Over the centuries the greatest loss to the Islamic community has not only been the lack of vigilant participation of strong, opinionated, and unrepentant women but the increasing intolerance of differences in jurisdictions without breaking Islam into sects. The differences that today divide the faith into militant segments had once in fact unified it, because …
Category: herstory
Islamic History and the Women You Never Hear About: Umm al Muqtadir-Billah
With the expansion of Islam and the strife for political power, the Islamic empires merged with the highly patriarchal, highly oppressive societies they conquered, leading to the adoption of widespread traditions such as veiling and seclusion. By the Abbasid era, Muslim women predominantly occupied a private sphere—a stark contrast to their freedoms and very public …
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AntiDogmaSpray: Fatima, oh, Beloved Fatima.
Go read this article by Khadeeja. (Reproduced below.) Last night I attended a talk by somebody who had done his doctorate on Sayyidinah Fatima. It was a lecture which brought alive the historical sources. You know when you listen to somebody speak and an hour passes in a blur? Took me back to being in …
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Islamic History and the Women You Never Hear About: The Rights of Girls
When Umm Salama, a woman famous for her intelligence and sound judgment and argumentative nature, asked the Prophet “Why are men mentioned in the Qur’an and why are we not?” she did not only challenge the pre-Islamic customs that were abrasive to women and had not yet been overturned by the unfinished Revelations, but almost …
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Islamic History and the Women You Never Hear About: Hind bint Utbah
Actually, you have probably heard of Hind bint Utbah. She's quite famous--or rather infamous--for allegedly eating the liver of Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib during the Battle of Uhud, a battle in which she was fighting against the Muslims. Because of her cruel and violent acts against Muslims before her conversion, many Muslims today challenge her …
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Islamic History and the Women You Never Hear About: Female Warriors
Muslim women participated fully in war during the early periods of Islam while the Prophet was alive. Some of them healed the wounded, some devised strategies, others were warriors, and others--still--recited war poetry to inspire the troops, (their weapons were words!) and a vast majority attended to all of the above. These stories are hardly …
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In Islam and the Qur’an: The Queen of Sheba
So tell the tale—perhaps they will reflect. (Qur'an 7:176)There are several different accounts of the Queen of Sheba--in Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and I suspect in religions and cultures outside of these--for she was an extraordinarily intelligent and open-minded queen regnant, who ruled by her own right a flourishing kingdom with expansive international trade, exceptional agriculture, …
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the fatal feminist 