Category: Women

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi Two questions have often been put to me since the publication in Arabic of al-Wafa’ bi asma’ al nisa’ (Biographical dictionary of women narrators of hadith). This work was published in 43 volumes by Dar al-Minhaj from Jeddah in January 2021. The English translation of its muqaddima (preface) was first published in 2007 under the title al-Muhaddithat: the women scholars in Islam. This work has helped to promote hadith scholarship in Muslim societies, to highlight women’s role in it, and to draw attention to many questions concerning the status and respect due to women in…

View More Two questions about the Dictionary of women scholars

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwī I have been told that on this occasion I will not be addressing only fellow-Muslims but also non-Muslims. I have tried therefore to present what I wish to say particularly to Muslims in terms that are general, and make some sense to non-Muslims as well. What I have to say is in two parts: (1) some critical reflections on the direction of contemporary feminism (which is rather different from the feminism of a century ago that campaigned for  political and property rights for women in the West) ; and (2) an account of three distinct but connected perspectives…

View More Critical Reflections on Feminism

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi The most striking thing about the wives is that they are so different from each other in many respects: age, intellect, beauty and social status. Similarly, there is a diversity of characters and abilities among the male companions. This diversity is responded to in the Book and Sunnah, so that the very range of human experience and need receives a comment or a response from the guidance of Allah and the insight of His messenger. Khadijah She is the first human being to whom the Prophet announced his prophethood. The fact that he does this,…

View More Difference among the wives of the Prophet

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi The Companions of the Messenger of God, salla l-lahu `alayhi wa-sallam, hold, for Muslims, a status and authority over all subsequent generations of Muslims. This applies to the women Companions as it does to the men. The reason for it is the strength of their faith and the depth of their knowledge and understanding of how to preserve the teachings of the religion by embodying them in their practice. Without doubt this high quality of their Islam derives from the fact that they witnessed the prophethood and revelation at first hand: they were able to…

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By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi This Ramadan I had the good fortune to be able to do the retreat in the last 10 days of the month. Throughout those days I recited the Quran and reflected on it and many things came to my mind fresh. For example, I read that God will reward a good deed 10 times over or more than that. As for a bad deed, there is only a single punishment the equivalent of that deed. But then when I read more closely I noticed that God has said that with that punishment there is humiliation…

View More Women Scholars in Islam: Some reflections

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwi Even though, for most people, the single most important and useful thing they do in the world is to raise a family — to look after and love their children and prepare them for their journey in life – in the modern world, family life is considered a bit of a nuisance, a distraction from the more exciting business of having a career, wealth, celebrity and status in the world. This is especially hard on women, whose role as mothers and wives is downgraded, and indeed the economy has been so arranged that, in many…

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By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwī That women do not go to the mosque for congregational prayer, however widespread this has become, and however long standing, is a departure from the sunnah, which some people will call innovation or bid`ah. The norm in the time of the Prophet and his Companions was that women were encouraged, not passively tolerated, to come to the mosque for prayer and education. Men came to pray and learn and women came to pray and learn. The Prophet emphasised the greater merit of prayer in congregation. This applies to women no less or more than to…

View More Women’s prayer in the Mosque

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwī During a recent teaching visit to Bradford I came to know about the project to set up, in this city, a women’s mosque and centre for excellence (ihsan). I was able to meet some of the women leading this project and they explained to me their need for it and their hopes for it. In some of my published writing I have shown in detail, and with abundant evidence, that in the best times for this Community – when the example of generations nearest to the period of the revelation of the Qur’an informed the…

View More The Women’s Mosque and Centre for Excellence (Bradford, UK)

By Dr. Mohammad Akram Nadwī Feminism everyone can agree with: helping women in trouble and in need when their relatives will not or cannot do it. This includes speaking up for their right when they are wronged. This is good because it is always good to help those who are suffering from injustice, poverty etc. The feminism to be questioned and perhaps opposed is a contemporary phenomenon based on a theory of gender. This theory is itself based on the idea that traditional social relations are a function of distribution of power in the society. Those who have more power,…

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