Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage: Towards Egalitarian Ethics and Laws

by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Jana Rumminger, Sarah Marsso

Overview

Many contemporary Muslim family laws rest on patriarchal concepts. The time for change is now.

The model of marriage constructed in classical Islamic jurisprudence rests on patriarchal ethics that privilege men. This worldview persists in gender norms and family laws in many Muslim contexts, despite reforms introduced over the past few decades.

In this volume, a diverse group of scholars explore how egalitarian marital relations can be supported from within Islamic tradition. Brought together by the Musawah movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, they examine ethics and laws related to marriage and gender relations from the perspective of the Qur’an, Sunna, Muslim legal tradition, historical practices and contemporary law reform processes. Collectively they conceptualize how Muslim marriages can be grounded in equality, mutual well-being and the core Qur’anic principles of ‘adl (justice) and ihsan (goodness and beauty).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861544479
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	12/13/2022
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	986,543
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Ziba Mir-Hosseini is Professorial Research Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, SOAS, University of London. A legal anthropologist, specialising in Islamic law, gender and development, she is a founding member of Musawah Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Her previous publications include Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Islam and Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition.

Mulki Al-Sharmani is Academy of Finland research fellow and lecturer, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, and research coordinator of the Musawah knowledge-building initiative to rethink the notion of male authority in Muslim family laws. Her research interests include Muslim family laws, Islamic feminism, gender, migration and transnationalism. She is the editor of Feminist Activism: Women’s Rights and Legal Reform (ZED Books, forthcoming 2014), and her Egyptian Muslim Family Laws: Legal Reforms and Gender Justice is under consideration for publication.

Jana Rumminger currently lives in Singapore and works with Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. Her focus is on issues related to reform of Muslim family laws and implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). After graduating from Northeastern University School of Law, Jana spent a year as a Luce Scholar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she worked on advocacy and law reform at a local NGO, Women’s Aid Organization. She then served as programme officer with International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, an international NGO that works for the realization of women’s human rights through the lens of CEDAW and other international human rights instruments. She graduated from Princeton University in 1997 and earned an MS in Law, Policy and Society concurrently with her law degree at Northeastern.

Table of Contents

Foreword Zainah Anwar vii

Acknowledgements xi

Note on Translation and Transliteration xv

Introduction: Towards Marriage as a Partnership of Equals Ziba Mir-Hosseini Mulki Al-Sharmani Jana Rumminger Sarah Marsso 1

The Qur'an

Qur'anic Ethics of Marriage Omaima Abou-Bakr Asma Lamrabet Mulki Al-Sharmani 21

Reading the Qur'an Through Women's Experiences Nur Rofiah 57

ihsan: A Mandate for Beauty and Goodness in Family Relations Amira Abou-Taleb 85

Lessons from the Prophet

Reclaiming Khadija and Muhammad's Marriage as an Islamic Paradigm: Towards a New History of the Muslim Present Shadaab Rahemtulla Sara Ababneh 121

'Your Wife Enjoys Rights Over You' or Does She? Marriage in the Hadith Yasmin Amin 145

Qira'a Mubadala: Reciprocal Reading of Hadith on Marital Relationships Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir 181

Islamic Legal Theory and Ethics

Rethinking Muslim Marriage Rulings Through Structural Ijtibad Mohsen Kadivar 213

Reform of Usul al-Fiqh and Marriage: A Spiritually Integrative Approach Nevin Reda 232

Ethics and Gender Equality in Islam: A Constructivist Approach Mariam Al-Attar 272

Law and Practice

Historicrzing Muslim Marriage Practices in Pre-Modern Islamic Egypt Hoda El Saadi 299

Muslim Family Laws: Trajectories of Reform Lynn Welchman Zahia Jouirou Marwa Sharafeldin 321

Justice, Refinement and Beauty: Reflections on Marriage and Spirituality Sa'diyya Shaikh 363

About the Contributors 377

Index 386

Editorial Reviews

10/24/2022

These thoughtful essays compiled by Islam studies scholars Mir-Hosseini (Journeys Toward Gender Equality in Islam), Al-Sharmani (Gender Justice and Legal Reform in Egypt), Rumminger, and Marsso offer a feminist take on Muslim marriage. Dispatches on the Quran, Mohammad’s views, and Muslim legal theory contend that many modern understandings of Islamic law do not reflect the lived realities of contemporary Muslims, especially Muslim women. The contributions challenge patriarchal discourse by outlining perspectives on Muslim marriage rooted in “equality, beauty, and goodness,” as when Shadaab Rahemtulla and Sara Ababneh suggest in “Reclaiming Khadīja and Muhammad’s Marriage as an Islamic Paradigm” that Mohammad was the weaker partner in his marriage to Khadīja, illustrating that husbands need not dominate their wives. The diversity of the selections lead to sometimes contradictory recommendations that are nonetheless thought-provoking; for example, Yasmin Amin recommends rejecting hadith that place unfair responsibilities on women, though elsewhere, Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir accepts the validity of such hadith but counters that they must be interpreted in a way that affirms the equality of men and women. The contributions are consistently insightful and stimulating, adding up to a provocative vision of what a more progressive approach to Muslim marriage might look like. This will leave readers with plenty to ponder. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

‘This exciting collection of essays by an impressive array of experts takes Musawah’s mission from the critique of injustice and patriarchy in Muslim marriages and family laws to the building of a vision that yearns and works for divinely inspired justice and beauty in Muslim families and communities. The book is bold, radical, and groundbreaking. It will be an indispensable tool for Muslim activists the world over.’

Juliane Hammer

‘Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage addresses the ethical emptiness and lack of poetic sensibility in the patriarchal discourse on women’s rights... The findings of the book, that Muslim marriage laws and normativity are not in line with contemporary understandings of justice, promise a hermeneutic shift towards egalitarian legislation and pluralist normativity.’

Muhammad Khalid Masud

‘Teeming with provocative and restorative ideas, this book reframes the practice of marriage as it is lived in all its complexities. Drawing on tradition and experience, marriage now becomes a wholesome way of self-fulfillment as expressed by these courageous authors. It is a very timely intervention and much needed. A must-read.’

Ebrahim Moosa