Made from Adam’s Rib – The Issue of Woman’s Creation
by Dr. Riffat
Hassan (Professor of Islamic Studies,
The ordinary Muslim, as seriously as the ordinary Jew or
Christian, believes that Adam was God's primary creation and that Eve was made
from Adam's rib. If confronted with the fact that this firmly entrenched belief
is derived mainly from the Bible and is not only extra-Qur'anic
but also in contradiction to the Qur'an, this Muslim is almost certain to be
shocked. The rather curious and tragic truth is that even Western-educated
Muslims seldom have any notion of the extent to which the Muslim psyche
bears the imprint of the collective body of Jewish and Christian ideas and
attitudes pertaining to women.
The Biblical account of the creation of the first human pair
consists of two different sources, the Yahwist and the
Priestly, from which arise two different traditions, subject of much Jewish and
Christian scholarly controversy. There are four references to woman's
creation in Genesis: (1) Gen. 1:26-27, 5th century B.C.E., Priestly
tradition; (2) Gen. 2:7, 10th century B.C.E., Yahwist
tradition; (3) Gen. 2:18-24, 10th century B.C.E., Yahwist
tradition; (4) Gen. 5:1-2, 5th century B.C.E., Priestly tradition. A study
of these texts shows that the Hebrew term "Adam" (literally, "of
the soil," from adamah: "the
soil") functions mostly as a generic term for humanity. Pointing out that the
correct translation of this term is "the human," Leonard Swidler
observes: "It is a mistake to translate it ["ha Adam"] in
Genesis 1 to 2:22 either as man in the male sense or as a proper name, Adam
(until Genesis 4:25 the definite article "ha" is almost always used
with "Adam," precluding the possibility of its being a proper name:
in 4:25 it becomes a proper name, "Adam" without the
"ha"). Moreover, it is clearly a collective noun in Genesis 1 to
2:22, as can be seen in the plural 'let them be masters' (Genesis
1:26).”10 Of the four texts referring to creation, undoubtedly
the most influential has been Genesis 2:18-24, which states that woman (ishshah)
was taken from man (ish). From
this text it has generally been inferred that: (1) Adam was God's primary
creation from whom Eve, a secondary creation, was derived, hence Eve is
inferior and subordinate to Adam; and (2) Eve was created simply and solely to
be the helpmate of Adam.
While in Genesis, specific reference is made to the creation of Adam and Eve, there is no corresponding reference in the Qur'an. In fact, there is no mention of Eve (Hawwa') at all in the Qur'an. The term Adam occurs twenty-five times in the Qur'an, but there is only one verse (Surah 3: Al-'Imran:59) that refers to the creation of Adam: "Certainly with Allah the likeness of 'Isa [Jesus] is as the likeness of Adam. Allah created him from the earth then said to him, "Be," and he was." Here it needs to be mentioned that the term "Adam" is not an Arabic term but a Hebrew term, and the description of Adam as a creature of earth in the verse cited above is no more than an explication of the meaning of the term. There are three other verses (Surah 3: Al-'Imran:35; Surah 19: Maryam:58; and Surah 5: Al-Ma'idah:30) in which the term "Adam" is used as a proper name for an individual who was probably a prophet. Since Arabic has no capital letters, it is often not possible to tell whether a term is used as a proper name or as a common noun without looking at the context in which it occurs. However, there is no categorical statement in the Qur'an to the effect that Adam was the first human being created by Allah. The term is used most frequently in reference to more than one or two human beings. That the term "Adam" functions as a collective noun and stands for humankind is substantiated by an analysis of several verses in which this term occurs. It is also corroborated by the fact that all human beings are assimilatively addressed as "Children of Adam" (Bani Adam) in Surah 7: Al-'Araf:26, 27, 31, 35, 172, Surah 17: Bani Isra'il:70, and Surah 36: Ya-Sin:60, and also by the fact that the Qur'an sometimes replaces the term "Adam" by al-insan or bashar, which are both generic terms for humanity. Here it is important to note that though the term "Adam" mostly does not refer to a particular human being, it does refer to human beings in a particular way. As pointed out by Muhammad Iqbal:
“Indeed, in the verses which deal with the origin of man as
a living being, the Qur'an uses the word "Bashar" or "Insan,"
not "Adam," which it reserves for man in his capacity of God's
vicegerent on earth. The purpose of the Qur'an is further secured by the
omission of proper names mentioned in the Biblical narration – Adam and
Eve. The word "Adam" is retained and used more as a concept than
as the name of a concrete human individual. This use of the word is not
without authority in the Qur'an itself.”11
It is noteworthy that the Qur'an uses the terms bashar,
al-insan,
and an-nas
while describing the process of the physical creation of human
beings. It uses the term "Adam" more selectively to refer to
human beings only when they become representative of a self-conscious,
knowledgeable, and morally autonomous humanity.
Instead of "Adam and Hawwa',”
the Qur'an speaks of "Adam and zauj” in
Surah 2: Al-Baqarah:35,
Surah 7: Al-'Araf:
19, and Surah 20: Ta-Ha:117. Muslims,
almost without exception, assume that "Adam" was the first human
being created by Allah and that he was a man. If "Adam" was a
man, it follows that "Adam's zauj"
would be a woman. Hence the zauj
mentioned in the Qur'an becomes equated with Hawwa'. Neither
the initial assumption nor the inferences drawn from it are, however, supported
in a clear or conclusive way by the Qur'anic
text. The Qur'an states neither that Adam was the first human being nor
that he was a man. The term "Adam" is a masculine noun, but
linguistic gender does not necessarily define sex. If "Adam" is
not necessarily a man, then "Adam's zauj"
is not necessarily a woman. In fact, the term zauj
is also a masculine noun and, unlike the term "Adam," has
a feminine counterpart, zaujatun (here
it may be noted that the most accurate English equivalent of zauj
is not "wife" or "husband," or even "spouse,"
but the term "mate", and the Qur'an uses the term zauj
with reference not only to human beings but to every kind of creation,
including animals, plants, and fruits.) However, neither the term zauj
nor the plural form zaujatun
is used anywhere in the Qur'an, which consistently uses the masculine forms
zauj
and azwaj.
It has been pointed out by the authoritative Arabic lexicon Taj
al-'Arus
that only the people of Al-Hijaz (
The Qur'an describes human creation in thirty or so passages
that are found in various chapters. Generally speaking, it refers to the
creation of humanity (and nature) in two ways: as an evolutionary process
whose diverse stages or phases are mentioned sometimes together and
sometimes separately, and as an accomplished fact or in its totality. In
the passages in which human creation is described "concretely" or
"analytically," we find that no mention is made of the separate or
distinct creation of either man or woman, as may be seen, for instance, from
the following: Surah 15: Al-Hijr:26, 28, 29, Surah 16: An-Nahl:4; Surah 22: Al-Hajj: 5; Surah 23: Al-Mo'minun:12-14; Surah 25: Al-Furqan:54; Surah 32: As-Sajdah:7-9; Surah 36: Ya-Sin:77; Surah 38: Sad:71-72; Surah 39: Az-Zumar:6; Surah 40: Al-Mo'min:67; Surah 55: Ar-Rahman:3, 4, 14; Surah 71; Nuh:14, 17; Surah 76: Ad-Dahr:2; Surah 77: Al-Mursalat:20-22; Surah 82: Al-Infitar:6-8; Surah 86: At-Tariq:5-7, Surah 95: At-Tin:4; and Surah 96: Al-'Alaq:1-2. In
some passages (e.g., Surah 49: Al-Hujurat:13;
Surah 53: An-Najm:45; and Surah 78: An-Naba:8), though
reference is made to Allah's creation of human beings as sexually
differentiated "mates," no priority or superiority is accorded to
either man or woman.
There are, however, some verses in the Qur'an that are
understood in such a way that they appear to endorse a version of the Genesis
2 story of woman's creation from man. These verses can be grouped into
two categories. The most important verses in the first group are: Surah 16: An-Nahl:72;
Surah 30: Ar-Rum:20-21; and Surah 35: Al-Fatir:11. Muslim
arguments that women were created from and for men are supported as follows:
(1) Surah 30: Ar-Rum:21
uses the term ilaiha to refer to
"mates" created from, and for, the original creation. Since ha
is a feminine attached pronoun, the "mates" it refers to must be
female (thus making the original creation male); (2) all three verses cited use
kum
as a form of address. Hence these verses are addressed not to humanity
collectively, but only to men, since the term used is a masculine attached
pronoun (second person plural). Men are, therefore, the primary creation
from and for whom the “mates” were created. Regarding (1), ilaiha
literally means "in her" and not "in them", and refers not
to women (who are not mentioned here) but to azwaj
(masculine plural used in the Qur'an for both men and women). If the
“mates” were clearly designated as women, the term used would be hunna,
not ha. The use of ha here is consistent with the Arabic
grammatical rule that permits the use of feminine singular terms for a class or
collectivity. The fact that the creatures to whom the passage is addressed
are referred to as bashar
further supports the argument that the "mates" created by Allah are
not only women (for men), since bashar
obviously has a bisexual reference. Regarding (2), Arabic usage permits
the use of kum in reference to men and
women together. When women alone are concerned, kunna
is used. Here it is of interest to note that in his book Haquq-e-Niswan
(The Rights of Women, 1898), Mumtaz 'Ali
pointed out that the Qur'an uses the masculine form of address to prescribe
fundamental duties (e.g., salat, zakat, fasting) to Muslim men and
women. If masculine terms of address are understood by the entire Muslim ummah
to apply to both men and women in highly significant contexts, such as the
prescription of basic religious duties, then it cannot consistently be argued
that these terms apply to men invariably and exclusively.
Regarding the second group of verses that are cited to prove
man's ontological priority and superiority to woman, the following are of exceptional
importance: Surah 4: An-Nisa':
1; Surah 7: Al-'Araf
:189; and Surah
39: Az-Zumar:6. In these verses (as also in Surah 6: Al-An'am:98 and Surah 31: Luqman:28), reference is made to the
creation from one source or being (nafsin wahidatin)
of all human beings. Muslims, with hardly any exceptions, believe that
the one original source or being referred to in these verses is a man named
Adam. This belief has led many translators of the Qur'an to obviously
incorrect translations of simple Qur'anic
passages. For instance, Surah 4:
An-Nisa':1; if correctly translated, reads as follows: "O
an-nas,
be circumspect in keeping your duty to your Sustainer who created you
[plural] from one being [nafsin wahidatin)
and spread from her [minha]
her mate [zaujaha] and spread from these two
beings many men and women." However, most translators (e.g., Hashim
Amir-'Ali, Muhammad Ali, A. J. Arberry, A. K.
Azad, A. M. Daryabadi, N. J. Dawood,
S. A. Latif,
A. A. Maududi,
M. M. Pickthall,
George Sale, and M. Y. Zayid) translate
the feminine attached pronoun ha in minha
and zaujaha
as "his" instead of "her". How is such a mistake
possible? Could it be the case that given their preconceptions and
psychological orientation, these interpreters of the Qur'an (who all happen to
be men) are totally unable to imagine that the first creation could have been
other than male? Or are they afraid that a correct translation of ha
might suggest the idea – even for an instant – that woman, not man, was the
prior creation (and therefore superior if priority connotes superiority) and
that man was created from woman and not the other way around (which, in a
reversal of the Eve from Adam's rib story would give Eve the primacy
traditionally accorded to Adam)? Certainly no Qur'anic
exegete to date has suggested the possibility that nafsin
wahidatin
might refer to woman rather than man.
Summing up the Qur'anic descriptions of human creation, it needs to be emphasized that the Qur'an evenhandedly used both feminine and masculine terms and imagery to describe the creation of humanity from a single source. That Allah's original creation was undifferentiated humanity and not either man or woman (who appeared simultaneously at a subsequent time) is implicit in a number of Qur'anic passages, in particular Surah 75: Al-Qiyamah: 36-39, which reads:
Does al-insan think
that he will be left aimless? Was he not a drop of semen emitted then he
became something which clings; Then He [Allah] created and shaped and made of
him [minhu] two mates [zaujain]
the male and the female.
If the Qur'an makes no distinction between the creation of
man and woman, as it clearly does not, why do Muslims believe that Hawwa'
was created from the rib of Adam? Although the Genesis 2 account of
woman's creation is accepted by virtually all Muslims, it is difficult to
believe that it entered the Islamic tradition directly, for very few Muslims
ever read the Bible. It is much more likely that it became a part of
Muslim heritage through its assimilation in hadith
literature, which has been, in many ways, the lens through which the Qur'an has
been seen since the early centuries of Islam.
Hadith literature, which modernist Muslims tend to regard with a
certain skepticism, is surrounded by controversies,
centering particularly around the question of the authenticity of individual hadith as well as the body of the
literature as a whole. These controversies have occupied the attention of
many Muslim scholars since the time of Ash-Shafi'i
(d. A.H. 204/A.D. 809). Fazlur Rahman
has pointed out that "a very large portion of the ahadith were judged to be
spurious and forged by classical Muslim scholars themselves," but goes on
to add that "if the hadith as a
whole is cast away, the basis for the whole historicity of the Qur'an is
removed with one stroke.”12 Noted Islamicists
such as Alfred Guillaume.13 H. A. R. Gibb,14
and M. G. S. Hodgson15 have underscored the importance of the hadith literature, which not only has
its own autonomous character in point of law and even of doctrine, but also has
an emotive aspect, hard to overstate, relating to the conscious and
subconscious thought and feeling of Muslims, both individually and as a
group. That the story of Eve's creation from Adam's rib had become part of
the hadith literature is evident from
the following hadith related from Ibn
'Abbas and Ibn
Mas'ud,
which is referred to by authoritative commentators on the Qur'an, including Fakhr
ud-Din
ar-Razi,
Isma'il
ibn
'Umar Ibn
Kathir,
and al-Fadl
ibn
al-Hasan
al-Tabarsi:
When God sent Iblis out of the
Garden and placed Adam in it, he dwelt in it alone and had no one to socialize
with. God sent sleep on him and then He took a rib from his left side and
placed flesh in its place and created Hawwa' from it.
When he awoke he found a woman seated near his head. He asked her, "Who
are you?" She answered, "Woman." He said, "Why were you
created?" She said, "That you might find rest in me." The angels
said, "What is her name?" and he said, "Hawwa'
" They said, "Why was she called Hawwa'?"
He said, "Because she was created from a living thing."16
Another hadith,
related from Ibn 'Abbas and cited by Ibn
Kathir
in his Tafsir,
which also refers to the creation of Hawwa' from
Adam's rib, reads as follows:
After Iblis had been
chastised and Adam's knowledge had been exhibited, Adam was put to sleep and Hawwa'
was created from his left rib. When Adam awoke he saw her and felt affection
and love for her since he was made from his flesh and blood. Then Allah gave Hawwa'
in wedlock to Adam and told them to live in al-jannah.17
Both of the above ahadith
clash
sharply with the Qur'anic accounts of human creation,
while they have an obvious correspondence to Genesis 2:18-33 and Genesis
3:20. Some changes, however, are to be noted in the story of woman's
creation as it is retold in the above ahadith. Both
mention "the left rib" as the source of woman. In Arab culture
great significance is attached to "right" and "left," the
former being associated with everything auspicious and the latter with the
opposite. In Genesis, woman is named "Eve" after the Fall,
but in the above ahadith
she is called Hawwa' from the time of her
creation. In Genesis, woman is named Eve because "she is the mother
of all who live" (thus a primary source of life), but in the first of the
aforementioned ahadith,
she is named Hawwa' because "she was created
from a living thing" (hence a derivative creature). These variations
are not to be ignored. Biblical and other materials are seldom incorporated
without alteration into ahadith. The
above examples illustrate how in respect of woman, Arab biases were added to
the adopted text.
The citing of the above ahadith by significant Muslim exegetes and historians shows the extent to which authoritative works both of Qur'anic exegesis and Islamic history had become colored by the hadith literature. In the course of time, many ahadith became "invisible," the later commentators referring not to them but to the authority of earlier commentators who had cited them, to support their views. This made it very hard to curtail their influence since they became diffused throughout the body of Muslim culture. A typical example of how the Qur'anic account of human creation is distorted by means of unauthentic ahadith (which identify nafsin wahidatin from which all human beings, including Hawwa’, originated, with Adam the man), even when these ahadith are not mentioned or affirmed directly, is provided by A. A. Maududi, author of a well-known modern commentary on the Qur'an18 and one of contemporary Islam's most influential scholars. In commenting on Surah An-Nisa' l, Maududi observes:
"He created you of a single soul." At first one
human being was created and then from him the human race spread over the earth....
We learn from another part of the Qur'an that Adam was that "single
soul." He was the first man from whom the whole of mankind sprang up
and spread over the earth. "And of the same created his mate":
we have no definite detailed knowledge of how his mate was created of
him. The Commentators generally say that Eve was created from the rib
of Adam and the Bible also contains the same story. The Talmud adds to it
that she was created from the thirteenth rib of Adam. But the Qur'an is silent
about it, and the Tradition of the Holy Prophet that is cited in support of
this has a different meaning from what has been understood. The best
thing, therefore, is to leave it undefined as it has been left in the Qur'an,
and not to waste time in determining its details.19
In the above passage, Maududi has no
difficulty in affirming what has traditionally been made the basis of asserting
woman's inferiority and subordination to man, namely that woman was created
from man. Having made the deadly affirmation, however, he is
reluctant to explicate it further, nor does he reveal what
he considers to be the "true" meaning of the hadith pertaining to Eve's creation from Adam's rib. His
justification for not discussing the issue of woman's creation is that the
Qur'an has deliberately left it undefined. But this is simply not the
case. The creation of woman is as clearly defined in the Qur'an as the
creation of man, and the Qur'anic
statements about human creation, diverse as they are, leave no doubt as to one
point: both man and woman were made in the same manner, of the same substance,
at the same time. Maududi (like the
majority of Muslim exegetes, who happen to be all men) does not want to face
this fact, so he declares that the discussion of the issue of woman's creation
is a waste of time. If the issue in question was not worthy of serious
theological reflection, or one that had no significant effect on the lives of
human beings, particularly of women, one would, perhaps, be less critical of a
scholar who has had massive impact on the minds of the Muslim masses, for
dereliction of scholarly duty. But theologically the issue of woman’s
creation is of such import that it cannot be allowed to be dismissed in the
manner in which Maududi has done.
Perhaps no better proof can be given of how totally ahadith such
as the ones cited above have penetrated Muslim culture than the fact that the
myth of the creation of Hawwa' from
Adam's rib was accepted uncritically even by Qasim
Amin (1863-1906), the Egyptian judge and feminist whose books Tahrir
al-Mara' (The Emancipation of Women, 1899) and Al-Mara' al-Jadida
(The Modern Woman, 1900) were epoch-making in the history of Muslim
feminism. Amin's romantic interpretation of the myth, reminiscent of
Milton's, shows that he did not realize how fundamentally the issue that
concerned him most deeply, namely, woman's social equality with man in a
strongly male-centered and male-dominated Muslim society, hinged upon the
acceptance or rejection of a creation story that asserted woman's derivative
status and had been interpreted traditionally to affirm her inferiority and
subordination to man. It is unfortunate that many present-day Muslim
advocates of women's rights also do not realize the profound implications of
this myth that undergirds the anti-women attitudes and structures they seek to
change.
Anti-women ahadith
are found not only in the significant secondary sources of Islam but also in Sahih
al-Bukhari
(compiled by Muhammad ibn Isma'il
al-Bukhari,
A. H. 194-256/A..D. 810-870) and Sahih
Muslim (compiled by Muslim bin al-Hajjaj, A. H. 202
or 206-261 /A. D. 817 or 821-875), the two most influential hadith collections in Sunni
Islam. Cited below are six ahadith,
the first three from Sahih al-Bukhari
and the last three from Sahih
Muslim, that have had a formative influence upon the Muslim mind:
1. Abu Karaith
and Musa bin Hazam related to us: Husain bin 'Ali
told us that he was reporting on the authority of Zai'dah
who was reporting on the authority of Maisarah al-Ashja'i
who was reporting on the authority of Abu Hazim
who was reporting on the authority Abu Hurairah (with
whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul20 (may peace be
upon him) said: Treat women nicely, for a woman is created from a rib, and the
most curved portion of the rib is its upper portion, so if you should try to
straighten it, it will break, but if you leave it as it is, it will remain
crooked. So treat woman nicely.21
2. 'Abd
al-'Aziz related to us that he was reporting on the authority of 'Abd
Allah who said: Malik had told us that he was reporting on the authority of Abu
Zinad
who was reporting on the authority of al-A'raj who was
reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with
whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul
(may peace be upon him) said:22 The woman is like a rib, if you try
to straighten her, she will break. So if you want to get benefit from her,
do so while she still has some crookedness.23
3. Ishaq
bin Nasr related to us: Husain al-Jo'fi related to
us that he was reporting on the authority of Za'idah
who was reporting on the authority of Maisarah who was
reporting on the authority of Abu Hazim who was
reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with
whom may Allah be pleased) who said: The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him)
said:24
Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should not hurt (trouble) his
neighbor. And I advise you to take care of the women, for they are created
from a rib and the most crooked part of the rib is its upper part; if you try
to straighten it, it will break, and if you leave it, it will remain crooked,
so I urge you to take care of woman.25
4. Harmalah
bin Yahya
related to me: Ibn Wahb
informed us: Yunus informed me that he was
reporting on the authority of Ibn Shihab
who said: Ibn
al-Musayyab
told me that he was reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah
(with whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul
(may peace be upon him) said:26
Woman is like a rib. When you attempt to straighten it, you would break
it. And if you leave her alone you would benefit by her, and crookedness will
remain in her.27
5. 'Amr
an-Naqid
and Ibn
'Umar related to us saying: Sufyan related to
us that he was reporting on the authority of Abu Zinad
who was reporting on the authority of al-A'raj who was
reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with
whom may Allah be pleased) who said: Allah's Rasul
(may peace by upon him) said:28 Woman has been created from a rib
and will in no way be straightened for you; so if you wish to benefit by her,
benefit by her while crookedness remains in her. And if you attempt to
straighten her, you will break her, and breaking her is divorcing her.29
6. Abu Bakr
bin Abu Shaibah
told us: Husain bin 'Ali told us that he was reporting on the authority of Za'idah
who was reporting on the authority of Maisarah who was
reporting on the authority of Abu Hazim who was
reporting on the authority of Abu Hurairah (with
whom may Allah be pleased) who said: The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him)
said:30 He who believes in Allah and the Hereafter, if he witnesses
any matter he should talk in good terms about it or keep quiet. Act kindly
towards women, for woman is created from a rib, and the most crooked part of
the rib is its top. If you attempt to straighten it, you will break it, and if
you leave it, its crookedness will remain there so act kindly towards women.31
While it is not possible, within the scope of this chapter,
to give a detailed critical analysis of either the isnad
(list of transmitters) or matn
(content) of the above ahadith,
a few comments on both may be useful. With regards to the isnad
the following points may be noted: (1) All these ahadith are cited on the
authority of Abu Hurairah, a Companion who was regarded
as controversial by many early Muslim scholars, including Imam Abu Hanifah
(A.D. 700-767),32 founder of
the largest Sunni school of law. Here it is pertinent to point out that
though a more critical attitude toward hadith
and hadith transmitters prevailed
during the earliest phase of Islam, later, as stated by Goldziher,33
it became "a capital crime" to be critical of any Companion; (2) All
six of the above ahadith
are gharib
(the lowest grade of hadith
classification) because they contain a number of transmitters who were single
reporters. (Al-Hakini Abu 'Abd
Allah al-Naysaburi
and lbn
Hajar
al-'Asqaiani,
who were eminent scholars of hadith,
defined a sahih or sound hadith as one that is related in the
first place by a well-known Companion, in the second place by at least two
Followers, and thereafter by many narrators.);34 (3) All of the
above ahadith are da'if
(weak) because they have a number of unreliable transmitters (e.g., Maisarah
al-Ashja'i,
Harmalah
bin Yahya,
Zaidah,
and Abu Zinad).35
Analysis of the matn of
the above ahadith
leads to the following statements: (1) Woman is created from a rib or is like a
rib; (2) The most curved and crooked part of the rib is its top; (3) The
crookedness of the rib (and of the woman) is irremediable – any effort to
remove it will result in breakage; and (4) In view of the above, an attitude of
kindness is recommended and those who wish to benefit from women are advised to
do so "while crookedness remains in her." Concerning these statements
the following observations are made: (a) The rib story obviously originates in
Genesis 2, but no mention is made in any of these ahadith of Adam. This
eliminates the Yahwist's androcentrism
but also depersonalizes the source of woman's creation (i.e., the
"rib" could, theoretically, be nonhuman); (b) The misogynist elements
of the ahadith,
absent from Genesis, clash with the teachings of the Qur'an which describes all
human beings as having been created fi ahsan-i
taqwim
(most justly proportioned and with the highest capabilities); (c) I cannot
understand the relevance of making the statement that the most crooked part of
the rib is at the top; (d) The exhortation to be kind to women would make sense
if women were, in fact, born with a natural handicap and needed
compassion. Is "irremediable crookedness" such a handicap? (e)
The advice to benefit from women without making any effort to help women deal
with their "crookedness" (in case it is a natural handicap) smacks of
hedonism or opportunism and is hard to appreciate even if women were indeed
"irremediably crooked."
The theology of woman implicit in the above ahadith is
based upon generalizations about her ontology, biology, and psychology that are
contrary to the letter and spirit of the Qur'an. These ahadith ought to be rejected on
the basis of their content alone. However, "matn
analysis" (which was strongly urged by Ibn
Khaldun,
A.D. 1332-1406)36 has received scant attention in the work of many
Muslim scholars, who insist that a hadith
is to be judged primarily on the basis of its isnad.
It is not difficult to see why isnad
criticism – particularly if it excludes a scholarly scrutiny of initial
reports of a hadith – is not a
sufficient methodological tool for establishing the reliability of a hadith. Not all initial reporters
of ahadith were
the Prophet's close Companions whose word would be difficult to question. (The
word "Companion" has come to be applied rather loosely to a variety of
persons, some of whom spent only a limited amount of time with the
Prophet and cannot necessarily be presumed to have known him well.)
Furthermore, it is not always possible to say in the case of a hadith whether its isnad
(including the name of the Companion initially narrating the hadith) is authentic and not
fabricated. In such cases references to the matn
of other ahadith
ascribed to the same initial narrator, or to other ahadith with similar content,
become critically important in determining the degree of reliability of both
the narrator and the hadith in
question.
Conclusion
To sum up the foregoing discussion on the issue of woman's
creation, I would like to reiterate that according to the Qur'an, Allah created
woman and man equal. They were created simultaneously, of like substance,
and in like manner. The fact that almost all Muslims believe that the
first woman (Hawwa') was created from Adam's rib
shows that, in practice, the hadith
literature has displaced the teaching of the Qur'an at least insofar as the
issue of woman's creation is concerned.
While all Muslims agree that whenever a hadith attributed to the Prophet conflicts with the Qur'an it must
be rejected, the ahadith
discussed in this chapter have not only not been rejected, they have in fact
remained overwhelmingly popular with Muslims through the ages, in spite of
being clearly contradictory to the Qur'anic
statements pertaining to human creation. While being included in the Sahihan
gives the ahadith
in question much weight among Muslims who know about the science
of hadith, their continuing
popularity among Muslims in general indicates that they articulate something
deeply embedded in Muslim culture – namely, the belief that women are
derivative creatures who can never be considered equal to men.
Even the courageous Muslim women presently leading women's
movements in oppressively conservative Muslim societies, which in the name of
"Islamization"
are systematically legitimizing the reduction of women to a less than fully human
status, are not aware of the far-reaching implications of the ahadith that
make them derivative or devious creatures. It is imperative for the Muslim
daughters of Hawwa' to realize that the history
of their subjection and humiliation at the hands of the sons of Adam began with
the story of Hawwa's creation, and that their
future will be no different from their past unless they return to the point of
origin and challenge the authenticity of ahadith
that make them ontologically inferior, subordinate, and crooked. While it
is not a little discouraging to know that these ahadith (like many other
anti-woman ones) represent not only the ideas and attitudes regarding woman of
the early generations of Muslims (whose views were reflected in the hadith literature), but also of
successive generations of Muslims until today, it is gratifying to know that
they cannot be the words of the Prophet of Islam, who upheld the rights of
women (as well as other disadvantaged persons) throughout his
life. Furthermore, regardless of how many Muslim men project their own androcentrism
and misogyny upon the Prophet of Islam, it is valid to question how, being the
recipient of the Qur'an, which states that all human beings were made from a
single source (i.e., al-insan, bashar,
or nafsin
wahidatin),
the Prophet of Allah could say that woman was created from a crooked rib or
from Adam's rib.
Bibliography
1.
Saiyyad:
a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
2.
Ummah
(from umm: mother): community of Muslims.
3.
Sunnah: practical
traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad.
4.
Hadith (plural: ahadith): oral traditions
attributed to the Prophet Muhammad.
5. Fiqh: jurisprudence.
6.
Surah 4: An-Nisa':34.
7.
Surah 4: An-Nisa':11.
8.
Surah 2: Al-Baqarah:282.
9.
Reference here is to ahadith
from Sahih
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10. Leonard Swidler, Biblical
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11. Muhammad lqbal, The
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12. Fazlur Rahman, Islam (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1968), 73.
13.
Alfred Guillaume, The
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15. Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The
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16. Hadith quoted
in Jane Smith and Yvonne Y. Haddad, "Eve:
Islamic Image of Woman," Women's Studies International Forum 5
no. 2 (1982): 136-37.
18. A. A. Maududi, The
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19.
Maududi, The Meaning
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20.
Rasul: a
Prophet sent by God with a message. Reference here is to the Prophet
Muhammad.
21. M. M. Khan, translation with notes of Sahih
al-Bukhari
(Lahore: Kazi Publications, 1971), vol. 4
"Book of Prophets," chap.1, Hadith
548, p. 346.
22. Sahih
al-Bukhari
7: 33.
23.
Sahih
al-Bukhari
(translation), vol. 7, "Book of
Wedlock," chap. 80, Hadith
113, p. 80.
24.
Sahih
at-Bukhari
7: 33.
25.
Sahih
al-Bukhari
(translation), vol. 7, "Book of
Wedlock," chap. 81, Hadith
114, p. 81.
26.
Muslim bin al-Hajjaj, Sahih
Muslim, 2 vols. (
27. A. H. Siddiqui,
translation with notes of Sahih
Muslim (
28.
Sahih
Muslim, 1:625.
29. Sahih Muslim (translation), vol. 2, "Book of Wedlock," chap. 576, Hadith 3467, p. 752.
30.
Sahih
Muslim, 1: 625.
31. Sahih Muslim (translation), vol. 2, "Book of Wedlock," chap. 576, Hadith 3468, pp. 752-53.
32.
'Abdul Wahab
Ash-Shairani,
Al-Mizan
al-Kubra (
33. Ignaz Goldziher,
Muslim Studies trans. C.
R. Barber and S. M. Stem, ed. S. M.
Stem (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1971), 2:163.
34. See Muhammad bin 'Abd Allah
al-Hakim, Ma'rifat 'Ulum
al-Hadith, ed. Mu'azzam Hussain
(
35. See, for example, Shams ad-Din Adh-Dhahabi,
Mizan
I'tidal
fi Naqd
ar-Rijal,
4 vols. (Cairo: 'Isa al-Babi al-Halbi,
n.d.).
This is a highly authoritative work investigating the credentials of Hadith transmitters by a renowned Hadith critic (A.D. 1274-1348). 36.
Hodgson, Venture of Islam, 2:480.
Posted July 26, 2009