Today I am in Toronto and I am meeting up with Carina from Reading Through Life. I am also posting a guest review on her blog as part of her Ramadan Reading (2010) series that is going on throughout the month of Ramadan.
When Carina put out the call for guest posters, I had two books about women and Islam on my tbr shelf. I also knew that I was planning a women’s issues week for one of the weeks of her challenge (coincidentally, the week I would be in her city). I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to combine all 3 things. So today I offer you a review here, a review there, and (here is where you can be jealous) I get to meet her today as well!
So do hop on over to Reading Through Life for my review of Islam Our Choice: Portraits of Modern American Muslim Women edited by Debra Dirks and Stephanie Parlove!
————————————————————————————————————
Title: Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam
Author: Wadud, Amina
Length: 286 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction, Religion, Women
Publisher / Year: OneWorld / 2006
Source: my TBR shelf
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: I picked it up ever ago because it sounded interesting.
Date Read: 01/08/10
In this book Wadud takes a critical look at Islam and it’s treatment of women and gender relations from a distinctly pro-faith starting point. Wadud converted to Islam while at university in the early 1970s, and since then has grown in her faith and worked in different parts of the world including Malaysia and Sudan. She has come under fierce controversy from fundamentalists for her treatment and discussions about Islam, including the fact that she led a prayer in South Africa and in New York. The book, however, is about a lot more than those events and should be read for more than simply to find out more about the controversies.
What I really loved about Wadud and this book is that she clearly identifies as Muslim and loves the religion and her God. Unlike the other memoirs and discussions by feminists about Islam, this one is very pro-faith and talks about how Islam is a feminist religion and how to reinterpret it and re-read the Koran in a feminist light. It is a very compelling and interesting book.
The author begins by stating that her vision of Islam is not the only or the true Islam. There are many Islam’s as there are many interpretations, and that is how Allah meant it. She says on page 6 in her introduction:
It is just as easy for liberal Muslims to dismiss Muslim terrorists by saying that they are not “true” to Islam. When I engaged in such oversimplification and reductionist claims, I inadvertently implied I actually had the power to express and posses the “true” Islam. The arrogance of this claim allowed me to remove myself from the responsibility of standing against certain evils performed in the name of Islam. … We are all part of a complex whole, in constant motion and manifestation throughout the history of multifaceted but totally human constructions of “Islam.”
Through recognizing the numerous different interpretations and that no one can truly claim the “true” Islam, she says, she was able to grow and learn more and truly express herself and her views. I think this is something that a lot of religions are guilty of, expressing themselves as the only or the perfect interpretation of a certain faith (think Catholic vs Protestant vs United and so on) .
I have to say that with no prior religious study experience some of the book was slightly technical and advanced to me, but it was still very interesting and accessible. The author talks about a lot in this book, and I will really only be able to give a quick overview of some of what I got from this book. I do highly recommend it as a great feminist book about Islam.
A main point that Wadud starts with is language and definitions. With so many definitions out there for some words, she says, how can we truly know where an author is coming from. She says a good definitely for Islam is “engaged surrender”. If the term submission is used that erases human will and consciousness from the faith, but it is obvious that not every Muslim is perfect, so there must be a human will part. By calling it engaged surrender you acknowledge the unique gift that Allah gave to humans which is free will. It is through free will that humans choose to surrender to Allah – though they must have that free will.
Compulsion is listed as a sin in many places through the Qur’an, and Wadud uses this, and her engaged surrender definition, to show how women must be given full agency to make their own decisions in order to be true Muslims. If Allah meant for all to surrender, they must be given the same rights. She, of course, says it so much better than I can summarize!
The other key point that really jumped out at me and made me think was the discussion of language. Language, Wadud says, is not perfect. Think, for example, of the verses of the sun rising – the sun doesn’t actually rise, the earth moves around the sun which gives the appearance that the sun rises. Allah of course already knew that the sun didn’t rise, but he was limited by the language and knowledge of the time. This means that what the Qur’an gives us are guideposts and signs that we must use to point our way forward as science and knowledge surpasses that of the time of revelation. She says on page 214:
Human language limits Allah’s Self-disclosure. If revelation through text must be in human language, in order for humans to even begin to understand it, then revelation cannot be divine or Ultimate. This is distinguished from the idea that revelation is from a divine source; rather, it indicates how the source availed itself of the limitations of human language to point toward the ultimate direction for human moral development, otherwise known as guidance.
That really resonated with me as an interesting point that I had never thought of. Of course our sacred texts must confine themselves to our language. Our language isn’t perfect. As we learn more we see the clues.
Overall this book had a lot of really interesting points that made me think about a lot in Islam differently, and in a more positive light (though I had always seen it more positively than many). There were parts of the book that I didn’t like as much and those were where the author discusses the controversies surrounding some of her speeches and public appearances, which were interesting, but the religious discussion was more interesting to me. A great, but heavy book, that will stay with me for a long time.
