Who Can Be a Wali?

Guardianship اﻟوﻻﯾﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻹﺳﻼم Guardianship in Islam 1 | Page Guardianship In The Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful All praise is for Allah. We praise Him and seek assistance in Him and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil in of our own selves. Whomever Allah guides, there is none to misguide and whomever He leads astray, there is none to guide him a right. I openly bear witness that none has the right to be worshiped except Allah alone without any partners and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger. 2 | Page Guardianship INTRODUCTION: The woman in Islam is a very unique and delicate part of the Muslim community. Allah distinguished her from the male species giving her a separate realm in which she should be dealt with: “And the male is not like the female” (3:36) It is imperative for men to understand this so that they fall into trying to change the woman into something that she is not. Event the Sharee’ah (legislation) of Islam has adjusted some of the religious tenets and obligations to accommodate the feminine nature of the woman such as; One: Placing the financial burden of the family on the shoulders of the man, as Allah says: “The men are the protectors and maintainers of the women because of the strength which Allah has given one of them over the other and because the men spend from their wealth…” (4:34) Two: Alleviating the physical burden of jihad from the women and directing their attention and energy to more important aspects of the religion that are commensurate with her delicate nature. A’isha Radiyallahu anha asked the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam “Can the women fight jihad?” So the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam responded: “Yes, but the type of jihad that doesn’t involve fighting—Hajj and Umrah.” (Collected in Sahih Al Bukhari) Three: Not allowing her to pray or engage in other acts of religious devotion (e.g. fasting and Tawwaf) while she is menstruating or going through the post partum bleeding process. Unlike the man who is never allowed such a concession irrespective of situation and circumstance. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam was on hajj with his wife A’isha and he saw her crying and asked are you on your menses? And she replied in the affirmative and so he instructed her to do as the rest of the pilgrims with the exception of Tawwaf. Authors Note: If you notice A’isha was crying because the menses interfered with the continuity of her worship. So this is not a “resting period” for the women, nor should they rejoice at such an opportunity because it only sets her back in her relationship with Allah. Four: Making her entry into paradise easier and simpler than that of the man’s. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam said: 3 | Page Guardianship “If the woman prays her five daily prayers, fasts her month (of Ramadan) and protects her private area and obeys her husband it will be said to her, renter into paradise from any gate you wish.” (Collected in Musnad of Imam Ahmad) And other concessions the legislation of Islam has made for the woman to accommodate the delicate nature Allah created her with, as He describes her dainty upbringing: “Can he who was brought up amongst trinkets and who can barely express herself clearly in debate…” (43:18) Thus their upbringing is a bit more complex unlike that of the men. And this is why in the pre- Islamic society of Arabia women were seen as a burden and therefore demeaned and belittled. And it is because of this, when the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam said to the women on the Day of the E’id: “O women give in charity for indeed I saw you all as the majority of the inhabitants of the Hell-fire!” (Collected Sahih in Al Bukhari) One of the women stood and asked very boldly, “Is it because we are women?!” This was out of fear that perhaps Islam had not yet liberated women from the societal marginalization and the clutches of vilification which they had experienced prior to the advent of Islam. And to counteract this degrading outlook on women there were many textual evidences from both the Qur’an and the Sunnah revealed which speaks to the honor and dignity that Islam gave the women. One of such texts is the statement the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam said to A’isha: “Whoever is tested with anything while raising these daughters, but still manages to do good to them they will be a protection for him from the fire.” (Collected in Sahih Al Bukhari) He made this comment to her after A’isha informed him that there was a woman who came to visit her earlier that day and she had two daughters with her. So A’isha gave her a date that she had and the woman cut the date in half and gave each one of her daughters a piece, The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam described the women as delicate when he said to one of his companions by the name of Anjasha Radiyallahu anhu who, while riding with his wives in the caravan began to recite poetry in a beautiful voice to make the animals go faster “Slow down Anjasha! Don’t break the fragile vessels.” (Collected in Sahih Al Bukhari) The scholars explain that the reason he told Anjasha to stop was either because the fast movement of the caravan would harm the delicate nature of the women or because the beauty of his and the poetry would have an effect on their hearts—this was the opinion of Al Qadhi Iyadh. Another indication of the delicate nature of the women is the fact that they are easily broken. Hence the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam encouraged the men to treat the women with kindness, He (Sallallahu alaihi wa salam) said in his farewell khutbah: 4 | Page Guardianship “Treat the women kindly for indeed the woman was created from a rib and the most crooked part of the rib is the uppermost part (i.e. her mouth)…” (Collected in Sahih Al Bukhari and Muslim) in another narration he said, “She will never be as straight as you would like her to be. And if you draw any benefit from her, you will do so while she has this crookedness and if you try to straighten her you will break her and to break her is to divorce her.” (Collected in Sahih Muslim) And just like anything precious and delicate it needs protection. In a dog eat dog society like the one we live in today, weakness is considered vulnerability and will be preyed on by the vulture- like nature that is fostered in the men that reside in such an environment. And maybe this is the cause for the aggressive demeanor which many of the women have succumbed that continues to disrupt or completely interfere with the happiness of their relationships. This is why the woman in Islam always has someone to care for her and to look after her well-being from her birth to her death. This is also the reason that the daughter is obligated to live with her father when she reaches the age of 7, in the event of divorce— because he is her primary guardian (i.e. Wali). There are certain Islamic injunctions that have been legislated to protect the woman, such as the statement of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam: “The woman should not travel except with her Mahram, nor should a man enter upon her in private unless she is with her Mahram. So a man said: “O Messenger of Allah, I want to go on an expedition such and such but my wife wants to go and make Hajj? The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam said to him: “Go and accompany your wife” (Collected in Sahih Al Bukhari) When we consider the community of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa salam, we would like to believe it was complete utopia but the fact of the matter is that it was multi-cultural due and economically diverse. Multi-cultural in the sense that the companions came from very different environments with diverse cultural practices and customs. The Muhajireen were from Makkah and the Anasar were from Medina. In addition to this, there were three different tribes of Jews living in Medinah during the initial stages of its development as a community: Bani Quraydha, Bani Qayna Qa’ah and Bani Nadhir, who also had their own religious and cultural customs dissimilar to that of Islam and the Muslims. There was also another more precarious, yet equally perilous, element that existed in his community, which was the presence of the Munafiqoon (i.e. hypocrites). These were individuals who outwardly exhibited belief in Islam but inwardly detested it and in essence they are disbelievers as Allah describes them: “And from amongst mankind are those who say, “We believe in Allah and the Last Day” but they are in fact not believers. They seek to deceive Allah and those who believe however they only deceive themselves and realize it not. In their hearts is a disease and Allah increases their disease and for them is a painful punishment because of the lies they used to forged” (2:6-10) 5 | Page Guardianship The chief of the hypocrites was Abdullah Ibn Ubay Ibn Salul, the same individual who spearheaded one of the greatest scandals in the history of the prophets and messengers—the slander of A’isha Radiyallahu anha.

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