On The Question Of Women Leadership in Islam

The online world was awash with news from Taraba State over the argument about the legality of women in Islam taking up top leadership position.

I sometimes come into conflict with some interpretations put forth by some scholars. 

We have an Islamic school for adults, organized to hold once in a week. The Sheik is a prominent Sunni scholar. Some of us often have conflict with some of his interpretations. 

You may ask: Are you Sunni and yet you have problems with Hadiths from Sahih Bukhari. Isn’t it contradiction? True Sunni adherent will always submit his flawed thinking and intellect wholeheartedly and unconditionally in the face of Qur’an or Hadith.  

I can understand where you are coming from. I am strongly believer in Kutibus Sitta as authentic and genuine. But many a scripture is revealed metaphorically. If you dismiss this fact, you will only have a troubling literal meaning.

I never challenge the authenticity of, nor feel that some, Sahaba have questionable characters and all they reported is doomed to be false like some “fringe of Muslims believe.” The Sahaba are not wholly, are not infallible. They are human like everyone and therefore can err out of imperfection. Yet, as a bulwark against any possible folly thinking and unnecessary allegation, God Almighty, weighing their good deeds against their mistakes, has forgiven their shortcomings.

Remember, I may also have different reality with you. That’s why I have to disagree with some certain views. 

I could remember one incident that stands vividly in my head over family planning debate.

Our Sheik was quoting verse and Hadiths and we were quoting defense proof from reason and logic, shaped by our reality.

I asked the Sheik:

Mallam what about hundreds of starving children roaming our street?

What about the almajiris created by over-population?

What about millions of children out of school?

Our roads and streets are contaminated with human squalor and excreta. What do you have to say about that?

The Sheik does not want to add to the already existing mass human problem. At about 30+, he is unmarried, a reality which is not unconnected with harshly living condition, legacy of modernity.

The religious injunctions are still intact and unassailable. Women are not as strong as men, are emotional and have a lot of family responsibilities. Yeah, really, this brings out the compassion and consideration Islam has for female.

Now, we have to agree that the compassion and consideration of Islam is in view of physical structure, with female having less sturdy physique, and also in respect of the harsh climate condition of the Arab of the then, the shackles and hardship of primitive war, trekking scorching deserts to engage the enemy face-to-face with swords and spears.

In our times, wars are fought through virtual means. With bank of presses and buttons, irrespective of who is inside the control room, a whole empire can be destroyed. 

Top leadership can only use their skills and talent to get things done through a chain of hierarchy.  This is why we have a college course called Public Administration, teaching organizational, coordination and management skills.

Technology has made a world made of glass. In running modern governments and state, physical strengths matter very little, brain not brawny matter. 

Because of the passage of time, the Hadith must not be taken too literal and therefore can be subjected to what is called asbabun-nuzur, reasons, background and contexts of revelation. Although any religion is rooted on dogma, yet dogmatism is beyond reason, logic and science which are still incapable of understanding certain things, beginning from the earliest time of western philosophy through contemporary post humanism.

The reason we ask question is because of what we call public disputation. You must depend what you said. So, when someone says something, we have to examine his utterances to correct some inconsistencies and contradictions. It is not blasphemy against, contempt for or disbelief in the scriptures. It is openness since Islam is not a cult or mafia organization.

If you interpret it this way, that nations whose heads are female will not prosper.” Can you offer explanation for the reason holding back Nigeria, a nation that God blessed with greatest men of gods hovering around the area of pastor-politicians deeply involved in illegal arms dealings? What do you have to say about nations that have female leadership and continue to prosper?

Somebody can say “Duniya kurkun muminini ce.” God doesn’t mean that. This is laziness and an escape to despair and defeatism and inferiority complex. God is not discriminatory. You can’t say some countries prosper despite women leadership on the basis of the test of faith. I can only accept the narrative that blames our backwardness characteristically on political leadership.

This is what I would call grand contradiction, and according to the 13^th century Platonist and theologian, Ibn Rushd, Jews Rabbi and thinker, Solomon Ben Yahoda Ibn Gabirol and early church fathers such as St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, when a crisis arises between religion and logic, it is as a result of the interpreter’s inaccurate use of logic or incorrect use of reason. When pragmatism is understood, things would always balance out.