مدونة التاعب

Asalamu3alykum …

Are Women Stupid?! Oh lets see the Answer of Science, the Quran and the Bible.

For science, Jordan Peterson says[1] …..

I am not getting in this debate because there is a very hot debate on some details in the two sexes brain. But generally it is really clear that women are intelligent as well as man scientifically and it is something we experience in our life, we see women in high positions as well as men, and the IQ differences between the individuals of two sexes are relatively variant.

As the case for Islam, David Wood in one of his videos said the Quran teaches that the testimony of a woman is considered the half of that of a man for that reason –he thinks that they are[2]…. So does Islam teach that women are stupid and what is the meaning of that verse?

In a nutshell, and we are not going to indulge into jurisprudent details, we find that there are cases where the testimony of a woman is valid and that of a man is not, and in some cases both of the two testimonies are equal. So lets see!

 In regard to the verse, David started reading from the middle of the verse, is it because its length? Umm I don’t think so, but I think he did so because if he read it, his argument would be fake! The verse shortly (3) discusses the documentation of a debt or the financial processes, in which you have to write it down and bring witnesses to insure the rights of both parties.

In regard to the witnesses, Allah says bring two men, and if they are not available, so let it be one man and two women so that if one of the two women errs, then the other can remind her. So the verse does not legislate it generally, but in the financial processes, and we would ask why.

In the light of the Islamic legislation women are released from being responsible for earning money –she is allowed to do, but it is not imperative. The man is the one who is responsible for hard working and he must earn money for his family.

As well as other similar things such as the hudud which generally stipulates very specific stipulations that women are not always interested in, and this is the opinion of the majority of the scholars of the schools of Law. For that reason, he is to be more acknowledged with these processes than woman due to their experience, psychological nature and general interests and absorptions as well as the Legislator stipulations and not due to their intelligence.

And also the testimony has nothing to do with the IQ, but has everything to do with seeing something and honestly deliver it, for that reason the judge in Islam does not judge according to the number of witnesses, but rather according to his satisfaction with the presented evidence.^[3]

And also, the verse says bring testimonies of two men, it does not mean that one of the two men is stupid for that reason we asked for another one, but it just means we want to insure the preservation of both parties’ rights with the available means.

Another thing which proves that it has nothing to do with the IQ is that in some cases the testimony of a man is not valid, while the testimony only goes to women, in cases related to women issues^[4] such as menses, childbirth, virginity, nursing, and other matters in this regard. ^[5]

It was narrated that a man married a woman, but a black woman came and said I breast-fed both of them, which means in Islam that they can’t get married because the bride is considered as the groom’s sister. The man went to the prophet and said (4) she is a liar. The Prophet said: What do you know? She has said what she has said. Leave her your wife. So the black woman testimony became valid immediately.

And this case the testimony of a man is not a half of that of a woman but it is invalid at all, we can’t take it in this regard, not because one of them has a higher IQ, but because their experience and absorption in that field is different. Not just for the case of man and woman, but generally as the Prophet said (23) “The testimony of a nomad Arab against a townsman is not allowable.” Not because one of them is stupid, but because their experience, and interests are different.

And when both of them possess the same experience, and interests their testimonies are equal, as in Surat an-Nur verse 6-9 (5) when a man accuses his wife of adultery with no evidence and she rejects that, the testimony of both of them will be legally valid, and it will be left to God in the Day of Judgement.

So to sum it up, in –I can call- the fields of men, the testimony of a man is stronger than that of a woman but the testimony of a woman itself is valid. In the fields of women, the testimony of the woman is only regarded as valid while that of a man is invalid. In fields where both of them got the same experience: both of two testimonies are equal.

And also if women are considered stupid in Islam, Why we take our Religion from them as the narration is a kind of testimony that he or she saw or heard the prophet doing or saying this? al-Saydah Aisha –the wife of the prophet- narrated 2210 Hadiths, and the companions would ask her in some issues they don’t know. And in the field of Hadith’s Criticism, Scholars don’t differentiate between the narrations of a man and that of a woman, Both of them got the same conditions for validity, and there is a consensus of Scholars over this issue.^[6]

David Wood quoted a Hadith which says that the Prophet labelled women with “ناقصات عقل ودين” which its literal Translation is that “they are incomplete in mind and religion.” For Wood concluded that they are stupid without any understanding of Arabic language nor even the context.

For the meaning: incomplete of lake in mind, scholars don’t say it means that they are stupid, rather they are emotional beings^[7] and when the Prophet clarified what he means he (11) refers in the same hadith to the testimony in the verse we discussed and we concluded that it has nothing to do with the IQ.

For the context the narrator of the Hadith says (9) “قَالَتِ امْرَأَةٌ مِنْهُنَّ جَزْلَةٌ ” “A wise lady among them said” the root جزل  means in the Arabic lexicons “Wise and religious woman with intelligent mind and ideas” and this is the interpretation of anawawy[8], and al-qady 3ayad[9] and others.[10] So are they smart and religious as well as stupid in the same hadith?

And also in the same hadith the Prophet said (10) that he has seen none robbing the wisdom of the rational man, besides you.” So, he described them as intelligent beings who can dodge the لب or mind of wise men. So are they smart and stupid in the same hadith?

A very important point: many of those who criticize the status of women in Islam don’t understand what they brought forward in the light of the Islamic legislations as a whole, but understand even a part of a verse separately from its textual and religious context. We may later discuss the status of women in another video, but it is fair for now to quote a statement of Umar ibn al-Khattab –the second Caliph in Islam- in this issue: He says (1) “We never used to give significance to ladies in the days of the Pre-lslamic period of ignorance, but when Islam came and Allah mentioned their rights, we used to give them their rights.” And in some verses Allah ordered Muslims –men and women- to take some women as ideals for them: for example; the wife of Pharaoh and Merry the mother of Prophet Jesus PBUH.(2).

So now for the Islamic case it is clear that Islam does not underestimate women, so what about the Bible, what it teaches about women and specifically the testimony of her as well as her IQ? These are its teachings in very concise points:

Women are the windows of evil, and no one of them is good. Ecclesiastes 7: 25-26. Zechariah 5: 7-8. (12) (13)

Women are the source of shame. Sirach 42: 12-14. (14)

Woman is not allowed to speak in the Church nor has the right to learn except by her husband. 1 Cor 14: 34-35. (15)

Women are the source of temptation and it must be subjugated. 1 Timothy 2: 11-15. (16) (17)

She was created just to satisfy the man, but yes all things of God!! 1 Cor 11: 7-10. (18).

The wife is the heritage of the husband’s brother after his death. Deut 25: 5-10. (19).

The Father can sell his daughter and she can’t refuse. Ex 21: 5-11. (20)

Women are the source of wickedness, anger, malice, impudence, and the source of our death as well as a long list this book gives us but finally you gotta cut her off. Sirach 25: 17-36. (21).

I don’t agree with these points but this is what it teaches. And There is a long list of discriminating verses allowed the Church fathers to hate women, we may discuss it in another video. But for the alleged testimony David Wood criticized in Islam, we find it real in Christianity, as saint Ambrosiaster in the 4^th C  (22) said women are not allowed to teach nor to be a witness.^[11] And until the 19 C they were not allowed to give a testimony because the church Law “Gratian Decretum” says so.^[12]

And David said[13]  … So we have proven that it is not the case in Islam, and by the same criteria he presented we would say: If the bible is true so when man and woman are given IQ exams we will find that the women IQ are less than men IQ, If it is not –and this is the case as we presented, so the bible is false! And that is it!

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[1] دقيقة 0: 48 في فيديو ديفيد وود  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrLoFzKhE-o

[2]  دقيقة 3: 05  حتى قوله    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrLoFzKhE-o    stupid

[3] ابن القيم، الطرق الحكيمة، صـ 34.

Ibn al-Qaym, at-Turuq al-Hakimyah, P. 34.

[4]  الجامع لأحكام القرآن، شمس الدين القرطبي (المتوفى: 671هـ)، تحقيق: أحمد البردوني وإبراهيم أطفيش، دار الكتب المصرية – القاهرة، الطبعة: الثانية، 1384هـ – 1964 م، 3/391.

Al-Qurtuby, al-Jami’ li Ahkam al-Quran, Vol. 3, P. 391.

[5] بن المنذر النيسابوري (المتوفى: 319هـ)، كتاب تفسير القرآن، حققه وعلق عليه الدكتور: سعد بن محمد السعد، دار المآثر – المدينة النبوية، الطبعة: الأولى 1423 هـ، 2002 م، 1/76.

Ibn al-Munzir an-Nysabury, Kitab Tafsir al-Quran, Vol. 1, P. 76.

[6] السيوطي، تدريب الراوي، ” ( 1 / 332 ). Asuyutty, Tadtib ar-Rawi, Vol. 1, P. 332.

[7]  موسوعة بيان الإسلام: الرد على الافتراءات والشبهات، 7\83-84.  Mausu’at Bayaan al-Islam, Vol. 7, P. 83-84.

[8] المنهاج شرح صحيح مسلم بن الحجاج، أبو زكريا محيي الدين يحيى بن شرف النووي (المتوفى: 676هـ)، دار إحياء التراث العربي – بيروت، الطبعة: الثانية، 1392، 2\66. “فقالت امرأةٌ منهنَّ جَزْلةٌ “: أى ذات عقل ودين. قال ابن دريد: الجزالة: الوقار والعقل”

al-Nawawi, alminhaj sharh sahih muslim, Vol. 2, P. 66.

[9] شَرْحُ صَحِيح مُسْلِمِ لِلقَاضِى عِيَاض، المحقق: الدكتور يحْيَى إِسْمَاعِيل، دار الوفاء للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع، مصر، الطبعة: الأولى، 1419 هـ – 1998 م، 1\337. ” وَقَوْلُهُ جَزْلَةٌ بِفَتْحِ الْجِيمِ وَإِسْكَانِ الزَّايِ أَيْ ذَاتُ عَقْلٍ وَرَأْيٍ “

sharh Sahih Muslim li-AlQadi Ayadd, Vol. 1, P. 337.

[10] أبو إسحاق ابن قرقول (المتوفى: 569هـ)، مطالع الأنوار على صحاح الآثار، تحقيق: دار الفلاح للبحث العلمي وتحقيق التراث، وزارة الأوقاف والشؤون الإسلامية – دولة قطر، الطبعة: الأولى، 1433 هـ – 2012 م، 2\210.

Ibn Quqal, Masalih al-Anwar Ala Sihah ah-Athar, Vol. 1, P. 210

[11] “How can anyone maintain that woman is the likeness of God when she is demonstrably subject to the dominion of man and has no kind of authority? For she can neither teach nor be a witness in a court nor exercise citizenship nor be a judge-then certainly not exercise dominion.” Ambrosiaster, on, Corinthians 14, 34 Quoted by Ali Shihata, Demystifying Islam: your guide to the most misunderstood Religion of the 21 Century, P 210.

[12] Jackson Spielvogel, Western Civilization: A Brief History, P 158.

[13] ] دقيقة 4: 31