A genuine secular democracy would not be so insecure

The “non-religionist’s” argument that his or her freedom is greater than the freedom of “a believer” never ceases to amaze me.

Two articles last week highlighted an issue relating to Islam that created debate and controversy, there is no surprise in this as most issues relating to Islam these days invoke highly emotive responses.

As accustomed as we Muslims have become to misunderstandings being generated in the media, quite often we are bewildered at the different standards in the cry for freedom.

For example, a person is free to say what they like about our faith, but we should not have the right to respond using peaceful means, even our attempts at correction are seen by some as an expression of fundamentalism. We are meant to grin and bear it and submit to a barrage of so called “experts” telling us what the faith that we have studied all our lives is really meant to say.

The debate in question relates to the teaching of the topic: “Women in Arabic and Islamic Literature”, by a lecturer whose PhD thesis we are told focused on “expressions of female sexuality and homoerotic desire in 9th-13th century Arabic literature”. I suppose that this is a study like any other: it is meant to add something to our academic heritage that is of value to some funding body that would be interested in sponsoring this field.

Simone De Beauvoir presented the Marquis de Sade’s philosophy in a completely different light and his sadistic life is the subject of academic study and research. However, his writings are not taught as an example of Christian literature, despite the fact that he was raised by his grandmother alongside her five daughters (his aunts) four of whom were nuns and during another period by his uncle who was a Catholic priest, after which he was then sent to a Jesuit school. It would be grossly unfair to pass off his writings as an example of either religious or French literature.

When we think of French literature, works like Marcel Proust’s Remembrances of Things Past is what springs to mind and when we speak of English literature, we do not reflect on Mills and Boone romance novels, but rather on Jane Austin and William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s dialogue between Brutus and Mark Anthony is even celebrated by the great Arabic writer Almanfalouty as one of the most eloquent discourses in human history (even when translated into Arabic).

Arabic literature has produced greats like the poet Almutanabby (a male) and Alkhansa` (a female who lived at the time of the prophet Mohammed - peace and blessings upon him), she was unrivalled in her poetry. I am sure that they also had sex lives and erotic desires, but their works were not famed for erotica. On the topic of desire, we have the poetry of Qays, for example, whose verse in praise of Layla is very widely quoted. Books have been written on his love for Layla, a love that never came to fruition and drove him into an infatuated type of insanity that produced some profound poetry.

He sang (roughly translated):

I visit the house, the House of Layla
Kissing this wall and that wall
Not for the love of the house
But of she who used to grace this house.

I cannot see the misogyny in this poem, all I can see is a brief articulation of experiences that practically every member of humanity goes through from time to time as we learn to grow through the pain of unrequited love.

If we move into Islamic literature to look for examples of women, one needs look no further than the Holy Koran, the words of God. The Koran has numerous references to women, some by name and some by reference to their position.

For example, the Holy Koran has an entire chapter dedicated to moral lessons from the life of Mary, the mother of Christ. God, through the Koran, vouches for Mary’s chastity and perfection. God even mentions the invocation of her mother during pregnancy and then outlines how Zacharia adopted her into the temple and some of the miracles that God gave her and the way she miraculously conceived and details right through to when she gave birth.

While she is the only women mentioned by name in the Holy Koran, the book also has a chapter entitled “Women” but does not have a chapter entitled “Men”. The Holy Koran goes on to cite great women including the wife of Pahroah, the wife of the chief minister of Egypt during the time of Joseph the son of Jacob; the Queen of Sheba; and also mentions the wives of Lot and Noah.

In addition to these significant women, the Koran also makes reference to the wives of the prophet Mohammed and to a woman after whom another chapter is named (Almujadila, or “the woman who argued”): this is the woman who stopped the prophet Mohammed one day and started arguing with him about her personal situation. This particular incident set the standard that a woman (any woman) can argue with the head of the faith, the messenger of God, and that he has a duty to listen to her and hear her petition. This standard was followed by all genuine Muslim leaders and exemplified by Omar, the second Caliph when during a sermon, a woman stood up in the mosque and said to him: “You are wrong Omar, how can you stipulate a standard for a dowry when God said in His book that it can be a great quantity (Qintar) ...” Omar reflected at this, then put his head down and said, the woman is right and Omar is wrong.

If we go a step further back, prior to the 23-year revelation of the Koran, we find literature about the biography of the prophet telling us about his relationship with his first wife whom he married when he was 25 years of age and she was 40. He spoke of how she, as an exceptional woman by all standards, played a significant role in his life, and he continued to praise her even after her death and he continued to honour her friends out of respect for her memory.

If we wish to look at women in Islamic literature, we would find that Aicha, the third wife of the prophet, continued to teach after his death for more than 40 years teaching as many as 2,200 Hadith. The prophet himself (whose mission was only 23 years) told us to learn half of Islam from her. That is, he taught us half of our religious teachings and she taught us the other half. For all those who say that Islam was taught only by men, reflect on this statement of the prophet. Also reflect on the fact that the first custodian of the collated verses of the Koran was another of his wives, Hafsa the daughter of Omar. Hafsa was also a renowned calligrapher.

It was also Aicha who explained to us the verses in the Koran dealing with the scarf and modesty, she explained how the “Jilbab” verse (singular of the “Jalabeeb” in the verse) was understood by the women in her time and how they all used scarves on their heads. Her teachings, and those of her sister Asma, are heavily relied on by scholars in interpreting teachings on the scarf or head covering. Those who claim that these are men’s teachings are wrong and they are denying the femininity of these great women.

Even one of the great ideologues of what some describe as the conservative interpretation of Islam is popularised through the name of his grandmother. Many people refer to him as “Ibn Taymiyya”, Taymiyya being his grandmother, most Muslims would not even know his proper name, they only know him as “Ibn Taymiyya” or son, in this case grandson, of Taymiyya.

Here is just a short list of other significant women from Islamic history and literature and some of their contributions, I have not included contemporaries in this list for obvious reasons:

• Umm Aldarda` was described by Imam Nawawy as a woman famous for her intelligence, jurisprudence and understanding;
• Karima Alharuria and another named Attanukhia taught Imam Bukhary who learnt many Ahadith from them;
• Aisha Bint Ahmad, a prominent linguist and poet;
• Ulayya Bint Almahdy, a prominent poet, author and teacher of jurisprudence and language;
• Wallada Alruwa`iya, a poet, contemporary of Ibn Zaydoun;
• Zaynab Ummul Mu`ayyed, a teacher of history and Hadith;
• Nafisa Bint Abi Mohammed, taught in Egypt, one of her students was Imam Shafi;
• Mu`nisa Al Ayyubia, taught language and Koran interpretation, Ibn Hayyan was one of her students;
• Shahda Bint Alabry, author and Hadith scholar, Ibn Dawood learnt Sahih Bukhary from her;
• Ibn Asaker, the renowned scholar had over 80 female teachers who taught him Hadith; and
• Zaynab, doctor of Bani Awad, eye surgeon.

This list is taken from a paper on the topic of Women in Islam that I translated for Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad.

Let’s not forget Rabi’a Al Adawiyya, perhaps the Matriarch of the Sufi or mystic strand of Islam, whose words have become a standard of expression for a human’s love for God.

I admit that the petition prepared by or on behalf of the Imam’s Council in relation to the erotic literature The perfumed garden does not explain these facts, however, the missive that treats complaints by Muslims as raising “broader concerns about religious questioning of secular public space and academic freedom” is unfair. Why cannot Muslims criticise and question incorrect material about our faith? I assure you that our study of this faith is based on the most impeccable male and female sources and does not merely stay within the realm of erotica.

The article by Dr Bronwyn Winter “Why 'questioning secularism' destroys religious freedom”, published On Line Opinion, May 2, 2008, goes further to drag several names into this including mine, Hanan Dover, Sheik Shady and others, based on allegations and without initially acknowledging my published rebuttal of these allegations. She then makes the claim, without any substantiation, that a certain event at which I spoke was organised by a “fundamentalist” student association. This is simply untrue, it is not factual and is not relevant to the debate.

The issue in question is whether this so called Centre of Excellence is living up to its name. I have no problem in Dr Habib teaching erotica. In my younger days, I wrote a 20-page thesis on love, attraction and emotions that is so complex (or so they tell me) that many readers drop with emotional exhaustion after the first few pages. It was an expression of my thought processes at that time in my life which neither defines me or my faith, even if that experience compelled me to purchase Professor Milad Doueihi’s well presented and researched A perverse history of the human heart which, despite being a very good book, is still waiting for me finish reading.

A genuine secular democracy should not be so insecure: I should be able to present arguments in defence of my faith and also my point of view, even if either of these is unpopular. This secular democracy should be willing to accord me the right to criticise it, particularly if it expects me to allow it to criticise my sanctities. I should be able to present my argument without the emotive accusation that I am somehow undermining or questioning secularism, which in this particular case is another excuse for bullying rather than convincing me into an opinion that differs to mine.

For the record, I am not seeking to dismantle secularism, but attempting to be constructive in approaching its application.