Reinstating the Queens
The leadership of women at the highest political level remains an ongoing controversial issue for Muslims.1 And yet women have led both medieval and modern Muslim societies – Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh – thereby rendering this debate, in practice, moot. But quite a few Muslim men consider...
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International Institute of Islamic Thought
2016
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oai:doaj.org-article:bc0e0b0ee59f4e72991b25e214e2c33d2021-12-02T19:41:15ZReinstating the Queens10.35632/ajis.v33i2.9042690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/bc0e0b0ee59f4e72991b25e214e2c33d2016-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/904https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 The leadership of women at the highest political level remains an ongoing controversial issue for Muslims.1 And yet women have led both medieval and modern Muslim societies – Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh – thereby rendering this debate, in practice, moot. But quite a few Muslim men consider this reality as an abomination and perversion. In his Al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭānīyah wa al-Wilāyāt al-Dīnīyah, al-Mawardi (d. 1058) discusses the imamate in the sense of the caliphate (khilāfah: Islamic leadership) and lists its conditions.2 Rather surprisingly, gender is not one of them. However, Asghar Ali Engineer writes that “al-Mawardi maintained that a woman cannot be made head of state.”3 Although the gender clause is not found in Al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭānīyah written by the Hanbali Abu Ya‘la al-Farra’ (d. 1113) and other early works, later scholars categorically include it. The Shafi‘i Ahmad ibn Ali al-Qalqashandi (d. 1418) cites masculinity as the first of the fourteen conditions of eligibility. He bases his decision on the hadith reported by al-Bukhari and narrated by the Companion Abu Bakra. This scholar explains how a leader has to mingle with other men to discuss state affairs, an act that Islam prohibits for women. He adds that “because a woman is incomplete in her own right, as she does not even control her marriage, she cannot be made a leader over others.”4 I contend that his and similar remarks are seriously influenced by cultural circumstances, ones that are not truly reflective of Islam. Zakyi IbrahimInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 33, Iss 2 (2016) |
| institution |
DOAJ |
| collection |
DOAJ |
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EN |
| topic |
Islam BP1-253 |
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Islam BP1-253 Zakyi Ibrahim Reinstating the Queens |
| description |
The leadership of women at the highest political level remains an ongoing
controversial issue for Muslims.1 And yet women have led both medieval
and modern Muslim societies – Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh –
thereby rendering this debate, in practice, moot. But quite a few Muslim
men consider this reality as an abomination and perversion.
In his Al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭānīyah wa al-Wilāyāt al-Dīnīyah, al-Mawardi (d.
1058) discusses the imamate in the sense of the caliphate (khilāfah: Islamic
leadership) and lists its conditions.2 Rather surprisingly, gender is not one of
them. However, Asghar Ali Engineer writes that “al-Mawardi maintained that
a woman cannot be made head of state.”3 Although the gender clause is not
found in Al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭānīyah written by the Hanbali Abu Ya‘la al-Farra’
(d. 1113) and other early works, later scholars categorically include it.
The Shafi‘i Ahmad ibn Ali al-Qalqashandi (d. 1418) cites masculinity as
the first of the fourteen conditions of eligibility. He bases his decision on the
hadith reported by al-Bukhari and narrated by the Companion Abu Bakra.
This scholar explains how a leader has to mingle with other men to discuss
state affairs, an act that Islam prohibits for women. He adds that “because a
woman is incomplete in her own right, as she does not even control her marriage,
she cannot be made a leader over others.”4 I contend that his and similar
remarks are seriously influenced by cultural circumstances, ones that are not
truly reflective of Islam.
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| format |
article |
| author |
Zakyi Ibrahim |
| author_facet |
Zakyi Ibrahim |
| author_sort |
Zakyi Ibrahim |
| title |
Reinstating the Queens |
| title_short |
Reinstating the Queens |
| title_full |
Reinstating the Queens |
| title_fullStr |
Reinstating the Queens |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Reinstating the Queens |
| title_sort |
reinstating the queens |
| publisher |
International Institute of Islamic Thought |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
https://doaj.org/article/bc0e0b0ee59f4e72991b25e214e2c33d |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT zakyiibrahim reinstatingthequeens |
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