3 3 This pioneering volume defines the contours of the emerging engagements of Muslim women scholars from around the world with the authoritative inter- pretive traditions of Islam, classical and contemporary. Muslima theology, en- compassing a range of perspectives and arising from multiple social locations, now claims a place alongside womanist and mujerista readings that interrogate scripture and other forms of religious discourse to empower women of faith to speak for themselves in the interests of gender justice. WIENER ISLAMSTUDIEN WIENER ISLAMSTUDIEN Muslima TheologyMuslima Elif Medeni (eds.) · / Ednan Aslan / Marcia Hermansen / Elif Medeni (eds.) Ednan Aslan is Chair of the Institute for Islamic Studies and Islamic Religious Marcia Marcia Hermansen / Education in the Centre for Teacher Education at the University of Vienna. Marcia Hermansen is Director of the Islamic World Studies program and Pro- Muslima Theology fessor in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago. The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians Elif Medeni is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education at the Uni- versity of Vienna. Ednan Aslan ISBN 978-3-631-62899-7 WISL 03-262899_Aslan_VH_A5HC Entwurf3.indd 1 05.06.13 11:01 3 3 This pioneering volume defines the contours of the emerging engagements of Muslim women scholars from around the world with the authoritative inter- pretive traditions of Islam, classical and contemporary. Muslima theology, en- compassing a range of perspectives and arising from multiple social locations, now claims a place alongside womanist and mujerista readings that interrogate scripture and other forms of religious discourse to empower women of faith to speak for themselves in the interests of gender justice. WIENER ISLAMSTUDIEN WIENER ISLAMSTUDIEN Muslima TheologyMuslima Elif Medeni (eds.) · / Ednan Aslan / Marcia Hermansen / Elif Medeni (eds.) Ednan Aslan is Chair of the Institute for Islamic Studies and Islamic Religious Marcia Marcia Hermansen / Education in the Centre for Teacher Education at the University of Vienna. Marcia Hermansen is Director of the Islamic World Studies program and Pro- Muslima Theology fessor in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago. The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians Elif Medeni is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education at the Uni- versity of Vienna. Ednan Aslan WISL 03-262899_Aslan_VH_A5HC Entwurf3.indd 1 05.06.13 11:01 Muslima Theology WIENER ISLAMSTUDIEN Herausgegeben von Ednan Aslan Band 3 Ednan Aslan / Marcia Hermansen / Elif Medeni (eds.) Muslima Theology The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Cover Design: © Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg Cover illustration: © Anadolu Agency Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Muslima theology : the voices of Muslim women theologians / Ednan Aslan, Marcia Hermansen, Elif Medeni (eds.). pages cm. — (Wiener Islamstudien ; Bd. 3) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-3-631-62899-7 1. Women in Islam. 2. Islam—Doctrines. 3. Women theologi- ans—Islamic countries. I. Aslan, Ednan, 1959- II. Hermansen, Marcia K., 1951- III. Medeni, Elif. BP173.4.M935 2013 297.2082—dc23 2013021602 ISSN 2194-7988 ISBN 978-3-631-62899-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-03238-3 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-03238-3 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2013 Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This book is an open access book and available on www.oapen.org and www.peterlang.com. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ www.peterlang.de Table of Contents 9 Series editor’s foreword 11 Introduction: The New Voices of Muslim Women Theologians Marcia Hermansen PART 1 —MUSLIM WOMEN AS THEOLOGIANS: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES 35 Early Community Politics and the Marginalization of Women in Islamic Intellectual History Ednan Aslan 45 Muslim Women as Religious Scholars: A Historical Survey Zainab Alwani 59 Feminist Readings of the Quran: Social, Political, and Religious Implications Ndeye AdúJar 81 Muslim Feminist Theology in the United States Aysha Hidayatullah 5 PART 2—THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND MUSLIM WOMEN 101 Women and Man’s “Fall”: A Qur’anic Theological Perspective Riffat Hassan 115 The Position of Woman in the Creation: A Qur’anic Perspective Hatice Arpaguş 133 Misogynistic Reports in the Hadith Literature Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal 155 Gender Justice and Gender Jih ād—Possibilities and Limits of Qur’anic Interpretation for Women’s Liberation Muna Tatari PART 3 —MUSLIM WOMEN AND ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS LAW 167 Gendering Ritual: A Muslima’s Reading of the Laws of Purity and Ritual Preclusion Celene Ayat Lizzio 181 Ibn Taymiyya’s Feminism? Imprisonment and the Divorce Fatwas Carolyn Baugh 6 197 Sexing the Prayer: The Politics of Ritual and Feminist Activism in Indonesia Etin Anwar 217 Violence Against Women in Qur’an 4:34: A Sacred Ordinance? Rabha Al-Zeera PART 4—MUSLIMA CONSTRUCTIVE THEOLOGY 231 From Sexual Difference to Religious Difference: Toward a Muslima Theology of Religious Pluralism Jerusha Tanner Lamptey 247 Resisting the Veil of Universalism: Muslim Womanist Philosophy as a Lens for Authentic Representations of African American Muslim Women Debra MaJeed 267 In Search of al-Insān: Sufism, Islamic Law, and Gender Sa‘diyya Shaikh 309 Bibliography 335 Contributor Biographies 7 Series editor’s foreword We are pleased to present the third volume of “Wiener Islamstudi- en”—works in the field of Islamic Studies from the University of Vi­ enna. This series aims to make intellectual contributions to Islamic discourse while providing material that is academically rigorous and accessible to the general public. The current volume on Muslima Theology highlights an impor­ tant emergent phenomenon in contemporary debates about the sit­ uation of Muslim women. This is the growing role played by female Muslim theologians and academics working in the field of religious studies who are critically reflecting on their position within Islam through making interpretive contributions that challenge the preva­ lent patriarchal readings of religious tradition. Numerous books have been published about ‘Women in Islam’ and it remains a popular topic in popular debates. A naive perception is that the position of women has already been defined within the Is­ lamic religion for all eternity and one only needs to open the classical books in order to obtain the answers to today’s questions on gender is­ sues. This overlooks the fact that Islam as it exists today, in all its vari­ ety and richness, developed historically. After all, today’s Muslims are not the first generation to be faced with the task of dealing with new social and religious situations and the need to find reasonable ways to resolve the concomitant challenges and crises. 9 Series editor’s foreword Previous generations of Muslims found their own answers to such questions in various cultural and geographical regions of this world. It is therefore not possible to speak of a single Islam, rather we en­ counter a multitude of cultural and historical expressions of the re­ ligion in the most diverse cultural environments. In its dynamic his­ tory throughout the past centuries, Islam has been able to continually adapt and incorporate diverse theological traditions of interpretation and practice. The work of female Muslim theologians in this volume indicates that Muslim women are increasingly drawing on the dynamic origins of the religion and deriving from them a theology fit for the needs of our time. While rooted in authentic Islamic sources and interpretive methodologies, the contributions from Muslima theologians featured in this collection clearly demonstrate their creative and future-orient­ ed approach. This volume, initially intended as a proJect within the Department for Islamic Religious Education at the University of Vienna, would not have come about without the valuable contribution of my colleague Prof. Dr. Marcia Hermansen. In addition to her valuable introduction to the topic, she also took charge of the entire editing and translitera­ tion requirements of the volume. The success of this work is due to her indefatigable commitment. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of an inter­ national team of graduate student assitants including Elif Medeni, Danny Gibboney, and Jason Renken. Dr. Barbara von Schlegell also provided valuable assistance during the editing process. Ednan Aslan Vienna, May 2013 10 Marcia Hermansen Introduction. The New Voices of Muslim Women Theologians While it is clear that, historically and doctrinally, there is no barrier to females commenting on and interpreting Islamic sacred texts, af­ ter the first generation of Muslims, women primarily functioned as transmitters rather than as interpreters of the tradition.1 It is only with modernity and the rise of mass literacy that Muslim women, beyond the circle of a few elite scholarly families, began to have access to the education and tools needed to engage in writing interpretive