Interview with Asma Afsaruddin (Part 2)

Islam: Introduction

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Information: Part 2 of our interview with Asma Afsaruddin (professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame). In this section she talks more about the teaching regarding the use of violence and war found in the Qur'an, the work of Islamic feminists and how to interpret the meaning of Muhammad's hadith (saying), 'I was ordered to fight all men, until they say 'There is no God but God'.

Steve: We have already talked a little about the events going on in Iraq today. Does the Qur'an support the idea of Muslims fighting against (and killing) each other?

Asma: Absolutely not! As I said earlier, human life - one's own and that of others, Muslim and non-Muslim - is utterly sacrosanct in Islam. According to the Qur'an (5:32), killing a person unjustly is the same as killing all of humanity, and saving a person is the same as saving all humanity.

Picture of law books and gavel When humans transgress against others and cause injustice and chaos on earth, they have to be punished if found guilty, in which case the Qur'an (6:151) declares, "Do not take life, which God has made sacred, except through justice and [adherence to] the law. He orders this so that you may acquire wisdom"; and, "Do not take life, which God has made sacred, except for a just cause..." (Qur'an 17:33). Due cause has to be established and cogent evidence presented before an individual may be punished for wrong-doing, especially if this involves the taking of that person's life.

Fighting against one another is strongly condemned in the Qur'an and the sunna, except in self-defense and when other means of effecting reconciliation have failed.

'Contrary to what you may have heard lately in the media, peacemaking is a high moral imperative in Islamic ethics. This is signified by the very name for the religion, Islam, which in its basic sense means "submission" or "surrender to God."'

Islam is also etymologically related to the Arabic words for peace silm or salm or salam. "Enter into peace, all of you," commands the Qur'an (2:208).

Let me give you four other verses which highlight the imperative of peacemaking in Islam's foundational scripture:

'Make peace among your brothers and fear God, so that you may be shown mercy.' (Qur'an 49:10)

'Repel evil with what is better than it; then the one between whom and yourself enmity prevails will become like your friend.' (Qur'an 41:34)

'And if they (that is, the other party), incline to peace, be inclined to peace yourselves.' (Qur'an 8:61)

'As for those who suppress their anger and forgive people; indeed God loves those who do good.' (Qur'an 3:134)

According to these verses, peacemaking is an act of mercy and of simply doing good - a former enemy may become a friend, and cordial inter-personal relationships will ultimately promote social harmony and cohesiveness.

Steve: Let's talk about some other aspects of your work. For instance, you were editor of a book called Hermeneutics and Honor: Negotiating Female "Public" Space in Islamic/ate Societies (Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2000). What was this book about?

Front cover of Hermeneutics and Honor: Negotiating Female Public Space in Islamic/ate Societies

Asma: The word "hermeneutics" points to the different ways one can read religious texts in particular, and derive certain conclusions thereby. "Honor" is an example of certain ingrained cultural characteristics which has often undermined the full potential of Muslim-majority societies to offer full legal and social equality to women. The two are often in tension; cultural notions, if not challenged, often trump religiously-mandated rights. Thus even though the injunction against taking human life is absolute in Islam (as we have already discussed), non-Islamic Mediterranean and tribal notions of sexual propriety have allowed honor killings to take place in Muslim-majority societies. Of course, as women are becoming better educated and legally empowered - for example in Jordan and Pakistan - they are taking issue with such cultural injustices and using religious arguments to challenge them. One chapter in the book specifically discusses the different forms of "Islamic feminism" and its effectiveness.

Steve: So what (for you) is the essence of the "Islamic feminist agenda", if there is one?

Asma: For Muslim women today, the priority is to insist on their God-given rights to acquire an education and to contribute to their families and societies in ways that are meaningful to them. There is no single agenda for the world's perhaps 50 million Muslim women. Many of them are already leading highly rewarding personal and professional lives in many different ways. Of course, in some Muslim-majority societies women are not allowed to reach their full potential, but women are often fighting back and often using religious arguments to do so.

'The Qur'an is very empowering of women: it does not make Eve the cause of the "fall" of Adam, it gives women the right to inherit property from male relatives and hold onto their property in their own names even after marriage, and makes her the absolute religious equal of the man, using gender-inclusive language to drive this point home.'

This is a very empowering discourse and difficult to refute, and remains the basis for future change.

Women waiting to vote in the Iraq elections (Source: Wikipedia)

Steve: I like the way feminists utilise women's experience to shed new light on traditional religious beliefs and teachings.

Asma: It is important to be mindful that the resources to do this are also available in each of the world faiths.

Steve: What would be a feminist's reading/understanding of the Prophet Muhammad's hadith, 'I was ordered to fight all men, until they say 'There is no God but Allah'.

Asma: Well, before I answer that question I want to say that the correct translation in English of this hadith is, 'There is no god but God.' There is no need to refer to God as Allah in English; the English equivalent is God. Muslims do not believe in a deity special to them but in the one Supreme Being who created Adam, spoke to Moses, and sent all subsequent prophets, including Jesus and Muhammad, through time. All Arabic speakers - Muslim, Christian, or Jew - refer to the Creator as "Allah".

Now in terms of the 'reading' of this hadith, this must be seen in its historical context. Hadiths and other kinds of texts must be scrutinized to determine whether their meanings have a general applicability, or if they are more historically circumscribed. This hadith is to be understood as applying exclusively to the pagan Arabs in the Arabian peninsula, during the time of the Prophet. On account of the ruthless cruelty the pagan Meccans had displayed towards the early Muslims, and their relentless hostility towards Islam, it became clear that these Meccans had to be fought against to protect Muslim lives and property. However, for the first thirteen years of the propagation of Islam (during what is known as the Meccan period), Muslims - in the face of severe persecution by the pagan Meccans - did not resort to fighting, even though they were tortured and evicted from their homes.

After the emigration to Medina in 622CE, the Prophet received what is widely believed to have been the first revelation concerning fighting:

'Permission is given to those who fight because they have been oppressed, and God is able to help them. These are they who have been wrongfully expelled from their homes merely for saying 'God is our Lord.' If God had not restrained some people by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which God's name is mentioned frequently would have been destroyed. Indeed God comes to the aid of those who come to His aid; verily He is powerful and mighty.' (Qur'an 22:39-40)

This verse clearly establishes just cause for resorting to armed combat and the right to self-defense for all those who are persecuted, especially on account of their religious belief, whether they be Jews, Christians, or Muslims.

Now after the initiation of hostilities, if the other side sues for peace then Muslims must consent to this, as this is commanded in Qur'an 8:61 ("If they incline toward peace, incline you toward it, and trust in God.") Furthermore the Qur'an also states that, "God does not forbid you from being kind and equitable to those who have neither made war on you on account of your religion nor driven you from your homes. God loves those who are equitable" (Qur'an 60:8).

'These verses make it clear that Muslims may engage in fighting only in response to a prior act of aggression, and that the Qur'an by no means gives the command to initiate hostilities against any group of people, merely because their religious beliefs differ from that of Muslims.'

So in answer to your question, the hadith ('I was ordered to fight all men, until they say 'There is no God but God') must be understood in the specific historical context of early Islam, and does not have a general application.

'Decontextualized readings of such historical texts is very dangerous. There is nothing to prevent extremists of course from deploying this hadith as a proof-text to justify their violent, hegemonic agendas, which they have done. But then as scholars and fellow Muslims, we should condemn such unscrupulous practices and challenge the basis of their claims.'

Interview with Asma Afsaruddin (Part 3)

(June 27th, 2007)

Further reading

Religion Compass online (http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/religion/)