Muslima theology : the voices of Muslim women theologians / Ednan Aslan/Marcia Hermansen/Elif Medeni (eds.). Frankfurt am Main, [Germany] : Peter Lang Edition, 2013
Content
Table of Contents
Series editor’s foreword
Introduction. The New Voices of Muslim Women Theologians
ISLAMIC LIBERALISM
FEMALE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM AND THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT
SCRIPTURAL FEMINIST METHODOLOGIES IN OTHER RELIGIONS
PIETISTIC MOVEMENTS: ISL AMIST OR ISLAMIC FEMINISMS?
MUSLIM WOMEN AS THEOLOGIANS
THE PAPERS
Early Community Politics and the Marginalization of Women in Islamic Intellectual History
Muslim Women as Religious Scholars: A Historical Survey
Introduction
The importance of women’s engagement with the foundational sources
Women and the tradition of Qur’anic exegesis
Women and the Transmission of Hadith
Women and the legacy of fiqh
‘Ā’isha: Reclaiming a tradition of women’s engagement
Conclusion
Feminist Readings of the Qur’an: Social, Political, and Religious Implications
QUESTIONS OF TERMINOLOGY
FOUNDING MYTHS, PATRIARCHAL READINGS
MASCULINE PROPHETHOOD
Feminist Hermeneutics: New Readings
Fatima Mernissi: Critical Analysis of the Hadith
Amina Wadud: The Centrality of the Qur’an and the Principle of Tawḥīd
Asma Barlas: The Qur’an as an Anti-Patriarchal Text
ADVANCES IN HERMENEUTICS
SOCIAL-SPIRITUAL WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS
ACTIVITY IN MUSLIM WOMEN’S NETWORKS: BEYOND BORDERS
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX
Muslim Feminist Theology in the United States
1. Introduction
2. Biographical Profiles
3. Historical Contextualization
4. Holistic/Intra-textual Reading
5. Tawḥīdic Paradigm
6. Future Directions
Woman and Man’s “fall”: A Qur’anic Theological Perspective
First Reference: Sūra 2: Al-Baqara: 35–39
Second Reference: Sūra 7: Al-A‘rāf: 19–25
Third Reference: Sūra 20: Ṭā-Hā: 115–123
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GENESIS, CHAPTER 3 AND THE QUR’ANIC TEXTS RELATING TO THE HUMAN PAIR’S DEPARTURE FROMAL-JANNA
1. Reason for the Beguiling of the Human Pair
a. Sūra 2: Al-Baqara: 30–34, read as follows:
b. Sūra 15: Al-Ḥijr: 26–43
c. Sūra 17: Al-Isrā’: 61–64
d. Sūra 18: Al-Kahf: 50
e. Sūra 38: Ṣād: 71–85
2. The Responsibility for the Act of Disobedience
3. The Act of Disobedience and its Consequences
In Summation
The Position of Woman in the Creation: A Qur’anic Perspective
Introduction
Relevant Verses:
Common Origin of Male and Female Human Beings and Qur’anic Terminology
The Treatment of the Verse in Exegesis
The Reflection of the Problem in the Hadith
Examples from the Accounts of the Creation of Woman
Conclusion and Assessment
Misogynistic Reports in the Hadith Literature
1. Hadith reports that speak about the view that woman was created “from Adam’s rib”
2. The reports that claim that the majority of the in habitants of Hell are women
3. The reports that claim that women are lacking both in reason and religion, and that they at the same time lead men astray
a. The discourse of female “lack of reason and religion” and its source
b. The basis for the discourse of female deficiency in the sources
c. The sedutiveness of believing women who are deficient in reason and religion, according to the reports
4. Reports that claim women are inauspicious
5. Reports in which women are mentioned in the same breath as donkeys and dogs; such as the report which says that if a woman, donkey, or dog passes in front of a person who is performing the ritual prayer, his ritual prayer will be invalidated
Gender Justice and Gender Jihad: Possibilities and Limits of Qur’anic Interpretation for Women’s Liberation
1. Muslim women and Islamic traditions
2. Questions of Hermeneutics
3. Adam and Eve
a. Non-Qur’anic creation stories
b. Critical revisions
c. Texts as mirrors of their time
d. Hermeneutic Gender Jihad in the work of Amina Wadud
4. Possibilities and limits in dialogue with revealed scripture, hereneutic approaches, and interpretative findings
Gendering Ritual: A Muslima’s Reading of the Laws of Purity and Ritual Preclusion
A Critical Perspective on Menstrual Etiquette in Ritual Law
Fiqh Menstruation-Related Rules, in Brief
Legal Methodology for Deriving Rules Related to Reproductive Defilements
Somatic Indicator of Gender Difference
Problematizing Male Epistemological Authority over Female Bodies
Avenues for Further Inquiry
Ibn Taymiyya’s Feminism? Imprisonment and the Divorce Fatwās
Introduction
Ibn Taymiyya and Triple Repudiation
Questioning Consensus: Analysis of Ibn Taymiyya’s Stances
Forced Marriage and the Hostage Motif
Conclusion
Sexing the Prayer: The Politics of Ritual and Feminist Activism in Indonesia
The Theological Foundation of Imāmat al-Mar’a and Controversies Surrounding It
Gendered Views of Women and the Sexed Prayer
The Praxis of Imāmat al-Mar’a and Feminist Activism
Concluding Remarks
Violence against Women in Qur’an 4:34: A Sacred Ordinance?
Methodology
Traditional Scholars’ Interpretations of the Key Concepts of this Verse
Shortcomings in the Traditional Understandings of the Verse
New Understandings of Verse 4:34
The Distortion of Qur’anic Concepts Produces Injustice against Women
Recommendations
From Sexual Difference to Religious Difference: Toward a Muslima Theology of Religious Pluralism
Contemporary Islamic Discourse on Religious Pluralism
What’s the Issue? Proximity and Othering
Muslim Women Interpreters of the Qur’an: Conception of Difference
Sameness, Difference(s), Relationality: Toward a Muslima Theology of Religious Pluralism
1. Radical Difference Is Not an Option
2. Human Sameness (Creation and Human Nature) as the Starting Point
3. Sameness Alone Is Not an Option
4. Thinking of Difference Differently
5. Distinguishing between Lateral and Hierarchical Difference
Conclusion
Resisting the Veil of Universalism: Muslim Womanist Philosophy as a Lens for Authentic Representations of African American Muslim Women
A Scholarly Journey to Islam
Studying Muslims beyond the Veil of Christianity
Muslim Womanist Philosophy: Mirroring Identity, Meeting a Need
Womanist Religious Roots in the Context of the Mosque and the Church
Conclusions
In Search of al-Insān: Sufism, Islamic Law, and Gender
Methodological Caveats
Feminist Debates in Islamic Law
Sufi Psychology and jihād Al-Nafs
Ibn ‘Arabī: Ontology and Human Purpose
Divine Attributes and the Gendered Insān
The Tawḥīdic Whole: Spiritual and Social Integrity
Conclusion
Book Bibliography
Contributor Biographies