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No Place in Islam for Oppression
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful & Compassionate
“Militants blow up five more schools.” I read the headlines, half the story, and then my mind wandered, imagining the thoughts that would race through readers’ minds as they read the news.
What shakes the world is not merely the oppression of women, but the clothing of this oppression in garbs of piety and righteousness. Islam—apparently—alters our moral sense, and normalizes, even glorifies, oppression. This mere thought shakes the world, and it shakes me, too.
But what shakes me more is how localized oppression by unlearned, tribal villagers is somehow “logically” projected onto all of one billion Muslims of the present and the billions more of the past.
This is certainly not the religion that I have been taught by my teachers, nor is it the religion that was taught to my 15 colleagues at SunniPath. In fact, 6 out of the 16 instructors at SunniPath are women. Two of these six—Ustadha Hedaya Hartford and Ustadha Umm Sahl—are senior teachers under whose watchful gaze many of the rest of us operate.
Inside SunniPath, most of the students are women, and if you ask the teachers, they will generally tell you that the women are better students than the men—they are more conscientious in completing the course assignments, and less likely to fall behind. This is perhaps one reason why almost all of our teaching assistants—who are usually selected from our past high-performing students—are women. What this means is that in all likelihood, most of the future graduates of our recently-launched degree-programs will be women.
And we’re not alone-if you go to the heart of Damascus, you will find a womens’ school by the Umayyad mosque whose graduates have memorized the six collections of hadith (isnad and all), an achievement that few men today—if any at all—can boast of. In the heart of Tarim, you will find a center dedicated to the education of women. Women across the Muslim world—in Cairo, in Amman, in Karachi, in every major city—are returning to their religion in throngs, and clamoring to learn it.
Ibn Khaldun noted seven hundred years ago that knowledge and scholarship flourish where there is civilization and economic prosperity. War-ravaged villages are unlikely to produce scholars of much sophistication. The disturbing stories that we hear in the news are not from too much Islamic learning. They are from a lack of learning, compounded by poverty and civil discord. I can’t solve the political dimension of the problem, but I can contribute on the religious side. Perhaps Allah will make the work we do at SunniPath a means for making the world a better place.
Allahumma Ameen.
Assalam u ‘alaykum Shaikh,
MashaAllah it was an interesting read and no doubt is absolutely true. Islam has raised the status of women, it doesn’t degrade us. However, coming from the same region I can say for sure that people who are behaving like this are doing so due to culture rather than their religion. Alhamdulillah the Shyukhs I have met up til now respects so much their wives, daughters and sisters that many a time it got me welled up as I start thinking this is how Rasoolullah saw honored his women (as we read in the Sirah) and their is certainly no oppression seen in the households who are educated well and who practise shariah rather than culture but those who are arrogant and are proud on their culture, the situation is disgusting!! I’m gutted to see what happens there and then they claim to be Muslims! O God where are we heading up to?! Aameen to your dua.
P.S This was not directed at anyone but I think I should say it as many people from the west thinks(as the image portrayed by the media) this is how the women are treated in Indo-Pak, [mainly because of their lack of knowledge on Islam]. Though this is the majority but there are a lot of other people who respect their women like they deserved to be.