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hadith, women as the majority of the dwellers in paradise
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04-05-2011, 06:20 PM
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Licacivelip
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Brother rqsnnt, this is what sheikh GF Haddad says regarding those hadiths which you have quoted, their context and meaning:
Comment: The problem here is not authenticity but meaning. Even the plainest statement can become completely incoherent on the tongue of a retarded person or a pathological liar. The hadith here uses two figures of speech: the first is hyperbole (mubalagha) meaning exaggeration in the words “even a prudent, sensible man might be led astray by some of you” i.e. a fortiori an ordinary man. The second figure is synechdoche (majaz mursal) consisting in using the whole for the part: intelligence to mean the specific legal testimony of a woman, and religion to mean the prayer and fast at the time of menses.
Numerous verses and other narrations stress that the reward of women equals that of men even if their acts differ. So this particular narration is not meant literally but as an acknowledgment of the power women wield over men while ostensibly less active in the public and spiritual spheres.
However, the real import of the hadith - spoken at the Farewell Pilgrimage - and its actual context was that the Prophet challenged the women that were present to realize that unless they helped raise money with their gold and jewelry, they would miss the reward of men waging jihad as well as show ingratitude.
In the full version of the hadith the Prophet also orders the women to ask forgiveness and desist from frequently cursing their husbands. All this was spoken at a time of
(1) the impending departure of the latter on jihad
(2) the impending departure of the Prophet from this world and
(3) the fact that “Cursing the believer is like killing him.”
But the Prophet was also being playful in his use of strong terms to impress this teaching on the listeners. Ruqayyah Waris Maqsud writes, “After the Farewell Pilgrimage at the Eid prayer, the Prophet walked past the men leaning on Bilal's arm, and came to the rows of women behind them. Bilal spread out a cloth and the Prophet urged the women to be generous with their gifts of charity, for when he had been allowed a glimpse into the flames of Hell, he had noted that most of the people being tormented there were women.
The women were outraged, and one of them instantly stood up boldly and demanded to know why that was so.
'Because,' he replied, 'you women grumble so much, and show ingratitude to your husbands! Even if the poor fellows spent all their lives doing good things for you, you have only to be upset at the least thing and you will say, 'I have never received any good from you!' (Bukhari 1.28, recorded by Ibn Abbas - who was present on that occasion as a child).
At that the women began vigorously to pull off their rings and ear-rings, and throw them into Bilal's cloth.” I would like to ask a resident scholar to tell me if this is an accurate analysis, if any of you reading this can!
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