the enemy on, shouting wildly, and I made for him, but
when I lifted my sword against him he screamed and I saw that it was a
woman; I respected the Messenger's
sword too much to use it on a woman." That
lioness of a woman, was Hind. [1]
Another
example of women commanding men in battles is Aisha the child-wife of
Muhammad who after his death led an army of Muslim men against Ali in
the war known as Jamal (Camel).
After
Muhammad�s death a valiant young women who had been
captured by Muslims and had become a slave girl in the household of
Aisha, asked Aisha to grant her leave so she could go to her tribe and
bring them to Islam. Aisha consented, but Salma had a different plan.
She went to her tribe and gathered a large army of Arabs who rallied
around her. Riding on a camel, this young woman lead that army to confront
Muslims. Abu Bakr dispatched Khalid ibn Walid, a ruffian from the
Meccans who converted to Islam and thanks to his ruthless
savagery had risen to the rank of a general receiving the title of seifulllah (sword of Allah) to confront Salam. In October 632
CE, the two armies faced one another. The battle was so
crucial to Muslims that upon victory they called it Zafar (Victory). The
army led by this young girl proved to be a formidable adversary. Salma
led her warriors from atop of her camel. Khalid realized that the only
way to defeat his opponent was to kill her. He called her to
discuss and as the two generals got close, Khalid injured the camel of
Salma and when the wounded camel fell to the ground, he jumped on top
of Salma and slew her with his sword.
Islam's victory is always gained through treachery. When her army saw their leader slain they scattered.
Khalid, is regarded as the
greatest hero by all Muslims. The real hero of this saga was Salma. This young woman was indeed the Joan of Arc of the pre Islamic
Arabia. No Muslim woman has ever come close to what Salma was. Thanks
to Islam, women were reduced into chattels.
There
is also the example of Asma bt. Marwan, the Jewess poetess of
Medina
who at the behest of Muhammad was assassinated, because she composed
�inflammatory poems� against him. The fact that Muhammad feared
Asma to the extent that he thought she is endangering his career by
mere poems is yet another proof that in
the pre Islamic culture of
Arabia
, Arabs respected their women, listened to them and were inspired by
them. Women were not dismissed as imbeciles or deficient in
intelligence as later they came to be called, but rather were leaders
of thoughts and notable members of the society.
The
most glaring example of women�s lofty status before Islam is the
fact that during the time of Muhammad, or perhaps just before he
announced his prophethood, a woman, called Sijah, had claimed to be a
prophetess and had gained many followers. Today a Muslim woman cannot
be even Imam. When in
2005, Dr.
Amina Wadud, announced that she would be leading a congregation of
Muslim men and women in Friday prayer, the entire Muslim world was up
in arms. They condemned her and some even threatened to bomb the hall
that she had chosen for conducting the prayer. No mosque allowed her
to perform that prayer.
Amazingly,
Muslim women today are the first apologists of their low status and
fully accept the denigration. This shows the power of
fanaticism.
The
following hadith shows that Umar b. Khattab, the close companion of
Muhammad who eventually became the 2nd Caliph complained
about Muslim women learning �the bad habits� of
emancipation and independence from the women of
Medina
and that the Prophet should do something about it. This story took
place when Muhammad had his fling with the Coptic girl Mariyah who was
a maid of his wife Hafsa, had a fight with his wives because they
complained and had threatened to divorce them all. He was sitting at home
pouting when Umar paid him a visit. Umar narrated:
�We,
the people of Quraish, used to have authority over women, but
when we came to live with the Ansar, [Muslims of Medina] we noticed
that the Ansari women had the upper hand over their men, so our women
started acquiring the habits of the Ansari women. Once
I shouted at my wife and she paid me back in my coin and I disliked
that she should answer me back. She said, 'Why do you take it
ill that I retort upon you? By Allah, the wives of the Prophet retort
upon him, and some of them may not speak with him for the whole day
till night.' What she said scared me and I said to her, 'Whoever
amongst them does so, will be a great loser.' Then I dressed myself
and went to Hafsa and asked her, 'Does any of you keep Allah's Apostle
angry all the day long till night?' She replied in the affirmative. I
said, 'She is a ruined losing person (and will never have success)!
Doesn't she fear that Allah may get angry for the anger of Allah's
Apostle and thus she will be ruined? Don't ask Allah's Apostle too
many things, and don't retort upon him in any case, and don't desert
him. Demand from me whatever you like, and don't be tempted to imitate
your neighbor (i.e. 'Aisha) in her behavior towards the Prophet), for
she (i.e. Aisha) is more beautiful than you, and more beloved to
Allah's Apostle�.�
"
So, I entered upon the Prophet and saw him lying on a mat without
wedding on it, and the mat had left its mark on the body of the
Prophet, and he was leaning on a leather pillow stuffed with palm
fires. I greeted him and while still standing, I said: "Have you
divorced your wives?' He raised his eyes to me and replied in the
negative. And then while still standing, I said chatting: "Will
you heed what I say, 'O Allah's Apostle! We,
the people of Quraish used to have the upper hand over our women
(wives), and when we came to the people whose women had the upper hand
over them..."
'Umar
told the whole story (about his wife). "On
that the Prophet smiled." 'Umar further said, "I then
said, 'I went to Hafsa and said to her: Do not be tempted to imitate
your companion ('Aisha) for she is more beautiful than you and more
beloved to the Prophet.' The Prophet
smiled again.� [2]
The
above Hadith is self-explanatory. The Meccans were more bigoted than
the rest of the Arabs. Often people living in religious hubs are more
extremists and more misogynists than people living elsewhere. However,
people do not think uniformly. In any society some are more fanatical
than others. As it appears, Umar and Muhammad were particularly more
close-mined and more misogynists than the rest of the Meccans. These
two men were the bigots of the bigots. While the rest of the Meccans
did not have any problem listening to the pep talks of their women or
accepting them as trade partners, these two men thought emancipation
of women is gross, an indecency that must be corrected.
Hijab
Was Suggested by Umar and Accepted by Allah
Muhammad,
fearing younger men casting eyes on his young and beautiful wives and
�molesting� them, ordered them to veil themselves. Of course he
made his wish to come as a revelation:
�O
Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that
they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when
abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such)
and not molested.� 33.59
Umar
explained that the above verse was revealed upon his insistence.
"My
Lord agreed with me ('Umar) in three things... (2) And as regards the
veiling of women, I said 'O Allah's Apostle! I wish you ordered
your wives to cover themselves from the men because good and bad ones
talk to them.' So the verse of the veiling of the women was
revealed.� [3]
It
seems odd that the maker of this universe should need the advice of
one of his creatures to ordain laws for mankind. Umar, foolishly
boasts that God agreed with him. However, not all the companions of
Muhammad were as foolhardy as Umar. Abdulah
ibn Sarh who was an scribe of Muhammad was cleverer. He
left Muhammad and Islam after he noticed that God changed his
revelations and agreed with him after he suggested better verses. That
is of course another subject. What
interests us at this moment is the fact that women prior to Islam did
not wear this veil of shame that they are forced to wear today. It
was because of Muhammad�s insecurities, who as an old man hoarding a
harem of young and beautiful women, and fearful of younger and more
virile men casting eyes on his wives that the order of veiling was
issued.
The
fears of this old man that younger men may lust after his wives are
reflected in these verses that are conveniently placed in the mouth of
Allah.
Q.33:30:
O
Consorts of the Prophet! If any of you were guilty of evident unseemly
conduct, the Punishment would be doubled to her, and that is easy for
Allah.
31. But any of you that is devout in the
service of Allah and His Messenger, and works righteousness,- to her
shall We grant her reward twice: and We have prepared for her a
generous Sustenance. [4]
Muhammad
often reminded his wives to behave in a way as not to attract the
attention of other men and cover themselves to not become desired by
strangers.
32. O Consorts of the Prophet! Ye are not like any of the (other)
women: if ye do fear (Allah), be not too complacent of speech, lest
one in whose heart is a disease should be moved with desire: but speak
ye a speech (that is) just.
33. And stay quietly in your
houses, and make not a dazzling
display, like that of the former Times of Ignorance; and
establish regular Prayer, and give regular Charity; and obey Allah and
His Messenger. And Allah only wishes to remove all abomination
from you, ye members of the Family, and to make you pure and spotless.
[5]
Here
we can see clearly, that women prior to Islam, or in the �Times of
Ignorance�, as Muhammad disparagingly referred to it, could go out
of their houses unveiled, in �dazzling display�. Today a
woman, displaying a flock of hair or an arm inside her family car
could be dragged out and beaten by Islamic moral police in some
Islamic countries like
Iran
and
Saudi Arabia
as the Taliban did in
Afghanistan
. Few Islamic countries
allow women go out of their houses unveiled, let alone in �dazzling
display�
Men Are Maintainers of Women and
Superior
to Them.
Muhammad,
not only took away the women�s freedom of dress, he made them
subservient to men and dependant on them. He wrote:
�Men are the maintainers of women
because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they
spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient,
guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded.�
[6]
The
above verse reduces woman into the livestock of man giving him the
authority to maintain her as if she were his donkey or camel. Sadly,
Khadija did not live long enough to remind her beloved husband that
when he married her, she was the maintainer of him who spent out of
her property.
In
another place he expressly states that men have a degree of advantage
over women.
�And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them,
according to what is equitable; but
men have a degree (of advantage) over them.�
[7]
Muhammad
did everything he could to make women subservient to their husbands.
According to him women who do not obey their husbands would go to
hell.
The
Prophet said �I also saw the Hell-fire and
I had never seen such a horrible sight. I saw that most of the
inhabitants were women." The people asked, "O Allah's
Apostle! Why is it so?" The Prophet replied, "Because of
their ungratefulness." It was asked whether they are ungrateful
to Allah. The Prophet said, "They are ungrateful to their
companions of life (husbands) and ungrateful to good deeds. If you are
benevolent to one of them throughout the life and if she sees anything
(undesirable) in you, she will say, 'I have never had any good from
you.' " [8]
Men
Can Beat Their Wives
Muhammad
instructed men to beat their wives if they are not obedient.
�and
(as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish
them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and
beat them; then if they obey
you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.�
[9]
Mishkat al-Masabih
narrates: "the above verse was
revealed in connection with a woman who complained to Mohammad that
her husband slapped her on the face (which was still marked by the
slap). At first the Prophet said to her: 'Get even with him', but then
added: 'Wait until I think about it.' Later on the above verse was
revealed, after which the Prophet said: 'We wanted one thing but Allah
wanted another, and what Allah wanted is best.'" [10]
Maybe
on the spur of the moment and faced with this obvious injustice,
Muhammad was moved by a fleeting rash of compassion, but that did not
last very long. Soon he thought about the implications of what he had
said and how this would affect his own relationship with his
rebellious wives. So he made his Allah issue that shamefully unjust
verse giving men the liberty to beat their wives to make them
obedient.
As
it is clear from the above verse, a woman does not have to disobey her
husband in order to be beaten. Her husband can beat her only if he
FEARS that she may disobey her. As Irshah Manji in "The trouble
with Islam: writes (p34 regarding 4:34) "To deserve a
beating, a woman doesn't have to disobey anybody, a man merely has to
fear her disobedience. His insecurity becomes her problem"
Good
women do not complain if their husbands beat them:
�Narrated
Abdullah ibn AbuDhubab: Iyas ibn Abdullah ibn AbuDhubab reported the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) as saying: Do not beat Allah's
handmaidens, but when Umar came to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
and said: Women have become emboldened towards their husbands, he (the
Prophet) gave permission to beat them. Then many women came round the
family of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) complaining against
their husbands. So the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: Many
women have gone round Muhammad's family complaining against their
husbands. They are not the best among you.� [Muslim 11:2141]
The husband does not have to explain to anyone why he beats his
wife.
�Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab: The
Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he
beat his wife.� [Muslim 11:2142]
Muhammad
went as far as to say women should prostrate in front of their
husbands:
�If I were to command anyone to make prostration
before another I would command women to prostrate themselves before
their husbands, because of the special right over them given to
husbands by Allah.� [11]
In
a hadith Aisha narrated one night Muhammad, left her home after
he thought she is asleep. She secretly followed her and when he came
back and saw she was panting, he inquired where she had gone. [Poor
man was extremely paranoid whether his wives were cheating]. He told
her if she concealed what she was doing the �Subtle and the Aware�
[ghosts] would inform him. Aisha says that when I confessed that I had
followed him, �He struck me on the chest
which caused me pain,� [Muslim4.2127
]
Women�s
Deficiencies.
A
hadith reports one meeting that Muhammad had with women where he
called them �deficient in intelligence
and religion�:
�Once
Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o
'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said,
"O women! Give alms, [this money would go to him as the
viceroy of God on Earth and he would distribute it to those whose
favor he was seeking or to make the show of generosity] as I have seen
that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)."
They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?" He replied,
"You curse frequently and are
ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in
intelligence and religion than you. A
cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you."
The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our
intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of
two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the
affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her
intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast
during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He
said, "This is the deficiency in her religion." [12]
The
above is a flagrant case of misogyny where Muhammad commits the
travesty of first taking the rights of the women away and then
condemning them for not having those rights. Not
only he injures, but he adds insult to the injury by blaming the
victim. This hadith is
reported by various narrators and is also recorded in Sahih Muslim,
which makes it one of the most authoritative hadiths of Muhammad.
Women
Are Created For Men.
The
Quran says:
"And of
His signs is that He created for you, of yourselves, spouses, that you
may repose in them" [30.21]
The
Arabic text makes it clear that �for you� is masculine, meaning
the verse is addressing men and �them� is in feminine gender. (In
fact Allah in the Quran never addresses women directly. He always
speaks to the Prophet or the male believers. Women are always referred
to in third person.) What this verse is conveying is that women are
created FOR men and are for their enjoyment.
The
great Islamic scholar, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
(not to be confused with Razes, who was a freethinker and
mocked Muhammad and other prophets)
in At-Tafsir al-Kabir, commenting on Q. 30:21wrote:
"His
saying 'created for you' is a proof that women
were created like animals and plants and other useful things,
just as the Most High has said 'He created for you what is on earth'
and that necessitates the woman not to be created for worship and
carrying the Divine commands. We say creating the women is one of the
graces bestowed upon us and charging them with Divine commands to
complete the graces bestowed upon us, not that they are charged as we
men are charged. For women are not charged with many commands as we
are charged, because the woman is weak, silly, in one sense she is
like a child, and no commands are laid upon a child, but for the grace
of Allah upon us to be complete, women had to be charged so that they
may fear the torment of punishment and so follow her husband, and keep
away from what is forbidden, otherwise corruption would be
rampant."
Hadi Sabzevari,
an eminent Muslim scholar, in his commentary on another grand Muslim
thinker, Sadr al-Mote'alihin wrote:
That
Sadr ad-Deen Shirazi classifies women
as animals is a delicate allusion to the fact that women, due
to the deficiency in their intelligence and understanding of
intricacies, and due to their fondness of the adornments of the world,
are truly and justly among the mute animals [al-haywanti al-sa^mita].
They have the nature of beasts [ad-dawwa^b], but they have been given
the disguise of human beings so that men would not be loath to talk to
them and be compelled to have sexual intercourse with them. That is
why our immaculate Law [shar'ina al-mutahhar] takes men's side and
gives them superiority in most matters, including divorce, "nushuz,"
etc. [14]
These scholars
did not made these derogatory remarks about women without knowledge.
They were interpreting the sayings of Muhammad whom to them was the
best messenger of God and an example to follow. The reference to the
inferiority of woman and their deficiency in intelligence and religion
is abounding in the Hadith and the Quran.
Naqisatan
'aqlan wa dinan
(deficient in intelligence and religion), an Arab aphorism, is an
allusion to women that stems from the sayings of Muhammad.
Women
Who Refuse Sex Will Be Cursed by Angels
The
following Hadith also makes it clear that women are created for men
and for their satisfaction.
�Allah's
Apostle said, "If a husband calls his wife to his bed (i.e. to
have sexual relation) and she refuses and causes him to sleep in
anger, the angels will curse her till
morning." [15]
The
above makes one wonder, whether Allah has nothing better to do than
worrying about the sexual pleasures of Muslim men! It
seems absurd that God would employ a host of angels to do nothing but
sit around and curse the women who do not sexually please their
husbands. To curse means invoking the wrath of God. Why would God need
so many angles to invoke his wrath on frigid women when he can punish
them his own? There seems
to be a lot of redundancies and mismanagements up there. It
is like the president of a country, have his staff lobby him for the
plans that he wants to put into action. It
just makes no sense. If
these angels are paid then this is a complete waste of divine funds
and if they are not paid then it is slavery. You can't say the
angels do this voluntarily because the angles do nothing without the
will of Allah. There are
more hadiths on this subject:
�Abu
Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (may
peace be upon him) as saying: By Him in Whose Hand is my life, when a
man calls his wife to his bed, and she does not respond, the One Who
is in the heaven is displeased with her until he (her husband) is
pleased with her.� [16]
And
�The
Prophet said, "If a woman spends the night deserting her
husband's bed (does not sleep with him), then the angels send their
curses on her till she comes back (to her husband)." [17]
It
is hard to determine why Muhammad was so concerned about this issue.
Perhaps it helps to remember that he was an old man when his numerous
wives were mostly teenagers or in their early twenties. His teeth must
have been decaying and his mouth had a foul smell. As
I have shown in Understanding Muhammad, he emitted a foul smell that he tried to
mask with abundance of perfume. He was also impotent.
It is natural to assume that his young wives were not that much
desirous to share their bed with an old, smelly and impotent man like
him. Is it possible that
Muhammad concocted these stories to intimidate his young wives not to
reject his sexual advances, when he wanted to �fondle� them? Or do
you think Allah is also a pimp?
According
to the Prophet of Allah, a man�s sexual urges are such an emergency
that his wife must leave her food burn in the oven rather than leave
him alone in bed with an erection.
The prophet of Allah said: When a man calls his wife to
satisfy his desire, let her come to him though she is occupied at the
oven." [18]
Imagine kids coming home:
- Mom, we are home and hungry.
- Oh, I am sorry, but the dinner is burnt.
- Ah agaaaaain?
- Yes my dear. Daddy had an emergency, which mommy had to attend to.
- But Mom, you said the same also yesterday.
- I know my sweet heart. Daddy lately spends a lot of time on
the Internet.
Women
are Pudenda?!!
As
if all these derogatory remarks about women were not enough, Muhammad
even compared them to pudenda.
Ali reported the Prophet saying: 'Women have ten ('awrat).
When she gets married, the husband covers one, and when she dies the
grave covers the ten.[19]
What
is �awrat? ..The Encyclopedia of Islam defines 'awrat as pudendum,
that is "the external genitals, especially of the female. [Latin
pudendum (literally) a thing to be ashamed of]"[20]
According to the
following Hadith, women not only have ten 'awrat, but the woman
herself is perceived as 'awrah:
"The
woman is 'awrah. When she goes outside (the house), the devil welcomes
her." [21]
Women are
discouraged from going outside the house, even to pray in the mosque.
"A
woman is closest to God's face, if she is found in the core of her
house. And the prayer of the woman in the house is better than her
prayer in the mosque."[22]
This
is a far cry from the time when Arabs respected women, listened to
their advices and followed them as leaders and prophetesses. Gradually,
as the new generations were indoctrinated with the teachings of the
new revelation they became scornful of women and eventually Muslim
women lost their rights in the society, along with their dignity.
Women
Have Less Legal Rights
The
�deficiency of women� in intelligence affects their legal rights
as well.
And
call in to witness two witnesses, men; or if the two be not men, then
one man and two women, such witness as you approve of, that if one
woman errs the other will remind her. Q. 2:282
In
other words not only a woman alone cannot witness against a criminal,
if there is no male witness, the testimonies of any number of women
without the testimony of a man are worthless. This
means that if a woman is raped and she cannot produce any male
witnesses, (which is logically almost always the case) she cannot
witness against her assailant. However,
her testimony can be regarded as confession of fornication and can be
used against her. Also if
the victim of rape becomes pregnant, that is evidence of the adultery
and she could be charged and punished with death by stoning. A
few years ago Amina Lawal was sentenced by the Islamic courts of
Nigeria
to be stoned as soon as her infant was weaned. The
father of the child could not be charged with adultery because her
testimony was not enough. This
case came to the attention of the world public and eventually the
Islamic courts had to back off, but thousands of such cases have
happened and continue to happen, and injustice is made against women,
without ever anyone hearing of them.
Women
Inherit Less
Muslim
apologists claim that prior to Islam women had no rights at all and
received no inheritance. This is not so. Khadija
received her wealth through inheritance. When
Muhammad decided that women should receive half of the inheritance of
what their blood brothers receive, women did not celebrate with joy.
Allah (thus)
directs you as regards your Children's (Inheritance): to the male, a
portion equal to that of two females. 4.11
As
a matter of fact many, including one of his own wives complained that
this arrangement is unfair to women.
Umme Salmah
(RA) said: "O Messenger of All�h! The men wage Jihad [can
collect booty] whereas we (women) do not and we receive half the
inheritance." (i.e. blood-brothers receive double the share of
blood sisters). Thereafter the verse "And do not covet....
4.32."
was revealed.� [23]
And in no wise covet those
things in which Allah Hath bestowed His gifts More freely on some of
you than on others: To men is allotted what they earn, and to women
what they earn. 4.32
If they complained, it is clear that
their rights had been taken away from them. This suffices as proof
that women prior to Islam had more rights to inheritance than what
Muhammad allotted to them.
Muhammad�s
Opinion of Women
The
Prophet of Allah had such a low regard for women that he compared them
to tilth or farmland and said you can enter your tilth from wherever
you like (ana she�tom).
Your wives
are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will�
2.223
(This is the exact translation. Often the translations made by Muslims
are sanitized)
It
is not proper to be more descriptive, but it is obvious that the word ana
she'tom (from wherever) allows a man to enter a woman from every
penetrable orifice. The
above led Muslims to regard women as nothing but toys created to
appease men.
'Umar was
once talking when his wife interjected, so he said to her: 'You are a
toy, if you are needed we will call you.'[24]
The
most eminent Islamic scholar a Ghazzali said:
In the
company of women, looking at them, and playing with them, the soul is
refreshed, the heart is rested, and the man is strengthened to the
worship of God...this is why God said: 'That he might rest in her.'
(Q. 7:189) [25]
The
verse that Ghazzali refers to is: Verse 7.189
It is He Who
created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in
order that he might dwell with her (rest in her).
It is obvious that
Muhammad did not have much reverence for women.
The
Prophet
said, "After me I have not left
any affliction more harmful to men than women." [26]
In
another place he compares women to a
crooked rib.
Woman is like a rib. When you attempt to straighten it, you would break
it.
And if you leave
her alone you would benefit by her, and crookedness will remain in
her. [27]
This
hadith is classified as �agreed upon�
because it is reported by other collectors of hadith too. In
another hadith he said:
The
woman advances and retires in the shape of a devil, so when one of you sees a woman, he should come to
his wife, for that will repel what he feels in his heart. [28]
Women
on Top
Prior
to Islam, in non-Arab countries, such as in
Persia
and Byzantine, women had more rights than in Arab countries. In fact
in
Iran
women could become
Queens
and monarchs. What did Muhammad think of that?
When the Prophet heard
the news that the people of the
Persia
had made the daughter of Khosrau their Queen (ruler), he said,
"Never will succeed such a nation as makes a woman their
ruler." [29]
Someone
asked me why then in some Islamic countries like
Bangladesh
and
Pakistan
there were women prime ministers? The answer is that many Muslims do
not know their religion and unwittingly follow the customs of their
pre Islamic �jaheliah�
era. Jaheliah
means the era of ignorance and Muslims often ignorantly do things that
are not Islamic. The Taliban know the real Islam. The more a country
is Islamic and the more the Sharia takes over, the more women lose
their rights and privileges.
Female
Infanticide
One
argument that Muslim apologists bring up as proof that Muhammad
liberated women is the Quran�s injunction of not burying female
infants alive. They want
you to believe this odious act was a common practice of the Arabs that
was stopped only after Islam. However, this myth can be dismissed with
a simple logic. If this
practice was so common, how could Arabs afford to have several wives
and how did their race survive at all?
Female
infanticide is practiced in
China
and in
India
even today. This is done
only among the least educated and the poorest people. This
repulsive practice is illegal and a crime severely punished in both
countries. There is no
reason to believe that it was different in
Arabia
. Certainly, most Arabs
disdained this act. It
just goes against the human nature. When
Muhammad prohibited it, he echoed the voice of the majority and said
what was commonsense to everyone. It
is like today, a self styled prophet, prohibit drinking and driving. Would
that be regarded as a great teaching?
Muhammad
did not fail to portray woman as evil, crooked and deficient in
intelligence; created only for the enjoyment of man; whose only
function is to be the incubator for his children; who must serve him
and be obedient to him; who is not capable to be responsible for her
own life but must be maintained by a man� who should receive less
inheritance; and whose testimony is worth half of that of a man,
because she is deemed to be imbecile with faulty memory!
Women
in Islam lost a great deal, including the right to travel alone. [30]
God
and Daughters? Indeed a Division Most Unfair!
Muhammad
had such a low esteem of women that he thought it is not befitting for
God to have daughters when ordinary man can boast having sons.
In
verse 53.19-22,
after
dismissing the claim that God has any daughters as the Quraish used to
think, he says appallingly:
WHAT!�
For you the male sex, and for Him, the female?
Behold, such would be indeed a division most unfair!�
Suppose God had
only daughters and no sons: Would it really be an unfair division?
Should God be embarrassed for not having sons? Ironically
the fate played a joke on Muhammad, whose sons all died at infancy and
he was left with only daughters. One
can only imagine how much embarrassment he must have felt for not
having sons. A man with
such sense of inferiority and such a colossal ego had nothing but
daughters, which he thought was �a division most unfair�.
(Note that the
verse refers to God in third person pronoun. This is not an error in
translation. The Arabic word is lahoo,
which means "for him". Muhammad often forgot that the Quran
is supposed to be the word of God and should be written in first
person pronoun.)
The fact that
Arabs worshipped goddesses is proof that they respected women enough
to attribute them the roles of deities. According
to Muhammad, all denizens of the celestial assembly, including angles
are male. The only female
inhabitants of paradise are the houris who are celestial whores,
created for the enjoyment of men. In fact few women are allowed
in
Paradise
. Muhammad said, most of
them will end up in hell.
More
Disparaging Remarks about Women
In
one hadith Muhammad equates women to dog and ass and says:
[A man�s]
prayer would be cut off by (passing of an) ass, woman, and black Dog.
[31]
In
another place he interpreted a dream that he had of a black woman to
an �epidemic�. [32]
He
also said women are the most harmful affliction to men:
After
me I have not left any affliction more harmful to men than women.
[33]
A
Good Wife
Man�s
only duty to his wife is to maintain her. He
has to provide for her food, shelter and clothing, i.e. meet her
physical needs, much like one has to take care of his livestock.
Her emotional,
psychological and sexual needs should not be of his concern. As
far as Islam is concerned those needs simply do not exist because
women are not really fully humans. Muhammad,
not only had a score of women in his harem when he was an old impotent
man, he even prohibited his young wives to remarry after his death.
This man was so possessive that could not bear the thought of another
man touching his wives even after his death.
He
sanctioned polygyny and allowed men to marry four wives (Q.4:3)
and as many
slave girls as they please. Some
scholars believe that this verse does not limit the number of wives
but rather the verse should be understood as a man can marry any
number of wives, two, three, four, etc. [34]
Therefore
men are allowed to lust after other women when they are married but:
The
virtuous wife, [is one who] if her husband bids her, she obeys him; if
he looks at her, she pleases him; if he gives her an oath; she fulfils
it, and if he is absent from her, she guards herself and his
property.[35]
Isn�t
this how one would describe a good dog?
Now
let us see what other virtues a good woman must have:
The best women are those
who have the prettiest faces and the cheapest dowry.[36]
The good wife is out of
this world because she helps free you to concentrate on the life to
come. She does that by doing her house duties (instead of the husband
having to do them), and by satisfying the husband sexually so
protecting him from sexual temptation. [37]
When
a prophet is so contemptuous of women, so disdainful of their faith,
so derisive of their intelligence, so abusive of their rights and so
condescending of their status, can we expect more from his followers? Muslim
women will never be free, as long as they look up at Muhammad as their
spiritual guide. If they
do not want to believe me, they must believe their own messenger who
said:
Allah's
Apostle said, "Many amongst men reached (the level of) perfection
but none amongst the women reached this level except
Asia
, Pharaoh's wife, and Mary, the daughter of 'Imran. [38]
Conclusion:
Going
into detail on this subject would require a book.
Nonetheless we have enough evidence to convict Muhammad of misogyny,
abuse of women�s rights and denigrating half of humanity. [39]
Because
of this travesty (misogyny) Muslim women were abused and were not
allowed to flourish to the full extent of their potential. They
became subject to humiliation, discrimination, rape, honor killing,
and all sorts of physical, emotional and sexual abuses without being
able to fight back for their rights. As
a result, the entire Muslim world languished and lagged behind, as
half of its population was barred from emancipation and could not
participate and contribute to the society
Women
were denied education as it was deemed to be unnecessary. Uneducated
women are ignorant and lack self esteem. These
women raised sons and projected their own feeling of inferiority on
their children. Those sons
inherited the low self-esteem of their mothers and built the Islamic
world with inadequacy and incompetence fighting constantly against the
demon inside them - the demon of fear, hurt pride and humiliation. Eventually,
the whole Islamic world was plunged into darkness of ignorance,
self-pity and dictatorship. Dr.
Mahathir, the ex- Prime Minister of Malaysia summed up this sentiment
eloquently when in the 10th summit of the Organization of
Islamic Conference he said: �We
are all Muslims. We are all oppressed. We are all being humiliated.� That
is a well-expressed description of how Muslims feel. This sense of
inferiority, however, is not because the Zionists control the world by
remote control, as Dr. Mahathir, erroneously diagnosed, but the
outcome of the abuse of women in all the Islamic countries.
Not
every man with lack of self-esteem rises to power to become a ruthless
killer like Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden or Hasan Sabbah (the
founder of the Assassins Order), but the inferiority complex consumes
his soul and he acts dictatorially, no matter at what level of society
he is positioned. He seeks
power. He needs to demonstrate himself and prove to the world that he
is somebody. He is
conscious of his own devalued selfhood. He
starves for recognition and dreads being ignored. He
feels abandoned, humiliated and victimized and hence he seeks revenge.
This too was echoed by Dr.
Mahathir who called upon the Muslims to acquire �guns
and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships� to
get their rights from their �detractors and enemies�.
The
Prime Minister was right! Muslim men are oppressed and humiliated. The
truth is, however, that their humiliation has nothing to do with the
Jews. It has to do with
how they were raised; it has to do with how their mothers were raised
and it has to do with how Islam treats women. Women,
who have no self-esteem, cannot raise sons with high self-esteem. What
we get are men with bruised egos, who seek power and recognition to
overcome their inferiority complex. Is
it any wonder that the mother of Osama bin Laden was the least
favorite wife of his father�s numerous wives? Osama
grew up with a mother with low self-esteem and inherited her sense of
inferiority. Today he is
fighting against his own devalued self by trying to become a hero to
those who applaud and approve his heinous crimes.
Men
with low self-esteem are dangerous. Lee Harvey Oswald killed J.F.
Kennedy for no other reason than to prove himself. To prove that he is
important and can do something big. All
these humiliated men want is to prove themselves, even if it is as
assassins or terrorists. Those
men who were responsible for the massacre of the 9/11 and all those
who strap bombs to their waists and blow up themselves and kill others
to become martyrs, suffer from devalued selfhood. They
come from a culture of shame. They
feel humiliated, angry and thus express their anger with violence and
terror.
The
self anointed prophet of
Arabia
could never imagine that his insecurities as a man and his obsession to control his
young wives would one
day bring the world to the brink of destruction. As
if, a narcissist like him would have given a hoot!
Muhammad
is guilty for taking away the rights of women, for reducing them to
the level of chattel and livestock and thus giving birth to a sick
society of emotionally scarred men, with humongous egos, unable to
function harmoniously in a world of equals and not capable to be
happy. They
fail in relationships with their spouses and children unless it is
patriarchal. They fail to function in the society unless it is
dictatorial. They
perpetuate the cycle of abuse, humiliation and dictatorship ad
infinitum. Little men, who are hurt inside, because their
emotional needs were not met by their ignorant and equally emotionally
needy mothers, wear masks of denial and grandiosity, hide inside the
highly inflated and highly inflammable egos, are explosively dangerous
to themselves, and in such a great numbers, to the entire world.
Among
all the crimes perpetrated by Muhammad, all his killings and lootings,
raps and pedophilia, slavery and genocide, misogyny is the most injurious
one. Misogyny has been
more devastating to Muslims than anything else. Although
women were the direct targets of misogyny, the damage caused by this
evil has victimized each and every follower of Muhammad. A
sick society has "evolved" with timid men, self pitying men,
arrogant, ego centered, violent and angry men, hate mongers, and war
mongers who are unfit to to lead happy harmonious lives.
Woman
wants to be beaten only once a week
On
September 22, 2004 a sad report came out of
Iran
and was spread through the Internet that ironically many found
amusing. It was about an Iranian woman, beaten every day by her
husband, who asked a court to tell him to beat her only once a week.
The
Aftab-e-Yazd daily reported that Maryam, the middle-aged woman, said
she did not want to divorce her husband because she loved him. "Just
tell him to beat me once a week ... Beating is part of his nature and
he cannot stop it," Maryam told the court. When the court
prohibited the husband from beating the wife, he protested: "If
I do not beat her, she will not be scared enough to obey me".
In
this comic/tragic drama, lie two very sad realities that affect all
Muslim women irrespective of their nationalities. The first is psycho-religious.
Muslim women are raised to accept abuse as normal. Since
childhood, they are treated differently. In Islamic countries boys are
preferred to girls. Girls are the source of disappointment to their
fathers and an embarrassment to their mothers. If
a woman gives birth to a boy she is lauded, but if the child is a
girl, she is snubbed and chided. Little
girls learn from infancy that they are unwanted. At
the table their brothers eat first and take the lion�s share. In
poorer families, female members cook and serve the males, then wait
until these have had their fill. Thereafter, they come to the table
and scavenge the leftovers.
Boys
get the first opportunity to go to school and get ahead in life. Girls
are often denied this chance for there seems to be no need for them to
become educated, since there are few work opportunities for women in
Islamic societies. All to
which a girl can aspire is to get married to a man who will take care
of her. She inherits half
of what her brothers inherit and has fewer rights. The
rationale is that she would not need it because it would be up to her
husband to maintain her.
Daughters
are liabilities to their families and they are �given away� in
marriage as soon as possible. That
could be as young as nine years old. All
this conditioning happens with the blessing of �the best and the
most perfect religion� of Islam. After all, it was Muhammad who said
women are �deficient in intelligence� [Bukhari:1.6.301.
Muslim:
2.24.541]. It was he who said men have a �degree of advantage
over women� (Q. 2:228).
It was he who said women who disobey their husband �should be
beaten� (4:34).
Thus
Muslim women grow up knowing only one reality and that is they are
inferior to men and must please them if they want to survive. The
brainwashing is so complete that many Muslim women actually fight to
preserve their lower status. Many
of them insist on wearing veil and pride themselves in their servitude
and lower rank.
In
Islamic societies the abused are as much dependent on the abuser as
the latter is on the former. A
good definition of this symbiotic man/woman relationship in Islamic
countries is sadomasochism or to use a more modern
term�codependency. Muslim
women have been abused and humiliated since their birth and this is
the only form of existence they have ever known and are
�comfortable� with. They
learn from very early on that to survive and get ahead in life, they
have to please the men around them. Men
also learn that women are deficient in intelligence, deceitful and
untrustworthy. As the
result they grow up having no respect for women, their intelligence
and their dignity. These
men learn to abuse their sisters and beat them just as their fathers
beat their mothers and they will eventually beat their wives as this
has become their habit. Muslim
men grow up with the understanding that it is their God given right to
beat their women and Muslim women grow up accepting the right of their
husbands to beat them.
All
this is the pernicious psycho-religious effect
of a nefarious doctrine that will not go away as long as it is
believed to be the religion of God.
The
other sad reality is the socio-economic effect
of Islam on women�s lives. In Islamic countries all doors are closed
to women. There are little
to no opportunities available for them to live productive and
independent lives. They
have little education and no job training. All
they know is household chores. If
women do not marry and do not find a husband who would take care of
them, they will have a very difficult life. Marriage
is the only hope a Muslim woman has for survival. She
knows that. She knows that
she has to marry soon and that if she is dumped by her husband her future will be
bleak.
In
Islamic countries, the patrimony of the family is not divided equally
between the estranged husband and wife, but rather, man keeps
everything, as everything has been his earnings. The
Quran makes it clear that everything is his property and a good woman
is one who takes care of her husband's property.
It's
the duty of the woman to keeping her husband�s house orderly, cook
for him and raise his numerous children. These are not recognized as work
and hence, after a divorce she is entitled to nothing. She
will also lose the custody of her children, as in Islam women are
nothing but incubators for the children. Children belong to the father
as soon as they are no more toddlers. All
she can get is her mahr (a fee agreed upon prenuptially) that
often is only a token and sums up to nothing. It
could be something as insignificant as a dress. Women
often do not demand too much for mahr, not only because
Muhammad insisted that good women should also be cheap but also
because if they become too demanding they risk not marrying at all and
that would be a great disgrace to them and to their families.
Divorce
could mean disaster for a Muslim woman. It not only means that she
would lose her social status but she could actually face starvation. If
she is not young enough to re-marry, she will be forced to find menial
works. Work is not readily
available to women in Islamic countries. The
only work available is domestic and janitorial work, which is poorly
paid and very demeaning. Only
the lucky ones can get jobs as maids. Many
divorced women will end up in the streets as beggars, or as it happens
in
Iran, as prostitutes.
Thus,
it is understandable that Muslim women would prefer an abusing husband
who beats them regularly to divorce. This
also explains why women consent to sharing their husbands with second,
third or fourth co-wives. They
know that the alternative is divorce and that means facing a very
bleak future of uncertainties and assured poverty.
Stigmatization
is just one dilemma that a divorced woman faces. The
real challenge is survival after the divorce. Only after we take into
consideration the psycho-religious and the socio-economic factors that
subjugate Muslim women can we appreciate the gravity of the problem
and understand why Maryam would be happy if her husband beats her only
once a week instead of everyday. Only
then do we understand why she says that she still loves him. Maryam
knows perfectly well that if her abusive and savage husband dumps her,
she will have to either commit suicide or live as a beggar. Streets of
Islamic countries are full of beggars. The competition if
fierce. All
Maryam wants is to live. Or maybe
she doesn't but has no choice. She
is willing to be beaten once a week and live like a slave for food. Perhaps
she prefers death to this wretched life. Many Muslim women
can't take it anymore and commit suicide. Suicide rate among young
Muslim women is highest in the world.
To
Maryam and to millions of Muslim women who live in abusive
relationships and in abusive societies, life is not a right but a
privilege. It is a
privilege that they have to earn by pleasing their husbands even if it
means enduring their violence.
Muslim
women with no husbands have no hope. If
they are divorced or if they are widowed, if they have no large inheritance and if they can�t find another husband, they have no
future. They are outcasts
and burdens to the society and to themselves. Death is far more
enticing to them than this dismal and miserable life. Perhaps
this explains the raison d'�tre of the Chechen Black Widows. These
women have lost their husbands and being Muslim women, there is
nothing left for them but to die. However,
as good Muslims, they want to take their revenge and kill as many
innocent people as they can before they face their own coveted death.
Abuse
of women is one of the problems facing the Muslim world and it is not
a minor one. Unfortunately
there is no resolution to this problem unless Islam is eradicated from
these societies. Misogyny
is just one of the many symptoms of the sick Islamic world. The
disease is Islam!
References:
[1]
http://anwary-islam.com/battle/ghazwah_uhud.htm
[2] Bukhari Volume
3, Book 43, Number 648:
[3] Bukhari,
v1, bk 8, sunnah 395.
[4] Quran,
33:30
[5] Quran,
33:32
[6] Qurna,
4:34
[7] Quran
2:228
[8]
Bukhari
Volume 2, Book 18, Number 161
[9]
Quran.4:34
[10]
Razi, At-tafsir al-Kabir, on Q. 4:34.
[11] Muslim
Book 11, Number 2135)
[12] Bukhari
Volume 1, Book 6, Number 301
[13]
Quran: 30.21
[15]
(Quoted
in Soroush, Abdolkarim, _Farbehtar az ideoloji_, Sera^t,
Tehran
, 1373 A.H.S.). [A.H.S. = After the Hegira, in Solar years].
[14]
Bukhari
Volume 4, Book 54, Number 460.
[16]
Sahih
Muslim Book 008, Number 3367:
[17]
Bukhari
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 122
[18] Mishkat al-Masabih, English translation, Book I,
Section 'Duties of husband and wife', Hadith No. 61.
[19] Kanz-el-'Ummal, Vol. 22, Hadith No. 858. See also
Ihy'a
[20]
The World Book Dictionary
'Uloum
ed-Din by Ghazali, Dar al-Kotob al-'Elmeyah,
Beirut
, Vol II, Kitab Adab al-Nikah, p. 65.
[21]
Ihy'a 'Uloum ed-Din by Ghazali, Dar al-Kotob al-'Elmeyah,
Beirut
, Vol II, Kitab Adab al-Nikah, p. 65. Reported by Tirmizi as a true
and good Ahadith.
[22]
Ihy'a 'Uloum ed-Din by Ghazali, Dar al-Kotob al-'Elmeyah,
Beirut
, Vol II, Kitab Adab al-Nikah, p. 65. Reported by Tirmizi as a true
and good Ahadith.
[23]
(Ibn Katheer vl.1, pg.498)
[24]
Al-Musanaf by
Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn 'Abd Allah Ibn Mousa Al-Kanadi who lived 557H.,
Vol. 1 Part 2, p. 263. See also Ihy'a 'Uloum ed-Din by Ghazali, Dar
al- Kotob al-'Elmeyah,
Beirut
, Vol II, Kitab Adab al-Nikah, p. 52.
[25]
Ihy'a 'Uloum ed-Din by Ghazali, Dar al-Kotob al-'Elmeyah,
Beirut
, Vol II, Kitab Adab al-Nikah, p. 34.
[26] Bukhari
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 33
[27] Sahih
Muslim Book 008, Number 3466
[28] Book
008, Number 3240
[29] Volume
9, Book 88, Number 219
[30]
(Sahih Bukhari 2.194)
[31] Muslim
Book 004, Number 1032
[32]
Bukhari
Volume 9, Book 87, Number 163
[33] Bukhari
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 33
[34] Razi, At-tafsir al-kabir, commenting on Q.
4:3
[35] Mishkat al-Masabih, Book 1, duty towards children
Hadith No. 43.
[36]
Ihya' 'Uloum ed-Din by Ghazali, Dar al-Kotob al-'Elmeyah,
Beirut
, vol. II, Kitab Adab al-Nikah, p. 45.
[37]
Ibid., p. 35
[38]
Bukhari
Volume 4, Book 55, Number 623
[39]
For further studies,
read Abul Kasem�s book on women available
online and an excellent essay written by M. Rafiqul-Haqq and P.
Newton called The Place of Women in Pure Islam also available
online.
< Back to Sina's
Challenge
|