NOT FOR YOU, WOMEN!!!  (PART 1)

by fatemolla

E-mail: fatemolla@hotmail.com

I laughed to myself about this for many, many years.

They say female-leadership is bad for any nation. I laughed silently. Because for many years I saw male-leadership, including religious ones, in my country resulting in a mess in every field. But still our 'Huzurs' hold that Muhammad the Prophet (SA) said no nation would progress under women-leadership. I said to myself that if that is correct, then I am a carrot. Or even a fish. Because being male is no guarantee of being good or efficient. (Is the opposite statistically true, at least in being good?)

This is as impossible as a chicken's tooth!

But it is very much there in Sahi Bokhari. Hadis# 222.- Hazrat Abu Bakra (RA)(NOT HAZRAT ABU BAKAR (RA)) said - "During Jamal war, I was very much benefited by a saying. After he knew that the Persian people put in power the daughter of Kasra when he died, Nabi Karim (SA) said, - never will prosper a nation that has put the responsibility of administration on a woman." ["Banglay Bokhari Shareef Hadis Shomuho", compiled by Abdul Karim Khan, edited by Hafez Abdul Jalil, page 90]. It can be found in any other translation of Sahi-Bokhari such as the one in Bangla by Azizul Haque Shaheb, or in English by Md. Mohshin Khan of Madina University.

But what does history say? History is dry, boring, but of use. Like Bukley’s Mixture. It tastes awful, but it works! There I could see the Middle East of middle age. And Egypt. Indonesia. Iran, Maldives. Kings, Queens.

Mollas-Maolanas. There I go! I can see Delhi in India! 1236 AD, right? There goes the only unmarried teen-ager queen of human history, Sultana Razia on a royal horse with her majestic golden-diamond dress, diamond 'Mukut'. Her father emperor Iltutmis had stepped down due to old age, and declared Razia the Queen. May be he did not have a son.

“ No, my dear molla! He had not one, but three sons”, whispered history.

“ May be they were minors. Or insane.”

“ Wishful thinking, Sir! They were elder than their only sister, and no report of ill health.”

“ Then why woman? Why not man?”

“ Because, as the father said, the woman was more competent than those men. Simple.”

“ then?”

“ Look at the glittering proud coin of the sovereign Sultana. Imprinted on that, "Sultana Razia, who elevates the honor of Amirul Mumeneen". Amirul
Mumeneen was 36th Khalifa of muslim-world Al- Muntansir.

“ What does that mean?”

“ That means she had not the hate but the blessing of the religious-head of the Muslim world, the Khalifa. Didn't he know that hadis?”

“ I want to see the coin.”

“ Sure! Don't have to go too far! Go to Calcutta museum.”

Then 1250 AD. Al-Kahera (Cairo) in Egypt. There I hear the Khutba in the Jumma prayer in the mosque. "Let Allah save our kind queen." Who is reading the Khutba? A merchant? Student? Bureaucrat? Teacher, poet? No, the Khutba is read by none but the Maolana of the mosque. Doesn’t he know that
hadis?

Next, in brief. Point of notice, all these queens were not decorative wives of ruling kings. These queens were mostly widows, and the sovereign rulers with Khutba, or coin or both in their names.

3. Queen Turkan Khatun of Iran. Long 26 years from 1257 to 1282 AD. Khutba in the mosque.

4. Daughter of the above, Padishah Khatun. Coin in her name.

5. Absh Khatun of Shiraz area of Iran. Long 25 years from 1263 to 1287. Khutba and coin both in her name.

6. In the area of Luristan in 1339. Name not known. Khutba in her name.

7. Queen Tindu (In Iran?) 1411- 1419 AD. Coin.

8,9,10. Queens of Maldives Khadija, Mariam and Fatima. A clean, straight 41 years. Khutba in Khadija's name. Ibne Batuta was the Kazi there for some time.

11,12. Two incredibly successful queens Asma and Arwoa of 'Sulaihi' dynasty in Yemen. For how long did they ruled? Not much, only for half a century. And "They made more mosques, roads, buildings minars, etc., than total made by all the male kings from 1592 to 1925". Shabbash!.
Khutba in Asma's name.

So? So, it is proved beyond doubt that in history there were at least 12 Muslim queens who ruled as the head of their queendoms. Also proved is that they enjoyed not the resistance but the legal and religious support from the
Khalifa and the Maolanas. No book (in my little knowledge) records any bad condition of people in their times.

Now let us turn to that famous hadis: No nation will prosper under female-leadership. Our Prophet (SA) said. All right! Said to whom? Where? When? And, where, when and why did that Sahabi disclose this 'valuable' hadis?

We need to, have to know. No way to escape. Because, this hadis is eternally related to the status and respect of really competent Muslim women. It is directly related to present-day Bangladesh and other countries today and
billions of people of the future. Already Bangladesh is under female-leadership for sometime. Many 'Huzurs' are not quite comfortable with it.
A top-ranking 'Kolir Krishna, Rongbaaj' political leader also stuttered about this. (The dream possibly was, if somehow these female leaders can be ousted in the name of the Prophet (SA), the 'Shika' of power might favour him. He could then get involved in another round of colorful “Romonio” activities. Then tell about it in medea also with some self-written poems. And then again go to Haaj/Omrah for a good ‘cleaning’. Just a guess!)

Any way, Let us leave him in peace now. Let us go to Basra, in 656 AD. Because, the Hadis started there. There we see a respected woman in high spirit, excited, giving highly charged sermons in mosques and gatherings. She is none else than Hazrat Bibi Ayesha (RA). Why she is so excited? Because she is collecting and mobilizing soldiers. Why? Is there another 'Jehad' imminent? Yes, there is. However, the problem is, this time the opponent also have the Koran in their hands. They are also Muslims. And their leader? None but Hazrat Ali (RA), the ever victor of Islam.

This is the famous 'Jamal War', the battle of camel. The name is for the fact that Bibi Ayesha (RA) led the troops Against Hazrat Ali (RA) sitting on the back of a camel . She was defeated, and sent to Madina with due honor by Hazrat Ali (RA). The history of Muslims still stands stunned with ten thousand dead bodies of muslims/sahabis in that battle field.

And then, Hazrat Ali (RA) entered Basra as the victor and called for all the senior citizens. There came Hazrat Abu Bakra. (NOT HZ. ABU BAKAR, THE 1st KHALIFA). He was a slave-boy in the Prophet's (SA) time during the Ta'ef battle, and rescued by Prophet (SA) himself. He became a Muslim.

By the time of Jamal-war, the talented boy had prospered to a respected influential senior of Basra. For the first time after 24 years of 'Ofat' (Death) of the Prophet (SA), he came up with this hadis, when the woman-leadership (of Hazrat Ayesha (RA)) was defeated in the Jamal war.

Before 24 years when Iranian king Khasru was defeated by Roman king Hiracleas, Iran went through a bad time. At that time, two women-leaders came up in Iran and then the Prophet (SA) told him this hadis. Nobody else heard it. Nobody else knew about it for 24 years. In prophet's (SA) time, all the sahabis wrote down all the hadises they knew so that nothing would be lost. Nobody wrote it down. Now he came up with it after 24 years of total silence.

This hadis could have stopped the bloody civil war among Muslims right in the beginning, if disclosed to everybody right away. As a Sahabi, it was a must for him to inform everybody about the denial of women-leadership (Hazrat Ayesha (RA) at that time) by the prophet (SA). He never did that. He said, he had only written a letter to Hazrat Ayesha (RA) about the Prophet's (SA) saying when she was collecting soldiers before Jamal-war.

Fine! But did Bibi Ayesha (RA) believe in the hadis? Did she stop her efforts or handover the leadership to her male associates such as Hazrat Zubair (RA), Hazrat Talha (RA) etc., in Jamal war? No, never! It clearly
shows she did not believe in it at all. Also, he brought up this hadis when Bibi Ayesha (RA) was completely defeated. Would he bring it up if she were the victor in the battle? We don't know.

But one thing we know for sure. The hadis which:

1. Hazrat Ayesha (RA) herself did not believe in,

2. Khalifa of Muslim world did not believe in,

3. Contemporary Maolanas did not believe in,

4. Maolana Maodudi, a great supporter of Ms. Fatima Jinnah in the national election against President Ayub Khan did not believe in, is sitting in Sahi Bokhari perfectly healthy, safe and sound, continuously giving an
immoral support to the dirty power-game against competent Muslim-women for all time to come.

This is only one example of extremely cruel and cunning 'Islamic' games to reduce, torture, and deprive Muslim-women eternally in every single aspect of life. It spans from King's palace to the broken huts of poor people. Is being women a guarantee of being inefficient or, being men is a guarantee
of being efficient?

This debate was not solved in last 1400 years and will not be solved in another million years. But we will definitely know one serious aspect of this Hadis. That is:-

Ref (1) From “Women and Islam” by Fatima Mernissi, page 60:

“ (Abu Bakra) would have to be immediately eliminated (From Sahi Bukhari), since one of the biographies of him tells us that he was convicted of and flogged (whipped) for false testimony by the Caliph Umar Ibn Al Khattab”. (Ibn Al-Athir, Vol-5, page 38). Fatima Mernissi is a widely known and extremely respected Islamic Scholar who delivers lectures on Islam worldwide.

Ref – (2) “Women and politics in Islam” in a highly devoted web of Islam
– www.submission.org/women/politics.html

THE FALLACY OF THIS HADITH IS NOT ONLY PROVEN IN HISTORY BUT IN THE FACT THAT ABU BAKRA HIMSELF WAS REPORTED IN THE MUSLIM HISTORY BOOKS TO BE PUNISHED PUBLICLY FOR BEARING FALSE WITNESS.

DESPITE THIS KNOWN STORY OF HIS BEARING FALSE WITNESS, BUKHARY DID NOT REMOVE HIS HADITH FROM AMONG HIS COLLECTED HADITHS ACCORDING TO THE RULES THAT BUKHARY HIMSELF CLAIMED TO FOLLOW. SUCH A BEARER OF FALSE WITNESS SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED OR ACCEPTED AS A WITNESS EVER, ACCORDING TO THE QURAN, 24:4. BUKHARY DID NOT FOLLOW THE QURAN OR HIS OWN RULES.

Quote from ref (3) ‘Women’s Right in Islam’ by Mohd. Sharif Chowdhury. Page 172, a book strongly propagating Islamic philosophy and teaching from many angles:

“THE SUPPORTERS OF THE WOMEN’S RULE DO NOT ACCEPT THE HADITH PERTAINING TO DAUGHTER OF KISRA AS AUTHENTIC SINCE ITS REPORTER ABU BAKRA WAS FOUND GUILTY OF FALSE EVIDENCE AND WAS PUNISHED BY
HADRAT UMAR. THE OTHER HADITH REGARDING A WOMAN’S DEFICIENCY IN WISDOM AND RELIGION IS NOT ACCEPTED BEING IN CONTRADICTION WITH THE TEACHINGS OF THE QUR’AN AND THE PROPHET (P.B.U.H.) OF ISLAM ABOUT WOMEN.