Women in Islam: RE: Mixed feelings & Great

» Binte - RE: Mixed feelings & Great

It always gives me a thrill when someone enjoys reading something I enjoyed writing so thanks

You'll excuse me for answering boths posts together but dial up connections do that to you ...

Sylvia, I can understand why you'd be confused. Much of what the answering islam site has in the way of quotes though is from Sunni sources. Most of these are not accepted by the Shia historians as being authentic or reliable.

Under Shia study of traditions, there is a branch called the Study of the Chain of Narrators where the life of each person through whom the tradition was quoted is scrutinised. Sahih Bukhari and Mishkat al-Masabih do not live up to these standards

When looking for an authentic tradition, like PJ says, go for the main source book - The Qur'an. anything contradicting that is not acceptable. But again each verse of the Qur'an has to be studied keeping in mind in the complex Arabic grammar, context and occasion of delivery - all of which many Islam bashing sites totally ignore.

Also, under the Shia, I am addressing Islam from the point of view of the Shia Ithna Asheri - whom many Sunni look down upon so you won't find much about us and our ideals/opinions in their books or sites. There is a great difference between us though and I'm working on a piece about that.

That said, the (mis)quotation about women being deficient in faith because of the fact that they do not pray on certain days has been clumsily translated. It is looked upon more as a factual statement because when compared in amount, yes, we do perform less than men, but then God looks at Quality not Quantity

Women have done great things in Islam and there are women whom all Muslim men have to look up to as being of a higher status in piety and intellect than them - Mariam mother of Isa, the Pharoah's wife, Khadija, wife of the Prophet (pbuh) and his daughter, Fatimah being the main amongst them in history.

I guess what I'm trying to say is there is no doubt that Islam, a person is judged on their faith not on their gender

-- posted by Binte