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Was Imam ‘Ali a Misogynist?

Was Imam ‘Ali a Misogynist? The Portrayal of Women in Nahj al-Balaghah and Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays

Author(s): Amina Inloes

www.alhassanain.org/english

The authenticity of the information in Nahjul Balagha is rarely challenged. The present book aims to challenge the authenticity of some of the passages present in Nahjul Balagha regarding women through three means: a traditional approach, textual criticism and comparing texts regarding the treatment of women. There is a belief that some material may have been attributed to Imam Ali (as) posthumously, thus painting him as a misogynist.

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Was Imam ‘Ali a Misogynist? The Portrayal of Women in Nahj al-Balaghah and Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays Amina Inloes The Islamic College, London, UK a.inloes@islamic-college.ac.uk

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This version is published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

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Table of Contents

Abstract 7

Introduction 8

Notes 9

A Brief History of Nahj al-Balaghah 10

Notes 11

Women are Deficient in Intellect 12

The Aristotelian connection 17

Aristotle, Nahj al-Balaghah, and contemporary Shi’i ideologies of gender 18

Textual analysis continued: menstruation and evil 20

Should the sermon on women’s ‘deficiencies’ really be looked at as three separate passages? 21

Notes 22

Women and Beasts 27

Notes 28

Women in Nahj al-Balaghah: Women’s Seclusion 29

Notes 30

The Portrayal of Women in Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays 32

A brief introduction to Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays 32

Notes 36

Conclusion 38

Abstract

One of the most controversial Shi’i texts today is a sermon in Nahj al-Balaghah (an early eleventh century collection of materials attributed to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib) describing women as deficient in faith and intellect. This is only one of several passages in Nahj al-Balaghah which come across as unfavourable to women.

While, in the Shi’i tradition, the authenticity of materials in Nahj al-Balaghah is rarely challenged, this paper challenges the authenticity of these passages about women through three means: (a) a traditional approach based on alternative sources and chains of narration; (b) textual criticism, including the suggestion that the notion of women being ‘deficient’ was actually taken from Aristotle, not Imam ‘Ali; and (c) comparing the treatment of women in Nahj al-Balaghah with the treatment of women in Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays, the earliest extant Shi’i text. This will be done under the premise that if the portrayals significantly conflict, the material in Nahj al-Balaghah may reflect a later set of cultural-religious norms and have been attributed to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib posthumously.

Additionally, it argues against the common view that some of these passages were addressed specifically to ‘A’ishah (as opposed to all women) due to her participation in the Battle of the Camel by a deeper examination of the alternative textual sources. It also highlights the ethical problems involved in attacking women through their gender - which is often done in Shi’i historical narrative with respect to ‘A’ishah - and considers the persistence of these ideas about the nature of women in contemporary Shi’i ideologies of gender.

Keywords: Shi’ism; ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib; Nahj al-Balaghah; Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays; women; hadith

Introduction

Introduction 1

Anyway, these words exist in Nahj al-Balaghah, and solutions must be sought for them […]. If we challenge their authenticity, then our entire [corpus of] sacred sources will come into question. If we say they’re pseudo-universal propositions [addressed only to one woman], then not only women but men and many other rulings based on them will be affected. If we accept them as they are, then we must resolve the consequences of their incongruity with our present society. What we can say is that there’s a kind of absolute neglect regarding such ahadith. They aren’t addressed seriously, so no serious solutions are found for them.2 - A contemporary Iranian thinker on the narrations about women in Nahj al-Balaghah ‘Women are deficient in intellect’ is one of the most controversial Shi’i narrations today.

This and other unfavourable narrations about women attributed to Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib in Nahj al-Balaghah are particularly troubling in the Shi’i tradition since the Shi’i tradition treats Imam ‘Ali as inerrant and as a paragon of justice and humanity. He is also put forward as a model of an ideal husband. These passages are also troubling since he was married to the Prophet’s daughter, who is lauded in the Shi’i tradition as a perfect and inerrant woman; this led Annemarie Schimmel to remark that he ‘ought to have had a more positive attitude’ towards women.3

It goes without saying that the Qur’an includes both men and women in its discussions of humanity, and does not make negative generalizations about women; additionally, these narrations are difficult to accept today due to the mass participation of women in intellectual endeavours. Thus, these narrations seem to contradict both the received text as well as everyday experience. Nevertheless, there is strong resistance to questioning the authenticity of this material due to the sanctity surrounding Nahj al-Balaghah.

I will approach the - in Shi’i circles - often taboo question of the authenticity of this material in three ways. First, through a detailed analysis of the alternative textual sources for these passages and their chains of narration; this is because alternative sources are often cited as supporting evidence for the authenticity of material in Nahj al-Balaghah; however, an in-depth look at the alternative sources not only shows that they do not substantiate the authenticity of these sermons, but also introduces new problems. While doing so, I will also explore the ‘middle ground’ solution that the sermon on women’s ‘deficiencies’ was addressed solely to ‘A’ishah (rather than to all women) due to her participation in the Battle of the Camel, and whether or not that is actually substantiated by the alternative sources. I will also explore the ethical problem which arises when attacking a female figure through her femininity. Third, I will engage in textual critique, and consider the possibility that the concept of the ‘deficiency’ of women actually dates back to antiquity - specifically, Aristotle.

Lastly, I will offer a comparative approach and explore how ideas on the nature and role of women in Nahj al-Balaghah compare with those in Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays, the oldest extant Shi‘i text which is centred on Imam ‘Ali; my theory is that if the portrayals conflict, then perhaps the later material (i.e. Nahj al-Balaghah) which conforms to post-Prophetic cultural norms (i.e. the social values of the classical ‘Abbasid Empire) could have been attributed to Imam ‘Ali posthumously. Since I have never seen an analysis of gender in Kitab Sulaym, I suspect this approach may be unique. The use of both classical and contemporary methods is intended to offer a multi-dimensional and comprehensive insight into the question of the authenticity of these passages.

Notes

1. I would like to thank M. J. Elmi, Ian Netton, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Ismail, Shaikh Yahya Seymour, Alexander Khaleeli, Amir Dastmalchian, and the anonymous reviewers for reading over this article and offering genuinely constructive feedback. Additionally, I would like to thank Shaikh Qassim al-Asady for assisting with the translation of an obscure word, and, in years past, Sayyid Muhammad al-Musawi and Shaikh M. S. Bahmanpour for thoughtful discussions on this subject. I also would like to thank Edward Skidelsky and Gabriele Galluzzo of the University of Exeter for taking the time to correspond regarding Aristotle’s views about women. (Of course, I am not at all implying that any of the above agree with everything that is written here, only that they had useful insights.) This article is based on a chapter from my PhD thesis ‘Negotiating ShÐ’Ð Identity and Orthodoxy through Canonizing Ideologies about Women in Twelver ShÐ’Ð AḥÁdÐth on Pre-Islamic Sacred History in the Qur’Án’, submitted to the University of Exeter in 2015.

2. The contemporary Iranian thinker, Abdolkarim Soroush, on the narrations about women in Nahj al-Balaghah. Abdolkarim Soroush, in Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1999), 226. (She is transcribing from an audio recording.) Transliteration adjusted for consistency with this article. See also Abdolkarim Soroush, Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush, ed. Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 181, 223.

3. Annemarie Schimmel, My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam (New York: Continuum International, 2003), 54. She does, however, admit to the possibility that such statements are inauthentic (i.e. they were not actually said by ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib).

A Brief History of Nahj al-Balaghah

Nahj al-Balaghah (compiled 1009-1010 ce/400 ah - that is, slightly after al-Kafi and Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih, two of the most prominent Shi‘i books of hadith) consists of sermons, letters, and sayings attributed to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, and was compiled by al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015 ce), a prominent Shi’i scholar. This was roughly three centuries after ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661 ce), and well after the ‘orthodox’ norms of thought regarding women were established in classical Islamic thought.

His aim was not to present a book of hadith, history, or jurisprudence, but rather to demonstrate the literary style and eloquence of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib. Because of this, he did not include chains of narration or indicate where he took his material from. As a result, a discussion of the authenticity of Nahj al-Balaghah is challenging.

The idea that al-Sharif al-Radi himself wrote it has been dismissed due to the presence of portions of Nahj al-Balaghah in other sources, and an identifiably different writing style in his own works. However, because he did not include chains of narration - traditionally, the first means of authenticating a hadith - the passages in Nahj al-Balaghah are not admissible within Shi’i scholarship as a source for deriving jurisprudence, although, in practice, they figure strongly in the Shi’i worldview.

However, within the Shi’i tradition, the work has gained such prominence that ‘Allamah Tabataba’i, the famous twentieth-century exegete, said, ‘For us, whoever wrote Nahj al-Balaghah is ‘Ali, even if he lived a century ago’. This was in response to the assertion that Western scholars claim that the material in Nahj al-Balaghah does not actually trace back to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib. Therefore, in addition to demonstrating a genuine reverence for the book, this response may have been politicized; such ideological concerns often make it difficult to raise genuine questions - particularly about gender or the authenticity of texts - in contemporary Shi’i (and Sunni) discourse.

Arguing for the authenticity of Nahj al-Balaghah also has a polemical dimension, since Sunni scholars argue against its authenticity due to its severe criticisms of the first three caliphates and Mu’awiyah. Reza Shah-Kazemi notes that, ‘over the centuries, Shi’i scholars have assiduously rebutted the charges against the authenticity of Nahj’, although he cites the more tempered opinion that ‘a large portion’ of Nahj al-Balaghah can be reliably traced to Imam ‘Ali rather than every single word.1 (Shah-Kazemi, incidentally, does not delve into the sermons on women, even though his book explores justice and the intellect in Nahj al-Balaghah, and so it would have been an ideal opportunity to explore whether these perceptions of justice and intellect extend to women.)

However, Hossein Modarressi observes that, late in the third century hijri, 400 sermons were ascribed to Imam ‘Ali; while, half a century later, that number had grown to 480.2 Today, openly questioning the authenticity of Nahj al-Balaghah can lead to hostility, although it is sometimes done privately.3 A reasonable approach to the authenticity of the contents of Nahj al-Balaghah, however, is to treat it like any other book of hadith - that is to say, to discuss the authenticity of each passage individually, rather than evaluating the book as a whole, particularly since al-Sharif al-Radi collected the contents from different manuscripts and sources.4

One common method of exploring the authenticity of Nahj al-Balaghah is to look for other sources which contain the same passages; another common approach is to compare the passages to the Qur’an. As mentioned above, both approaches will be used here, in addition to textual criticism along with a sprinkling of speculation.

Notes

1. Reza Shah-Kazemi, Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali (London: I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2006), 3, citing the Encyclopedia of Islam.

2. Hossein Modarressi, Tradition and Survival: A Bibliographical Survey of Early Shi’ite Literature (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003), 14. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that material published later is inauthentic, since reliable material could have been discovered in other books.

3. Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba’i, A Shiite Anthology, trans. W. Chittick (London: Muhammadi Trust of Great Britain, 1980), 5-6 (discussion with Henri Corbin). Also see Reza Shah Kazemi, Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali, 3-4; he also cites the same exchange between Corbin and Tabataba’i. See also M. Motahhari, Selection [sic] from Glimpses of Nahj al-Balaghah [a translation of portions of Sayri dar Nahj al-Balaghah], trans. anonymous (n.p.: n.l., 1975).

4. The late Sayyid Fadlallah also mentions on his official website that not everything in Nahj al-Balaghah can be ascribed to Imam ‘Ali and that each passage should be evaluated individually; he also rejects the idea that al-Sharif al-Radi wrote it himself. Bayynat, ‘FAQ - Authenticity of Nahj Al-Balagha’ Accessed 18 August 2014.