Last year I had gone to Afghanistan for a series of lectures on women's rights and I also spoke on this subject in the gathering of distinguished gathering of 'Ulama and one of the issues which came for discussion was about women being naqisat al-'aql (short of reason and naqisat al-iman (short of faith). I said is it in Qur'an, I do not find it anywhere in Qur'an. Is it in hadith and answer was it is. I said any hadith which goes against Qur'an cannot be accepted as authentic.
All Ulama agree that Qur'an gives equal rights to men and women and both enjoy equal dignity, then how can she be short of reason and faith? However, the 'Alim who was asserting that women are short of reason and faith, though could not reply but murmured and sat down.
Recently I was going through a book written by Maulavi Nazir Ahmed, a great scholar of Islam with somewhat liberal views and was given title of Shamsul 'Ulama by the British rulers where he discusses the story creation of Adam and his being expelled from paradise for eating the forbidden wheat (fruit?)
Maulavi Nazir Ahmed also mentions that though the Satan could not mislead Adam as he was firm in his resolve not to eat the forbidden wheat but he (Satan) succeeded in misleading Hawwa as she was short of reason and Hawwa persuaded Adam and both ate and were expelled from Paradise. It is highly surprising that a scholar like the Maulavi did not bother to consult Qur'an which no where says that Satan succeeded in misleading Hawwa but Qur'an directly blames Adam for being misled and thrown out of paradise.
Thus the Qur'an says, "But the evil made an evil suggestion to him (Adam); he said: O Adam, shall I lead thee to the tree of immortality and a kingdom which decays not? (20:121) And in the same verse the last line is "And Adasm disobeyed his Lord and went astray." Here Adam is directly being blamed for being misled and going astray and Hawwa is no where mentioned.
Despite this Maulavi Nazir Ahmed and most of our Ulama blame Hawwa for yielding to temptation and persuading Adam to eat of the fruit of the tree. The evidence of the Qur'an is totally ignored and ulama rely on hadith. Why does it happen this way? The reason is our anti woman attitude and thinking women are inferior to men and men are the rulers. Where this attitude comes from? Naturally from the patriarchal values which are prevalent in the society.
We would continue to think this way quoting prominent Ulama without understanding that our Ulama were product of certain period and were prisoners of their time. In other words we have to adopt socio-cultural approach to religion. What we call Islam is not merely based on Qur'an and sunnah but also of our social and cultural values.
The social structure of that time was not only patriarchal but also the prevalent patriarchal values deeply penetrated our understanding of the Qur'an but also our theology and we considered our theology as divine.
Women in the past feudal and patriarchal structure of society were subjected to severe restrictions including denying her any public role. Segregation of women from men also became part of our treatment of women. During Prophet (PBUH)'s time women played active role, took part in various public debates and even accompanied the Prophet (PBUH) to battle fields and at times played active role as combatants. The battle of Jamal, it is well known, was led by Hazrat Aisha.
However, all this changed once Islam entered in the era of monarchy and feudal culture became the ruling culture. The monarchs maintained large harrams and made women their prisoners to be guarded by eunuchs.
It was in this environment that women lost their rights which they were given in Qur'an and sunnah. Men were now projected as superior class totally ignoring what Qur'an had to say.
Qur'an gave equal rights to women in every respect see verses like 33:35, 2:228 and so on. Qur'an did not use words like husband and wife and used zawj or zawja instead (zawj or zawja means one of the couple.
Thus husband and wife are referred to as zawj and our ulama, later on, under the influence of feudal and patriarchal culture began to quote a hadith that had prostration (sajda) been allowed for man I (Prophet, PBUH) would have ordered wife to prostrate before her husband.
The Qur'an avoided using the word ba'al as in Arabic it signified a diety. Qur'an uses the word ba'al only thrice and that too for narrating stories of the past, otherwise it uses the word zawj for husband. It avoided the use of word ba'al lest it should be of the status of a diety. Husband in Islam is no more than one of the couple signifying equality of both husband and wife. But our 'Ulama privilege husband over wife.
Since women were confined at home and their role reduced to that of housewife they lacked experience of outside world and also parents thought a housewife does not need any higher education. She thus usually remained illiterate and could acquire no experience of public life outside home and hence came to be described as naqisul 'aql
(short of reason). Today conditions have changed drastically and women are working in every field of life and have become great achievers in fact they have proved themselves to be superior to men in several fields. To call them naqisul 'aql is to display ones own being short of reason.