NOTE: This is meant to respond to the issue of "naqisat 'aql wa din" and that it cannot have been literal.

Special reference to Fatima al-Samarqandiyya.

1) Several scholars and Muftis in the Muslim world who give religious programs affirm that most of their questions and the most brilliant and engaging questions come from women. Some theorize that this is because women are generally closer to their fitrah than men--they are generally more natural.

2) They also see the phenomenon of the return to the scarf throughout the Muslim world-- despite the tremendous social and legal pressures to the contrary--  to be a sign of the special religiosity of women and not the tutelage and hegemony of men.

3) Moreover, it is a social fact that many Muslim women who wear western dress--and do not cover their heads--perform their prayers, fast Ramadan, make the umrah and Hajj, fulfill other aspects of worship and lead chaste and upright lives.

Aishah reports: That her father, Abu Bakr, built a little mosque jof his own in which he would pray and recite the Qur'an. The pagan women of Quraish with their children would push in on each other-- and nudge each other--trying to get close enough to her Abu Bakr's recitation. They were amazed by Abu Bakr and would stare at him in awe.

This startled the ashraaf of Quraish: "Verily, we fear that he will entice our women and our children away."

A group of women said tho the Prophet, peace be upon him: "The men have gotten the better of us, so give us a day which is for us exclusively."

In Muslim: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, would say: Give donations, give donations! But the majority of those who gave donations were women."

NOTE: We will see that many of the most famous women in Islamic history were wealthy benefactors.

Fatimah as-Sulami: Qaraawiyiin and her sister.

Note that women in hadith and knowledge are the most frequently mentioned, although generally with few details other than she transmitted from so-and-so to so- and-so and was exact. Women often mastered both Hadith and fiqh.

Excellent scholar of the Shafi' school in Baghdad.

Master of Hadith--which she transmitted--the Qur'an with its 7 recitations. Master of mathematics, grammar, and other fields of knowledge.

She transmitted knowledge and gave fatwaas along with the greatest scholars of her time.

She was the one of the greatest Huffaaz and authorities of the Shafi' school. Extremely charitable.  

     

She was born in Baghdad and died in Basrah.

She was a great Faqih' and muhaddithah. Al-khatib al- Baghdadi received knowledge from her and transmitted on her authority.

     

KARIMAH BT AHMAD of Marw transmitted one of the most authentic and highly regarded of all the transmissions of al-Bukhaarii. She was noted for her excellence as a transmitter and her insightful intelligence. She transmitted to men and women: Nur al-Huda was one of her famous women transmitters. Karima died in Mecca at almost 100 years of age.

She was born and died in Baghdad. She studied with the greatest scholars of her age. She was known for her knowledge and great piety and goodness.

She was one of the greatest Fiqh of her time--among both men and women--and was called Fakhr an-Nisaa'.

She was also a great muhaddithah, and her reputation spread far and wide throughout the world. Ibn al-Jawzi was one of her students and transmits from her on her authority.

Thiqat ad-Dawlah--one of the most important 'Abbasid officials in Baghdad--married her.

Great scholar in general and muhaddithah with very high ijaazahs.

She wrote a book called The Forty Transmissions of the Upright Women from the Upright Men (KITAAB AL- ARBA'IIN: RIWATAYAT AL-SAALIHAAT ''AN AS- SAALIHIIN).

She was from Cairo. She was a great and uprigth scholar. She read the books of the F with perfect understanding.

She had a great following in Egypt and Syria. Many Imams learned from her: Fiqh, Hadiths and other sciences.

She was the master of the sirah and had profound knowledge and recollection of the sirah in all its details.

She was extremely intelliegent, wise, and understanding--she could memorize instantaneously.     

Fatima is the prototype of the charismatic woman: the source of secrets.

Sunnis hold that the greatest and most perfect of women were: MARYAM  KHADIJAH  FATIMAH 'A'ISHAH & AASIYAH

Fatimah: Lady of the women of all the worlds, of all ages.

     

Two approaches to politcal authority and rule in Islam: Contractualist and Intrinsicalist: Geertz argued that one approach was intrinsicalist and the other was contractualist. In the first, charisma or power was in certain persons—the descendants of the Prophet through Ali and Fatima. It was like the idea of the sacral kingships of the ancient Near East. Ali had strong support among the South Arabian tribes who inherited an ancient tradition of divine kingship probably influenced by ancient Mesopotamia.

Dhaat an-Nitaaqain: She was 10 years older than Aishah--and among the first women in Islam- -17 men before her.

She lived to be more than 100--she had brilliant intellect, will power, dignity, and self-respect. Her intellect never dulled, and she never lost any of her teeth.

She transmited 58 Hadith. She was a poetess and she could write.

She was extremely wealthy and generous. She would also nurse the sick. She participated in the Battle of Yarmuk with her husband, az- Zubair.

Asmaa bt Umais: Wife of Ja'far b Abi Talib. Transmitted 60 Hadith in Bukhari and other like sources.  She interpreted dreams for Umar.

She was known for her great beauty, and intellect: a perfect woman in every way. The companions regarded her as [nujuud]--always readu to come to the help of others. The shura met in her house after the murder of Umar. 

She transmitted 34 Hadith.

 

     

She is the daughter of Umm Salamah and the rabibah [stepdaughter; fosterdaughter] of the Prophet, peace be upon him.

She was among the most knowledgeable of people in fiqh in her age.

She was also a transmitter of Hadith. Bukhari and Muslim transmit from her.

She was entrusted with the Mushaf.

She transmitted 60 Hadith, could write and was very eloquent.

Gave oration upon her father's death and consoled him on his death bed.

She was a great Faqih' and muhadditha. The lady (sayyidah) of the successors in Madinah. She was raised under the tutelage of 'Aishah and memorized a huge body of knowledge from her. She was a principle disciple of 'Aishah. She also transmitted from Umm Salamah and many other women of the Companions.

She was regarded in her time to be one of the greatest scholars of Madinah and one of the primary authorities for the transmissions of 'Aishah.

The Hadith Project of Abu Bakr b Muhammad b Hazm and az-Zuhri:

'Umar b Abdul Aziz: "Look to the Hadith that are of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon, or any sunnah maadiyah [well-established sunnah] or the hadith of 'Amrah, and write it down. For I fear that knowledge will pass away and its people shall depart [us]."

NOTE: 'AMRAH and no male scholar is designated for mention by name.

Take half of your deen from this little reddish skinned woman. The Hadith is authentic: "Take half of your religion from this little redskinned (or white skinned) one" [Aishah]: "khuudhuu nisfa dinikum 'an haadhihi l- humairaa."

{This little woman with the reddish skin} She transmitted over 2500 Hadith. Aishah is the archetype of the woman scholar in Islam.

Aishah played a major role in spreading and elaborating Islam and the Prophetic teaching.

She was a supreme genius in knowledge. She was known for her absolute mastery of Arabic and Arabic poetic and prosaic eloquence.

No doubt the prominence of women in hadith science has something to do with the prominence of 'A'ishah int hat field and others.

The Shaykhs of the Older Companions would come to 'A'ishah with their most difficult questions. She would give them the fullest and most reliable answers-- indicative of her perfection of knowledge.

The Successor Masruq said: "I witnessed the Shaikhs of the elder Companions of Muhammad asking [Aishah] about the laws of inheritance."

Az-Zarkashi says that Umar and Ali would both ask her numerous difficult questions in fiqh.

His father, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari said: "There was not an issue that was problematic to us--the Companions of Muhammad--but that we would ask 'A'ishah about it and find the knowledge [we sought] with her."

     

'Aishah ranks among the 6 mukthirin [i.e., those who transmitted more than 1000 Hadith]

1) Abu Huraira 5394 5374   

2) Abdullah b Umar    2638  2630    

3) 'Aishah 2210      

4) Abdullah b Abbas  1660

5) Jaabir b Abdullah  1540      

6) Abu Sa'id al-Khudri   1170

The 7 Fuqahaa of Madinah to Malik.

'A'ishah was gifted with unmatched eloquence and mastery of the Arabic tongue.

If she spoke publicly: "She took possession of people's ears." Whenever she spoke: "She took over the junctures (majaami') of their hearts."

He said: "I heard the orations of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, and all the caliphs after them until this day of mine now. But never did I hear speech from the mouth of a created being more stately and beautiful than [what I heard] from the mouth of 'A'ishah."

He said: "Never did I see anyone more correct in speech than 'A'ishah."

Mu'aawiyah said: "By Allah, never did I see an orator more eloquent and more correct in speech than 'A'ishah."

Aishah was the greatest muhaddiththa  of her age.  She carried the banner of knowledge, gnosis, and education in her age. Brilliant lamp of knowledge.

She was a role model and archetype in other fields of learning also.

     

Urwah b Zubair said: "Never did I see anyone more knowledgeable of the Qur'an, the laws of inheritance, the Halal and the Haram, poetry, the history of the Arabs, and genealogy than 'A'ishah." In another report: "...more knowledgeable of Fiqh, Medicine, and poetry than Ali."

Aishah was regarded among her contemporaries as the most brilliant of scholars in Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, Arabic language and eloquence, poetry, pre-Islamic Arab history, genealogy, and medicine.

Badr ad-Din az-Zarkashi--a Shf scholar--has a special work on 'Aishah's unique contribution.

Her special and unrivaled opinions.

Her opinions at variance with others.  Her refutations of other scholars.

Parts of the Sunnah only known through her.  Parts of the Sunnah only completed through her.

'A'ishah was a very careful thinker and researcher.

Al-Mizzi says that she never heard of a thing--that she had not already known--but that she researched it carefully [raaja'athuu] until she mastered it.

She was a role model - Take half of your deen from this humairaa. 

Imam Malik is directly in the line of 'A'ishah--and this was his way also, which we may say goes back to her.

Ibn Hajar & az-Zurqaani say: "Aishah was a true Fiqh to the extent that it has been said of her that a quarter of shari'ah rulings have been received through her [transmission]."

Adh-Dhahabi: In the entire Ummah, 'A'ishah was the most learned of women in Fiqh.

The great muftis of the Companions number over 130. They were both men and women. But the most prominent were:

1) Umar  

2) Ali  

3) Abduallah b Masud  

4) 'A'ishah mother of the believers 

5) Zaid b Thabit  

6)  Abdullah b Abbass 

7) Abdullah b Umar

Women muhaddithah are exclusively of the highest integrity: no liars or fabricators registered among them.

What does this say about the testimony of women?  Of the 1000s of muhaddithat--none of them was ever guilty of fabricating hadith - as opposed to the many men who were discovered.

Continuity: From the Prophet until modern or pre- modern times.

These are the women who transmitted Hadith from the Prophet, peace be upon him, or from the Companion and Successor men and women until the great Hadith compilation.

Thus, they are the women mentioned in the isnaads of the great Hadith Compilations.

These are the scholars of Hadith after the compilation of the great Hadith compilations who transmitted them to us.

There were dozens and hundreds of great muhaddithaat throughout pre-colonial Islamic history.

The pattern from the beginning to the end is one of women and men taking knowledge from one another and giving it to one another with the highest degree of respect and integrity.

She died in 463 / 1070

She was a most excellent muhaddithah. She was a haafizah, having memorized the majority of Hadith with their isnads.

Her transmission of Bukhari brom Abu l-Haitham M b Makki is the soundest or among the greatest. 3 great muhaddithah took it from her.

Abu Bakr b AR of Toledo--who died 3 years after her-- came all the way from Spain to study with her.

She died in Makkah at the age of around 100.

Al-Ghazzi and Ibn 'Imaad mention a great muhaddithah Amat al-Khaliq who died in 902 [1496]--he says:

With her death all the people of the earth descended one degree regarding the quality of the transmission of Bukhari.

The great women muhaddithat transmit the standard books, but many of them transmitted books that were extremely rara--sometimes they were the only source of direct access to those books by direct transmission.

d. 735 / 1334  She was a muhaddithah  of greatest integrity, uprightness, and piety. She was the greatest link to at-Tabaraani in her lifetime and the last to be connected to him by a chain of direct Samaa'.

Adh-Dhahabi: She was a woman of greatest goodness and intense worship. She loved the transmission of hafith to the extent that she gave ijaazah in severl chapters of knowledge on the day of her death at about 87 years of age. 

Magnificent muhaddithah  who died at the age of 90 in 740 / 1339 [NOTE that muhaddithah women seem to live very long lives]

She taught in the Umayyad mosque of Damascus and was famed through the world. She learned from and transmitted to an extremely large number of men and women.

Ibn Batutah, the world traveller, was honored to study with her when he came to Damascus.

d. 816 / 1413 in Damascus: Great muhaddithah. The last to transmit from the great women before her: Sitt al- Fuqahaa bt al-Waasitii, Zainab bt al-Kamaal, and Zainab bt Yahyaa by direct oral transmission and ijaazah.

     The imams of her time travelled to her in search of knowledge--Ibn Hajar was one of them. He took Bukhari from her and read many books before her.

She was a great teacher and mild-mannered--easu to learn from.

When she died in Damascus-all the city mourned her passing and huge crowds followed her bier to the grave.

She lived in Damascus but taught in Syria and Egypt. d, 864 / 1459

She was the leader of her people [the turks in Syria] [ra'iisat Qawmihaa]. She was of the highest moral character. She persisted with unbroken love and determination in hearing hadith from scholars and teaching them to others by oral transmission.

d. 867 / 1462 -- 15 years after her husband Ibn Hajar. They married when she--a great muhaddithah- -was 18 and he--a great muhaddith--was 25. Ibn Hajar lived in her house until his death--where he had his joy and happiness with her. There he wrote his great works.

She was brilliant and lively. Her main shaikh was Zain ad-Din al-'Iraaqi.

She gave celebrated public lectures to the people of knowledge in the presence of Ibn Hajar--as- Sakhaawii was among those in attendance. She surrounded herself with the helpless, the poor, the handicapped, the aged, and cared for them personally.  She regarded it her privilege and pleasure to support them.

She was a great scholar in general--a master of Fiqh and Hadith. HALAB

Her father was among the greatest scholars of his time. Author of Tuhfat al-Fuqahaa [the gem/rarity of the Fiqh].

Fatimah was the principle student of her father--and knew the Tuhfah by heart and understood it with perfection.

She also studied with the great Fuqaha of her time.

Several kings and rulers of Rum [Turks] asked for her hand in marriage, but her father refused. [The kings were not worthy of her.]

Abu Bakr b Mas'ud al-Kaasaanii was also a student of her father. When he wrote his great work BADAA'I' AS- SANAA'I {The Marvels of Things Fashioned}--a commentary on the TUHFAH--her father married her to him.

Al-Kaasaanii--one of the greatest of all the Hanafi fuqaha --held Fatimah bt Muhammad in greatest awe and esteem. He never liked to go against her will and used to say that she is the daughter of my shaikh -- even when NUR AD-DIN ZANGI asked him to go where she did not want him to go.

Fatimah bt Muhammad was regarded as among the most excellent transmitted of the hanafi madhab.

Before her marriage -- she would give fatwaas, and they would be written in her father's name and her own.

After she married al-Kaasaanii--their fatwaas would be in 3 names.

Al-Kaasaanii would sometimes err in his fatwaas, and Fatimah would clarify his mistakes to him and direct him to the proper decision.

She was granted precedence [tasaddarat] in teaching in Halab. She transmitted, taught, and wrote many books in Fiqh and Hadith.

     

     She was highly regarded by Nur ud-Din Zangi--the amir of Salah ad-Din--and he often took counsel from her and often looked to her for guidance on running the internal affairs of his state.

     Nur ad-Din would also ask her questions of Fiqh and used to give her lavish gifts.

Fatimah died in Halab and was buried there in 578 / 1182

Her husband al-Kaasaanii died in 587 / 1191 and was buried next to her.

She was of the best of lineages in Morocco. Married to one of the greatest kings in Islamic history.

A woman of great knowledge -- she had comprehensive knowledge in fiqh, hadith, etc--She was a woman of great knowledge --comprehensive knowledge, fiqh, and hadith, and was known for her great piety and good doing.

One of the most powerful women of the 18th century.     

She was a scholar of Fiqh and adab. She was famed for her great piety, uprightness, and charity.

1056 [1645] TO 1139 [1727]--He died 20 years before his wife's death.

Moulay Isma'il ruled for 57 years {The bedouin thought would never die}--longer than any king in Islamic history. He was in complete control during this time. He consolidated Morocco and extended Moroccan control over saharan and subsaharan Africa unto the Eastern banks of the Southern Nile.

He Built 76 fortresses. He made a huge and well- organized army.

Khunaathah won the full trust of moulay Isma'il. He relied on her extensively.

He entrusted her judgment with matters concerning the internal organization of the state.

Khunaath supported her son 'Abd-Allah.

She suffered greatly for the sake of her son and had her properties confiscated by two other sons. However, she was wise and long suffering until her son finally took power.

Md b 'Ali al-Husaini says she was the fruit of the great and noteworthy shaykhs of her time.

Queen Khunaathah made Hajj around 1142 / 1729. She visited Makkah and did i'tikaaf in Makkah for a long time.

She remained in Makkah for years and gave abundant gifts to the people and all those around her.

She brought a large house near the 'umrah gate, which cost her about 1000 pieces of gold. She made the house an endowment for students of knowledge. She was the first overseer [Naazir] of the house. She appointed a shaykh to teach Bukhari there.

She returned to Morocco; died in Fez in 1159 / 1746 and was buried there.

Mohammed Fadel: This is the best-known example of discrimination against women in the law. [NOTE: Really? What about not being a judge, receiving less inheritance, marriage, and divorce, beating?]

O you who have attained faith,  whenever you give or take credit for  a stated term, set it down in writing.  Let a scribe write it down equitably  between you. ... If the one  contracting the debt is weak of mind  or body or cannot dictate himself,  then let his guardian dictate  equitably and Call upon two of your  men to witness. If there are not two  men, then a man and two women  from among such as are  acceptable to you as witnesses, so  that if one them should err, the other  can remind her

"Two Women, One Man: Knowledge, Power, and Gender in Medieval Sunni Legal Thought," Mohammed Fadel, IJMES, 1997.

Normative discourse--Tradition transmission and fatwa giving, e.g.--may affect tangible interests but establish universal norms and facts.

We should avoid this cliche. Evidentiary discrimination in Classical Law varies along a public- private continuum. It tended to regard public space as belonging to men. It tended to disallow women's testimony as it entered more and more into public space. Robbery and assault were excluded (they were public).

Mohammad Fadel distinguishes between public-private and normative/political. Normative = the domain of human life as regulated by universal norms. UNIVERSAL NORMS. Political = the realm of specific, tangible interests and third parties.

Fadel: It is when woman's testimony is an act of power that it became problematic. There was unanimity, however, in allowing individual women equality with men in transmission and legal opinion, which were not seen as acts of power, because they were not binding on third parties.

Fadel: The judge's verdict and the witness' testimony are both political. They are immediate, tangible, and binding irrespective of the contesting party's consent.

Fadel: Discrimination was not based in woman's nature or a proclivity to fail to tell the truth but in specific social circumstances and the roles women played within them.

Fadel: Qarafi has an institutional argument: 1) the losing party bears a grudge against opposing witnesses [thus, women needed to be protected] and 2) in a partriarchal society, the sense of grievance is increased by the fact that the opposing witness was a woman. The party is less likely to comply of its own. There must be enforcement.

Fadel: Qr notes that witnesses exercise power over third parties in lawsuits. Religious transmission of opinion, however, was not binding by political authority and never treated the same.

Fadel: The chief consideration was not epistemological, since a woman capable of transmitting Tradition and giving Fatwa clearly had the capacity to communicate testimony.

NOTE: Women were protected from the social consequences of false or difficult testimony in a way that men were not. Women were generally removed from the concourse of social intercourse.

Fadel: The Classical Jurists regarded Testimony and Fatwa as non-binding discourse. Testimony was personally binding.

Fadel argues that Fiqh did argue that women lacked the capacity of men. But that argument was not easy for them, because of its inherent structural contradiction. If there were epistemological grounds, how could a distinction be drawn in the case of narration and legal opinion?

What Is the problem? Is there a problem? What solutions can be framed?

Laila Ahmed calls for the recovery of the "stubbornly egalitarian" voice of early Islam. We must create a new and authoritative countervoice to the authoritarian and oppressive voice of traditional Muslim patriarchy. NOTE HERE: The prominence of women in the religious sciences authorizes them to have authoritative countervoices.