Customer Reviews

Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I give this book 5 stars because as I was reading it I wished every Muslim woman (and man) would read it. The book is written by a professor of Islamic studies who (as she writes in the preface)" approached this research as if my life depended on the understandings I gained from studying the Quran". The book is aimed at proving the equality of men and women in the religion of Islam by going to the source: the Qur'an. It challenges the false concepts held by many Muslims (concepts that do not reflect Quran and Islam) such as:" men are superior to women", men are in charge of women", "men are natural leaders", " men rule the family and should get obedience from women", " women should not leave the house unless it is necessary"," woman's voice is taboo", etc. The author breaks down specific verses and key words that have been used to oppress and limit women, to show that their real meaning defies such oppression and limitation.
The book covers many aspects of equality manifested in the story of creation and the events in the Garden, the Quranic view of woman in the world with discussion of distinctive female characters in the Quran, the Hereafter including companions in the Hereafter e.g. "the virgins of paradise". The book also discusses controversies around the rights and roles of women and the relationship between men and women: male authority: polygamy, marital disharmony, divorce, inheritance, women as witness, etc. I think the author should have discussed two other important topics: veiling and segregation.
Although the book is only 118 pages, and is well organized into chapters and subtitles, it was a little difficult to get through: the writing style is somewhat academic, some concepts I think needed more elaboration to be clear, and I had to open my dictionary several times. There are many footnotes and I would have preferred that they be incorporated in the text. Having said that it was certainly worth the effort and I certainly enjoyed "studying" this book. I have felt like a bad Muslim before for not surrendering to these concepts of male superiority, and I thank the author for liberating me( and I am sure many other women) from these feelings. A must read for all Muslims.

This is the book i was waiting to read. I have spent so much time and energy thinking about this topic, being a Muslim woman. I can completely relate to this book. All of Wadud's arguments are on point and logical. I agree with her analysis of the subject of women. Reveiwing the Qur'an from this perspective has shed light on a very confusing and sometimes frustrating matter, for many females today. I recommend this book to all Muslims, male and female. It may open your eyes to something you did not see before. It may also help to separate the mixture going on too much these days of cultural gender roles slapped on to people using Islam as an excuse. thankyou..

Wadud's "Qur'an and Woman" was a joy to read. Clearly, Wadud knows her stuff. The information presented is very accurate, and the book is nicely organized. Her writing is not only clear and coherent, but very cogent and persuasive. I would recommend this book not only to all Muslims, especially in Afghanistan, but also to those thinking about converting to Islam or who want to know more about the religion from a viewpoint that is not often represented in today's biased media.

Most Muslims are not Arabs, and consequently don't speak Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. So an awful lot of Muslims themselves have never actually read the Qur'anic verses about women and tried to make sense of them. On the other hand, most non-Muslims have never read the Qur'an, and tend to assume that the Muslim view of women is more or less that of the Taliban or the Saudis. This book, written by an progressive Muslim American academic with a Ph.D. in Arabic, should be essential reading for both the above groups.

I think just about every Muslim, male or female, goes through somewhat of a religious identity crisis when he or she first starts questioning the religion they're born with. Most often, Islam is questioned in terms of fairness to women. I would recommend this book to anyone who is currently going through such issues. It cleared up a lot of issues for me when I was eighteen.

This book was great because it was very scholarly and rational.

Guys, be sure to buy this book. After reading it, it would be a perfect gift for your little sister.

Quran and Woman is an incredibly rich and resourceful book for anyone who wants a close, etymological study of the Quran and its conjectures on Women. It establishes with sufficient proof that gender equity was part of the Quran's mission.

Amina Wadud's book contains a lot of useful information that is good for the general reader to know, but its so-called "woman's perspective" on statements in the Qur'an sometimes presents a distortion of what the Islamic scripture actually says about women.

While it's quite true that rights granted to women by the Qur'an were in some cases taken away by later schools of Islamic law, and while it's true that many Muslim women throughout the world do not receive even the rights (for instance, inheritance) that are granted by traditional Islamic law, the important task of understanding Islam and its scripture is made more difficult when beliefs that arose in modern times are "read back into the Qur'an", as Amina Wadud frequently does in this book.

A much sounder method of interpreting the Qur'an would be to accept its statements at face value, recognize that some statements regarding women reflect the customs of the time of Prophet Muhammad, and then "translate" or "apply" the general principles of the Qur'an regarding women in ways that are consistent with modern views -- or the views of the author.

Certain statements in the Qur'an present women in an unfavorable light. Rather than ignore these statements or claim that they say something other than their clear, literal meaning, why do modern Muslim women such as Amina Wadud not simply admit that these statements occur in the Qur'an, and then make the argument that they refer to specific incidents in the life of the Prophet, or to conditions of the Prophet's time that no longer exist or are inconsistent with modern views on the equality of men and women?

One example involves concubinage, a common practice in the Arabian peninsula during the time of Prophet Muhammad. The Qur'an, in a number of contexts, accepts not only the institution of slavery, but also the practice of men having sexual relations with their female slaves. Over and over, verses of the Qur'an place limitations on the freedom of Muslim men regarding sexual relations with women, and then add the statement "except for those your right hand owns", an idiom that all classical commentators agree refers to a man's female servants or slaves.

This statement, permitting sexual relations with concubines, also appears in the Qur'an several times in reference to the Prophet himself. The earliest biographies of the Prophet give the names of several of his concubines, one of whom bore him a son who was named Ibrahim (Abraham). Amina Wadud (and Leila Ahmed and others) claim that since Maryam the Copt bore Muhammad a son she must be regarded as one of his wives. This is a modern view that does not appear in the classical Arabic sources. This was not the understanding of Muhammad's contemporaries, who accepted the practice.

Rather than rejecting the meaning statements in the Qur'an had for Muhammad's contemporaries, why can't Muslim women writers such as Amina Wadud, and others such as Leila Ahmed, acknowledge what the Qur'an says about women(and accept the reports of the classical commentators regarding how these statements were understood in Muhammad's time), and then develop arguments for why practices allowed by God in the Islamic scripture should not be accepted in Islamic societies today?

Such an approach to the interpretation of the Qur'an calls for a more sophisticated method of hermeneutics than is exhibited in Amina Wadud's book. As long as writers with different beliefs continue to read their own views into the text of the Islamic scripture, little progress can be made in the task of establishing a modern academic discipline of Qur'anic Studies.

This is a great book for everyone. For Non-Muslims it clears up such misguided notions of women in Islam that are found throughout the media. For Muslims, it truly gives a clear picture of the Qur'an's attitude toward women as equal contributors in all aspects of society. Wadud describes a position for women, which although may be contrasted by present day reality in many societies, is still the true vision for women in islam and the vision that as Muslims we must work towards.

Qur'an and Woman is an inspired, thought-provoking treatment of a very difficult topic. The book gives new hope to those who might have feared that commitment to Islam and commitment to gender equality were mutually exclusive. I can't wait to read Amina Wadud's next book.

"Qur'an and Woman" offers one of, if not the, first views on the Qur'an through a woman's perspective. Seeing as how one of the main criticisms of Islam and its followers is that it does not respect nor treat women with the same equality that it does with men, hearing how a woman herself views these ideas is very interesting.

I liked how Wadud offered readers of the text new interpretations of certain passages, such as the one which declares that a woman must wait 3 months before sleeping with a new man after a divorce, but the husband may immediately. While some may see this as discriminatory, Wadud says that it is only to help the woman, so if it turns out that she is pregnant with her ex-husband's child, she will be able prove it is his without any challanges or confusion concerning new partners.

I thought that sometimes though, she explained too much of the text away from what it could be clearly stating. Her whole process of "saying no" allows one to reject parts of the text that they do not feel fits what they want it to fit, and include parts that do. I think that that process is a little iffy.