Citations: The Position of Women in Islam 1/30

Endnotes: Introduction

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Qasim Amin Tahrir al-mar'a (Cairo, n.p., 1928), p.9. Muhammad Rashid Ridha, Nida li al-jins al-latif (Cairo, n.p., 1932), p.111. Muhammad Ali al-Sabuni. Tafsir ayat al-Qur'an (Beirut, n.p., 1981), 2:52,53,169-174. Muhammad Husein Haikal, Hayatu Muhamm Qasim Amin, Tahrir al-mar'a (Cairo, 1928), p.9. Muhammad Rashid Ridha, Nida li al-jins al-latif (Cairo, 1932), p.111. Muhammad `Ali al-Sabuni. Tafsir ayat al-Qur'an (Beirut, 1981), 2:52,53,169-174. Muhammad Husein Haikal, Hayatu Muhammad, 17th ed. (Cairo, 1986), p.336. Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad, al-Mar'a fi al-Qur'an (Beirut, 1985), p.12. Many contemporary writers depend on superficial comparisons between the legislations the Islamic Sharia instituted and the position of the woman in the pre-Islamic times, or between the Islamic Sharia and the Roman law as a proof that the woman's position in Islam is much better than under those regimes or laws (Subhi Salih, al-Nuzum al-islamiyya (Beirut, 1965), p.51. Sayyid Amir `Ali, The Spirit of Islam (Delhi, n.d.), p.222. Muhammad Husein Haikal, p.354. `Abdalla Shihata, al-Da`wa al-Islamiyya wa al-i`lam al-dini (Cairo, 1978), p.130).
Subhi Salih, p.442.
The classic example of the mistakes that result from the lack of knowledge of Islam in this respect is a book by John Laffin entitled Dagger of Islam where the author mentions female circumcision as a command given by the Qur'an, yet the Qur'an does not even suggest that there was a male circumcision!
Female circumcision as practised in some Islamic countries is a good example of this.
Almost all subjects cited from the Qur'an fall in this category. Thus, a Muslim must check Muhammad's sayings, which have been narrated orally and later written down from the beginning of the third century A.H., to know what the Qur'an definitely meant. It is worthy of note that the jurists and the narrators of Hadith have sifted and modified the Hadith according to the circumstances (Ignaz Goldziher, Vorlesungen über den Islam (Heidelberg, 1910), p.40f,102,240).