Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism (47 page)

34. Ibid., 3:464.

1. The Qur’an’s Arabic makes no reference to “nature” or “laws of nature” in this passage. As noted earlier, the Qur’an has no term that can be explicitly equated with “homosexuality,” and it is not clear that “lewdness” means homosexuality in particular. Yusuf Ali interprets away the reference to other crimes that are actually described in the Qur’anic narrative about Lut’s community, like highway robbery and fighting in public assemblies. This last item Yusuf Ali interprets as only committing their “special horrible crime” (meaning anal sex between men) in public places. This disregards the more straightforward and literal reading of the Qur’an, and is a speculative “interpretation” rather than a linguistic “translation.” Abdullah Yusuf Ali is not unusual in this regard. He is only more explicit in his footnotes than other translators who make similar reductionist moves.
   

2. Toshihiko Izutsu,
   God and Man in the Qur’an: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschaaung
   

   (Tokyo: Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1964).
   

3. Amreen Jamel, “The Story of Lut and the Qur’an’s Perception of the Morality of Same-Sex Sexuality,”
   Journal of Homosexuality
   , 41(1), 2001, 1–88.
   

4. The people to whom Lut was sent are commonly associated with Sodom and its satellite cities, the Cities of the Plain. The names Sodom and Gomorrah do not occur in the Qur’an, though they do in classical commentaries. How earlier Near Eastern names, interpretations and folk-tales entered classical commentaries is a deep topic, addressed later in this study.
   

5. Jamel, op. cit., 5.
   

6. Ibid., 64. Note that the Arabic triliteral root
   sh-h-y
   gives rise to a host of words meaning “to lust after” or “to desire” while the root
   f-h-sh
   gives rise to words meaning “to transgress” or “to exceed appropriate bounds.”
   

7. In this crucial concluding paragraph, Jamel’s use of the term “abominations” to qualify the description of same-sex acts seems to slip back into the traditional rhetoric that denounces homosexuality without critical examination, despite the overall thrust of the argument.
   

8. Esack, op. cit., 60.
   

9. Hajji Khalifa,
   Kashf al-Zunun
   (Istanbul: Maarif matbaası, 1943) 2:1324, argues for the authentic pedigree of this genre of “telling the stories of the Prophets” as opposed to “giving the detail of the words,” which is what
   tafsir
   literally means. Hajji Khalifa notes that the earliest traditionists and commentators, Ibn ‘Abbas and Abu Hurayra, both studied with Ka‘b al-Ahbar, a Yemeni Jew who joined the Muslim community and was famed for his knowledge of “sacred history” and his retelling the stories of the Prophets. Along with Ka‘b al-Ahbar, Wahb ibn Munabbih was a specialist in this kind of knowledge, and was reputed to be the first to write a book in the genre. Wahb lived from 34 to 110 Hijri (654–728
   CCEE
   ) and was famous for his vast knowledge of religious texts and stories relating to the pre-Islamic prophets and past nations (
   Isra‘iliyat
   ). His name is attached to many reports about stories that have entered the Islamic tradition as part of sacred history.
   

10. ‘Ali ibn Hamza al-Kisa’i,
    Bad’ al-Khalq wa Qisas al-Anbiya’
    , ed. Al-Tahir ibn Salama (Tunis: Dar Nuqush Arabiyya, 1998).
    

11. Al-Kisa’i relies on the names of al-Munabbih and al-Ahbar as his sources, though it is difficult to ascertain whether he attributes reports to them in an authentic or accurate way. Al-Kisa’i claimed in the introduction to his book to have studied
    hadith
    criticism and mastered its complexities.
    

12. The two earliest Stories of the Prophets written in Persian are by Muhammad ibn Hasan Al-Dadormi or al-Dirumi (who has preserved textual remnants of an older original text by al-Tha‘albi) and Ibrahim or Ishaq ibn Khalaf al-Nishapuri, whose Persian text I refer to as: al-Nishapuri,
    Qisas al-Anbiya
    , ed. Habib Yaghma’i (Tehran: Bngah-yi Tarjama o Nashr, 1965).
    

13. Al-Kisa’i, op. cit. 219–20.
    

14. This final phrase, “preaching to them about the destruction of former nations who were oppressive,” is found in some copies of the text and omitted in others.
    

15. Al-Kisa’i, op. cit., 220. 50. Ibid., 221.
    

51. Ibid., 222.

1. Al-Rawandi, Qutb al-Din Sa‘id ibn Hibbat Allah (d. 573
   hijri
   ),
   Qisas al-Anbiya
   , ed. Ghulam Riza-yi ‘Irfaniyan al-Yazdi (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Mufid, 1989), 117–25.
   

2. Al-Rawandi, op. cit., 117. He quotes this
   hadith
   on the authority of Abu Ja‘far. 54. Ibid., 118.
   

1. The Islamic tradition is not unique in this way, but rather all patriarchal moral systems see same-sex desire as exclusively “anal.”
   

2. Al-Qurtubi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad (d. 1273
   CCEE
   ),
   Tafsir al-Jami‘ fi Ahkam al-Qur’an
   

(Cairo: Dar al-Qalam, 1967), 7:243.

57. Ibid., 7:248.

1. Since they reject legal reasoning and analogy, one can question whether the Hanbalis actually qualify as a “legal school” with a
   bona fide
   juridical method (despite the fact that they are commonly accepted as “the fourth Sunni legal school”).
   

2. Al-Qurtubi, op. cit., 244.
   

3. Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ali al-Razi Al-Jassas (d. 981
   CCEE
   ),
   Ahkam al-Qur’an
   (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1978), 2:363, under the discussion of adulterers in commentary on Surat al-Nur.
   

61. Ibid., 2:363.

1. Al-Qurtubi, op. cit., 7:243.
   

2. Richard Bulliet,
   Islam: AView from the Edge
   (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
   

3. Salih Ahmad Al-Shami (ed.),
   al-Jami‘ bayn al-Sahihayn
   (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1995), 3:505–20 is an invaluable tool for such research.
   

4. Al-Nuwayri, op. cit., 206 relates the text of a report in which ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib reportedly used the terms
   Luti
   and
   Mulawwat bihi
   to mean “inserting partner in anal sex” and “receptive partner.” These terms are not found in the majority of reports about the Prophet and the earliest Companions, and were undoubtedly projected retrospectively back into the early community from a much later date. Most
   hadith
   use the term “the act of the people of Lut” (
   af‘al qawm Lut
   ).
   

5. This
   hadith
   is found in the collections of Ibn Maja and Abu Dawud and, in a slightly different wording, in the collection of al-Tirmidhi.
   

6. Al-Jassas, op. cit., 2:363.
   

7. Forged
   hadith
   report condemning same-sex sexual relations began to circulate in earnest during the Abbasid period, when it became aristocratic and courtly fashion to own young male slaves, employ handsome wine-bearers, and flaunt same-sex romances. Many
   hadith
   s circulated in the name of the Prophet to address these practices, as part of the traditionalist cultural war on the cosmopolitan elite of Abbasid-era cities.
   

8. Al-Qurtubi also relays that men were burned to death for this act in the time of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar and while Ibn al-Zubayr was ruling. Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahab Al-Nuwayri,
   Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-‘Arab
   (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1923), 206 preserves the text of this report. It is narrated on the authority of Muhammad ibn al-Munkadar, but without full
   isnad
   to verify its authenticity. The governor in question is Khalid ibn al-Walid. Some critics hold that this report is of doubtful authenticity because there is not corroborating evidence that burning was ever a criminal punishment among Muslims.
   

9. See al-Qurtubi, op. cit., 7:244.
   

10. Salah al-Din Munajjad,
    Al-Hayat al-Jinsiyya ‘and al-‘arab min al-Jahiliyya ila Awakhir al-Qarn al-Rabi‘a al-Hijri
    [
    Sexual Life among the Arabs from Pre-Islamic Age to the Fourth Century Hijri
    ] (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Jadid, 1975).
    

11. Al-Tabari, op. cit. 3:465 makes clear in his commentary that Lut’s story always comes in a series of references to other Prophets, including Salih.
    

12. Shahla Haeri, “Woman’s Body, Nation’s Honor: Rape in Pakistan,” in
    Hermeneutics and Honor: Negotiating Female “Public” Space in Islamic/ate Societies
    , ed. Asma Afsaruddin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 55–69.
    

13. Joshua Hammer, “Gay Egypt in the Dock: The Big Crackdown Might Reflect Cairo’s Own Insecurities,”
    Newsweek International
    , February 11, 2002, and Kate Garsombke, “Gay Life – and Death – in the Arab World: Persecution of Homosexuals Increases in the Middle East,”
    Utne Reader
    , February 5, 2002.
    

14. Al-Bukhari hadith number 6953 and Muslim hadith number 1907.
    Hadith
    scholars considered this to be the key
    hadith
    (of all the thousands attributed to the Prophet) and it comes first in al-Bukhari’s collection before thousands of other
    hadith
    .
    

15. Fatima Mernissi’s research is the strongest statement of this idea from a feminist perspective, linking the emerging rule of elite men to the suppression of democratic values and women’s authority in the generation after the Prophet Muhammad’s death.
    

16. Hamid Dabashi,
    Authority in Islam: From the Rise of Muhammad to the Establishment of the Umayyads
    (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1989) documents varieties of resistance to Arab kingship from positions that came to be called Shi‘i or Khariji.
    

17. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im,
    Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and International Law
    (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990), 9.
    

18. The central ethical and religious teaching of Islam is
    tawhid
    . This could be narrowly defined through theology, or more radically conceived. In talk about God,
    tawhid
    means radical monotheism and insisting that God is singular and unique with no partners or associates. In theology,
    tawhid
    means perceiving radical monotheism as the single teaching of many Prophets, not just Muhammad, and the religious communities they founded. In social life,
    tawhid
    means urging a plurality of people to join in a harmonious unity. In personal life,
    tawhid
    means struggling with alienation and fragmentation from each other person, urging them and oneself through honesty and sincerity toward a more unified whole.
    Tawhid
    in general means assessing honestly the alienation, violence, egotism, and hypocrisy that are the major obstacles that keep people fragmented and keep societies unjust.
    

19. Farid Esack,
    On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today
    (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999) is one of the first writings of an Islamic theologian to couple women’s rights to the rights of homosexuals (both female and male) in Muslim communities. Not surprisingly Esack writes as a South African.
    

9

ARE WE UP TO THE CHALLENGE? THE NEED FOR A RADIC AL RE-ORDERING OF THE ISLAMIC

DISCOURSE ON WOMEN

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons

“One of the major powers of the muted is to think against the current,” writes Rachel Blau DuPlessis in her book:
Writing Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth-Century Women Writers
.
1
Questioning the inherited wisdom passed down by patriarchal authorities in the Islamic tradition has been my wont just as it was forty years ago when I began to question the racist paradigms that attempted to confine me inside the narrow
Jim Crow
ghetto created by American white supremacy. There was danger then; there is danger now. In fact I find it harrowing to even think about addressing a Muslim audience of people unknown to myself on the topic of “women and human rights” in Islam or “Islam and feminism.” It is a bit like what I imagine it would have felt like addressing the white community in Memphis (where I was born and raised) in the 1960s on “why white racism was wrong” or “why the Jim Crow system of apartheid in Memphis needed to be dismantled.”

I must confess that any attempt to write about “women and human rights” in an Islamic context for me is extremely difficult. It is difficult because of all of my experiences with the Islamic tradition to date both in the Middle East
2
and here in the U.S.A.
3
No matter the level of rationalizations (apologetic or explanatory), what I have seen and heard regarding the status of women in Islam has been, for the most part, discriminatory to women. Frankly, I am tired of the contortions, the bending over backwards, and the justifications for the oppressive, repressive, and exclusionary treatment of women in majority Islamic societies as well as in minority Muslim communities in the U.S.A.
4
I for one cannot and do not accept the justifications or rationalizations for this current reality. To me, these practices are morally wrong. Just as slavery cannot be morally justified today, neither can the contemporary suppression of or discrimination against women be justified.

I think it is important to state up front that I came into Islam as a fully formed African-American woman who had been on the frontlines of my people’s struggle against the
Jim Crow system (
racial apartheid) in the U.S. South erected by white racists a decade or so after the end of the “legal” enslavement of my African – later to become African-American-ancestors. I was a student participant-leader in the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (known by its acronym, SNCC). I started out as a foot soldier marching, carrying picket signs, and being arrested outside segregated restaurants, libraries, theaters, museums, and other public places that denied my access solely on the basis of the color of my skin. I was jeered, called a “nigger,” a “coon,” an “ape,” spat upon and physically assaulted by white passers-by, hit with billy-clubs, and arrested by white policemen enforcing the “law”; a “law” that many whites believed was ordained by Divine sanctions.

Many of the white racists really believed that God had destined people of African descent, through a curse on the Biblical person Ham, to be slaves in perpetuity to all the other descendants of Noah’s children. Other whites believed that they had other scriptural justifications for the enslavement and continued segregation of Africans even after “legal” slavery ended here in the United States. Some of the most ardent white racists were deeply religious people. They used Biblical passages to support their notions of white supremacy and superiority. During the period prior to the 1960s, many black people had internalized these ideas of white supremacy and black inferiority and its religious basis. Their objective reality (of ongoing racism and oppression) plus the unrelenting reinforcement of these racist ideas via school textbooks, film, television, and public discourse caused a distortion of self-concept in many black people and they accepted the
status quo
. When other blacks (protestors like myself and others) rebelled against this dehumanization, those who had deeply internalized racism fought against those of us who sought to throw off our oppression. This is why Malcolm X’s (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) strident words against white supremacy and authority were so important to those of us who were fighting for our humanity and our rights. His words were a strong cup of black coffee to the sleeping, an antidote to the psychic and mental poison that was killing black