Religious Texts and the Modern Values

The Liberal Islam Network (JIL) organized a public discussion under the theme “Patriarchal Bias in the Scriptures” on Tuesday, 30th of November 2010. Three speakers presented their perspectives in this session, namely Ulil Abshar-Abdalla (founder of JIL), Maria Ulfa Anshar (head of Indonesian Child Protection Comission; KPAI), and Yuniyanti Chuzaifah (head of Indonesian Comission on Violence Against Women; Komnas Perempuan). The discussion is essentially focusing on Syafiq Hasyim’s book entitled Freedom from Islam’s Patriarchy.

The three presenters’ explanations can be summed up in one sentence: to understand the religious texts is very difficult and complicated. Religious texts cannot be comprehended in a simple way because of two reasons. First, culture and social interaction contribute in producing the texts of the Scriptures. In other words, each text entails a cultural baggage that must be revealed and explored.

Second, the modern Scripture explainers (mufassir) require a more complex set of knowledge than the classic or medieval author of Scripture interpretation (tafseer). Not only they have to master the Arabic grammatical sciences such as syntax (an-nahw), morphology (at-tashrif), rethoric (al-balagah) and etcetera, the modern commentators also have to consider the contemporary texts such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as well as laws and regulations of the country. Religious texts must be placed within the matrix of values that spread around religion. Every era has different normality, therefore a text that is considered normal at a certain time may be deemed as “abnormal” in the next time. Thus, we have to reinterpret the sacred texts with a more complex approach in order to avoid inconsistencies in understanding religion.   

The terms ar-Rijal (men) and an-Nisa ’ (women) in Qur’an Surah an-Nisa’ verse 34 are not merely linguistic terms but they are actually cultural terminologies. They refer to the real concept of ‘womanhood’ and ‘manhood’ found in the Arab culture at the time of revelation. However, the method of interpretation of the Quran or Hadith that developed in classical and medieval period did not consider this matter. The classical interpretation recognizes the knowledge about the occasions/circumstances of revelation (asbab al-nuzul) of the Quranic verses, but it is very limited to the knowledge of specific occasion that lead to certain revelation. The function of asbab an-nuzul is merely to associate particular verses with particular occasions, which is very simple.

Recent Muslims scholars developed a strategy for Quran’s interpretation in a more women friendly manner and approach. They understand the concept of asbab an-nuzul in a broader context instead of understanding the text based on certain events. For example in the interpretation of the verse la ikrâha fi ad-Din (no compulsion in religion), that is revealed concerning a person who converted to Islam whereas his son did not follow his path. It was occurred in Medina wherein Prophet Muhammad and his companions initiated to attack the Jewish rebels in Khaibar. Worried that his son might become the victim of attack because he lives among Jewish community, this person asked the Prophet whether he might force his son to embrace Islam. The Prophet prohibited him because there should be no compulsion in religion.

Currently, we cannot understand the religious texts based on the simple asbab an-nuzul like in the above case. For this reason, modern Muslim scholars attempt to expand the concept of asbab an-nuzul to the social and cultural contexts in order to provide non-misogynist interpretation of Qur’an. In addressing the terms ar-rijal and an-nisa’ , they explore about the Arab society’s understanding of men and women; what kind of social role assigned to men and women at that time; the pattern of relationship between them and whether it is fair or not. Each term entails cultural baggage that must be revealed. Feminists like Fatima Mernisi, Amina Wadood, Asma Barlas etcetera used this strategy in their attempt to prvide a more women friendly interpretation of Scriptures.

This new stream is part of change in Muslim society’s awareness. Every era has a specific feature of sensitivity; it has certain perception about something. For example, Bukhari narrated that the prophet was saying that three things annul a prayer: a donkey, a black dog and a woman, if they pass in front of praying people.

None of the commentaries written by classical Muslim scholars questions this narration. For more than a thousand years, no one problematise this hadith as it is considered as normal. However, it is only considered as problem since the discourse of gender equality emerge in the 20th century. The text that is considered as normal in a certain period, becomes problem at different times. As in Thomas Kuhn’s explanation about paradigm, every era has its normality and every community has its sense. At the time of the Prophet, the narration that women cancel the prayer was not a problem because people’s understanding of men and women is shaped by the concept of culture and social relations that do not make them finding any problem in reading such texts.

The text becomes problematic since the 20th century, when a Muslim feminist like Qosim Amin proposed the notion of gender equality among Muslim societies. One of Muslim scholars who seriously criticize the above narration is Mahmud Abu Rayah in his book about criticism of hadith entitled Adhwa ‘ala as-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyah. In his book, Abu Rayah invited us to read Bukhari’s narration with the different lens. Why woman annuls a man’s prayer if she passes in front of him? Is it true that the Prophet Muhammad said that?

This moment led to the change and the emergence of different thoughts. They who do not like the changes tend to be apologetic and try to justify this narration in various ways. These people are among the traditionalists who defend this classic interpretation of Scriptures.

When a paradigm shift occurs then the texts are viewed in different way. The texts that are perceived as normal by classical scholars become “abnormal” in the modern century. Muslim scholars who propose gender equality attempt to denormalize the texts. They must reinterpret the texts; otherwise, it would lead to inconsistencies in the understanding of religion.

At present, we cannot assume that women will annul the prayer if she passes in front of people who pray because it is not acceptable in any reason. Beside the traditional interpretation of the Scriptures, we also need the modern interpretation that understands the text under the consideration of the context.

The modern commentators require a more complex set of knowledge than Arabic grammatical sciences such as syntax (an-nahw), morphology (at-tashrif), rethoric (al-balagah) and etcetera. They also have to consider the contemporary texts such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as well as laws and regulations of the country. We must not interpret verses in solipsistic way and ignore other variables. It is not enough to refer only to the classic interpretation of Qurthubi, Ibn Katsir, Jalalain etcetera because the world does not work like that anymore.

In this modern age, religion remains important but it should be placed in the matrix of other values. It is because the world today has different condition than in the period of the Prophet’s life.