Salam guys. I just read a book by Fatima Mernissi called 'Women and Islam: An Historical Survey' and I want to share her ideas here. Btw I'm not a Quranist or anything, I just find this field very interesting.
Mernissi wasn't a scholar, but she did provide sources to all her claims. She did an analysis on the trustworthiness of the narrator behind this sahih hadith:
No people who appoint a woman as their leader will ever prosper.
Scholars generally accept this hadith. There are debates on its meaning and implications, but not on its authenticity. The narrator was Abu Bakra (not to be confused with Abu Bakr), a companion of the Prophet (pbuh). In summary, the points she makes are:
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This hadith was first narrated in the events preceding the Battle of Jamal, when Aisha was preparing to fight against the caliph Ali. When Aisha contacted Abu Bakra for support, he replied with the hadith in question, quoting it as the reason he would not join her in battle.
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Abu Bakra's reasoning is suspect, because there were many people in Basra who chose neutrality, but none of them listed Aisha's gender as the reason for not participating.
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The main reason given by everyone else who did not take part in the battle was because Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) warned about fitna. People would quote hadith about fitna being the worst thing for Islam. As an example, Abu Musa, who was asked by Ali to take part in the battle, declined and quoted the hadith of the Prophet (pbuh) warning about fitna within the ummah.
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If the Prophet (pbuh) really said these words about women as leaders, why didn't anyone in Basra cite it as a reason for refusing to fight alongside Aisha? They actually respected her very much and never questioned her leadership. Moreover, why did the Prophet (pbuh) say these important words to only one companion?
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Abu Bakra is also known to have given false testimony. He testified in an adultery case against the companion al-Mughira Ibn Shu'ba. This testimony was discovered to be false, for which Abu Bakra was flogged.
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If Abu Bakra was known as someone who gave false testimony, why is his hadith graded Sahih?
In his book 'Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy', Dr Jonathan Brown refers to this analysis, and calls it 'brilliant'. I mention this to show that there is at least one respected Muslim scholar today who acknowledges her work.
Mernissi also goes on to question the trustworthiness of Abu Huraira, the leading narrator of all hadith. She brings up a story of the time he retracted a narration. The companions wanted to know whether one should purify themselves after making love in Ramadan. Abu Huraira said he heard the prophet say, "he whom the dawn finds sullied may not fast". When the companions asked Aisha about it, she contradicted Abu Huraira's narration by saying, "the Prophet used to spend the night sullied without making any ritual of purification."
Only when confronted did Abu Huraira admit that he didn't hear it directly from the prophet, but from someone else. He later retracted the entire narration.
Abu Huraira's attitude towards Aisha is also explored. Aisha once accused Abu Huraira of related hadith that he had never actually heard. Abu Huraira, offended by the accusation, replied back, "I collect hadith, while you are busy with your make-up and your mirror".
Now I'm not a scholar of hadith, but in 'The Introduction to the Science of Hadith', Ibn al-Salah says the following about the companions:
The Companions, all of them, possess the special trait that the integrity of none of them may be questioned. Rather, it is a settled matter, because of their being declared upright without qualification in texts from the Qur'an and the sunna and by the consensus of those who are taken into consideration in the consensus of the Community.
Mernissi calls into question the a priori assumption that companions like Abu Huraira and Abu Bakra are considered trustworthy, when they were just human, susceptible to the fallible nature of human beings. Moreover, as shown in the above examples, hadith by narrators that have shown questionable behaviour are for some reason graded sahih.
So... are her points valid?
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