Hadith 1 on the inferiority of women - discussion of content

Here we are aiming to discuss the actual content of the hadith (which is in the previous blog)

This type of discussion is specific to Shii Fiqh. In Sunni Fiqh, if you are content that something is from the Prophet (SAW) i.e. a sanad critique, then you have no right to question the content of the hadith. However, for the Shi'a, content does matter, and if it goes against theology, Qur`an or absolute logic, then it CANNOT have come from an infallible, and thus must be disregarded. The Shi'a regard the theology, Qur`an and absolute logic to be stronger than chain-critique, which is fallible process.

For this narration, it seems clear to Saanei that there are many items that go against the legal and rational precepts that are obvious and clear to everyone, and that it goes against the reality of the world around us!

Firstly, there is a part of the hadith that is not relevant to our discussion which distinguishes Muslims and non-Muslims in terms of God's mercy and justice. The hadith implies that the testimony of a Muslim is accepted (compared to that of a non-Muslim) due to someone being a Muslim rather than their characteristics. This for him is against the absoluteness of God's justice. Further to this, it means that non-Muslims cannot testify against non-Muslims either, which does not make sense! Although this bit is not relevant to our discussion, the methodology used by Saanei is interesting....

Next, he discusses the parts about women, in particular the bit about women not praying due to her being in her period for half her life. He mentions several points of critique:

1. It is not 1/2 .... potentially 1/3 for some but this is a clear error in the content of the hadith, which the Prophet could not have made?
2. Women start praying before men (at bulugh), which means that in the end women pray similar amounts to men? So any discussion that women don't spend as much time of their life praying is irrelevant.
3. It is clearly not the quantity of prayers that matters but the quality...
4. There is a legal obligation not to pray, and thus women are following God's commands, which is a sign of strength in belief.

It is clear that the content in this part of the hadith is very difficult to accept, when it goes against legal and accepted understandings of religious teaching and rationality.


The next bit he discusses is the hadith about how there is always a woman who is worse than an evil man; and always a man who is better than a good woman. He notes that it is clear how this is against the principles of Islam that all women are worse than all men, as it then does not give the choice to women to be good, and it means that goodness is caused by gender first. In fact, he goes further to say that this is a prime example of a hadith that is against the Qur`an and all verses that talk about the equality of women (e.g. Aal-Imran: 195, Nahl: 97, Ahzab: 35, Ahzab:73, Hujurat 13), and how the distinguishing factor is taqwa.



He then discusses the "deficient in intellect" point in the hadith. He says this is such a general statement , that does not give exception to anyone! How can this be? What is also interesting according to Saanei is that the Prophet never used this verse in his discussion of "deficiency of intellect".


Following these discussions, he says it is clear that such talk is not possible to come from a person such as Ali ibn Abu Talib!