The Struggle of Muslim Women [Paperback]

Kaukab Siddique (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Amer Society for Education &; 1st edition (September 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0942978102
• ISBN-13: 978-0942978100
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,348,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual book on gender realtionship in Islam, February 11, 2006

By 

Salik "khaksar" (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Struggle of Muslim Women (Paperback)

This is an unusual book that started others down the road of "Islamic Feminism". From that standpoint it can be considered the mother source for later publications in this area. Later authors writing on this subject owe a significant debt to this book,and generally do not acknowledge it. For example the author of the new translation of the Quran,Abdel Haleem, in his otherwise informative book, Understanding the Quran, appears to have used the same material in the discussion of nushuz and maruuf, however no reference is made to precedent setting work of Dr. Siddique in this area.

This slim book provides direct reference to Quranic and authentic Hadith sources that reveal a view of highly enlightened and mutually respectful relationship between genders in Islam. Using those sources, the author hammers home his point. He argues that the Prophet of Islam taught that relationships are based on mutual consultation, respect, and that obedience is only to God, and obedience even to the Prophet was only in righteousness (maruuf). Further, in the eyes of God stratification is based on taqwa (goodness) rather than gender or social status, etc. He points out the nature of gradual revelation of the Quran and that the final verses related to gender address both men and women directly and the desirable moral atributes for both genders are the same. No other divine scripture directly addresses men and women in this regard. Pointing this out is an original contribution of the author.

Over all this book provides a hugely different picture from that painted in the media and in books by miso-lslamic orientalists, and by Islamophobes with political agenda, who put out propaganda pulp on current affairs, such as Emerson and Brodansky.

This book was published 20 years ago, much before Islam and Muslims were under the microscope, and is in need of revision, on account of some dated material. It also requires a more extensive discussion of some of the material and sources and differing opinions amongst interpreters. The binding and publication is not optimal.

The material in this book deserves 5 stars, but the binding and print detract from it, so I have rated it at 4 stars.