Strong Women In Islamic History

are Muslim woman oppressed? What were women like in the time of the Prophet? I had the pleasure of discussing this topic with Allah mesh fact during her visit to Toronto from the UK for the being me conference. Allah is the founder and director of Im allamah. And women of m a movement to revive the love of knowledge. She is also an instructor at the online Islamic University. Here's our interview with her now.

Welcome to the show Allah. Thank you. So I'm going to ask you a very heavy type of a question. How can we deal with this notion that Muslim women are oppressed? Okay. And I want to start by some advice that Mr. Uppsala he gave me, I deliver lectures on regularly in the UK, and at times internationally. And he said to me, when you go into that audience, it is very delusional. And it's unfair for you to have the expectation that you are totally going to change their perception of women in Islam. But what you can do is you can plant the seed, you can plant the seed. And when we look back at Islamic history, we we truly learn that Islam is not oppressive. We have an example we

have, it starts off by hawala, a student who is you know, the wife of Adam Eve, from an Islamic perspective, which is very different to the the Christian outlook not to take any devotion away from them is that and Eve was, was to blame for Adam at Esalen for being thrown out of you know, heaven. So from the beginning, Islam, Islam cheeseand changes that and you go back to the Sunnah of the Prophet, Adi slet. Islam, he is a liberal. From the very beginning, he changed the perception with the Hadith and I'll mention one is that those who have daughters, you know, who have one daughter, two daughters, and they look off to them, they will be a shield for them on the on the day of

judgment in Buhari. And when you look at that, what is a shield? a shield defends you, what do you do you clean a shield regularly, any father who wants to go to Paradise, he will be looking after his daughter. So from the very beginning of Islam, the prophet peace be upon him, he changed their perception. And I'll mention one example some robinton A Hague and Muslims. So sometime in The Hague, an amazing example. She was chosen to go around the marketplaces in Medina and to make sure they are they are enjoying, she was enjoying good and forbidding evil, some robinton a heke. Meaning in our equivalent, she was a police woman, she was outside her home, she was strong, she was

confident, the men and women was scared of and this is all the time of the Prophet. This is the time of the Prophet. And you know, after you had examples, you have a shift. You have so many amazing women. So how do we dispel those misconceptions, you go back to Islamic history, you go back and you see these countless women and us in the UK. One thing I always say is the alternative narrative narrative and the alternative reality that the West puts forward to us. It's not, it's not something that we want, because we have objectification, we have sexualization of women. Whereas what Islam does, it paints an amazing picture. And whenever I and the last point, when I whenever I deliver a

lecture, I always say I don't begin that women are pearls and women are women have to be covered. You know why? Because the non Muslim is sitting in the audience. They're like, Okay, what about this woman over here? What about in like Pakistan or India in Saudi women are not allowed to drive? You know, that's what they're thinking. So they're not going to pay attention to me. However, you can plant that seed you can give those examples. And Dr. Tremont nedry, he makes an amazing statement. He says, you know, rarely in other cultures and rarely in other religions, do we judge their failures by their faith. The problem we have with them with Islam is everyone's judging the failures

of the Muslim community, by you know, by what people do by what individuals who are Muslim do so we have to, you know, detach ourselves from, you know, what Muslims do and look at what Islam does. Islamic history changes and I can give you countless, it's a how do we see you I heard you mentioned twice about, you know, it's important of planting the seed. Well, how do you like what is that seed and how do you actually do it? The way you plant that seed, so it depends on the individual, there are those individuals that are concerned and you know, they are Muslim and they're concerned. There are some amazing literature that are amazing auto audio series on the line. akkad you've got al

Mohanty said, Dr. Ackerman. nedry you've got Dr. Ahmed, Farooq Abdullah, he's got great women in Islam. You've got Dr. Hisham, awardee. He's got women around the beloved. You've got Imam Abdullah that does some amazing lectures on women. You've got Aisha Bulli, she does the biography of 1000s of women

You know, so we have these amazing resources that you should if you need to start a journey through them. And once you get through them, you will realize that narrative that is taught about Muslim women within the Muslim community, and the non Muslim community is not necessarily reflective of the dynamics of the prophetic society. So once you get and I will say, anybody go through those resources, come back and tell us if you think Muslim women are oppressed, it's not the case. And it's how we judge the Quran and how we judge the sinner, you have to judge it from a non biased perspective, when you're non biased. And when you're, you know, when you look at it in a wholesome

way, he will be able to appreciate it. Without that you will always assume that Muslim women are oppressed. So I wanna I know you were here for a conference meeting, and you focused on the life of Ayesha rhodiola. Haha. So can you share with us I guess, some more con? Well, not that the examples you've given so far own concrete but more practical examples? Because she suffered a lot as well. Right? Yeah, Chateau de la Hannah, she went through everything. And if we want to understand the status of women in Islam, we do it through her because she is the spiritual link between us and the Prophet are these letters and I'm, for example, you had an holub infallible female companion, came

to a Chateau de la and her and she said, my husband, he won't stay with me lovingly, but he will divorce me either. She was like, she was upset meaning here, he rhodiola rhodiola and her is being the marriage counselor, and a Chateau de la and how she was hurt because this is a woman that's concerned, she went to the Prophet peace be upon him and she said, you know, hola came to me, may Allah be pleased with her. And her her husband is treating her unjustly. And a chronic first was revealed to say that you either stay with them, or you you divorce them, you are not allowed to abuse a woman in that way. Allah subhanaw taala. He's watching. And I was reading the verse today,

actually. And within the verse, it says that if you like, forgive them, you know, it's if you forgive them, God is all pardoning, because hola did not want to split up from her husband, she loved him, and he loved her, but there were domestic issues in place. So for that reason, they, you know, they came together, and they, they had that loving relationship, but look how he rhodiola and how she, she deals with that. She was slanted. And away from that is a Chateau de la and her she was an amazing scholar, she generated 2210 Hadees a Chateau de la and her she taught at male scholars. So here the men had no problem taking from women. They weren't like, Oh, I can't take from her

because she's a woman. You know, she was teaching the men she was conversing with them, or might have been hooked on May Allah be pleased with him, would come to her and seek her advice, or men would seek her advice. And one example I have to show it's like so amazing, is during the time of earlier, the Alon, the Muslim community, you know, they were going through a few domestic issues. Everybody does. And it's in the wisdom of God, they took place, because the fact that they took place, we we know how to deal with domestic issues. So there's always wisdom there. And, you know, she, she, another female went to Hajj, and she tried to give some water to Othman Mallaby pleads

with him. And they didn't let her for a Chateau de la and he says, I'm going to hedge. And I'm like, don't go to hide, you know, it's you. It's not a place for you like, hell yeah, I like to hedge. And I'm going to tell them exactly how I feel. Look how confident she was a Shara Viola and her, you know, she teaches women that you can have a role in society. And the greatest thing we learn from Aisha is her Connect connection with Allah, you know, that we as Muslim women, the more successful we are, the more connected we need to be to God. Because what this society does and what all societies have done is they divorced the woman from, you know, divorced, a woman from her

femininity, in the name of progression. So, you know, motherhood will deprive you of, you know, having a career getting married will deprive you from and, you know, you won't have that life anymore. And that's not just a Muslim, no universal, there are articles about how Yeah, once you have children, then you can't progress. It's a certain level in your career, us in the West way exhausted, by the way, because we we want to work, we want to, we want to have that career. We're looking after our children, whereas what Islam has done is and this is an injunction, that the responsibility is on the men like that's a responsibility upon them. And you know, we it's how we

view the heads like oh my god, men are given the right to go out to work, and women aren't know it's a responsibility.

It's hard, it's tough. And whereas women, they have the right to work, and they have the right to not to work. I know many women that are forced out in the workplace, because they that it's the culture that men women need to work. So Islam gives them that if you want to work, you can, if you don't, you don't have to your husband should provide for you. But your responsibility as parents is your children. No, they are your responsibility. But that does not stop you from being successful. And that's why we have the mahadi said, You have countless women who, you know, they were involved in society. An important point is a majority of them had the Fed their fathers were immigrants, they

were scholars, they were mostly they were called these, meaning the most conservative men had the most active daughters. But in our time, the most conservative individuals are apparently too strict, and they end up oppressing their women the most. So we have to go back in Islamic history. And when we do, like, this is just like a tidbit. Like, like so excited. How do you I know you're also teaching a course.

Online? Can you share with us a little bit about that if people are interested in learning more? Okay, so I'm teaching ultimate minute with Islamic online university. And this course has changed my life completely. Because the when I put in the course, together, I'm reading a journal, I'm like, Oh, my God, I need to read another one. I need to read another one. So the first one, the first session was, why is gender a legitimate topic? Because there are individuals that think why do we have to speak about women? You know, why do we always go on about the topic of women, it's incredibly legitimate when through comparative religion from a Western perspective and an Eastern

perspective, as well as a historical one. And the reason why I did that is so you appreciate the renascence during the Prophet, at least let us in him and then we went on, you know, how does the Quran and Sunnah transform attitude related to women? We go on we deal with the misconceptions, you know, conceptions within the Muslim community, like a woman's voice is our Ah, you know, you deal you know, women aren't allowed in the masjid. And if I can be clear, that's not true. That's

an interesting point is you know, I'm gonna be in hot tub the second halifa he had a wife, you know, his wife Heidecker, so, Ahmedabad, hombre de la and he didn't like his wife going to the masjid. But he never forbade her. We understand it was a domestic issue, meaning, you know, like husband, I don't want you to go there. You know, a wife like, I don't want you to go with it. It's a domestic issue. It's not an Islamic and but American hottub never forbade his wife. He never stopped her from going to the masjid. And when I'm in hot tub, you know, when he passed away. They say it's reported that article within the masjid meaning until the day he passed away, he didn't stop her from from

going to the mosque. And someone came to it, you know, like people influence these like, why do you go to the mosque and I'm gonna doesn't like you going. She says, if he told me not to go, I wouldn't go, actually the wife if my husband told me not to do something. And I'd be like, okay, fine, I won't do it. It makes you happy and it's not going to kill me. So Fine. We should like he if he want the day, he tells me not to go. I won't go. He never told her. So here on Marvin Hertzog the second halifa is one of the strongest characters in Islam, we paint him as harsh he was not harsh. It was incredibly amazing. He never stopped his women, and you have individuals and brothers and men and at

times women who don't have as much knowledge who spirituality is not that high. They're stopping women in the name of what vested interests, power structures to keep the women out. Because when women become involved for that, for them, it's something that they can't tolerate. It's something that they don't know how to tolerate. So, and it's amazing, like I'm throwing these in. So yeah, amazing. I can like throw stuff at you like all day, and you're like, wow, but the whole point is, you appreciate that the faith is more dynamic and more wider than our perception of what it is. So people can go if they if they want to take this course and learn more. It's on your website, Islamic

online university, Islamic online university, you can search it and it should come up. Perfect. Thank you so much. It was so inspiring, and I'm really looking forward to the course. Thank you. Hey, YouTube, we hope you benefit from this video. If you liked it, or if you did, let us know in the comments below. And if you're interested in learning more, check out some of our other videos. And don't forget to subscribe so you can get new videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.