In the 1980s, however, Muḥammad Mitwallī al-Shaʿrāwī and Muḥammad Sayyid Ṭanṭāwī, scholars of al-Azhar, did not adopt that feministic interpretation, instead observing the traditional trend. Thus, the divergence between the modernized feministic trend and conservative one still exists after the innovation made by the former. The conservative interpretation can survive through using the classical narratives such as ḥadīth and classical tafsīr.

The book was the first of its kind to express the need for inheritance rights to be the same regardless of the receiver’s gender, as well as one of the first ones to push for the abolition of polygyny and repudiation. It was also notable for stating the importance of national education, including physical education, and rallying to make it extensible to female students. As such, Haddad received much criticism, particularly from conservatives who thought he had deviated from the Islamic law, despite the book making continuous references to the Qurʾan and Sunna. As much as it was a revolutionary work, some of the author’s points of view still perpetuate certain gender stereotypes and norms regarding women. This paper aims to revisit the book, pointing out its key elements in the fight for gender equality as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

Islamic Reformism

The subject of women’s rights has received considerable attention from contemporar Muslim scholars, intellectual and activists. Two broad trends in particular stand out on gender relations for their reinterpretation of Islam in response to social change. Islamic feminists and Muslim centrists, belonging to the Wasaṭiyya, have, with noticeable differences within each group, addressed the rights of women through separate yet not dissimilar references to the sacred texts of Islam, the Islamic tradition and universal principles. There is a pursuit of the gendering of a critical Islamic idiom. Women’s rights are located at the crossroads of critique and gender. A patchwork tradition supplies a repertoire of disparate values, methods and norms that can be employed for conflicting ends. This article is divided into two main parts. The first part examines the trend of Islamic feminism through the writings of scholars such as Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, Asma Afsaruddin and Azizah al-Hibri who emphasise the principle of equality in gender relations. Multiple foundations, ranging from aḥādīth (Prophetic reports) to hermeneutics, are variously invoked, selected, adapted and appropriated to make the case for women’s rights in Islamic feminism. The second part shifts the focus on women’s rights to tradition and the writings of Muhammad al-Ghazali and Khaled Abou El Fadl. Their arguments are examined in a side-by-side comparison in the context of Muslim self-criticism and various Islamic feminist positions. Muhammad Abduh and Mahmoud Shaltout contributed to the development of the specific genealogy in which al-Ghazali and Abou El Fadl pursue their scholarship. Within the diverse space of the category of tradition, it is possible to situate the arguments of al-Ghazali and Abou El Fadl on women’s rights and other subjects of similar import. Gender relations for al-Ghazali and Abou El Fadl is addressed through Islamic jurisprudence and both arrive at the interpretative conclusion of women’s rights.

The purpose of this article is to examine how Islamic traditions have been interwoven with modern values regarding gender issues in twentieth-century Islamic reformist thought. I focus on the works of Tunisian scholar Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr (1879– 1973). As a high-ranking ʿālim (an Islamic religious scholar) at the prestigious Zaytuna Mosque, he applied the traditional Islamic scholarly methods in his writings, including tafsīr (Qur ʾanic exegesis). Meanwhile, as a reformist scholar influenced by the new values of his time, he attempted to modernize Islamic thought. In pre-modern times, Qurʾanic exegetes interpreted some verses as declaring the husband’s superiority over his wife. Islamic jurists also provided rules for unequal rights in marital relationships. However, neither group defined the concept of family. Ibn ʿĀshūr, in his famous book on Islamic legal theory, Maqāṣid al-sharīʿa al-Islāmiyya, emphasized the importance of the formation of family as the basis of society to preserve offspring, which was considered one of God’s intents (maqāṣid). He used the framework of the family in his tafsīr to discuss the divided marital roles, namely, that the wife would manage the household while the husband would provide for his family members. Although he indicated that their rights were equivalent, if not equal, he believed that man and woman each had an innate ability and a corresponding role in the family. In my opinion, such a gender view that confines women in a family home, expecting them to devote themselves to their families voluntarily, should be distinguished from those of traditional patriarchy, in which a man has absolute authority. This article shows how Ibn ʿĀshūr represented modern patriarchal gender norms based on the concept of family through his arguments, which used the traditional way of classical disciplines to maintain the legitimacy of Islamic religious scholarship. 1973). As a high-ranking ʿālim (an Islamic religious scholar) at the prestigious Zaytuna Mosque, he applied the traditional Islamic scholarly methods in his writings, including tafsīr(Qur ʾanic exegesis). Meanwhile, as a reformist scholar influenced by the new values of his time, he attempted to modernize Islamic thought. In pre-modern times, Qurʾanic exegetes interpreted some verses as declaring the husband’s superiority over his wife. Islamic jurists also provided rules for unequal rights in marital relationships. However, neither group defined the concept of family. Ibn ʿĀshūr, in his famous book on Islamic legal theory, Maqāṣid al-sharīʿa al-Islāmiyya, emphasized the importance of the formation of family as the basis of society to preserve offspring, which was considered one of God’s intents (maqāṣid). He used the framework of the family in his tafsīr to discuss the divided marital roles, namely, that the wife would manage the household while the husband would provide for his family members. Although he indicated that their rights were equivalent, if not equal, he believed that man and woman each had an innate ability and a corresponding role in the family. In my opinion, such a gender view that confines women in a family home, expecting them to devote themselves to their families voluntarily, should be distinguished from those of traditional patriarchy, in which a man has absolute authority. This article shows how Ibn ʿĀshūr represented modern patriarchal gender norms based on the concept of family through his arguments, which used the traditional way of classical disciplines to maintain the legitimacy of Islamic religious scholarship.

In this study, the arguments on gender developed in the contemporary American Muslim community are analyzed by focusing on the discourses promoted by Muslim intellectuals who advocate revival of the Sunni scholarly tradition. Since the mid-1990s, growing interest in Sunni scholarly traditions has been observed among Muslim youth living in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. While this is not a group or movement sharing a coherent ideology, proponents of this Sunni revivalist trend have formed a constituency within the American Muslim community under the leadership of several intellectuals who claim to have learned religious sciences from Sunni scholars in the Middle East and North Africa. This new trend is known to emphasize the Sunni scholarly tradition, advocating the authority of what its proponents call “Traditional Islam,” which is a version of Islam abiding by the framework of classical Sunni jurisprudence, creeds, and Sufism. With its heavy focus on classical interpretations, this could give the impression that the trend is merely another anachronistic reaction to—and rejection of—the changing circumstances and lifestyles of contemporary Muslims. However, the trend’s leading intellectuals are actually taking a more flexible stance on some issues at a practical level. These issues typically revolve around gender, over which heated disputes have been taking place within the American Muslim community. By focusing on Hamza Yusuf’s discourses on gender, this study unravels the approach taken by intellectuals of the trend when paraphrasing historical Sunni concepts in the United States context. More specifically, the paper presents a discussion on how established Sunni views on gender are reframed in the discourses of Traditional Islam by examining several contested issues as cases. With its heavy focus on classical interpretations, this could give the impression that the trend is merely another anachronistic reaction to—and rejection of—the changing circumstances and lifestyles of contemporary Muslims. However, the trend’s leading intellectuals are actually taking a more flexible stance on some issues at a practical level. These issues typically revolve around gender, over which heated disputes have been taking place within the American Muslim community. By focusing on Hamza Yusuf’s discourses on gender, this study unravels the approach taken by intellectuals of the trend when paraphrasing historical Sunni concepts in the United States context. More specifically, the paper presents a discussion on how established Sunni views on gender are reframed in the discourses of Traditional Islam by examining several contested issues as cases.

For a few decades, Muslim women’s feminist engagement has widely spread throughout the world. To achieve gender equality, some feminist scholars of Sufism seek to reinforce their arguments by referring to prominent Sufis, such as Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah and Ibn ʿArabī. While Rābiʿah, a female Sufi, is respected by male Sufis, Ibn ʿArabī, one of the most influential Sufi thinkers, demonstrates a unique idea about the relationship between men and women. In the formation of such discourse, these feminist scholars have considered Sufism from a gender perspective—that of gender-focused Sufism. In other words, Sufi studies have expanded the horizon of understanding Sufi thought. Moreover, some Muslim feminist scholars have attempted to bring about reform at the level of Islamic law based on the discourses of gender-focused Sufism. Here, gender-focused Sufism is discussed not only in the context of academic study but also in that of Islamic practice. I argue that the academic study of Sufism also constitutes part of the discursive tradition of Sufism.

As the emancipation of women is now a principal theme in contemporary Islamic thought, numerous religious scholars and intellectuals aim to reinterpret the sacred texts and reexamine the religious and legal heritage of Islam. The present paper examines the evolution of the debate on the political rights of women, thus focusing on intellectual forces labeled “the moderate Islamic trend.” Such scholars advocate a modification of Islamic ideas and examine issues of freedom and rights from the Islamic perspective and not secularist one. In particular, the paper focuses on the political theories of Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, Salīm alʿAwwā, and Ṭāriq al-Bishrī. These scholars and intellectuals scrutinize the historical context of the narration of the Qurʾanic verse and the hadiths, which have traditionally been invoked to deny women political participation, without rejecting the divine orders. However, their contentions diverge on the issue of women becoming heads of state. Al-Qaraḍāwī received a traditional Islamic education and believes that the hadith demonstrates that the leadership of men has been effective from time immemorial. By contrast, al-ʿAwwā and al-Bishrī, recipients of a modern legal education, take the stance that the traditional Islamic statehood assumed by the hadith no longer exists. Thus, every public office is open to citizens regardless of religion or biological sex. This paper evinces how religious scholars and lay intellectuals take discrete approaches to the traditions of Islamic jurisprudence, even when they share a moderate understanding of Islam and are committed to the idea of democracy.

This paper examines how women are positioned in Muslim societies, especially regarding the “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice” as ordered by the Qurʾan, from the aspect of the “religious police” enforcing it in Saudi Arabia. During the Medieval Period, scholars of Islamic jurisprudence discussed the ‘ḥisba’ (legal institution for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice), as a way to form a society based on Islam, and a system for policing public morality that characterized Muslim society. Today, this task has been transferred to secular bodies, such as security institutions in Muslim countries. However, some countries like Saudi Arabia, have been trying to re-establish ḥisba. Saudi Arabia, with its founding ideology called Wahhabism, has tried to realize this Islamic ideal by establishing a governmental body called the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. This paper explores the contemporary form of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice as practiced in Saudi Arabia in the context of the historical ḥisba, and focuses on the relationship between the policing of public morality and women. Women’s behavior in Muslim society has often been discussed, accompanied by their role in society and family. This paper focuses on how women participate in practicing the concept of ḥisba. In Saudi Arabia as a modern state, women have often regarded the practice as violating their privacy and rights, which becomes a crucial political issue amid ‘Saudi Vision 2030,’ which is an ongoing open policy. This paper illustrates the underlying ideas about promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, and the transformation of women into a political agenda in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, it examines how the issue on women has been focalized in the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.