Sunday, February 15, 2009

Musawah?



It is always a headache when SIS talked about liberal thinking in Islam. This weekend, they gathered so called ‘eminent’ Muslim scholars,activist, and legal practitioners from across globe in Kuala Lumpur to talk about equality and justice within Muslim family. Then, here comes a Musawah meeting…


On behalf of a muslim sister, I thinks Islam has fairly liberated me. I’m happy with a title of Muslimah, happy with the hijab that covering my head and breast, happy with inherent rules in islam,happy with the rules of polygamy which neither mandatory nor encouraged,but merely permitted that plausibly help widows and orphans rather than associated with mere satisfaction of passion.


Let’s talk about polygamy.
They said "polygamy is a classic examples where the woman relegated as a second-class citizen by men’s interpretation of the religion text" (refer NST 13feb2009, page 11). Maybe it’s true if they glimpse on one or two misused Islamic law by irresponsible husband.

But then, the true Islam is far more reasonable.
If you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with them), then (marry) only one…. (Qur’an 4:3)


Clearly dealing justly with one wife is an obligation in islam. Meaning, you (husbands) should applies it to housings, kind treatment, food, clothing and ect to your wife justly.


Then Allah give us another verses says;
“You are never able to be fair and just as between women even if it is your ardent desire…” (Qur’an 4: 129)


This shows some discouragement of such plural marriage. The requirement of justice rules out the fantasy that man can “own as any as he pleases.” It also rules out the concept of “secondary wife,” for all wives have exactly the same status and are entitled to identical rights and claims over their husband. It also implies, according to the Islamic Law, that should the husband fail to provide enough support for any of his wives, she can go to the court and ask for a divorce.

In other side, you’ll see polygamy can be such a better solution in some cases;


Scenario 1;
A man who discovers that his wife is infertile and who at the same time instinctively aspires to have children and heirs
In a situation as this, the man would either have to:
-Suffer the deprivation of fatherhood for life.
-Divorce his barren wife and get married to another woman who is not barren.
In many cases, neither solution can be considered as the best alternative. Polygamy would have the advantage of preserving the martial relationship without depriving the man of fathering children of his own.


Scenario 2;
A man whose wife becomes chronically ill would have one of possible alternatives:


Solution 1: He may suppress his instinctive sexual needs for the rest of his life.
Comment: Even it looks loyal and devoted husband. Clearly, it is against human nature. Islam recognizes sex and sexual needs and provides for legitimate means for their satisfaction. After all, Islam by its very nature, is a universal religion which is revealed by God guide people in all places and at all times.


Solution 2: He may divorce his sick wife at the time when she needs his compassion most, and get married to another woman, thus legally satisfying his instinctive needs.
Comment: Clearly less compassionate, especially where there is love between the two parties. Further more divorce is described by Prophet Muhammad PBUH as the “permitted thing which is hated most by God.


Solution 3: Or he could compromise by keeping his sick wife, and secretly take for himself one or more illicit sex partners.
Comment: This solution is plainly against the Islamic teachings which forbid illicit illegal sexual relations in any form!


Islam is complete enough. It covers all aspect and facet of life. Clearly, polygamy is neither mandatory nor encouraged,but merely permitted as a solution for many problems and needs of human.


Then,these so called ‘modern-day liberate woman’ ask another question why not poly’andry’ (plurality of husband in same woman)?


I'm sure most of us know how John Gray describing Venusians in his well-admired book ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’; love,beuty,relationship, supporting,helping, nurturing one another, bla..bla..bla(which some, not applicable and not true to all women.heh) and loyal! They are monogamous by her very nature. Ask yourself sister!


So, what kind of Musawah (equality) u r looking for?
May Allah swt bless and protect us from being influenced by liberal thinking, ideas which are not from the al-Quran and Sunnah.Amin

Lessons learned;
1. Islam is complete enough
2. Maybe these issues aroused when they observing the attitude of a muslim and not learned it from the first hand of al-Quran and Sunnah. So,bro and sis, look how important for us to practice the true Islam. We are reflecting Islam.

5 comments:

Poison Ivy said...

You go girl!

fadezek said...

girl?
am i not big enough? =p

Walski69 said...

I urge you to find out more about Musawah, for your own self. There has been a lot of bad press about it, and unfortunately, I personally feel that the opinions are more out of prejudice, without fully understanding what the movement aims to do.

It is a global movement (and not just Malaysia), and in many parts of the Muslim world, there are many laws that are discriminatory to women, imposed in the name of Islam. The most publicized is FGM (Female Genitalia Mutilation) that is still widely practiced in Africa, and in many cases "attributed" to so-called Islamic needs/laws.

The meeting is not just about Malaysia, which in comparison to the rest of the Islamic world, is fairly progressive, albeit still with some room for improvement when it comes to gender rights.

fadezek said...

Walski69.
Assalamualaikum wbt,
dear sir, thank you for your comment on musawah.Full of hope im excluded from parroting other words and writing without thinking like what had been emphasized in ur blog.=)

Allah says in alQuran;

"this day, the disbelievers are in despair concerning your religion, so do not fear them and fear Me; this day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour upon you, and have chosen Islam as your religion" (alMaidah:3)

Clearly Islam is completed. Whatsoever things arise then by us,His creation; unsatisfied ,disgruntled, annoyed by the rules that had been drawn is futile.
Like the creator of silk clothes said;-do not iron over 40 C or else it burned. Allah, He is our creator, all-knowing. All of the rules has its own reasons; psychologically or scientifically, sociology or sensitively, seen or unseen; which sometimes beyond our senses.

The FGM that attributed to so-called Islamic laws is clearly not from Islam. Read further what UZAR write about khitan perempuan
And compare with how WHO describing FGM.

I read musawah weblog. life stories section.
“A woman and a man who are British nationals of Pakistani origin were married in Luton, Britain. The husband went to Pakistan and married another woman. Luton Police referred the case to a women’s group for advice on how to pursue a bigamy case. On further enquiry, however, it was revealed that the first marriage was not considered a valid marriage because it had been conducted at a mosque that was not registered to conduct marriages. The wife had no rights as a married woman and the husband had no responsibilities towards her. Many thousands of women in Britain are thought to be in similar situations regarding marriages that were not properly registered.
Source: Sohail Akbar Warraich & Cassandra Balchin: Recognizing the Un-Recognized: Inter-Country Cases and Muslim Marriages & Divorces in Britain, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, 2006”

-If the husband follows the real teaching in Islam, he wont let his 1st wife all alone, in fact has to be responsible to the first wife and treat both of the wives equal and justly whether the human-made-law says it is unrecognized;

‘marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with them), then (marry) only one (Qur’an 4:3)’

Truly for me, it is just a misconception about Islam. And the resolution is, return to alQuran n sunnah.

P/s*-Currently, im reading this e-book .
InshaAllah it answering the misconception about Islam. Pls download it.

Poison Ivy said...

i can understand why these feminists emerged,yes i can agree that some of the conditions happening in the muslim world are falsely attributed to islam and we need to do something abt it.

the severe FGM practised in some regions (which is not like our normal khitan), the denial of education for women, the ill-mannered muslims, etc, yes, we need to tackle all those. but we should never transgress our limits regarding the rulings in islam, and we should know that what is clear in islam,there can never be other ways to interpret it.ijtihad doesnt apply to everything.period.

women cannot have more than 1 husband. men can practise polygamy. women cannot divorce the husband.but islam does not degrade women,besides the talak there are still ways for the women to set herself free from the husband if the husband is evil.

we can never abolish Allah's rules and interpret it with our own brains to satisfy our desires.u can do whatever u want for the sake of the women,but know your limits,know what kind of matters u can meddle in and what kind of matters that u cant simply touch and alter.

‘It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by God and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys God and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path’
[Al-ahzab: 36]