Men and women are equal in Islam by default, in terms of spirituality, morality, and value. They are only different in so far as there are natural differences between genders, and even these natural differences, while generally true, always have exceptions. One gender is not inherently ‘superior’ or ‘better’ or ‘smarter’ than another. Rather, both genders complement each other for their respective strengths and weaknesses. It is clear that men and women are not the same and there can never be equality, especially the type of equality cited in todays time. There are cases where the man is given preference to the woman and there are cases where the women is given preference to the man. Allah clearly tells us in Surah Aal Imran, "Indeed, the male is not like the female.” Anyone disputing this would exit the fold of Islam. Islam is a religion of equity, not equality.
Allah said:
إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالصَّادِقَاتِ وَالصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّابِرَاتِ وَالْخَاشِعِينَ وَالْخَاشِعَاتِ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقَاتِ وَالصَّائِمِينَ وَالصَّائِمَاتِ وَالْحَافِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَالْحَافِظَاتِ وَالذَّاكِرِينَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا وَالذَّاكِرَاتِ أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
Verily, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the chaste men and the chaste women, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so, for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward. [Surat al-Ahzab 33:35]
Allah said:
وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا
Allah created you from dust, then from a drop, then He made you into mates. [Surat al-Fatir 35:11]
سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْأَزْوَاجَ كُلَّهَا مِمَّا تُنبِتُ الْأَرْضُ وَمِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَمِمَّا لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
Glory to He who created all pairs, from what the earth grows and from themselves and from that which they do not know. [Surat Ya Sin 36:36] They are called ‘pairs’ because they are in need of each other; one could not exist without the other. It would be nonsensical to say that positive electric charges are ‘better’ than negative electric charges while both are needed to produce electricity. Similarly, it is nonsensical to say men are ‘better’ than women while they both require each other.
Allah said:
وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ
The believing men and women are allies of one another. [Surat al-Tawbah 9:71] For this reason, men and woman are described as interrelated counterparts, a manifestation of the balanced duality that permeates throughout the creation.
Our mother Aishah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Verily, women are the counterparts of men." [Musnad Ahmad, 25663] That is, men are partners with women and their equals in jurisprudence by default, except in the few cases where they are different.
When Allah addresses people with the male grammatical form, it is always a general address to both men and women unless there is an indication otherwise. Imam Al-Khattabi comments on this tradition, saying, "His saying that women are counterparts of men means their equals and their likeness in creation and nature, as if they split off from men. In jurisprudence, it is affirmation of the analogy and equivalence in rulings, equal by equal. Such that if the address is conveyed in the male grammatical form, it is also addressed to women, except for specific topics whose specification is established by evidence." [Ma’ālim al-Sunan]
All of this amounts to the ontological equality of men and women as the basis (al-asl) and their natural differences as branches (al-furu’).
At times, narrations are used to inherently degrade women. One such misused narration is that of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri who reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "O gathering of women! Give in charity, for I have seen you as a majority of people in Hellfire." They said, “Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet said, "You curse others often and you are ungrateful for your livelihood. I have not seen anyone with reductions in mind and religion more capable of removing reason from a resolute man than you." They said, “What are our reductions in mind?” The Prophet said, "Is not the testimony of a woman like half of a man?" They said, “Of course.” The Prophet said, "That is the reduction in your mind. Is it not that when you menstruate you do not pray, nor fast?" They said, “Of course.” The Prophet said, "That is the reduction in your religion." [Bukhari ,298]
Firstly, that the Prophet ﷺ saw a majority of women in the Hellfire is not indicative of their inherent propensity towards evil. Other traditions forbid men and women from boasting to each other over this claim, as if one gender were better than another. Muhammad ibn Sireen reported: People were boasting to each other, whether men or women would be a majority in Paradise. Abu Hurairah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, "Verily, the first group to enter Jannah will have faces as bright as the full moon at night. The next group will have faces as bright as shining stars in the sky. Every man will have two wives and the marrow of their shanks would glimmer beneath their skin and there will be no one in Jannah without a wife." [Muslim] Every man will have ‘two wives’ in Jannah, who will not experience worldly jealousy as they would in this life. This has been understood by some scholars to indicate that women are the majority of humankind.
Al-Qadi ‘Iyad comments on this tradition, saying, "This tradition demonstrates that women are the majority of the people of Jannah, and in another tradition that they are a majority of the people of Hellfire. What can be deduced from them together is that women are the majority of the children of Adam." [Sharḥ al-Nawawi] A majority of women in Hellfire does not mean they are uniquely evil compared to men, because there are more women than men overall. This interpretation is supported by other traditions speaking about periods of time in the future, which are signs before the Day of Judgment, when women will greatly outnumber men.
Anas ibn Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "There will be an abundance of women and scarcity of men such that fifty women will be maintained by a single man." [Bukhari]
And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said, "A man will be seen followed by forty women seeking refuge with him due to the scarcity of men and abundance of women." [Bukhari]
Testimony and Hadith
In general, the testimony of women is always equal to that of men except for certain cases of Muamalat. If they were not, then how would we have thousands of ahadith that have been narrated, collected, and transmitted by women? How would we be taking the eye-witness reports of the wives of the Messenger of Allah about his personal life and dealings? Narrations concerning religious issues are more important than the testimony made in a trial. Our mother Aishah Siddiqa bint As-Siddiq was the greatest scholar and of the most proficient narrators in Islam.
Imam Masruq reported: He was asked, “Was Aishah knowledgeable of the religious obligations?” Masruq said, "By the one in whose hand is my soul, I saw the learned elders among the companions of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, ask her about the religious obligations." [Muṣannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, 30387]
Imam al-Shawkani writes, "If you say that statement from Umar contains a flaw in Fatimah’s narration of his statement because we do not know whether a woman remembers or forgets, I say this itself is flawed and false by the absolute consensus of the Muslims. It has not been reported from any scholar that he rejected the report of a woman on the basis of her being a woman. How many prophetic traditions has the Ummah received from a single woman among the companions?" [Nayl al-Awtar]
Imam al-Dhahabi writes, "I do not know among women narrators anyone accused of lying, nor anyone abandoned." [Meezan al-I’tidal]
The Testimony of Women
We see in Surah An-Nur that a lone woman’s testimony in the issue of Li‘an is equal to that of a man and would even over-ride it. We see in Surah An-Nisa that when four reliable witnesses are called to testify for the crime of impropriety, there is no differentiation or separate provision for female witnesses. This again vindicates her capabilities and contradicts what the critics allege. If we look at other instances in the Qur'an that talk about witness testimony, no distinction is made with regard to gender: 5:107; 4:16; 65:3; 4:136; 5:9; 70:34; 24:5; 24:7-9; 4:7 etc.
Imam Ar-Razi stated, "The jurists have outlined ten conditions for accepting testimony: the witness must be free, of legal age, Muslim, just, knowledgeable about the matter they are testifying to, not using the testimony for personal gain, not using it to harm others, not known for frequent errors, not known for lacking good character, and not harboring enmity towards the party they are testifying against" [Al-Tafsir Al-Kabir 7/95]. Based on these conditions, gender is not a determining factor in accepting testimony.
So why is this the case? Firstly, we submit to it because Allah Legislated it.
Secondly, heed the advice of our Sheikh Dr Ibrahim Nuhu حفظه الله, "Nusus (texts) are meant to be kept in their exact form without any modification, even if your aql (intellect) can't make sense of it. We don't try to twist them to mean something other than the understanding of the sahaba among whom it was revealed and practiced. All these ahadith regarding women etc are not meant for disrespect. No Wallahi! Rather, it is about allocation of job roles and obligations. Say Allah Knows Best and move on when you don't know about anything instead of giving it your own meaning." [Sharh Bulugh al-Maram]
This ruling is found in the Ayah of Debt (282) in Surah al-Baqarah. Critics often confuse the term shahadah (testimony) and Ishhad (affidavit). This ayah is dealing with Ishhad (affidavit). With shahadah (testimony), the judge needs confirmation from a witness and this does not depend on sex, but only on the judge’s assurance of the truthfulness of the testimony, regardless of sex and the number of witnesses. Once the judge is assured of the validity of the evidence, he approves the testimony of two men, two women, a man and a woman, a man and two women, a woman and two men, or a single man or a single woman. The sex of the witnesses, according to which the judge passes his ruling, has no effect on his decision.
The ayah refers to the Ishhad (Affidavit) which means that the debtor uses this to confirm his debt. It does not refer to the type of testimony in which the judge rules between litigants.
To summarise: A witness is present during the writing of a contract. Someone giving testimony goes before a judge in the case of a dispute between the two parties involved in an agreement. The ayah is about women witnessing a contract and not testifying before a judge. A woman’s testimony before a judge is equal to the worth of a man’s. This ayah only references witnessing a contract, not someone’s testimony before a judge.
Commenting on this ayah, Ibn al-Qayyim said, "There is no doubt that the reason for a plurality (of women in the Qur'anic ayah) is (only) in recording testimony. However, when a woman is intelligent and remembers and is trustworthy in her religion, then the purpose (of testimony) is attained through her statement just as it is in her transmissions (in) religious (contexts)." [Iʿlām al-Muwaqqaʿīn]
Imam Ibn al-Qayyim recorded that Mu’awiyah passed a judgment concerning housing based on the sole testimony of Umm Salamah, without requiring any corroboration. [Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah]
Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said, "The woman is equal to the man in truthfulness, honesty, and piety; otherwise, if it is feared that she will forget or misremember, she is strengthened with another like herself. That makes them stronger than a single man or the likes of him. There is no question that the benefit of the doubt given to the testimony of Umm Darda and Umm ‘Atiyyah is stronger than the benefit of the doubt given to a single man without them or the likes of them." [Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah] The increased possibility of error, due to customary gender roles in society, necessitated the addition of another woman’s testimony. But if there is no fear of error, the testimony of men and women return to the default position of equality, because the intention of the rule is to achieve fairness between business partners and truthful witness, not to devalue women’s intelligence.
Sheikhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said, "Whatever there is among the testimonies of women, in which there is no fear of habitual error, they are not considered as half of a man." [Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyah]
Ibn al-Qayyim added, "Imam Ahmad said regarding a man who writes his will and none are present except women: I permit the testimony of women. Thus, this shows that he affirmed the will by the testimony of individual women even if no men were present." [Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyah]
Imam Ibn Rushd writes, "As for the testimony of individual women, meaning women without men, it is accepted by the majority in personal rights which are usually not the purview of men, such as pregnancy, consummation, and ailments affecting women." [Bidayat al-Mujtahid] In this regard, the classical rules were largely based upon the customary gender roles of the time and were not indicative of an universal deficiency in women’s intelligence, testimony, or truthfulness.
We have instances where the Leader of the Muslim Ummah himself was corrected by a woman in public and he accepted her correction gracefully. Abdur Rahman As-Salami reported: Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "Do not be excessive in the dowry of women." A woman said, “It is no so, O Umar, for Allah said: And you gave one of them a great amount,” (4:20). Umar said, "Indeed, a woman has challenged Umar and she has defeated him." [Muṣannaf ‘Abd al-Razzāq] In another narration, Umar said, "The woman is right and the man is wrong." [al-Akhbār al-Muwaffaqiyat]
Why Are 2 Men Called as Witnesses?
Why not just one? The answer is simple: two witnesses make for better security of the integrity of the transaction than one. Two witnesses better protect against:
- Inadvertent error, i.e.: memory problems
- Deliberate error, i.e.: due to being threatened or coerced
The first point is obvious and requires no explanation. Two men would be able to check their memories against each other. In an Islamic society, men and women would not socially mingle. As such, two individuals, a man and a woman, would not have the same opportunity as two men or two women, to refresh each other’s memories, during the course of ordinary interaction, as to the financial transaction they were called to witness, perhaps many years earlier. Thus, when a woman must be called to give testimony, a second woman should be called so as to afford her the opportunity that two men would have otherwise had.
Based on this, some scholars opined that if we look at the ayah, we find that the role of the second woman is to ‘remind’ the first woman. The second woman is a mere guarantor of the first testimony, and plays an advisory role to ensure accuracy. It may have intended to redress the balance between men, who were well-versed in matters of finance and court, and women, who had little experience in such matters. They are given additional support; should they require it, to make up for this inequity. It may also be of particular significance that it is a second woman, and not a man, that is appointed to support the testimony of the first.
Elizabeth Loftus writes in her seminal paper on the subject of gender differences in memory titled, 'Who Remembers What? Gender Differences in Memory' says, "The results were clear-cut. Males were more accurate and less suggestible about the male-oriented items while females were more accurate and less suggestible about the female-oriented items. This finding provided clear support for the hypothesis that females and males tend to be accurate on different types of items, perhaps indicating their differential interest in particular items and corresponding differential amounts of attention paid to those items."
Some scholars opined that this ruling protected women from being pressured or coerced by wealthy male relatives to testify in their favor, and provided a source of support and reinforcement so that a woman’s testimony would not make her a target of either party in a financial dispute. Being a vulnerable group, they are more likely to be targeted for threats, and also more likely to succumb to threats, and thus give false testimony. Therefore, Islam makes provision for this by requiring multiple witnesses, one of whom is, in all circumstances, a man, and why two men, rather than two women, are mentioned in the verse to be used preferably as witnesses, since it is expected that it may be harder to threaten two men than it would be two women, when it comes to testifying to financial contracts.
The Question of Intellectual Deficiency
Some scholars have indeed opined that this distinction was because of women undergoing menstrual cycles, pregnancies, and/or other biological reasons because of which Shariah added a support of another woman to strengthen her. They also touched on a woman being intellectually weaker than a man. They would largely base their understanding on the hadith where Abu Sa’id al-Khudri reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "O gathering of women! Give in charity, for I have seen you as a majority of people in Hellfire." They said, “Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet said, "You curse others often and you are ungrateful for your livelihood. I have not seen anyone with reductions in mind and religion more capable of removing reason from a resolute man than you." They said, “What are our reductions in mind?” The Prophet said, "Is not the testimony of a woman like half of a man?" They said, “Of course.” The Prophet said, "That is the reduction in your mind. Is it not that when you menstruate you do not pray, nor fast?" They said, “Of course.” The Prophet said, "That is the reduction in your religion." [Bukhari ,298]
It is quite clear from the wordings of the hadith itself that the ‘reduction’ (nuqsan) in mind and religion is related to a woman’s legal obligations. It is not an ontological statement that women are always less intelligent or religious than men. As applied to religion, women are not obligated to pray or fast while menstruating or enduring post-natal bleeding. As applied to mind, women are not obligated to perform some functions such as testifying before a judge in a criminal case. Some authors have mistranslated nuqsan by using derogatory terms like ‘deficient in intelligence,’ or ‘lacking common sense.’ This rendition is inappropriate because the word in this context means a ‘reduction,’ as it is used in the Quran:
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّا نَأْتِي الْأَرْضَ نَنقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا
Have they not seen that We set upon the land, reducing it from its borders? [Surat al-R’ad 13:41]
أَفَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَنَّا نَأْتِي الْأَرْضَ نَنقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا
Then do they not see that We set upon the land, reducing it from its borders? [Surat al-Anbiyah, 21:44]
The reduction for women is a manifestation of Islam’s leniency towards women, by not burdening them with the same obligations as men while they have their own particular duties and concerns. In the case of testimony, women in early Islam did not customarily involve themselves in business contracts, debts, and other matters. They were usually doing other important work, caring for their children and elderly parents, and so on. As a result, the ayah was revealed to lessen a woman’s obligation to testify in such matters.
Allah said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا تَدَايَنتُم بِدَيْنٍ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ وَلْيَكْتُب بَّيْنَكُمْ كَاتِبٌ بِالْعَدْلِ … وَاسْتَشْهِدُوا شَهِيدَيْنِ مِن رِّجَالِكُمْ فَإِن لَّمْ يَكُونَا رَجُلَيْنِ فَرَجُلٌ وَامْرَأَتَانِ مِمَّن تَرْضَوْنَ مِنَ الشُّهَدَاءِ أَن تَضِلَّ إِحْدَاهُمَا فَتُذَكِّرَ إِحْدَاهُمَا الْأُخْرَىٰ
O you who believe, when you contract a debt for a specified term, write it down, and let a scribe write it between you in justice… and bring two witnesses from among your men. If there are not two men available, then a man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses, so that if one of the women errs, then the other can remind her. [Surat al-Baqarah, 2:282]
The purpose of this rule was a practical matter to achieve justice in business by having two women support each other’s memories in matters outside of their regular duties. It is not a universal rule that women are half as intelligent as men or that their testimony is always half of a man. Those who actually say that a woman is intellectually inferior to a woman, I wonder how they would stand in front of our mother Aishah or Um Salamah and many other such women who were clearly far more intelligent and intellectually superior than the men around them.
In a clear case of immense wisdom and intelligence, we see that after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was concluded, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to his companions:, "Get up and offer your sacrifices, then shave your hair. None of them stood up, and the Prophet repeated his order three times. When none of them stood up, the Prophet left them and went to Umm Salamah, and he told her about their attitude. Umm Salamah said, "O Prophet of Allah, would you like your order to be carried out? Go out and do not speak to them until you have offered your own sacrifice and have called the barber to shave your head." [Bukhari, 2731] The Prophet followed the advice of his wife and made his preparations to end the pilgrimage. The companions immediately followed his lead. In this example, it was his wife whose exceptional intelligence provided him with guidance and resolution. Intelligence is not simply a linear matter of more or less. There are varieties of intelligence, such as emotional and personal intelligence, which women can excel at and benefit men with their advice.
Imam Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani writes, "It is permissible to consult a meritorious woman, and the merit of Umm Salamah and her abundant intelligence were such that Imam al-Haramayn said: We do not know of a woman expressing her opinion and being correct as much as Umm Salamah." [Fath al-Bari]
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Special thanks to Ustadh Abu Amina Elias as I majorly picked up most of the quotes whole-sale from his works because of a tightness of time.
