ST:#68 Problematic Hadiths Case Study - Part 4 | Sh. Anwar Arafat (2022-09-17) ​

0:00:14 upon you all and welcome to another
0:00:16 episode of sapient thoughts where we
0:00:18 discuss theo philosophical issues we
0:00:20 answer some of the contentions that are
0:00:22 brought against islam and we
0:00:24 offer a case for the veracity and beauty
0:00:26 of islam in sha allah
0:00:28 my name is anwar arafat and today we are
0:00:31 continuing with our case study of a
0:00:33 problematic hadith and we're applying of
0:00:35 course our hadith toolkit we are on tool
0:00:38 number 10 which is the last of the tools
0:00:40 this is where we reconcile a lot of the
0:00:43 issues that we have and we'll offer a
0:00:45 synthesis
0:00:46 of ideas before we do so we're going to
0:00:48 do a reread of the hadith now with all
0:00:51 of this information that we've shared so
0:00:53 far so that we can actually understand
0:00:55 it contextually
0:00:58 so in rereading the hadith we see that
0:01:01 the prophet sallallahu sallam
0:01:03 came out to the people it wasn't during
0:01:06 aid it seems to be the case some of the
0:01:08 narratives mentioned that right but
0:01:09 there is a hesitation which aid that was
0:01:11 but in the version that it's in muatla
0:01:13 and some others it actually mentions
0:01:14 that it was during the eclipse and this
0:01:16 seems to be the more correct one
0:01:18 so during the eclipse if we know now
0:01:20 within the context of that entire day
0:01:23 what happened earlier that day is that
0:01:25 the prophet salallahu's son ibrahim
0:01:28 passed away
0:01:30 and ibrahim was
0:01:32 a year and a half old
0:01:34 and he was a baby basically an infant he
0:01:36 buries him
0:01:38 and he's very concerned and the prophet
0:01:40 wept he was sad in fact some of the
0:01:42 companions came and they said ya
0:01:43 rasulallah
0:01:44 you know you're crying
0:01:46 um didn't you forbid us from this and he
0:01:48 said no i forbade you from wailing
0:01:50 meaning that's like the desperation cry
0:01:52 where the person is it's out it's loud
0:01:56 they're
0:01:56 tearing their clothes
0:01:58 right they're hitting themselves that
0:02:00 type of wailing is forbidden crying it's
0:02:03 completely natural and in fact he said
0:02:05 it's a mercy
0:02:07 and the prophet experienced that with
0:02:09 the death of his child may allah protect
0:02:11 any one of us you know from losing our
0:02:12 children i mean preserve them for us
0:02:15 and so it was a it was a
0:02:17 emotional day already for the prophet
0:02:19 salallahu
0:02:21 and then the eclipse starts
0:02:23 and many of the companions many of the
0:02:26 muslims that were there they said oh
0:02:27 look the eclipse this is proof that
0:02:31 the prophet peace be upon him's son is
0:02:34 in fact a great man if he were to live
0:02:37 meaning
0:02:38 and they said this because their belief
0:02:40 was at the time that when there's an
0:02:42 eclipse it's either due to the death or
0:02:45 the birth of a great person so this is
0:02:47 proof
0:02:48 that ibrahim is a great person this is
0:02:50 proof that the prophet is a prophet now
0:02:52 the prophet sallam if he was a liar if
0:02:53 he was deluded or anything like this he
0:02:55 would have said oh yeah totally like uh
0:02:58 this is what happens sure you know the
0:03:00 eclipse proves that i'm a prophet proves
0:03:01 that my son would have been a great man
0:03:03 if he lived
0:03:04 he didn't say that he actually said no
0:03:06 the eclipse has nothing to do with the
0:03:08 birth or the death of anyone
0:03:11 and it's only a sign it's an ayah a sign
0:03:14 from the signs of god and i am in allah
0:03:16 and
0:03:17 we can do a whole
0:03:19 perhaps episode on the eclipse and its
0:03:21 significance inshallah ta'ala so
0:03:24 he sets the record straight nowadays we
0:03:26 know that he's completely correct it's
0:03:27 just a natural phenomenon that happens
0:03:29 but it causes that sense of awe
0:03:32 and inspiration like no other which is
0:03:34 where the sign lies
0:03:36 for us
0:03:37 so
0:03:38 the prophet saws hurries and he tells
0:03:40 everybody there's a prayer there's a
0:03:41 special prayer that we need to do of
0:03:43 course we know that the special prayer
0:03:44 and while he was praying as we said in
0:03:46 the previous episode he's shown paradise
0:03:49 he's shown the hellfire
0:03:51 he now wants to embody his job
0:03:54 his job as a prophet is bashir
0:03:57 bashir a bearer of glad tidings good
0:03:59 news
0:04:00 and nadir a warner he's coming to warn
0:04:03 them this is exactly what he does
0:04:05 especially with the women he goes up to
0:04:07 them he says
0:04:11 this is where the hadith starts
0:04:13 oh women folk
0:04:15 you need to give charity in some
0:04:16 narrations it says
0:04:19 even if it is from your own jewelry
0:04:23 because remember some women will be like
0:04:24 well i don't have money i don't have
0:04:26 income i just have my savings and a lot
0:04:27 of them their savings is in their
0:04:28 jewelry he says even if it's from your
0:04:30 jewelry why because you need to save
0:04:32 yourselves from the fire you can't just
0:04:34 rely on your husband you can't just rely
0:04:35 on someone else for your own salvation
0:04:38 and we talked about this before so they
0:04:40 need to do that so then he was asked why
0:04:43 are we the majority of the inhabitants
0:04:45 of the hellfire and he says so he's
0:04:47 mentioning three things
0:04:49 out of these three the women contested
0:04:52 only the third but they did not contest
0:04:54 the first two ibn hajjar when we read in
0:04:56 his explanation fatih beri which is
0:04:57 excellent i would recommend everybody to
0:04:59 go back to that if they can but hajj
0:05:01 comments and he says look
0:05:03 the fact that they did not contest the
0:05:05 first two is that they understood it and
0:05:07 that they contested the third is that
0:05:09 they've never heard this before
0:05:12 so the phrase of malcolm
0:05:15 that women are supposedly deficient in
0:05:19 their intellect and their religion
0:05:22 is a phrase that only appears here and
0:05:25 nowhere else in the entire sunnah
0:05:27 meaning the prophet has never uttered
0:05:29 those words up until now
0:05:31 this is why it confused them however the
0:05:33 first two which is
0:05:38 you curse frequently and you are
0:05:40 ungrateful to your husbands or to your
0:05:42 families in general meaning ungrateful
0:05:43 to your father or whatever or ungrateful
0:05:45 to your husband
0:05:47 right many of you it doesn't it's not a
0:05:48 proclamation of this is all women this
0:05:51 is many women there's a huge difference
0:05:54 and this is why in the translation
0:05:56 sometimes this is lost she says many of
0:05:58 you curse frequently obviously there are
0:06:00 many women who never curse alhamdulillah
0:06:02 this is good
0:06:03 there are many women that are ungrateful
0:06:04 to their fathers or their husbands or
0:06:06 whoever in their family but there are
0:06:08 many women who are grateful and there
0:06:10 are many women who
0:06:12 are seemingly lacking in intelligence or
0:06:14 religion but they can overwhelm an
0:06:16 intelligent person but that's not all
0:06:18 women either that's some
0:06:20 it's not a
0:06:22 blanket statement on all women and we
0:06:24 get this directly from this plus the
0:06:26 women
0:06:27 didn't question the first two which is
0:06:28 the frequent cursing and ungratefulness
0:06:30 they questioned the last one which is
0:06:33 that there's a deficiency and they
0:06:35 didn't question whether they can
0:06:36 overwhelm or they can misguide
0:06:40 a man they didn't even question that
0:06:42 part which is many of the women
0:06:44 knew that there is a way to i don't want
0:06:48 to say manipulate although it could i
0:06:50 mean there's many women that manipulate
0:06:52 their husbands
0:06:53 but
0:06:55 the hadith seems to indicate that a
0:06:57 woman
0:06:58 can indeed
0:07:00 get her way if she knows her way around
0:07:01 her husband
0:07:03 right and this is what the process is
0:07:05 alluding to that there are many
0:07:06 intelligent wise men out there that are
0:07:09 completely overwhelmed by their wives
0:07:11 right and overtaken by them and she's
0:07:13 actually not in control but she's
0:07:15 getting what she wants at the end of the
0:07:16 day and by the way as a husband
0:07:20 most husbands this isn't malicious by
0:07:22 the way most husbands have no problem
0:07:24 insha'allah pleasing their wives and
0:07:25 letting them get their way
0:07:27 meaning it's not that they they're
0:07:28 knowingly like um being manipulated but
0:07:30 a lot of times
0:07:32 there's higher things that we want
0:07:35 but that's a different story
0:07:38 okay
0:07:39 so
0:07:39 this is the first time
0:07:41 that these women are hearing this
0:07:42 statement
0:07:45 that
0:07:46 there's a deficiency in intellect and
0:07:49 indeed
0:07:50 and so they asked
0:07:52 how are we deficient in our intellect
0:07:54 and our deen now the prophet clarifies
0:07:57 right so
0:07:58 pause here
0:08:02 commented on what is meant by the word
0:08:04 and what is meant by the word deen
0:08:07 here so we'll start with the easy one
0:08:10 what is meant by deen deen is religion
0:08:12 way of life right their practice
0:08:15 it does not use the word eman
0:08:17 and it does not use the word taqwa it
0:08:19 uses the word din
0:08:21 okay deen are the rituals that i do
0:08:25 the actions
0:08:27 and here he's saying it's a deficiency
0:08:28 and how do we know that it's the actions
0:08:30 because when he was clarified how are we
0:08:32 deficient in our intellect and our deen
0:08:33 so he answers the intellect and then he
0:08:34 comes to the deen so we're answering the
0:08:36 dean first he says isn't it that the
0:08:38 case is when you are on your menstrual
0:08:41 cycle you do not pray you do not fast
0:08:43 they said yes
0:08:45 said that is a deficiency in their deen
0:08:46 meaning
0:08:47 she will not fast all of ramadan when a
0:08:49 man will but she'll have to make those
0:08:51 up
0:08:52 making something up isn't the same as
0:08:54 performing it on time we know this
0:08:56 and then she doesn't pray but she
0:08:58 doesn't make up those prayers she
0:08:59 doesn't pray during that whole week
0:09:01 whereas a man will actually be praying
0:09:03 he'll be praying non-stop constantly for
0:09:05 the for his whole life
0:09:07 and he says this is a deficiency now
0:09:10 the word deficiency
0:09:12 makes it seem like
0:09:14 a woman's reward is less but there's no
0:09:18 commentary on reward
0:09:19 and there's a debate when you look in
0:09:21 the books of shuru and this is where you
0:09:23 appreciate the scholarly work
0:09:27 seems to say that okay if her deeds are
0:09:30 less then her reward automatically is
0:09:32 less ibn hajjar and eben
0:09:35 and many others have actually commented
0:09:36 on this and they said no that's actually
0:09:38 not the case because
0:09:41 the same one who obligated her to pray
0:09:43 when she can pray
0:09:45 is the same one who told her don't pray
0:09:47 now and she's obeying him as well
0:09:49 meaning in her not praying she is still
0:09:52 obeying allah which means she can't be
0:09:54 held accountable it can't be held
0:09:56 against her that she doesn't get reward
0:09:57 for not praying because it isn't her
0:09:59 intention and this should be an
0:10:00 intention of every woman that
0:10:03 if this wasn't here meaning if i didn't
0:10:05 have this cycle i would be praying
0:10:06 completely fine
0:10:08 all my prayers not missing them and that
0:10:09 is her intention and allah rewards us
0:10:12 for our intention doesn't reward us
0:10:13 necessarily just for the deeds that we
0:10:15 do
0:10:16 her reward
0:10:18 is still there in shalatan and i take
0:10:20 the position that ibn hajan has as well
0:10:22 as evintimia the position of
0:10:24 maintainment is that
0:10:25 she still gets a reward for not praying
0:10:28 because she is obeying god when she
0:10:30 doesn't pray during her menses cycle
0:10:32 is it held against a woman that she
0:10:35 doesn't pray and doesn't fast no
0:10:37 whatsoever it is not her fault and we
0:10:39 understand this completely so is it
0:10:42 descriptive or is it prescriptive
0:10:47 meaning the deficiency here
0:10:49 what do we mean by this question
0:10:51 descriptive is the process
0:10:53 describing a woman that she's deficient
0:10:55 or is he prescribing that she shouldn't
0:10:58 pray as much as of man because of a
0:11:00 certain situation but she still gets a
0:11:02 reward
0:11:03 it's prescriptive meaning
0:11:06 allah subhanahu ta'ala is the one who
0:11:08 reduced
0:11:09 her responsibility
0:11:12 because of a situation that she has
0:11:14 meaning it's not descriptive it's not
0:11:16 innate to the woman
0:11:19 that she's lesser than a man in this
0:11:21 area it's actually an obligation that
0:11:23 she doesn't pray so it's prescriptive
0:11:26 and not
0:11:26 descriptive is this the case with the
0:11:29 first one meaning in her intellect as
0:11:31 well and this is where the question
0:11:32 arises right so historically all
0:11:35 scholars were unanimous
0:11:37 that her
0:11:38 noxson the deficiency in her religion is
0:11:42 not a real deficiency it's a
0:11:44 prescription from allah subhanahu ta'ala
0:11:47 that she does not pray
0:11:49 also this opens up a big discussion on
0:11:52 so
0:11:53 prescription versus description is a
0:11:55 similar concept of ella versus
0:11:59 is the cause for legislation hikmah is
0:12:02 the wisdom behind the legislation a lot
0:12:05 of times we conflate the two but they
0:12:06 are different for example consuming
0:12:09 alcohol is a very easy example to go
0:12:11 over
0:12:12 consuming alcohol is haram
0:12:15 why is it haram because it intoxicates
0:12:20 the wisdom behind why it's haram is
0:12:22 because there's harm due to the
0:12:23 intoxication
0:12:26 and sometimes we conflate the two a
0:12:28 person might say you know what
0:12:29 okay
0:12:31 i understand if they say that oh the
0:12:33 harm is
0:12:35 and they say you know what i'll get i'll
0:12:37 drink alcohol
0:12:38 but i'll get just drunk enough where
0:12:40 there's not that much harm i'm
0:12:42 mitigating the harm but i'm still drunk
0:12:45 no it's still haram right why because
0:12:48 the illa is the intoxication itself that
0:12:50 will obviously lead to harm but
0:12:52 sometimes we just focus on the harm and
0:12:53 not the illness
0:12:54 itself is the intoxication meaning if it
0:12:57 intoxicates it's haram so if i drink
0:13:00 a drink and it does not intoxicate is it
0:13:02 okay yes it is
0:13:04 what if that is harmful that's a
0:13:06 different case i can drink soda
0:13:09 all day long that's harmful
0:13:12 but it's still halal because it does not
0:13:14 intoxicate of course if a person is
0:13:16 drinking that much soda then obviously
0:13:18 we have to have another discussion and
0:13:19 say hey look brother maybe that's too
0:13:21 much aslan anything
0:13:23 in two large quantities can become haram
0:13:25 very easily but the essence of the thing
0:13:27 is still hella right
0:13:28 so
0:13:29 applying this idea to this hadith
0:13:33 her menstruation is the illa
0:13:36 for
0:13:37 her deficiency
0:13:39 okay it's the cause for the deficiency
0:13:42 it's not descriptive
0:13:43 so the question is
0:13:45 is there allah
0:13:47 for her deficiency in intellect
0:13:51 is there a cause for the deficiency in
0:13:52 intellect or is it just a statement
0:13:56 and this is where classically
0:13:59 scholars actually did differ on whether
0:14:02 and i you know i'm saying this because
0:14:05 historically
0:14:07 people viewed women very differently
0:14:09 because of the nature of society they
0:14:11 weren't out in society actively
0:14:13 participating etc many women were very
0:14:15 much scholarly
0:14:16 ibn tamiya talks about this even as well
0:14:18 he says there are many women who have
0:14:20 outpaced so many men in terms of their
0:14:23 intellectual capacities in terms of
0:14:24 their religion as well right so they
0:14:26 understand that this is not a blanket to
0:14:28 mean to all women but there was a
0:14:30 question whether
0:14:32 women now i'm saying this is historical
0:14:34 fact historically and this is across
0:14:36 every nation this is not just in muslims
0:14:37 non-muslims had this discussion very
0:14:39 famously a long time ago
0:14:42 one just has you know you can look at
0:14:43 greek philosophers you can look even as
0:14:46 recent as here in america
0:14:48 right even after the founding of america
0:14:50 among our own founding fathers there
0:14:52 were discussions among them whether
0:14:53 women were lesser than men we all know
0:14:55 this right
0:14:56 so
0:14:57 intellectually there was this discussion
0:14:59 on
0:15:00 wait is this a description of women in
0:15:02 general or some women or
0:15:05 is it like the religion that it's
0:15:07 prescriptive meaning it's lessening
0:15:09 their intellectual responsibility
0:15:13 so when we consulted many of the modern
0:15:15 books and modern mashaykh there's a
0:15:18 leaning now towards
0:15:20 that both are prescriptive and in fact
0:15:22 classically i found one scholar who said
0:15:25 now he had issue with it he said if the
0:15:27 second one is prescriptive meanings
0:15:29 prescribing a lessening of the burden
0:15:31 upon women
0:15:33 then why wouldn't the first also be the
0:15:35 case but then he dismissed it by saying
0:15:37 well we know that women generally
0:15:40 are not participating in these
0:15:41 intellectual endeavors as are men
0:15:44 so nasty says we kind of we
0:15:47 we don't see it to be there and i'm
0:15:49 saying this because academically we have
0:15:50 to be honest in the sense that this is
0:15:52 what their historical case was but he's
0:15:55 right in the sense that if one is
0:15:57 prescriptive then the other one has to
0:15:58 be as well and actually that's the
0:16:00 position that we take meaning
0:16:02 allah god has lessened the burden on
0:16:05 women during menstruation in terms of
0:16:07 the religious practice and he's lessened
0:16:10 the burden on women intellectually
0:16:13 and we'll actually mention why this is
0:16:15 because when it comes down to it when
0:16:16 they asked what is our deficiency now
0:16:19 we're going to translate as reduction
0:16:22 meaning allah reduced their intellectual
0:16:25 responsibility okay
0:16:27 and they said why is this the case in
0:16:30 our intellect in our minds
0:16:32 and the prosody asks them isn't it the
0:16:35 case
0:16:36 that the testimony of two women is equal
0:16:39 to the testimony of one man and they
0:16:41 said yes he says that is the
0:16:43 reduction this is how we're translating
0:16:45 it now in her
0:16:47 um
0:16:49 intellect
0:16:50 meaning the supposed deficiency
0:16:54 what is this where is this coming from
0:16:56 he's actually mentioning a concept
0:16:57 that's found in a verse this is the
0:16:59 verse in the quran it's in surat
0:17:01 al-baqarah it's the longest verse it's
0:17:03 called ayah today in the verse of of
0:17:06 loans of taking a debt and it actually
0:17:08 specifies in extreme detail right
0:17:12 how to take a loan from another person
0:17:20 if you take a loan
0:17:22 right with a certain
0:17:24 time limit then you need to write it
0:17:26 down and how to write it down and
0:17:27 bringing in witnesses etc and then it
0:17:29 mentions the witnesses and it says you
0:17:31 should bring sheid
0:17:33 and it doesn't it does not use the word
0:17:35 shahid shahid is a general witness
0:17:37 shahid
0:17:38 is a witness who is experienced in that
0:17:43 area now this is a financial contract
0:17:46 i can't just bring any guy off the
0:17:48 street and say hey can you witness this
0:17:50 because he won't even know what's going
0:17:51 on unless he has done this before so
0:17:53 this indicates that even among men they
0:17:56 have to be qualified to witness the
0:17:59 contract
0:18:00 okay
0:18:02 if you cannot find two men then the ayah
0:18:04 says then find two women and one man
0:18:07 that if one of them goes astray the
0:18:09 other one can correct her now it does
0:18:10 not say forget
0:18:12 it doesn't say
0:18:24 does not go astray and does not forget
0:18:26 meaning
0:18:27 is different than this yan so in the a
0:18:29 lot of people understand or
0:18:30 misunderstand it that it's talking about
0:18:33 a woman's
0:18:34 capacity to forget but this isn't the
0:18:36 case women have their capacity for
0:18:38 memory is there's nothing to indicate
0:18:41 that there's any difference between a
0:18:42 man and a woman and a man in terms of
0:18:45 memory
0:18:46 which is
0:18:47 the reality unfortunately we do have
0:18:50 people who have that impression that for
0:18:51 some reason women are forgetful more
0:18:53 than men and they might use this even as
0:18:55 proof and this is not the case obviously
0:18:57 so here she makes an error why is she
0:18:59 making an error because maybe she's not
0:19:02 well acquainted with financial contracts
0:19:04 now fourteen hundred years ago generally
0:19:07 speaking women were not experts at all
0:19:10 in financial contracts
0:19:12 which is the wisdom behind this verse
0:19:15 okay
0:19:16 this is why the prophet salallahu
0:19:19 himself
0:19:20 when a woman came and testified to
0:19:23 something in her area like for example
0:19:24 breastfeeding we have in the hadith he
0:19:26 took her testimony even though she was
0:19:28 one woman
0:19:29 and he actually caused a divorce between
0:19:31 a couple because it turns out that she
0:19:32 breastfed both of them they were
0:19:34 siblings they were milk siblings and he
0:19:36 took the testimony of one woman
0:19:38 not to women as this ayah seems to
0:19:41 indicate which is why ibn
0:19:43 and ibn taymi rahimahumallah
0:19:45 they both say and this is these are
0:19:47 historical scholars 700 years ago they
0:19:50 both said that
0:19:52 this idea of two women
0:19:55 two women's testimony equaling the
0:19:57 testimony of one man
0:19:59 is only in the areas in which women are
0:20:04 not necessarily experienced
0:20:06 let me repeat this because they said
0:20:08 there are so many indications where in
0:20:10 the sunnah we find that the prophet took
0:20:12 one testament of one woman in fact
0:20:15 the testimony of one woman is enough to
0:20:17 narrate hadith now which is more
0:20:19 important a hadith or a financial
0:20:21 contract
0:20:23 if we're doing this whole series about
0:20:26 reading the hadith properly and what not
0:20:28 then obviously the hadith is the essence
0:20:29 of our religion
0:20:31 and if that's more important my religion
0:20:32 is more important than anything than a
0:20:34 financial contract especially
0:20:36 so
0:20:37 why would i require one woman for my
0:20:39 religion and two women for my finances
0:20:42 well generally speaking it's because
0:20:43 it's the area of expertise and i believe
0:20:45 that they made the right decision the
0:20:47 right judgment back then and this
0:20:48 continues until today
0:20:50 now
0:20:51 fast forward to this day and age if
0:20:54 there is a woman and she knows her way
0:20:56 around a financial contract
0:20:58 then that's great can we use that one
0:21:01 i'm gonna pause here and i'm gonna let
0:21:03 more experienced scholars actually
0:21:04 answer that question
0:21:07 right because some scholars have
0:21:08 actually proposed that that if we have
0:21:12 people who are experts in that area then
0:21:14 maybe this is something that we can
0:21:16 explore i'm going to pause simply
0:21:18 because there's an ayah that talks about
0:21:19 this explicitly et cetera et cetera and
0:21:21 that's maybe a discussion for another
0:21:22 day right
0:21:25 but in this case
0:21:26 it's definitely the case that if a woman
0:21:29 knows what she's talking about
0:21:31 then we take her testimony this is not a
0:21:33 problem and by the way we can apply the
0:21:35 same to a man so many instances in the
0:21:37 seerah in the sunnah right early on in
0:21:40 islam
0:21:41 the testimony of one man was rejected
0:21:43 because either his testimony was faulty
0:21:45 his memory was faulty he doesn't know
0:21:47 what he's talking about he's not
0:21:49 familiar with the situation so we don't
0:21:50 always take the testimony of one man
0:21:52 either so we have to be very clear with
0:21:54 this inshallah
0:21:56 so with this in mind
0:21:58 understanding the nuance that goes into
0:22:01 this will definitely help frame the
0:22:04 discussion in sha allah there are a few
0:22:07 points that remain that we will wrap up
0:22:09 inshallah in the next episode we will
0:22:12 see you all there inshallah