Equality is emphasised in the Qur’an repeatedly through referencing the origin and nature of human creation. The Qur’an describes humans as biologically different, but ontologically and ethically-morally the same as both women and men originate from a single Self. They thus have been given the same natures. The Qur’an instructs believers to
Reverence
Your [Rabb],
Who created you
From a single nafs [“Person”]
Created, of like nature,
[its] zawāj [mate] and from them twain
Scattered (like seeds)
Countless men and women; —
Reverence God, through Whom
Ye demand your mutual (rights).The Qur’an (4:1; in Ali, 178)
Nafs (feminine plural) can be said to refer to Self, or Person, not soul, as it was interpreted by early Muslim scholars, who, under Greek influences, invented a typology of spirit, soul, and body, in which the spirit occupied the highest place and was associated with man, and the soul occupied a lower rank and was associated with woman. This typology can and has been used to read sexual hierarchy and inequality into ayats. However, the Qur’an itself does not promote mind-body or body-soul dualisms, nor does it promote sexual differentiation. Words like nafs and zawaj speak about the essential similarity of men and women and does not treat the male as normative.
Throughout the Qur’an, in different contexts, this same image of men and women coming from a single Self is repeated and emphasised.
– “It is [God] Who hath Produced you From a single person” (6:98; in Ali, 317)
– “It is [God] Who created You from a single person, And made [its] mate of like nature, in order That he might dwell with her (In love)” (7:189; in Ali, 398)
– “God has made for you Mates (and Companions) of your own nature” (16:72; in Ali, 675)
– “And among [God’s] Signs Is this; that [God] created for You mates from among Yourselves, that ye may Dwell in tranquility with them” (30:21′ in Ali, 1056)
– “We created You from a single (pair) Of a male and a female, And madeyou into Nations and tribes, that Ye may know one another” (49:13; in Ali,1047)
– of [ihsān] [God] made Two sexes, male and female” (75:39; in Ali, 1653)
– “It is [God] Who created You from a single person, And made [its] mate of like nature, in order That he might dwell with her (In love)” (7:189; in Ali, 398)
– “God has made for you Mates (and Companions) of your own nature” (16:72; in Ali, 675)
– “And among [God’s] Signs Is this; that [God] created for You mates from among Yourselves, that ye may Dwell in tranquility with them” (30:21′ in Ali, 1056)
– “We created You from a single (pair) Of a male and a female, And madeyou into Nations and tribes, that Ye may know one another” (49:13; in Ali,1047)
– of [ihsān] [God] made Two sexes, male and female” (75:39; in Ali, 1653)
The reason given from the Qur’an for the ontological equality and similarity of the two sexes is that they were meant to coexist within a framework of mutual love and recognition. There is no hierarchy. No superiority accorded to one sex over the other. These ayats (lines), by according equal essential substance to both sexes, are clear in establishing that men and women are equal. So why does reality point to an unequal treatment of women? Something which has also been seemingly justified through the religion?
The Qur’an has no ayats that claim that men and women were created from different substances, or that they have opposing attributes, or that woman was created from man or that woman was created after man — claims that have been used to theologically justify male superiority.
Although many muslims read Adam’s creation as the principle of male superiority, the term Adam is a Hebrew and not Arabic word that means ‘ of the soil (from ‘adamah’). The term Adam functions generally as a collective noun referring to the human species rather than the male human being. In the Qur’an, “the term ‘Adam’ refers, in 21 cases out of 25, to humanity. It is both a universal and specific term and its generic, universal terms is what the Qur’an uses to define human creation.
There is also the famed Fall from heaven that has also been used to theologically justify the inferiority of women, since Eve (Hawa) caused the ejection of humanity from Paradise. However, Islam does not propagate the idea of The Fall as something that tears the divinity from the human experience, instead, the expulsion of the pair from Paradise opens up the possibility for humanity to receive immeasurably God’s Mercy and acquire moral salvation through our own behaviour and morality (we would not have truly work to deserve Paradise if we were already there!).
Even though the Qur’an expulsion narrative does not suggest the loss of Divine Grace or the woman’s role in bringing it about, Muslim exegetes have borrowed wholesale from biblical accounts to assert Eve (Hawa)’s role in The Fall and her creation from Adam’s rib. There is also the popular belief that menstruation and childbirth are punishments for Eve (Hawa)’s sin. Such beliefs thus serve to justify women’s sinful, weak, inferior natures even though they aren’t actually Qur’anic or Islamic. And even if one were to borrow the biblical accounts, these too were distorted. The Old Testament does not preach the idea of original sin or of the sexual fall. The early Hebrews emphasized that all humans were created in God’s image. The claim that Eve(Hawa) was created from Adam’s rib was a later distortion.
Humans are experts in binary-making, and binaries are often sites of power contestations. In the gender binary of male and female, one sex is accorded more power and dignity than the other. The Qur’an’s account of human creation as originating from a single Self, however, does not establish a binary between the two sexes. Additionally, coming from a single self ensures that there is literally and symbolically no “Other”. Instead they are both part of a co-existing single reality. The many beliefs that aim to theologically legitimise the inferiority of women in fact have no real basis in the Qur’an.
[this post is a summary of the chapter “The Qur’an and Equality: Ontology of a Single Self from Asma Barlas’ “Believing Women” in Islam]
