Sex, Marriage and Family in World Religions (48 page)

Praise be to God, the author was asked about the case of a man and his wife who acquired cattle and money during their marriage.

So he replied, seeking God’s guidance, that the woman is entitled to a share in proportion to her work from whatever they have acquired since the day of their wedding. This is what more than one imam has said. The author of the
Al Ajwibah Al Nasiriyyah
said, “She may take a share in proportion to the amount of her labor.” . . . Imam Malik and his companions said, “She is entitled to a share from their wealth, whether from the capital or the earnings, in proportion to her labor.”

The custom in this land is such that if the wife does handcrafted objects and her husband buys any capital with that, she is entitled to one quarter of those acquisitions. . . . This is enough said about this matter, and there is no need for more. God is all-knowing. This is said and recorded by the humble servant of God Abd al-Salam Ibn Abd al-Salam Ashghaf al-Wathili. . . .

[Abdel Kabir al-Alaoui Al-Mdaghri,
Al-Mar’ah Bayna Ahkam al-Fiqh wa al-Da’wah
ila al-Taghyir
(Woman Between the Legal Ruling of Islamic Jurisprudence and the Calls for Change) (Morocco: Matba’at Fdalah, 1999), pp. 203–204

(20th century ce)]

Islam
223

1. Yusuf Ali translates the Arabic word
’iqra’
as “Proclaim! (or read)” But Arabic dictionaries and literature surrounding the incident make the parenthetical translation more accurate. This word is now the opening word in chapter 96 of the Qur’an, entitled ‘
Alaq
(Clot).

2. The majority of scholars agree that the Qur’an was revealed over a period of twenty-three years. However, some say twenty, and others twenty-five years.

3. Al-‘Asqalani,
Fath Al-Bari Sharh Sahih Al-Bukhari,
6:76–77.

4. Yusuf Ali translates the Qur’anic word
nafs
as “person,” in this verse and others.

For purposes of accuracy, we have changed the translation to “soul.”

5. This is the editor’s literal translation. Yusuf Ali’s translation reverses the genders in the original text. This reversal may be significant in light of the fact that the verse continues, “When they were united, she bore a light burden.” The continuation indicates that the gender attributed to the soul in this verse may not be simply a matter of linguistics.

6. The Arabic word used in the verse for people is
nas,
which is gender neutral and refers to a group of people.

7. The term
hadith
is used in the Shi’i tradition to refer not only to the prophetic tradition but also to the sayings of the Shi’i imams (spiritual leaders), as is the case in this text.

8. This text is from the Shi’i tradition, which is considered the fifth school of thought in Islam. This school is still followed in many parts of the world, particularly in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Lebanon.

9. Abbreviation for
Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala,
which means “the Most Exalted One.”

10. The reform of the Moroccan family code,
Mudawwanat al-‘Usrah,
has been since approved and the legislation passed by the parliament on January 23, 2004.

11. The word
sunnah
refers to the example set by the life of the Prophet. See Muhammad Mustafa Azami,
Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature
(India-napolis: American Trust, 1977), pp. 3–4.

12.
Hadith
narrated by Anas Ibn Malik, in al-Bukhari,
Sahih al-Bukhari,
bk. 62,
Kitab al-Nikah,
no. 67, N. 1 (9th century ce).

13. Al-Shafi’i (767 or 8–820) is the founder of the Shafi’i school, one of the four major Sunni schools of thought; the person named Muhammad is a medieval jurist.

Abu Yusuf is Ya’qub Ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari (731 or 2–798), a medieval scholar who was the student and disciple of Abu Hanifah.

14. Qur’an 2:232.

15. All the individuals named are famous medieval scholars.
Tabi’in
refers to the generation of Muslim scholars that followed the Companions of the Prophet.

16. The word
obligations
is used in Y. Ali’s translation for
’uqud
(sing. ’
aqd
), which means contracts and commitments in Arabic as well, as in ‘
aqd al-zawaj,
“the marriage contract.”

17. ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, a Companion of the Prophet and the second
khalifah
(caliph) of Islam.

18. Al-Shafi’i is Muhammad Ibn Idriss (767 or 8–820), leader of the Shafi’i school 224

a z i z a h a l - h i b r i a n d r a j a ’ m . e l h a b t i of thought, one of the four major Sunni schools of thought; Ahamd is Ibn Hanbal, (780–855) leader of the Hanbali school; the two other leaders of Sunni schools of thought are Malik ibn Anas (d. 795) and Abu Hanifah al-Nu’man (d. 767 or 768).

Finally, Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim al-Nisaburi (d. 888 or 889) is a Hanbali scholar.

19. This verse is a part of a longer verse that explains the rights and duties of women in the very specific case of divorce. However it has always been taken out of context and its meaning extended to include every woman and every man in all circumstances.

See the whole verse and related discussion below in the next section.

20.
Fadl
is a general word that means “preference,” “remainder,” or “excess in degree or quality.”

21. This does not include required religious duties, such as prayers and fasting, because when God’s rights are involved they transcend all human rights and privileges, including obedience to humans, whether they are rulers, parents, spouses, or others.

22. It is known that after the death of Khadijah, the Prophet married more than one wife. The Qur’an and the Prophet both viewed the Prophet’s situation as exceptional and did not hold it up as the norm.

23. ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib was the cousin of the Prophet and his son-in-law.

24. The prominent religious and educational Egyptian institution in Cairo.

25. Yusuf Ali’s translation of the Arabic word
nushuz
as “disloyalty and ill-conduct”

is overly broad. See the introduction to this section.

26. This
hadith
has a different number, namely no. 2137, in the online connection.

27. This is al-Ghazali’s opinion; there are, however, other indications that the Prophet loved Khadijah, his first wife, with whom he stayed in a monogamous marital relationship until she died. He also was very faithful to her memory and once became very angry at ‘A’ishah when she spoke about Khadijah in condescending terms.

28. In the verse 4:34.

29. Divorce initiated by the wife, see the section on divorce.

30. ‘Ata’ Ibn Abi Rabah is a Tabi’i, from the second generation after the Prophet; he was a great scholar and a narrator of
hadith.

31.
Al-Qadi
is the Arabic word for judge, it refers here to the author Ibn al-‘Arabi.

It was common for jurists to refer to themselves in the third person.

32. A small twig used as a toothbrush.

33. Verses where the Arabic verb
daraba
or one of its variations were used.

34. Bk. 12, no. 2173 in the online collection.

35. A
sunnah
divorce is one that takes place according to the
sunnah
of the Prophet.

This means, among other things, that the woman may not be divorced during her menstrual cycle or after it, if the couple engages in sexual intercourse during that subsequent period. A
bid’a
divorce deviates from these regulations.

36. The legislation project referred to in this excerpt is the Egyptian reform project of the
khul’
law. It abolished the requirement of the consent of the husband in this form of divorce. See the introduction to this section.

37. The imams are the four Sunni imams: Malik, al-Shafi’i, Abu Hanifah, and Ahmad Ibn Hanbal; see note 22.

38. The author lists Sa’id Ibn Jubayr, al-Hasan al-Basri, Ibn Sirin, and Ziad Ibn Ubayd al-Taqafi (Ziad Ibn Abih). The term
Tabi’in,
meaning “successors,” refers to the second generation of the
hadith
’s narrators and jurists who were taught by the Companions of the Prophet.

Islam
225

39. Under Maliki school of thought
tamleek
is when the husband agrees in the marriage contract to give his wife the right to divorce him.

40. See, e.g., Qur’an 2:187 and 9:71.

41. Those rules include, among others: lowering one’s gaze before the opposite sex, modesty in dress, and holding to chastity and family values (Q. 24:30–33).

42. An Arabic word that applies to any intimate part of the body that should be concealed, veiled, or lowered, in this case, from the sight or ears of strangers.

43. “O you who believe! Enter not houses other than your own, until you have asked permission and saluted those in them: that is best for you, in order that you may heed (what is seemly). If you find no one in the house, enter not until permission is given to you: if you are asked to go back, go back. That makes for greater purity for yourselves” (Q 24:27–28).

44. There is disagreement as to whether the obedience mentioned here is to God or to the husband. Some jurists circumvented the issue by arguing that obeying one’s husband is part of obeying God.

45. Divorce Regulation Amendment Act Approved on March 11, 1992, by the Islamic Parliament and November 19, 1992, by the council for the determination of the suitability of orders, note 6, a.

46. See, e.g., Ibn Hazm,
Al-Muhalla bi al-Athar
(Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1988), 9:227–228, and Ibn Qudamah
,
Muwaffaq al-Din (d. 1223),
Al-Mughni
(The Enricher) (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, n.d.), 8:130.

47. The word
garment
is used by the author in a metaphoric sense that refers to the gendered body.

48. The three references here are to Fatimah, the Prophet’s daughter, Khadijah, the Prophet’s first wife, and the Virgin Mary.

49. The author here is originally defending Queen ‘Arwa of Yemen, who marked Yemeni history by her strong personality, her knowledge, and sense of justice.

50. An abbreviation meaning “Peace be upon him.”

51. Abreviation for
radiya allah ‘anha:
“May God be pleased with her.”

52. “Decrees Defying Negligence in Chafchaouen and Its Surrounding Mountains.”

53. A small town in Northern Morocco.

h i n d u i s m

Paul B. Courtright

In the nineteenth century, as the major European powers were extending their empires to various parts of the world, scholars developed categories for organizing the vast amount of new information about the practices and beliefs of the societies over which they were exercising increasing dominance. One of the key categories that emerged during this time was religion. The notion emerged that all human beings conducted their lives in one way or another in relation to higher or supernatural beings and powers. The work of religion, mainly through rituals and sacred stories, gave human beings definition and orientation. As scholars and travelers gained better knowledge of these “religions,” the idea of “world” religions emerged. World religions were those that had complex literary traditions, classes of ritual specialists (priests and monks), and an overarching set of ideas and beliefs of how the world ultimately is put together and how humans should act while they are here. The model for such a construction of the concept of religion was, inevitably, Christianity as both the tradition of the dominant group and as the one most familiar to scholars.

When we turn to Hinduism as one of the world religions, we see that it does not fit into the model of religion developed in European traditions. Indeed, the very term, Hinduism itself derived from foreigners, first Islamic, then European, who settled in India and attempted to make sense out of what people in India were doing in their ceremonies and shrines.

Hinduism
227

With this historical background in mind it is useful at the outset to identify some categories that may be instinctively associated with the word, religion, that in a Western context are noticeably absent in the Hindu tradition. Hinduism has no founding figure, such as Jesus, the Buddha, or Mohammed; no single ultimate deity (mono-theism) who rules over the universe. It has no single sacred textual tradition, such as the Bible or Qur’an. It has no comprehensive ecclesiastical organization, such as a church; no single ethical code or commandments.

The Hindu tradition has its own categories and practices, which reveal its foundational understanding of the world and humans’ place in it. First, generally speaking, Hinduism does not see a firm boundary separating the human from the divine. Related to this porousness between human and divine is the importance of images and multiple visual representations of deities. Just as humans come in many sizes, genders, colors, and dispositions, so gods, goddesses, saints, and demons populate the Hindu universe. This robust polytheism with its multiple deities, many with multiple arms and faces, is one of the distinctive features of this tradition. If the Abrahamic religions are “religions of the Book,” Hinduism may be said to be the “religion of the image.” Given the Western tradition’s instinctive suspicion of “idols,” deriving from the biblical tradition, it is crucial in looking at Hinduism to appreciate that it comes from a very different tradition and relationship to visual images.

Constructing a history of Hinduism in general, or its views on sex, marriage, and family in particular, presents important challenges. While Hinduism is arguably the oldest continuing religion in the world, dating back to at least 1500

b c e, it has developed in many directions while maintaining a core identity.

One scholar, Axel Michaels,
Hinduism: Past and Present
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), has organized the Hindu tradition into six epochs, each one adding a layer of literature:

Pre-Vedic, (to 1750 bce), with inscriptions on seals not yet deci-phered

Vedic, (1750–900 bce), Vedas, ritual instructions