Publisher: Oneworld (June 5, 2006) ISBN-10: 9781851684632 ISBN-13: 978-1851684632 n this engaging study, Dr Amina Wadud, an Afro-American Muslim herself, introduces the feminist movement in Islam and delves into its challenges, its textual foundations in the Qur'an and its achievements. Beginning with her own place in the effort for greater justice for women in Islam, Wadud goes on tackle a number of pertinent issues, including the state of Muslim women's studies as a discipline in mainstream academia and the role of Muslim women in the domestic space.
Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective
Amina Wadud
1999
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Title
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Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text f
Author
:
Amina Wadud
Date
:
1999
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 10, 1999) ISBN-10: 9780195128369 ISBN-13: 978-0195128369
Fourteen centuries of Islamic thought have produced a legacy of interpretive readings of the Qu'ran written almost entirely by men. Now, with Qu'ran and Woman, Amina Wadud provides a first interpretive reading by a woman, a reading which validates the female voice in the Qu'ran and brings it out of the shadows. Muslim progressives have long argued that it is not the religion but patriarchal interpretation and implementation of the Qu'ran that have kept women oppressed. For many, the way to reform is the reexamination and reinterpretation of religious texts.
Qu'ran and Woman contributes a gender inclusive reading to one of the most fundamental disciplines in Islamic thought, Qu'ranic exegesis. Wadud breaks down specific texts and key words which have been used to limit women's public and private role, even to justify violence toward Muslim women, revealing that their original meaning and context defy such interpretations. What her analysis clarifies is the lack of gender bias, precedence, or prejudice in the essential language of the Qur'an.
Despite much Qu'ranic evidence about the significance of women, gender reform in Muslim society has been stubbornly resisted. Wadud's reading of the Qu'ran confirms women's equality and constitutes legitimate grounds for contesting the unequal treatment that women have experienced historically and continue to experience legally in Muslim communities. The Qu'ran does not prescribe one timeless and unchanging social structure for men and women, Wadud argues lucidly, affirming that the Qu'ran holds greater possibilities for guiding human society to a more fulfilling and productive mutual collaboration between men and women than as yet attained by Muslims or non-Muslims
Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an
Asma Barlas
2002
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Title
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Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarch
Author
:
Asma Barlas
Date
:
2002
Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (1 Sep 2002) ISBN-10: 9780292709041 ISBN-13: 978-0292709041
Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be 'Islamic', while many Muslims read the Quran in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer's reading of the Quran that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and anti-patriarchal nature of its teachings.Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Quran to justify existing religious and social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Quran are a function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Quran's position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy. To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Quran affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorise radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes.
Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
Charles Kurzman (ed)
1998
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Title
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Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
Author
:
Charles Kurzman (ed)
Date
:
1998
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN13: 9780195116229
ISBN10: 0195116224
Liberal Islam" is not a contradiction in terms; it is a thriving tradition and undergoing a revival within the last generation. This anthology presents the work of 32 Muslims who share parallel concerns with Western liberalism. Although the West has largely ignored the liberal tradition within Islam, many of these authors are well-known in their own countries as advocates of democracy and tolerance. Among these are: Abdulkarim Soroush, a leading oppositional figure in Iran; Nurcholish Madjid, a prominent Indonesian intellectual; Mahmud Mohamed Taha, a religious reformer executed by the Sudanese government; and `Ali `Abd al-Raziq, an Egyptian religious scholar whose writings on the separation of church and state have been controversial since the 1920s. In an analytical introduction, editor Charles Kurzman discusses the history of the liberal tradition in Islam and identifies the main currents in liberal Islamic thought.
This collection will be an important resource for scholars and students of Islam, the Middle East, and international affairs, and will also help to redress the imbalance in our perceptions of the Islamic world.
Fatima Mernissi's careful research is fascinating and challenging. Here is a brilliant Muslim woman on a quest to separate the wheat from the chaff in her tradition. Like the great scholar Al-Bukhari, she exposes cases of fraudulence, where self-interested parties tried to impose their own prejudices as articles of faith. But at the same time Mernissi reveals an inspiring earlier version of Islam, where devotion to real partnership and equality prevails.
When Benazir Bhutto became Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, there were some who claimed that it was a blasphemous assault on Islamic tradition, since no Muslim state, they alleged, had ever been governed by a woman. In this extraordinary new book, Fatima Mernissi shows that those proclaimed defenders of Islamic tradition were not only misguided but wrong. She looks back through fifteen centuries of Islam and uncovers a hidden history of women who have held the reins of power, but whose lives and stories, acheivements and failures, have largely been forgotten. Who were the Queens of Islam? How did they accede to the throne and how did their rule come to an end? What kinds of states did they govern and how did they exercise their power? Pursuing these and other questions, Mernissi recounts the stories of fifteen queens, including Sultana Radiyya who reigned in Delhi from 1250 until her violent death at the hand of a peasant; the Island Queens who ruled in the Maldives and Indonesia; and the Arab Queens of Egypt and of the Shi'ite Dynasty of Yemen. It was the Yemenis who bestowed upon queens a title that was theirs alone - balgis al-sughra , or `Young Queen of Sheeba'. Mernissi concludes this absorbing historical inquiry by reflecting on its implications for the ways in which politics is practised in the Islamic world today, a world in which women, while generally more educated than their predecessors, are largely excluded from the political domain. This powerful and engaging book, by one of the most original and distinctive voices in the Islamic world, will be of great interest to anyone concerned with Islamic society and politics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Gender Equity in Islam
Jamal Badawi
1995
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Title
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Gender Equity in Islam
Author
:
Jamal Badawi
Date
:
1995
Publisher: American Trust Publications (1995) ISBN: 0-89259-159-5 Description: Gender Equity in Islam presents an overview of the status and rights of Muslim women as defined by the Quran and Sunnah. In this brief but important work, Dr. Jamal Badawi examines the spiritual, social, economic and political aspects of women's position in Islam and, in doing so, effectively summarises the role of women in Muslim society. Further, in explaining the sources that provide the foundation for Islam's stance on gender equity, the author discusses the role of Islamic scholars in their approach to women's issues.
Islam a Short History
Karen Armstrong
2001
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Title
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Islam a Short History
Author
:
Karen Armstrong
Date
:
2001
Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (3 Dec 2001) ISBN-10: 1842125834 ISBN-13: 978-1842125830
Description: In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: it is the world's fastest growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggle for the soul of Turkey, or political turmoil in Pakistan or Malaysia, the Islamic context permeates all these situations. Karen Armstrong's elegant and concise book traces how Islam grew from the other religions of the book, Judaism and Christianity; introduces us to the character of Muhammed; and demonstrates that for much of its history, the religion has been a force for enlightenment that promoted liberties for women and allowed the arts and sciences to flourish. Islam shows how this progressive legacy is today often set aside as the faith struggles to come to terms with the economic and political weakness of most of its believers and with the forces of modernity itself.
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
Karen Armstrong
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Title
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Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
Author
:
Karen Armstrong
Date
:
Publisher: Eminent Lives; First Printing edition (October 17, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0060598972
ISBN-13: 978-0060598976
Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time is a non-fiction book by the British writer Karen Armstrong. It is part of the "Eminent Lives" series, which are short biographies of famous people by well-known writers. It is Armstrong's second biography of Muhammad. Her first biography Muhammad: a Biography of the Prophet earned her the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award. Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time is a short biography that shows how most Muslims understand Muhammad and their faith. In the book, Armstrong depicts Muhammad as both a mystic and a wise political and social reformer.
Islam A Short History, 2002, Phoenix
Karen Armstrong,
View
Title
:
Islam A Short History, 2002, Phoenix
Author
:
Karen Armstrong,
Date
:
Publisher - Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd
ISBN-10 1842125834 ISBN-13 978-1842125830
In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: it is the world's fastest growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggle for the soul of Turkey, or political turmoil in Pakistan or Malaysia, the Islamic context permeates all these situations. Karen Armstrong's elegant and concise book traces how Islam grew from the other religions of the book, Judaism and Christianity; introduces us to the character of Muhammed; and demonstrates that for much of its history, the religion has been a force for enlightenment that promoted liberties for women and allowed the arts and sciences to flourish. Islam shows how this progressive legacy is today often set aside as the faith struggles to come to terms with the economic and political weakness of most of its believers and with the forces of modernity itself.
Speaking In Gods Name:Islamic Law, Authority & Women
Khaled Abou El Fadl,
2001
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Title
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Speaking In Gods Name:Islamic Law, Authority
Author
:
Khaled Abou El Fadl,
Date
:
2001
Publisher: Oneworld Publications (27 Aug 2001) ISBN-10: 1851682627 ISBN-13: 978-1851682621
This challenging book reviews the ethical foundations of the Islamic legal system, suggesting that an authoritarian reading of scripture has often had grave consequences for parts of Muslim society. Drawing upon both religious and secular sources, Islamic legal expert Khaled Abou El Fadl argues that divinely ordained law is frequently misinterpreted by Muslim authorities at the expense of women and oth er groups. Citing a series of injustices in Islamic society, from the ban on women driving to the restrictions governing female clothing, El Fadl's thoughtful and cogent study proposes instead a return to the original ethics at the heart of the Muslim legal system.
Women and Gender in Islam
Leila Ahmed
1993
View
Title
:
Women and Gender in Islam
Author
:
Leila Ahmed
Date
:
1993
Publisher: Yale University Press; New edition edition (2 Aug 1993) ISBN-10: 9780300055832 ISBN-13: 978-0300055832
Are islamic societies inherently oppressive to women? Is the trend among Islamic women to appear once again in veils and other traditional clothing a symbol of regression or an effort to return to a 'pure' Islamthat was just and fair to both sexes? in this book Leila Ahmed adds a new perspective to the current debate about women and Islam by exploring its historical roots, tracing the developments in Islamic discourses on women and gender from the ancient world to the present.
This book reveals the real challenges faced by Muslims of both sexes in contemporary society, seeing Islam as a tradition open to change and development.
CONTENTS
Introduction (Omid Safi)
Part 1: Progressive Muslims and Contemporary Islam
1. The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam (Khaled Abou El Fadl)
2. In Search of a Progressive Islamic Response to 9/11 (Farid Esack)
3. Islam: A Civilisational Project in Progress (Ahmet Karamustafa)
4. The Debts and Burdens of Critical Islam (Ebrahim Moosa)
5. On Being a Scholar of Islam: Risks and Responsibilities (Tazim R. Kassam)
Part 2: Progressive Muslims and Gender Justice
6. Transforming Feminisms: Islam, Women and Gender Justice (Sa'diyya Shaikh)
7. Progressive Muslims and Islamic Jurisprudence: The Necessity for Critical Engagement with Marriage and Divorce Laws (Kecia Ali)
8. Sexuality, Diversity and Ethics in the Agenda of Progressive Muslims (Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle)
9. Are We Up To The Challenge? The Need for a Radical Re-ordering of the Islamic Discourse on Women (Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons)
Part 3: Progressive Muslims and Pluralism
10. Muslims, Pluralism and Inter-faith Dialogue (Amir Hussein)
11. Islam, Democracy and Pluralism (Ahmad S. Moussalli)
12. American Muslim Identity: Race and Ethnicity in Progressive Islam (Amina Wadud)
13. How to put the Genie back in the Bottle? 'Identity,' Islam and Muslim Youth Cultures in America (Marcia Hermansen)
14. What is the Victory of Islam? Towards a Different Understanding of the Ummah and Political Success in the Contemporary World (Farish A. Noor)
About Us
written almost entirely by 
patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer's reading of the Quran that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and anti-patriarchal nature of its teachings.Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Quran to justify existing religious and social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Quran are a function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Quran's position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy. To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Quran affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorise radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes.
through fifteen centuries of Islam and uncovers a hidden history of women who have held the reins of power, but whose lives and stories, acheivements and failures, have largely been forgotten. Who were the Queens of Islam? How did they accede to the throne and how did their rule come to an end? What kinds of states did they govern and how did they exercise their power? Pursuing these and other questions, Mernissi recounts the stories of fifteen queens, including Sultana Radiyya who reigned in Delhi from 1250 until her violent death at the hand of a peasant; the Island Queens who ruled in the Maldives and Indonesia; and the Arab Queens of Egypt and of the Shi'ite Dynasty of Yemen. It was the Yemenis who bestowed upon queens a title that was theirs alone - balgis al-sughra , or `Young Queen of Sheeba'. Mernissi concludes this absorbing historical inquiry by reflecting on its implications for the ways in which politics is practised in the Islamic world today, a world in which women, while generally more educated than their predecessors, are largely excluded from the political domain. This powerful and engaging book, by one of the most original and distinctive voices in the Islamic world, will be of great interest to anyone concerned with Islamic society and politics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
