Abstract
If women cannot make their own decisions, what is God to judge them on? Women will certainly get no credit for a “good deed” that is forced upon them, much less grow spiritually from it, any more than they will for or from any good their menfolk do. As the Qur’an never tires of telling us, every single soul—whether male or female—will ultimately face God individually. Yet once again, faux-hadith arguments denigrating women’s moral nature and intellectual capacity are deployed to justify restricting women’s freedoms, including an eye-popping one placed in the Prophet’s mouth that makes a wife’s access to heaven essentially dependent on being in her husband’s good graces. What if he is a despicable fellow?
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF
Keywords
Qur’anic Verses on Free Will and Accountability
The notion that men deprive women of making their own decisions in many families—not just certain communities—in order to protect them from God’s wrath is again adding insult to injury.
But arguably more seriously from a metaphysical perspective, interfering with women’s freedom of choice throws a wrench in God’s plan of creating human beings, giving them free will, sending them guidance, and then judging them by the choices they make and the degree of spiritual growth they achieve.
Because if women cannot make their own decisions, what is God to judge them on? Women will certainly get no credit for a “good deed” that is forced upon them, nor grow spiritually from it, any more than they will for or from any good their menfolk do. Meanwhile men will certainly be accountable for having prevented their womenfolk from spiritual growth through their own choices and good deeds—not a good deed by any measure! Both men and women are indeed set back.
It really seems to me as simple as that.
Those looking for explicit Qur’anic proof of this self-evident truth need only refer to the large number of verses scattered throughout the book on accountability and how every single soul—whether male or female—will ultimately face God individually. Here is a small sampling of such versesFootnote 1:
Verse
Verse The House of ‘Imran (Joaquim, father of Mary ), 3:195 So their Lord responded [i.e. to their prayer]: I do not let an act [i.e. good deed] by any of you go to waste, whether male or female. You are of each other… Cattle, 6:164 …every soul earns only for its own account, and none bears the burden of another… The Bees, 16:97 Whoever does a good deed and believes, whether male or female, We shall give them a good life and reward them according to the best that they had done. The Confederates, 33:35 For submitting men (to God) and submitting women, believing men and believing women, devout men and devout women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, charitable men and charitable women, fasting men and fasting women, chaste men and chaste women, men who remember God often and women who remember God often—for them God has prepared forgiveness, and a great reward.
The above was cited earlier as an example of God’s response to specific requests or questions by women, and is repeated here as it is one of the clearest verses on every woman’s, and not just every man’s, individual freedom and accountability before God.
Verse
Verse The Confederates, 33:73 That God may punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women, the idolatrous men and the idolatrous women, and that God may relent unto the believing men and the believing women. And God is ever-Forgiving, ever-Merciful.
Verse
Verse Forgiver, 40:40 Whoever does a bad deed will only be repaid its equivalent, while whoever does a good deed and believes, whether male or female, shall enter the Garden where they will be rewarded without measure.
Verse
Verse Kneeling, 45:22 And God created the heavens and the earth with truth, and so that each soul may be rewarded what it has earned. And they will not be wronged.
Verse
Verse The Star, 53:38–40 That none shall bear the burden of another, And that every human being shall have only what it strove for, And that its endeavour shall be seen.
Finally, every soul will not only be judged individually but also, in case there was any doubt, irrespective of whether that soul had been associated with a believing or non-believing, virtuous or unethical, devout or non-devout spouse . This point is made in the Qur’an with regard to women who sought out the Prophet to pledge their allegiance independently of their husbands and families,Footnote 2 as well as in relation to three famous women from a previous era—two who go astray and one who chooses the right path—despite each of them being married to a man of the opposite character:
Verse
Verse The Woman Tested, 60:12 Oh Prophet! When believing women come to you pledging not to associate anything with God, nor steal,…then accept their pledge and seek God’s forgiveness for them…
Verse
Verse Prohibiting, 66:10–11 God cites the example, for those who disbelieve, of the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under (the guidance/influence) of two of our righteous servants yet they betrayed them, and they (the husbands) did not avail them anything against God. And it was said to them both: Enter the Fire with those who enter. And God cites the example, for those who believe, of the wife of Pharaoh when she said: My Lord, build me a house with You in the Garden and deliver me from Pharaoh and his deeds, and deliver me from wrong-doing people.
The Pushback of Alleged hadith on Women Having Free Will: Not Just Immoral and Intellectually Lacking, But So as Not to Defy the Prophet!
The twin-anchors of all approaches that try to deprive women of their free will and prevent them from making their own decisions in life are the faux-hadith arguments denigrating women’s moral nature and intellectual capacity as described above. Such arguments are not only intuitively and experientially preposterous but also counter-Qur’anic, often propping themselves up with additional questionable hadiths taking up the campaign indirectly. Some of the latter are positively shocking yet are included in the hadith compilations despite their dubious authenticity, not to mention their illogical content, such as alleged Prophetic hadiths that make a wife’s access to heaven basically dependent on being in her husband’s good graces (what if he is a despicable fellow?), or effectively place a wife’s obedience to her husband on the same level as worshipping God several times a day and fasting during Ramadan!Footnote 3 For those looking to justify their own chauvinism, such evidently unreliable hadiths trump many others that are shown to be unquestionably reliable, such as the reply of Omar’s wife when arguing with her husband:
You reproach me for answering you! Well, by God, the wives of the Prophet answer him, and one of them might even desert him from morning until night.Footnote 4
Notes
- 1.
Yet other verses on individual responsibility and accountability include 4:124, 82:5, 99:7–8, 17:15, 39:7, among others.
- 2.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (editor-in-chief) et al. 2015. The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1362–1363.
- 3.
Abou El Fadl, Khaled M. 2003. Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 219–20.
- 4.
Ibid., 214–15.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
El-Ali, L. (2022). When Men Deprive Women of Their Free Will, They Are Not Protecting Anyone: They Are Obstructing God’s Plan. In: No Truth Without Beauty. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83582-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83582-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-83581-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-83582-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)