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Lectures related to the book "Women’s Identity and Rethinking the Hadith"

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https://hdl.handle.net/1813/45871

The Prophet Muhammad’s reported traditions have evolved significantly to affect the social, cultural, and political lives of all Muslims. Though centuries of scholarship were spent on the authentication and trustworthiness of the narrators, there has been less study focused on the contents of these narratives, known as Hadith or Sunnah, and their corroboration by the Qur`an.

In addition, there is an urgent need to re‐think the authority of the Hadith. This is a very sensitive subject for Muslims. However, given the facts that the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, himself strongly discouraged his companions from documenting in writing his sayings, and that after his death the four caliphs also forbade the writing of his sayings, we are required to address this issue. Clearly, the Qur`an is the only divine source of Islam.

Hence, this book is a first step in a comprehensive attempt to contrast Hadith with the Qur`an in order to uncover some of the unjust practices by Muslims concerning women and gender issues. Using specific examples the author helps the reader appreciate and understand the magnitude of the problem. It is argued that the human rights and the human development of Muslim women will not progress in a meaningful and sustainable manner until the Hadith is re‐examined in a fresh new approach from within the Islamic framework, shifting the discourse in understanding Islam from a dogmatic religious law to a religio‐moral rational worldview.

First Review: The author argues that such re‐examination requires the involvement of women in order to affirm their authority in exegetical and practical leadership within Muslim societies, and she encourages Muslim women to stand up for their rights to effect change in understanding the role of sunnah (his tradition) in their own life.

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Recent Submissions

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    Woman’s Identity and the Reformation of Muslim Societies
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (2016-10-05)
    Because the true message of Islam concerning women was rarely practiced throughout the past 14 centuries of Muslim history, women scholar‐activists who self‐identify with Islam have been taking it upon themselves to reinterpret the Qur`an and change attitudes about gender and the role of women. But the writings of these scholars do not seem to reach those politicized mostly male Muslims who are running the present social and political affairs in Muslim‐majority societies and in many Muslim communities in the West. To the contrary, most Muslim male extremists are leading a counterrevolution against gender justice by taking Qur`anic verses out of their context and misusing the reported narratives (Hadith) attributed to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. In addition, although Muslim women are majority college graduates in most Muslim societies, only few participate in developing and shaping Islamic thought. Therefore, I am making wake‐up calls to Muslim women to stand up for their given rights in the Qur`an as the only divine, binding source; and to rethink the authority of the reported Hadith, especially those narratives that contradict the Qur`an. Many of such narratives form the heart of the so‐called shari’a which should not be binding. I will present some examples to analyze how basic principles of Islam can be re‐read to facilitate building an egalitarian Muslim society in order to restructure the Muslim mind.
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    Fatema Mernissi and the Hadith: Agent of Social Change
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (2016-11-17)
    The overall goal of the eclectic and critical approach of Fatima Mernissi to gender and women’s rights seems to be overlooked. Scholars and activists attempt to analyze her work within one academic category or another. With few exceptions, her overwhelming personal and professional commitments to social change appear to be forgotten. In this presentation, I will focus on Mernissi scholarship/activism that addresses the Prophet Muhammad’s reported views and treatments of women, based mainly on the Hadith literature. During the last decade of my research that culminated in a recent monograph on Hadith, I was amazed, but not surprised, by how few references were made to Mernissi’s work on the subject. It is especially important to realize that she had re‐opened the way for women’s rethinking Islamic primary texts that will lead to social and attitudinal change. I will shed some light on her study of the Hadith, its apparent ramifications and consequences for building a feminist position that enables social change toward gender justice and woman’s agency. I will synthesize some examples from her books, particularly her seminal book, the Veil and the Male Elite. The objective is to develop strategies for challenging both the injustices done to women in the name of Islam, and the different approaches that still view women as subjects of change instead of agents of change.
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    Muslim Woman’s Identity and Reforming Muslim Societies
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (2016-09-28)
    Because the true message of Islam concerning women was rarely practiced throughout the past 14 centuries of Muslim history, women scholar-activists who self-identify with Islam have been taking it upon themselves to reinterpret the Qur`an and change attitudes about gender and the role of women. But the writings of these scholars do not seem to reach those politicized mostly male Muslims who are running the present social and political affairs in Muslim-majority societies and in many Muslim communities in the West. To the contrary, most Muslim male extremists are leading a counter-revolution against gender justice by taking Qur`anic verses out of their context and misusing the reported narratives (Hadith) attributed to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. In addition, although Muslim women are majority college graduates in most Muslim societies, only few participate in developing and shaping Islamic thought. Therefore, I am making wake-up calls to Muslim women to stand up for their given rights in the Qur`an as the only divine, binding source; and to rethink the authority of the reported Hadith, especially those narratives that contradict the Qur`an. Many of such narratives form the heart of the so-called shari’a which should not be binding. I will present some examples to analyze how basic principles of Islam can be re-read to facilitate building an egalitarian Muslim society in order to restructure the Muslim mind.
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    Why Muslim Women Are Reinterpreting the Qur`an and Rethinking Hadith: A Transformative Scholarship‐Activism
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (2016-04-14)
    Because the true message of Islam concerning women was rarely practiced throughout the past 14 centuries of Muslim history, women scholar‐activists who self‐identify with Islam have been taking it upon themselves to reinterpret the Qur`an and change attitudes about gender. But their writings do not seem to reach those politicized mostly male Muslims who are running the present social and political affairs in Muslim societies. To the contrary, these male extremists are leading a counter‐revolution against gender justice by taking Qur`anic verses out of their context and misusing the Prophet Muhammad reported narratives (Hadith). Thus, I am making wake‐up calls to Muslim women to stand up for their given rights in the Qur`an and to rethink the authority of the Hadith, especially those narratives that contradict the Qur`an. Although Muslim women are majority college graduates in most Muslim societies, only few participate in developing and shaping Islamic thought. I will present some examples to analyze how basic principles of Islam are re‐read to facilitate building an androgynous, civic attitude among young Muslims, particularly females.
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    Qur'anic Shariah: Gender Justice in Islam
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (2016-03-07)
    Dr. Barazangi will use examples from her recent book, Woman's Identity and Rethinking the Hadith, to argue that Islam is neither a law nor a dogma of submission. Rather, each individual Muslim, male or female, has the right and responsibility to intimately read, understand, and apply the Qur'an free of others' interpretations.
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    Woman’s Identity and Rethinking the Hadith
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (2015-12-14)
    I will discuss my work on Muslim and Arab women's education, identity development and belief system as well as feminist and gender issues, focusing on my recent book, Woman’s Identity and Rethinking the Hadith (2015). This book is a first step in a comprehensive attempt to contrast Hadith with the Qur'an to uncover unjust practices concerning women and gender issues. The book received strong support from the first reviewers http://www.routledge.com/products/9781472446787: “This is an important work on a timely issue that has been the subject of several scholarly works on Hadith studies and women and gender studies in Islam. I wish to stress that Nimat Hafez Barazangi has situated the subject in its historical context and provided important analysis and details relevant to the subject of Hadith and Women’s identities;” “I feel that this work provides ample evidence of wide reading in the field of Hadith, and an important thesis that is based on the Qur’anic assertion that Islamic “Shari’ah” is a guided path and not a law”
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    Women’s Identity and Rethinking the Hadith
    Barazangi, Nimat Hafez (Ashgate | Routledge, 2015)
    The Prophet Muhammad’s reported traditions have evolved significantly to affect the social, cultural, and political lives of all Muslims. Though centuries of scholarship were spent on the authentication and trustworthiness of the narrators, there has been less study focused on the contents of these narratives, known as Hadith or Sunnah, and their corroboration by the Qur`an. This book is a first step in a comprehensive attempt to contrast Hadith with the Qur`an in order to uncover some of the unjust practices by Muslims concerning women and gender issues. Using specific examples the author helps the reader appreciate and understand the magnitude of the problem. It is argued that the human rights and the human development of Muslim women will not progress in a meaningful and sustainable manner until the Hadith is re-examined in a fresh new approach from within the Islamic framework, shifting the discourse in understanding Islam from a dogmatic religious law to a religio-moral rational worldview. The author argues that such re-examination requires the involvement of women in order to affirm their authority in exegetical and practical leadership within Muslim societies, and she encourages Muslim women to stand up for their rights to effect change in understanding the role of sunnah in their own life.