Islam & Female Progression - Shahr Ramadan 1435/2014

[Allahumma Salli 'ala Muhammad wa aali Muhammad] 'A'udhu billahi min al-shaytan al-rajim. Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim. Wa as-salatu wa as-salaam 'ala afdal al-anbiya'i wa al-mursalin, baari' il-khalaaiqi ajma'in, sayyidina wa sanadina, wa shafi'ina mawlana, wa habibi qulubina abil Qasimi Muhammad [Allahumma Salli 'ala Muhammad wa aali Muhammad].

Wa 'ala aali baytihi, at-tayyibeen, at-taahireen, al-ma'sumeen, al-madhlumeen alladhina stafaahumu Allah ajma'in. Amma ba'ad, faqad qaal Allahu ta'ala fi muhkami kitabihi al-karim, wa qawluhu ul-Haqq, wa huwa asdaq us-saadiqeen. Bismillah al Rahman Al Rahim "wa la tukrihu fatayaatikum 'alal bighaai in aradna tahassuna" (24:33). Sadaq Allahu 'aliyyu al-'adheem. Salawaat 'ala Muhammad wa aali Muhammad [allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa aali Muhammad]

My respected elders, my respected brothers and sisters, I bid you all as-salamu alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. I start in the name of Allah the Omniscient, the Omnipotent, all praise is due to Allah for giving us the ability and the chance to exist, and our existence is an understanding and a time for us to be able to move forward and try to advance in our world and to truly try to to get somewhere in our lives, take the capabilities that we have, and try to move forward with these capabilities.

And this movement is not only a male movement. This isn't only a specific message for men, but also was a specific message for women that as much as men are meant to move forward, women are also meant to move forward. And in the verse that we stated yesterday Allah says Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, "Ya ayyuha an-naas, inna khalaqnakum min dhakarin wa untha"(49:13) - 'we have created you from male and female', and God within the Qur'an makes an emphasis all the time about the equality that happens between men and women and their opportunities to move forward in life, that their religion is not only a patriarchal religion where only men are meant to rule or men are meant to be the ones who move forward and women are just meant to be second-class citizens of subservience.

But the Qur'an and Islam in its totality is meant and geared towards men and women to move forward. And that's why one of the big discussions today that's very recent is the idea of the of the role of the female within Islam and within our societies today, because many people come and say, look, being in the 21st century, what is the role of the Muslim female? What is the role of the Muslim female when it comes to Islamic scholarship and ideas of scholarly writings?

Where are our Muslim female thinkers? We have many interpretations of the Qur'an. Where are our females who might interpret the Qur'an? Where are the female speakers? And where are the females who have presence within the Islamic doctrine today or ones who are practically involving themselves in Islam? And a discussion about the role of the woman in Islam and in today's world is an extremely important discussion, because any time you want to see any sort of oppression in the media about Islam, it's always thrown out very easily.

Take a look at Time magazine. In the past five or 10 years, one of the biggest headlines is a woman wearing a burqa and she's standing in front of a camera and she looks very disheveled, destroyed, tired with two or three or four children next to her. And the headline might read "Muslims Beating Their Wives", for example. A lot of the time there is an image given of the Muslim woman that the Muslim woman is a second class citizen.

She's not meant to partake in many of the things that men do. She's not meant to organise. She's not meant to be a scholar. She's not meant to be a thinker. She's not meant to come and give her opinion on Islamic ideologies and Islamic ideas. And the ideology that's given is Islam is more of a patriarchal religion than everything. And then you've got people and I will dissect this today who bring forward the wife beating verse (4:34) and tries to prove that Islam treats their women as second class citizens.

And the women are meant to be subservient to the men. The men are meant to be the caretakers, and the women are subservient to them. And after that, right, there is an OK from the Qur'an for a man to beat his wife, et cetera, et cetera. And again, I will go through that today to kind of explain it because it's anything from the truth or the reality. And the question that we ask is on nights like these where we are really thinking about Islam and the ideologies of Islam, the question that comes up is A) what did Islam do to change the status of the woman in Arabia to what it is now? What are the steps that Islam took?

And on a second level, what is the role of the Muslim woman today? Because the question that's asked, you know, I'll say this again, because it's important, is where are our Muslim female thinkers today? Is it simply a patriarchal religion where only men are meant to dominate? Or do women have a role in this religion? Where they are able to disseminate knowledge? They are able to come forward and give their own ideas about Islam.

Are there any females today who might be having a Qur'an tafseer where they come up and say, look, this is my ideology and what's happening in the Qur'an because I'm a female, I'm a part of this society and the same as there are male scholars, there also should be female scholars because many people are asking if the woman does have a scholarly presence in Islam, then where is that presence today? And I will also hit on the topic tonight of the struggle that the modern Muslim or the modern female Muslim faces today; there's a complete struggle between the East and the West. And I'll go through that struggle tonight, inshaAllah.

But something that's important to note is that in the Arabian culture, the woman was treated very differently to how Islam actually asks us to treat women. Women at that time had absolutely no role. And when I say no role, they were simply objects to be traded back and forth, meaning a woman was seen as a slave. She would be bought and sold. And the verse that I started off with where Allah says: Bismillah, Al-Rahman, Al-Rahim "wa la tukrihu fatayaatikum 'alal bighaai in aradna tahassuna" (24:33), because what the Arabians used to do is they realise that everything has an economic value. The reason we appreciate something is because it has got a form of economic value. And they soon came to realise - and this is why the female burial would happen - that the women in Arabia had no economic value.

A) she couldn't work. I mean, you've got a woman like Khadija and that's why Khadija is so revolutionary. And we'll get to that today in just a bit. But most women could not work if they weren't cared for by the males, they would maybe starve.

If there was war and the men were killed, the woman, as they would think in the Arabian culture, would destroy the name of the males because they would be taken as slaves. They might be hurt physically, emotionally. And that's why the Arabians in their early times specifically decided that the best way to get rid of the economic problem, which is the female - because she was seen as an economic problem of the time - the best way and the best thing for us to do is to take them and bury them whenever they come up.

Many people decided to go away from this, but the majority had been burying their females at the time. The second thing they did is they realised that the only actual benefit of the female is sexual satisfaction and what they did in Arabia is they set up these brothel houses where women were bought and sold on the market, she was sold and bought to brothel houses. And the Arabians were big on these houses.

And that's why the Qur'an came - many parents had forced their daughters into such actions - the Qur'an came and said, what Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim "wa la tukrihu fatayaatikum 'alal bighaai in aradna tahassuna" (24:33) don't force your daughters into prostitution if they want to be pure or clean. Don't force them into some specific actions that the woman is not meant to be taken as a sexual slave. But she has a specific role in society. And that's why the Qur'an came today and said what? It came and said, don't force your women into such actions.

And it's interesting because today if you go on Forbes magazine and you see that the illegal markets that are in the world, the sexual trafficking market is a 28 billion dollar market, and it's number four on Forbes' list because it's such a huge market and specifically within certain areas - Europe is known. It's very big for for such human trafficking. Human trafficking is a very big market today. And it kind of shows us that even though it happened a long time ago, it still happens today.

You've got certain parts of India where there are women known as Devadasis, and these women are at their young age forced into acts of prostitution within that specific land. If a girl worships a specific god, she is forced into that god's ways and that god perhaps is known as the god of prostitution, where a woman spends her life doing this act and she is forced by her parents to do this. When she becomes fifty or forty five, she's immediately shunned from the whole of society because all of a sudden she has lived her whole life as a prostitute, now no one is even willing to look at her.

And the Qur'an came essentially to tell them that a woman to Arabia is much more than a sexual object. But she has an actual role within this land. There are certain things that she does which make her important. And the Qur'an and the Prophet took it upon themselves to actively change the way that Arabia saw the female. And it's an extremely important change.

You've got many people even today within the Islamic doctrines, who are completely influenced by Christian doctrine and Christian understandings, for example in the 1600s you had, for example, John Milton, who came up with his famous book, Milton's Paradise Lost, and in Milton's Paradise Lost in about the 1600s there was a big Christian movement which kind of wanted to bring the idea of a female being secondary to the male from the Christian doctrine into the Muslim and the Christian doctrine. And there was a strong success of that because what Milton said, Milton came forward and said what he said, look, the woman, Eve was the actual cause of why Adam was brought down from heaven.

He said, because if it wasn't for Eve, Adam would have never been tempted. And because he was tempted, that's why he was removed from the highest level of heavens, he was brought down to earth. And Milton's Paradise Lost was one of the main Christian texts. And what Milton wanted to do was to express to the people that because of the female is why we are here, and why men are superior to females. And he also came within the same book and gave the doctrine that the female was created from the rib of the male, that males are more superior, they were created first and then females were created.

And these types of writings which influenced Europe and America at the time, (because, mind you, this was very big in Europe and America at the time) also influenced certain parts of Islam and also certain parts of Christianity. Where you find even in Judaism, many people come in today and say, look, the reason the women are second class citizens is because they were the ones who tempted Adam. And of course, Islam comes forward and shuns that from the Qur'an, Allah says Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim "inna khalaqnakum min dhakarin wa untha" - we created you from a male and female, there's no difference "wa ja'alnakum shu'uban wa qaba'ila lita'aarafu. Inna akramakum 'inda Allah atqakum" (49:13).

Islam came to take any of these writings which might have come up in the 1600s and specifically the thought-provoking writings by John Milton and came and said, look, there is absolutely no basis to these writings and it's interesting because you can't blame them because you know that within their writings and within their religious books, a lot of this patriarchy comes out, that men are more superior, men are better, women are the second class citizens.

And Islam needed to take it on itself to reform this very rule and to change it because it understood that the woman had many more benefits than just that benefit that they gave them. On many levels. One level, socially, Islam came to really abolish many things. And here is a brief example. As we mentioned two nights ago, in Arabia, men at times when their daughters were born, they would bury them, right?

One Arabian narrates and says, I took my daughter to a specific grave and I walked her to that grave. And those of you that have daughters, you can imagine how painful it is for a man to drag his daughter to bury her. He says, I took my daughter. I walked her to the grave. And as we were walking, I started to sweat and my daughter took a handkerchief and she started to wipe the sweat from my forehead. Right. I was carrying her. She takes the handkerchief and wipes the sweat. That situation really hurt my heart, he says.

I took her and I started digging the hole. And as I was sweating and sweating, my daughter continued to wipe my forehead from all of the sweat that was coming down, he says. And I took her. She knew I was going to bury her. And I grabbed her and I put her in the grave that I had created for her. And she looked at me with tears in her eyes telling me, Father, will you bury me? Father help me! Aid me! He says at that moment when I saw her, I was putting the the the soil on her and I could see her hands extended out of the soil. Imagine what a sight for a father to see that that they are burying the daughter and the daughter sticks her hand out of the grave and says father help me. He says from that situation, my heart was very broken over my daughter.

And for many Arabians, that culture was understood because, again, to them, burying the daughter was a more economic and more financially viable solution that not burying the daughter because: A) the woman would not work and help them economically; and B) if there was a war, the woman would not be taken as a sex slave or a captive. And hence, in both ways, they were completely safe. Right. And it's a very sad mentality to see. When Islam came, one of the main cultures that the Prophet had to change was this culture of burying the daughter. He immediately banished that because he realised that if you are to make anything of your woman, then stop burying them!

On a second level, the Prophet wanted to really change the way that Arabian men saw their wives. The Arabian men, the way they saw their wives was a very, very destructive way. One thing they did, for example, was if a man came home and he was interested in his wife sexually and the wife wasn't interested, the man would leave the house and the wife would never see them ever again. That was a culture that Arabians had. The way that they had treated their wives was as a simple sexual object.

One lady comes to the Prophet and specifically in Suratul Mujadilah. She comes to the Prophet and says Ya Rasul Allah my husband came home and I wasn't interested and he immediately left and I never saw him again. That was a culture. Do I get married again? Am I allowed to live by my own? I have kids. What do I do? What's his responsibilities? The Prophet said to her, if he's gone and he's not taking care of you, then you are immediately free on your own because many of these Arabian men simply ditched their wives the moment they weren't interested physically in them.

And Rasul Allah wanted to reform the way that these Muslims had seen their wives. I'll give you a basic example, because a wife to them had no solace. The wife to them had no human emotional solace. To them, she was just there to satisfy a need for him to feed her, to treat her like dirt, to beat her, to not care for her, and that it was just it. The Prophet in one example, for example, when Sa'd ibn Mu'ad was being buried, the Prophet made a comment and he said to the Arabians around him, he said to them, "look, Sa'd ibn Mu'ad is dying, we're burying him in his grave. There are so many angels around him." And one man comes to the Prophet and says to him "ya Rasul Allah, if there are so many angels next to Sa'd ibn Mu'ad, that's amazing, what a lucky man!" He says to them "yes, there are angels next to him. But in just a moment, the grave is going to squeeze him so much that the pain he's going to feel is as if all of his bones in his body are breaking."

And they said, "ya Rasul Allah, why, if there are angels next to him, why would the grave squeeze him and break his bones? What's the deal?" He said to them, "because Sa'd in his life had a specific quality which was detested. When he would go out, when he was out with his friends, he was very happy, very pleasant, very kind. The minute he came home to his wife, he had the meanest face to her and he would never sit and talk to her."

And at that point, Rasul Allah brought out a hadith and he said, "If a man sits with his wife and converses for an hour, only one hour, it's better than doing a full night of 'ibadah under the sky of Madinah." And the Arabians were shocked - you mean sitting and talking to my wife, actually just talking like having a conversation, whether we philosophise, whether we talk about our relationship, whether we talk about our kids, whether we talk about life, sitting for one hour is better than doing worship in Madinah for the whole night?! Rasul Allah said yes.

And the Arabians were completely shocked at this because how do we accept this? At one point you're telling us to pray, God will be happy with us. On another point, you're telling us that dry worship doesn't mean anything. Mind you, this isn't the first time. On many occasions the prophet comes to the Arabians and says to them "look, there's something much more important than just your dry worship". To many people. He would say, for example, if you reflect for one hour, it's better than 70 years of dry worship. To others he would say it's better than a thousand years of dry worship. To these Arabians who are unkind to their wife, he would tell them sitting with your wife for an hour is better than a full night 'ibadah under Medina. What's he trying to tell them? He's telling them there's something much deeper about Islam, than your mechanical ups and downs of your prayer. Your ups and downs of prayers are important. But if no one is caring for you and your family, there's no benefit in that.

One man comes to the Prophet, for example. They said to him, "Ya Rasul Allah, there is a man in the Masjid who prays 24 by seven. We have never seen a man like him". Rasul Allah says "That's great, who cares for his family?" "Sorry, what did you say?" "Who cares for his family?" He said "His brother", he says "His brother is better than him". His brother, the one that cares for the family, is better than the man who's sitting and worshipping twenty four by seven.

He said, "why?", he says because this man hasn't realised what Islam is actually about, Islam isn't actually about you sitting on your musalla 24/7, doing monkery or sitting hours upon hours doing 'ibadah and forgetting the rest of your life. That's good from time to time, Islam promotes that seclusion at times and sitting and doing your 'ibidah. But Islam completely disagrees with this idea of monkery that I sit in my whole life and all I do is pray and fast, and read du'a; that's all I do in my life.

No, Islam disagrees with that. And that's why the Prophet on many occasions in order for him to make better the role that he has with the female he says discussing with your wife for one hour is better than a full night of 'ibadah. And I'll tell you something. That statement could have not been more psychologically right by the Prophet than anything else. And I'll tell you why. There was a recent book that was published called The Seven Ways of Making Marriage Work by Doctor Professor John Gottman, who is the leading number one expert on relationships in America.

Dr. John Gottman had a specific research called The Love Lab, one of the most interesting studies you will ever see. And those of you who are married or those of you who are looking to get married, please review The Love Lab. It's extremely important. What he did is, about 14 years ago, took about a thousand couples. And he separated them in two different rooms over weeks and weeks of weeks, and he had them sit down and speak about their issues, whatever issue they had amongst themselves, whether it's about money or finances or mother in law or father in law or family or whatever, he had them sit down and discuss the issue for an hour.

Right. And this is a very famous study known as The Love Lab, research it online will come up right away. What he did is he is he had them sit for an hour, discuss, after they finished for an hour, he would take notes on the way that they talked. How did they talk to each other? Did they have a strong start up? Did they speak sarcastically? Did they speak to each other with contempt? Did they stonewall each other? Did one get up and leave? How did they discuss the actual issue that's between them?

He took details of all of these and he let the thousand couples go. And before he let them go, he made predictions on which ones of them would be married in seven years, which ones of them would be divorced, and which ones of them would be married but not happy. Three different categories. Married, divorced, married but not happy because married, not happy - many people stay together. They're married, but they're not happy. They're as miserable as can be. They're together for their kids though, right, for their kids or, you know, for a specific reason, or culturally, it's not allowed. What he did is he went back after seven years and he chased up all thousand clients that he did the study with in The Love Lab. And he was so accurate in his findings, he was 95 percent accurate to the findings that he did in those thousand couples that he had in his lab.

And he broke marriages down and the reasons why people divorce and why their relationships don't work to four different categories. One, contempt. Two, sarcasm. Three, stonewalling. Four - so stonewalling, sarcasm, contempt - and certain types of humour, which comes out to be very, very negative. He broke down why relationships are destroyed within four categories, and he had a best selling book, as I just mentioned, The Seven Ways of Making Marriage Work one of the best sellers in America.

And his research broke the ground about male and female conversation. When the Prophet came 1400 years ago when he was telling the Arabians, sit with your wives and speak to them for an hour, what he's trying to say is do it because it can save your relationship. There are many people today who are like, look, I'm married, no problem. But I come home, I put my feet up on the pedestal. My wife makes me the food. Right. I come home and I pay the bills. I take care of it. I don't listen to her emotions. I don't want to hear about emotions. I don't listen to how she feels every day. I don't understand why she might be upset. I don't sit with her and actually say to her, look, what's the feeling that you're having? Are you happy with life? Am I not giving you that emotional comfort that you need?

And Dr. John Gottman breaks it down. He says, look, many people blame the female, that she's very emotional and that, you know, that makes the reason why men and women divorce. And through his research, he's actually found in a Yale study that men are more emotional than females in many different regards. And men are very surprised to hear this all the time. You're trying to tell me that I'm more emotional than a woman? Because we typically have the stereotype that women are emotional and men are not very emotional.

And the Yale study that he did, he found that when men get upset, their heart rates are much higher than females and it takes a much longer time for their heart rates to decrease, meaning they get angrier at a higher capacity and it's much harder for them to cool down and calm down. The velocity might not be the same, meaning women might get upset or angry more often, depends on the female. It's not all the same. But men, when they do get emotional, it's at a much higher rate and it's harder for them to calm down after that.

And there's a stereotype that's given that women are emotional and men aren't. And unless this is broken in our society and perhaps what the Prophet is saying, look, sit with your wife for an hour, talk to her, show her that side of you that actually cares because many people get on well before they get married. The guy will sit with the female, right, with his wife. He'll talk to her for hours, two, three, four hours, interested. The minute they get married. She's like, look, we never sit together. I never see you. We never sit and philosophise the way we did before. We don't sit and talk about life the way we did before. We don't do anything together anymore. It's simply eating, sleeping, waking up, going to work to school. That lifestyle that we had before isn't there.

And perhaps what the Messenger is saying to the Arabians, if you really want to carry a happy life, then make your wife happy. Sit with her for an hour. The Prophet came to Arabia to change that stereotype that the Arabians had about females. And the stereotype was what your wife is there simply as a sexual satisfaction and a beauty to your eyes. And that's it. He was like, no, the woman has emotions. She's got a life that she's living. She has a career. She has a path that she wants to take, sit with her, make sure that you are on the same page, because that's better for you than a full night of 'ibadah under Medina.

And that's why Rasul Allah came with a beautiful hadith. What did he say? He says, telling your wife, I love you as a saying which will never leave her heart. This to the Arabian was unheard. The Arabian who would sell and buy his wife, whose wife to him was a sexual object, which if he died, his son would inherit. Saying I love you to her was unheard of. What do you mean I love you to your wife? Well, what are you talking about? This is rubbish to me. When the Prophet came and made that statement, it was big for the Arabians because all of a sudden they could appreciate their wives and a level of appreciation much deeper than what they saw.

And on a third level, the way that the woman was changed was the Prophet came to them and said, look. A mother is meant to be respected, and a mother is meant to be taken care of, and that's why he came up with the profound Hadith, which says: heaven lies underneath the feet of the mother. To the Muslim Arabians who were living at the time, heaven being under the feet of a mother is a very big thing. It's a huge deal. And it helped them change this image of how they saw a woman, how they expected a woman.

On a second level, economically, Islam came to change the way that the woman was cared for. First of all, it came and said, look, give your woman a dowry. And on a second level, she has no responsibility when it comes to financials. A husband is meant to care for that and taking care of that. Many people come to and say, look, they complain and say, look, this is not fair to the man today, meaning if a man is not working, and the wife is working and she is expecting the husband take care of her. What should she do? Obviously, in this situation like we have today, if a man is not working and the woman is working, then it's upon each other, the kindness of the hearts to care for each other, one gives to the other, one cares for the other. But in that time when the Messenger came and said, look, your wives are meant to be taken care of by you, you are meant to care for them and they aren't meant to pay a penny. There was a huge economic change for the woman because all of a sudden they were cared for. They were protected.

On a second level, they were not allowed to be economic property. Because a woman was seen as an economic property to be passed down from a father to the son. If I am a man and I am married and I have a son when I die, my wife is literally a piece of property and a slave given to my son, and he controls her as he pleases. It's a very screwed system, a very, very backward system, and the Prophet came and said, look, your women are not your property, they are their own human being. They have their own freedoms. They have their own destinies. They have their own brains. They have their own careers. Allow them to be what they want to be, allow them to go out and act as they want. And hence the Prophet completely changed that.

On a third level, he actually allowed specific political participation of women in Arabia. And perhaps one of the most important roles in that specific time was the movement of the Prophet when he took a female political figure in a very massive Muslim demonstration.

And I'm talking about Mubahala. Mubahala is interesting for certain reasons. One reason that's typically missed is Mubahala brings about a very interesting point, and that is if you look at the history behind Mubahala, there's something very interesting that people miss. The Prophet's message was 23 years ever since he started disseminating it at 40; be very keen to these dates - 23 years. Mubahala was in the twenty first year of the Prophet disseminating the message. The whole message was 23, the Prophet died at 63, how old was he when Mubahala was being done?

Sixty one, right. Sixty one to sixty three. The Prophet, after twenty one years in Mubahala when the Christians came and said, look, we have an issue with you. The Prophet said that you need to pay jizya. The Arabians said, no, we're not paying any jizya. The Prophet then came and said, no problem, but let us come and do Mubahala. We will pray to our God and you will pray to your God, and the one who is wrong will be cursed by God at the specific moment known as Mubahala. And he said, I'm going to bring individuals with me and you bring specific individuals with you.

They went out and brought the best rabbis with them and the best individuals with them who would represent Christianity, the Christian monks. The Prophet said, look, I'm going to bring a group of individuals with me that I think are going to represent the entirety of this religion. And it's interesting to note that if the Prophet had been disseminating this message in the beginning, right in the very beginning when he first was giving Islam any five individuals he would bring would have been normal. Fine. He just started the message. He's going to take any five individuals and bring them. But after 21 years of being with the people of Arabia, and after studying them and scrutinising them and living with them for twenty one years, those five who you bring better be a very, very good five, because they are representing the whole of your religion.

And that's why when Nabi Muhammad comes and brings Fatima, Ali, Hasan, Husayn, what's he saying? He's saying that after being with this community for 21 years, I find no better five to represent the religion than these five individuals that I brought with me. There's no one else better for the religion than these individuals, because if it was in the beginning of the Message you would say, look, it was now five years, 10 years, I'll bring anyone! After 21 years you know your people very well.

You've sat with them, you've ate with them. You've been invited by them. You've moulded into them. And that's why you realise that there's no one to take better for you than these individuals. And it's amazing because Fatima Zahra plays a crucial political role there. This is a dignitary. He's coming to individuals. And one of the biggest Muslim/Christian event, Mubahala is big in the Qur'an, has verses specifically directed to it.

When he brings Lady Fatima to that occasion, he's saying - that the female is not meant to sit in the background, but she's meant to come out in public and have a political role - to these individuals and play some sort of role. When he said, I will bring my daughters and bring your daughters and we'll bring our sons and ourselves what's beautiful, as he's saying, look, Fatima Zahra represents the whole female aspect of this religion, that she has a political role.

Not only that, but Lady Fatima later on on many occasions comes out and claims and requests her right. You know, Fadak is interesting because when people bring out Fadak, they forget that the first feminist in Arabia was Fatima Zahra. What's feminism? What's feminism today? Feminism is this idea of having equality between males and females. When Fatima Zahra came out to request Fadak in the beginning, her right wasn't only this is my piece of land, I want you to take it.

But there was an idea that women do not get any inheritance from men. Women get no inheritance, and Fatima Zahra's stand was not only for a piece of land. It was a full female movement. We are women and we have the right to inherit from our fathers. We are as equal as men. If they are allowed to inherit, then we should also be allowed to inherit. And perhaps one of the first feminist movements is the moment Fatima Zahra says, look, we are as equal as you are. You can't come to me and tell me because I'm a woman, I'm not allowed to get a right or I'm not allowed to get a piece of land. And her stance was not only a stance for a piece of land. No!

The land is one thing. But the fact that she stood up for all females is a very dignified stance. As a woman, she's saying, look, you can't just put us to the side. You can't just remove our rights from us. That's why Islam came and said, look, the woman gets a share of the inheritance as the man does. The man gets inheritance, but so does the female. That stand of Lady Fatima on that day was perhaps one of the most beautiful stands because she's saying O people of Arabia, we would like you to know that as women, we also should receive the same way the men receive. Islam came in these many ways and completely revolutionised how these backwards Arabians had seen women.

And the question that comes up today is interesting, because many people ask, look, what's the role of a female today in Islam? What is her role? That she sit back? And I'll be honest, I'm not in a position to speak because I'm a male. A lot of the times we have, you know, sheikhs and scholars who come up, they are males, but they will very publicly put down women. Women, put on your hijab! Women, stop wearing tight clothes! Women, stop putting on makeup! Women, stop wearing heels!

You're a man! As much as you think you understand, you really don't understand. As much as you think you understand, no one will ever know what it's like to wear a hijab in the West, like the female who wears it. No one will ever understand these struggles other than the female. As much as you try to put yourself in the person's shoes, it's very hard for you to understand because you're living a very diverse life, a very diverse life.

And it's interesting to note because people come and say look, what's the role of the female today? Are they meant to do something? Are they meant to bring forward some sort of scholarship? And the reply that we give is, if Lady Zainab alayha as-salam, took a stance in Arabia and came forward and gave a beautiful lecture in aqa'id and akhlaq to Yazid, then what does that say about the very responsibilities of the women today? Are they not allowed to come up with their own scholarly works?

Within the Muslim world today we have a very handful amount of Muslim speakers, males, but there's no females, maybe one or two. I can count them by finger - one or two Muslim female speakers. Not many. You see, seminars is typically women. Ideas on female progression, it's typically men. Ideas on hijab, it's typically men. But the women need to come on and give that aspect because if you don't, then your sisters cannot relate to you.

And hence, Islam has always been a proponent of women coming out, giving their ideas, giving out their scholarly thoughts, scrutinising law, writing down ideologies in books, or else you'll get people who come on the pulpit say, look, it's OK to beat your wives today or beat your women today, and there's no problem with that. A woman can come out and say no. Right. I've scrutinised this verse in the Qur'an and I disagree.

Sayed Mujtaba Moussawi Lari, may Allah bless his soul, comes out with a beautiful analysis on this, he says look, in the Qur'an, when Allah uses the word dharaba, it's used in about 15 or 16 different contexts. In one verse, Allah says, Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim "wadhribu fil ardh" strike the ground and walk away. Sayed Mujtaba Musawi Lari says in the Qur'an this verse "fadhribuhunna" (4:34) does not mean to actually beat them or strike them physically. No! It means walk away from them. Step away from them "fadhribu fil ardh" walk away. Meaning leave them and travel and separate because look at the Qur'anic verse - says first of all bring an arbitrator, then it says talk to them. Then it says don't stay in the same room. Then it says separate. And the Qur'anic logic tries to make it seem as if they're saying after all of these have failed, after your parents have talked, after you have went to an Islamic law system, after you have come and talked, after you separated, after you divorce, now take them and beat them lightly?! Because surely after all this, this beating lightly, would definitely work(!)

Sayed Mujtaba Musawi Lari says it has got nothing to do with beating, because beating is not a pragmatic, practical way of making any human being work, this doesn't work for the people before us this doesn't work for now. Sayed Mujtaba comes and says, look, this means "fadhribu fil ardh" walk away from them. Separate. If you have divorced now, separate. Don't live in the same place. If female Muslim scholarship is there. Such ideas can be brought forward and they can be made clear that the verse in the Qur'an doesn't mean to actually beat your wives, as many would come and say, because one attack on Islam today is Islam says beat your wife and you never hear the end of it because none of Islam says that.

And it's interesting to note that perhaps the reason why there Is not enough Muslim scholarship is one of the reasons or one thing that comes up today is that there is a lot of confusion between the Western and the Eastern lifestyle. Many sisters come and approach me and say, look, there's an issue that we're having today. It's this idea of living between a Western lifestyle and an Eastern lifestyle. Right. From one side, I go to university, right, and I go to this wherever I live in the West, I've got one style which says dress fancy, live fancy, right, put your makeup on wear this wear this that you like. How about this or this. And they say that on one lifestyle we've got the different life, even though the world is becoming one, the East and the West are very similar. But there's the Islamic concept, which is don't wear this, right, wear more modest clothing don't put on makeup, for example, or don't wear heels, et cetera, et cetera.

Many people come and say, look, we're confused. There's two different lifestyles and we're trying to cope. I'm a sister living in today's times and I'm trying to cope. How do I live with this? I'm just confused. I want this, but I also want this. I don't say I have the answer to these issues because I really believe the answers to these issues are within our sisters themselves. But I do know that scrutinising, putting down, judging, not being supportive is NOT the way to tackle these issues.

Many people will come today on social media, they'll come on Twitter, on Facebook, on these different things, and they'll make very obvious comments that are very condescending. And these comments will hurt certain people. I mean, one person will come and say, look, sister, please, you know, save the make up that's on your face. I'm trying to be very polite. Don't put on as much makeup. I don't see any more face in your face, all I see is makeup. They'll come up with very condescending comments. And the sisters will say look, if you want me to change how I am, then at least be respectful in the way that I should be. Right. Don't come to me with condescending comments. Come and try to help me come and try to guide me. Try to help me move forward. Don't be judgemental. Don't try to put me down.

I mentioned the story three or four days ago of the sister who wanted to wear a hijab. But because she was being put down and because she was being scrutinised, she immediately said, I don't want to put it on because I'm feeling very judged in my community. There's this battle of East and West; Islam and non Islam. And it's not easy. As much as a man will come forward and say, look, I understand the issue. I know what it's like to go through that we can show support. But at the end of the day, Muslim scholarship, female scholarship needs to come up to help sisters with these issues, because as much as we try to help, I tell you, sometimes you make it worse.

Sometimes the 'aalim will come here and make it worse because he'll make a person sound completely evil. Right. Because the sister has different background. She might put on some makeup, might wear heels. True. Perhaps her upbringing is a different upbringing, perhaps the lifestyle she's lived is a very different style. Unless we empathise and work with that individual and try to see where they come from, they are never going to be helped or they're never going to say, look, you know, I want to do something different or I want to stay on the same path.

A lot of the times an 'aalim might make it worse. He'll come and judge and scrutinise and put down, but never really show words of support. Those words of support go a very long way, I tell you. To any human being. To any human being, a word of support - are you down? Do you need help? Do you like the way you live? Can I help you? Is there anything I can do? These words of support are extremely important to anyone.

And if there's someone who shows a peak of Islamic intellectuality and Islamic scholarship as Lady Zainab, alayha assalam, this woman comes in a court completely full of men, with the dictator of the time, stands and gives the most groundbreaking lecture on exactly what he did and how he went wrong. And he is so provoked because typically an Arabian leader is meant to not be provoked the minute you as a leader is provoked - take a look at, for example, a leader like Obama.

Obama if the world gets bombed. He'll come up and he'll have the most normal calm face. Today, we have been bombed and a thousand people have died. Very, very calm. A leader is meant to not be provoked. The fact that Lady Zainab provokes Yazid and gets him to want to get up and beat her means this man was so enraged by the eloquence of what she has said that, what she said must have been so powerful it completely enraged this man.

And that tells you that her words are very strong. A lot of the times, instead of raising our words, we raise our judgments. We raise our negativity, we raise our voices. Raise our words, let's raise our hearts, let's try to understand individuals empathise with individuals instead of bringing them down, judging them, or trying to put them to the side.

I ask Allah, azza wa jal, to keep us on the path of Muhammad wa aali Muhammad, and I ask Allah, azza wa jal, to protect us and keep us with the Holy Household. Hadha wa al-Hamdulillah Rabb Al-Alameen, Salawat 'ala Muhammad wa aali Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'alaa Muhammad, wa aali Muhammad].