Jamilah Ali – Feminism and Religion

American media and the Taliban in Afghanistan have both long disparaged Islam regarding the status of women. I would like not only to correct the contention that women are second-class, but to provide for you an argument that Islam is, based on our Prophet and the Holy Quran, a feminist and egalitarian religion. It has been falsely maligned.

For your convenience I will use the English word for Allah, God, throughout this piece. (Did you know Arabic speaking Christians call God; Allah?)

Please note Muslims believe that all the Holy Books, the Bible and Torah, were indeed revelations from God. Belief in all the Holy Books is one of Islams 7 articles of faith. However, according to Muslim creed the Bible has been changed by humans through time deliberately or not. Thus Quran, the most recent revelation sent 610 years after Christ, is relatively unaltered from its original. It was radical, even then, for providing women the rights to inheritance, to have their own money and property, and for them to retain the dowry paid for marriage, not the father.

It is Ramadan again for the Muslim ummah (community). May I refer you to my previous FAR article in 2020, to reference Ramadan, because this is a bit of a sequel. I am only one example of how the positive and negative pressures of the times are impacting our psyches. I consider, how can I fast voluntarily while Palestinians are literally starving? This is a paradox I’m sure shared by many this year in the world-wide diaspora of Islam. I send prayers in addition to donations for food, of course.

For the faithful, Ramadan is a month-long celebration of the Holy Quran. Our Quran as revealed is from the Creator. We believe in the Bible and Torah as well, but they are much older than the Quran, and we acknowledge are from God but we believe corrupted by people. This is why we call Christians and Jews “the People of the Book”. For us, the Quran is a special divine universal message which beckons every Muslims heart when recited. Instead of Christ for Christians, the Quran is our manifestation of Divinity. Muhammad and Jesus born 600 years apart, are both Messengers of Allah, but not divine.