Are women deficient in religion?
Khalifatul Masih II
After reciting Tashahhud and Surah Al-Fatihah, Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih II ra said:
In our country, and in fact in all other nations, there is a widespread notion that women are naturally and inherently incapable of accomplishing anything significant. In order to prove this notion incorrect, women should have accomplished great things, rather than acceding to it.
Are they truly incapable of accomplishing anything great? And is it largely due to the Holy Prophetsa stating in a Hadith that he saw a large number of women in hell because they were ungrateful, deficient in understanding, and imperfect in their faith? The Holy Prophetas related this to us to make women aware of their condition and warn them that these shortcomings could lead them to hell. Ingratitude is not an innate quality. It is an [acquired] habit. If a thief steals, it is not because stealing is in his nature, but because he has acquired the habit of doing so. If women have acquired the habit of being ungrateful, it can be altered. However, instead of instructing women to rid themselves of this bad habit, today’s ignorant maulvis tell them it is women’s nature [to be ungrateful] and they cannot change themselves. The women readily agree to this consensus.
Thus, when the doctor does not prescribe treatment and the patient is content, then death is the surest outcome. Whereas, by pointing out that women will go to hell for being ungrateful, being inadequate in their faith, and weak in understanding, the Holy Prophet sa challenged their sense of honor and urged them to give up such habits and thereby enter paradise. Just as he sa once lightheartedly mentioned to his wet-nurse that old people would not enter paradise.
[Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils, vol. 1, pp. 340]
This upset her a great deal, but hesa reassured her that youth would be restored to everyone before entering paradise.
Consequently, the Holy Prophet sa intended that women should give up ingratitude and increase their understanding. It is generally observed in children that at an early age, they have a poor understanding which improves with age. So now, when women are told they are deficient in understanding or in faith, are they to give up on their intelligence or faith? No, certainly not! Simply because you are weak in faith, does not mean that you should give up your faith and sit on the side, but rather that you should learn faith.
We observe that when children begin their schooling, they know nothing, but they learn and grow in knowledge. Should they quit at the beginning because they cannot read? In short, this was an admonition to abstain from ingratitude.
Consider how great the favor is of the Holy Prophet sa towards women that before his advent women were treated as animals and were called every derogatory name. In fact, even now, several nations believe that women do not have a soul. Thus, how gracious was the Holy Prophetsa when he dictated that women and men are equal in humanity. We have observed that in some cases women are religious and men are weak in faith, women are wise and men are dull. In response to the Holy Prophet’s sa great favor, it was the women’s responsibility to engage in the propagation of Islam as an expression of gratitude.
However, the fault lies wholly with present day maulvis who persuaded women that their mind and intellect was too weak to accomplish anything. Whereas on the other hand, the Holy Prophet sa was challenging women’s sense of honor by pointing out that how can they enter paradise without committing virtuous deeds? He pointed out that they fail to become intellectual and serve the faith. To acquire intellect, you need to work and in order to work you need to learn the skills to work. The fault lies with the maulvis for teaching the opposite. Today, I have explained to you the truth about this Hadith, so that you may understand that this is what is meant by it.
Following this advice, which was the prelude to my speech, I wish to tell you that this is a wonderful time to serve Islam. The maulvis wiped away half of the body of Islam by alleging that women are deficient in understanding and are incapable of accomplishing anything. The maulvis have inculcated such concepts among Muslims, which have made them believe that even the prophets are not free from the touch of Satan. Therefore, in one way or another, they have defamed all prophets. However, the Promised Messiahas presented the true picture of Islam. Maulvis have propagated the false notion that the Holy Qur’ān speaks of many such things which would be inappropriate to accept as true. If I begin telling you each one, you would be astonished. Remember, true Islam is that which the Promised Messiahas has presented, which is Ahmadiyyat. Thus, if at this time Ahmadiyyat is in danger, it means Islam is in danger.
The Islam presented by the maulvis is in no way acceptable. They present Islamic teachings to non-Muslims in a negative manner. For example, they claim that if you come upon a non-Muslim traveler, it is permissible to steal his wealth or that it is lawful for you to take the wife of a non-Muslim without marrying her. Who would accept this version of Islam? These scholars go on to assert that true Islam is Jihad, according to which it is permissible to kill a Hindu, Christian or Sikh and to take their assets.
The people in our Jama‘at should fully understand this. That age no longer exists when a person can stand up and declare that women are intellectually challenged, thereby inferring that women have no intelligence. This assessment is itself proven wrong by the practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammadsa and the practice of those who followed him. If it meant what is normally thought to be true, then why did the Holy Prophet Muhammadsa seek advice from ‘Umme Salmahra? If women are deficient in intellect, then could such women exist who excelled perfectly intelligent men in matters of intellect, leaving no man to be their equal? I present to you Hazrat A’ishahra. In the Holy Qur’ān, the following words were revealed:
خَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّنَ
[“Seal of the Prophets”]
(Holy Qur’ān, Ch. 33: V. 41)
On the other hand, there were also the words [of the Holy Prophet sa] mentioned in the Hadith which states:
لَا نَبِيَّ بَعْدِي
[There is no Prophet after me]
As we moved further and further away from the time of the Holy Prophetsa, it was concluded from these [phrases] that no other prophet would come after him. No man was able to avert this danger, except for Hazrat ‘Ali ra and one other. However, Hazrat A’ishah ra very boldly declared:
قُوْلُوْا إِنَّهُ خَاتَمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَلَا تَقُوْلُوْا لَا نَبِيَّ بَعْدَهُ
[Certainly, do say, he (the Holy Prophet sa) is the Seal of all Prophets, but do not say, there is no Prophet after him.]
“Say, that the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa is خَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّنَ KhātamunNabiyyīn, [Seal of the Prophets] but do not say that no Prophet will appear after him.”
Now observe whose opinion has been given validation by this era’s Apostle [the Promised Messiahas]. The women who were considered intellectually deficient, or those men who were considered intellectually perfect. At that time, if she had thought, ‘Why should I say anything, when I am considered among the intellectually inferior?’ we would have encountered many difficulties on this issue and would have faced defeat at many fronts. When we present the meaning of Khātamun-Nabiyyīn to be that a prophet can come after the Holy Prophetsa but he must be from the followers of the Holy Prophetsa and that he must be subordinate to the Holy Prophetas, we were bound to have been asked that why was this meaning not realized by the people that had gone before? Now, when someone poses this question, we can respond that the Holy Prophet Muhammad’ssa wife interpreted it as such.
In fact, ‘intellectually deficient’ is a relative term. It implies that a woman is less intelligent than a man. It means that the most perfect woman will be less intelligent than the most perfect man and a secondary level woman will be less intelligent than a secondary level man. This is something that cannot be denied because in some matters which relate to men, women are compelled to remain behind, such as in battles or wars.
Thus, ‘intellectually deficient’ is a relative term and one cannot take away a woman’s right to representation due to this, for if we follow a method of selection, then only men with higher intellectual abilities should have the right to representation and others should be denied this right. However, the reality is that there are very knowledgeable men who attend Majlis-e-Mushawarat, along with others who know nothing. There are scores of better men elsewhere and not only men, but scores of better women. For instance, compared to the villager who is a representative at the Majlis-e-Mushawarat, there are many more knowledgeable men from our Lahore Jama‘at who are not given the right of representation.[Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils, vol. 1, pp. 278]
Therefore, women do have the right to representation, but the question is how to give them this right. Upon reading some articles in Al-Fazl, some people may come under the impression that the time for Jihad has come! However, they must remember that women possess this right. The question is how we should consult them, without detracting from their rights, and also so that we benefit from their advice.