Review

Reviewed Work(s): Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's
Perspective by Amina Wadud
Review by: Gisela Webb
Source: Journal of Law and Religion , 2000 - 2001, Vol. 15, No. 1/2 (2000 - 2001), pp.
519-523
Published by: Cambridge University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1051560

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QUR'AN AND WOMAN: REREADING THE SACRED TEXT FROM A WOMAN'S
PERSPECTIVE. By Amina Wadud. New York: Oxford University Press
1999. Pp. 118. $11.95. ISBN: 0-195-12836-2.

One cannot fully grasp the scope and significance of the work
being done by and about women in Islam without reading Amina
Wadud's Qur'an and Woman. This slim volume is probably the most
widely read contemporary Qur'anic exegetical text in the world dealing
with the concept of woman. In the decade since the publication of its
first edition, printed in Malaysia, Qur'an and Woman has been utilized
by Muslim scholars and grassroots Muslim women's educational
organizations across the globe, and it has been translated into several
languages. Its widespread appeal and use among progressive Muslims is
clear. It provides an analysis and critique of prevailing 'readings' of
Qur'anic traditions that have caused or justified inequities between men
and women-conceptually and actually-in the Islamic world. It also
offers a sound hermeneutical methodology, a mode of interpretation,
that includes women as agents of the on-going "reading" and
interpretation of the Qur'an-particularly discourse on the concept of
woman.

For the non-Muslim or Muslim reader, or for the Religiou

or Women's studies student, the book is a watershed primary
the contemporary (woman's) engaging in a traditional (heretof
practiced) Islamic science: tafsir, or Qur'anic commentar
virtually the first "reading" or Qur'anic commentary on the
woman articulated by a woman in the fourteen hundred years of
history. It is also a refreshing departure from the abundance of l
(sociological, anthropological, political) on women in Muslim s
While Wadud maintains in the preface that the volume i
"book about Islamic women," but rather a book about the
concept of woman from a woman's reading, the intention of her
is clearly to "yield greater gender justice to Islamic tho
contribute toward the achievement of that justice in Islamic p
For this reason the book functions as a practical, scholarly g
critiquing and correcting actual social inequalities and in
perpetrated in Muslim communities in the name of"Islam" as w

1. All citations in the text refer to the book under review.

519

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520 JOURNAL OF LAW & RELIGION [Vol. XV

illuminating, personal guide to the range of reactions within the Muslim

community to Wadud's own work and to the Islamic 'gender justic
movement, in general.
Qur'an and Woman will be dense reading for those unfamiliar wi
theological or juridical methods, but its terse style goes straight to t
sections of the Qur'an which are at the heart of past and curre
discourse as to what constitutes the Islamic/Qur'anic world view on
women's nature, role, and rights. I have used this text in the classroo
with Muslims and non-Muslims. Muslim students in America, who te
to be looking for progressive writing by practicing Muslims on "Mus
women's issues," embrace the work, once the methodological issues a
unpacked. The book is an eye-opener for non-Muslims. Their horiz
are broadened by receiving an insider's view on the subject of women
Islam, and they emerge from the study with as many questions about th
history of interpretation of Biblical traditions regarding women as they
had about the Islam and the Qur'an.
Amina Wadud openly brings to her writing her experience
woman, Muslim, and African-American, providing a catalyst f
discussions and clarification, not only on Qur'anic exegesis, but
perennial student questions regarding the geographical "location" of
Islamic world; "African-American" Islam; whether non-Arab Muslim
particularly American converts, are considered to be "real Muslims,"
meaning of women's veiling; and so forth.
Qur'an and Women is organized into preface and introducto
sections, four central chapters, and a conclusion (plus an append
listing female characters in the Qur'an and a bibliography).
The Preface of the new edition situates Wadud's work in the
context of women's studies, Islamic studies, post-colonial, and post-
modem hermeneutical discussions. She states that her research began a
an attempt to uncover whether the actual inequality of women and me
in Islamic societies was "a function of Islam." She puts forth her
foundational religious assumption that the Qur'an, believed to be divin
guidance for human beings, does establish a world-view that includes
mandate of societal justice for all human beings. She asserts her
epistemological assumption that any interpretation of a text, including
sacred text, necessarily reflects the perspective of the interpreters an
their (more accurately, his, in historically patriarchal cultures) socia
context. She boldly argues that it is possible to read the Qur'an with an
awareness of-and hence unfettered by-historical androcentric reading
and Arabo-Islamic cultural predilections (ix) and discover that th
female person in the Qur'an is "primordially, cosmologically

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519] BOOK REVIEW 521

eschatologically, spiritually, and morally" a full human being, with

essential equality to all human beings, including the male person.
Because women were excluded from the foundational discourse
that established the paradigmatic basis for what it means to be a Muslim
women have often been relegated to the status of subject with
agency. She argues for the need in the Islamic community fo
hermeneutical principles that are consistent with fundamental Islam
principles, but which acknowledge the "time-boundedness" and hum
"limitedness" in the establishment of these principles. These limitat
include the nature, trajectory, and use of language, noting for exam
how societal assumptions are encoded in the very grammatica
constructs themselves. She raises the question of whether Qur'
reading, articulated through women's experience and psyche (as dist
from the historically prevalent articulation through men's experie
and psyche), might reveal a more comprehensive, gender-balanced,
egalitarian under-standing of engaged surrender to Allah, or "Islam."
The Introduction establishes Wadud's methodological approach
contemporary Qur'anic interpretation, which incorporates methods
Fazlur Rahman. She argues for a new look at Qur'anic language wi
regard to gender, particularly because Arabic language is a gen
specific language (where every word is gendered, unlike English)
hence creates a "prior text" (or "influence in meaning" [my term]
reading and translating. Verses of the Qur'an dealing with women
with men and women must be analyzed with a view toward 1) the
context, 2) the context of similar topics in the Qur'an, 3) simi
language and syntactical structures used elsewhere in the Qur'an,
overriding Qur'anic principles, 5) the Qur'anic Weltanschauung
world-view.
The heart of the text-and the fruit of Wadud's research and
woman's reading-lies in the four central chapters. Each chapter
with particular Qur'anic readings most instrumental historically
formation of attitudes and practices regarding women in Isl
communities.
Chapter One, "In the Beginning, Man and Woman Were Equal:
Human Creation in the Qur'an," raises questions regarding gender in the
Qur'anic creation accounts. Her analysis demonstrates-in line with the
work of such scholars as Azizah al-Hibri and Riffat Hassan-that the
Qur'an cannot be construed to teach an essential difference in value
ascribed to man and woman (e.g., God created "you [humankind] from a
single nafs [self, soul]" Qur'an 4:1), and that ideas of inherent,
qualitative differences between man and woman which devalue woman

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522 JOURNAL OF LAW & RELIGION [Vol. XV

seem to come, rather, from appropriation of traditional Jewi

Christian views, where the Genesis 2 creation story (among other t
was seen as a teaching on woman's subordinate status originati
Eve's derivative status vis-a-vis Adam. Her discussion of languag
in the creation accounts not only begins with the assumption
language describing "the Unseen" is human, limited, and in som
metaphorical (a case she will make for language regarding
"Hereafter"). She also reviews several Arabic terms critical
creation narratives, such as zawj (spouse), nafs (self, soul), the l
of the world being created by Allah in "pairs" with a single p
origin and a single point of return, that all else but God partici
the essential characteristic of duality, that humans have a uni
dynamic relationship with God, and that the story about the G
primarily about human responsibility.
In Chapter Two, The Qur'anic View of Woman in This Wor
Wadud looks at paradigmatic Qur'anic female characters, in
"Umm," Moses' mother, Maryam, mother of Jesus, and Bil
"Queen of Sheba," examining how Muslim perceptions of prop
and functions of women are historically tied to Muslim "re
(interpretations) of these female characters. In her role as e
Wadud brings into relief some of the theological and s
implications inherent in a woman sensitive reading of these figu
example, the story of Bilqis could be seen as a celebration, and
exemplar status, of her political and religious practices and wis
contradistinction to the traditionally held view among Muslim
women should not be rulers.
Chapter Three, "The Equity of Recompense: The Hereafter
Qur'an", looks at Qur'anic eschatological traditions-particula
vivid portrayal of the Hereafter and the promises of recompense f
righteous. The images include "gardens with rivers flowing be
and the pleasures of companions (including the huri, a term used in
Islamic Arabia for a particular type of fair-skinned, dark-eyed,
beauty). As a believer, Wadud will not dismiss the veracity
Qur'anic language, as misogynistic and literalistic as it may soun
modem hearer. She essentially argues for an acceptance o
inevitability and need for human constructs that resonate wi
"imaginaire" of the hearer/reader; again, the truth of the trans
"Unseen" can only be approached through our conditioned expe
Hence, the Qur'an must be read as images given (as divine mer
humankind that will ring "true" according to societal experien
values (while challenging them). Wadud points out that the ima

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519] BOOK REVIEW 523

the huri is limited to the early revelations in Makka, and that ima
used in the later Medinan verses convey a deeper level of understa
of companionship and relationship-a "being-with"-that are
dimensions of the "Hereafter." Ultimately, the language of the Hereafter
must be seen within its context of a system of justice and universally
available guidance for all humankind. The Qur'anic affirmation of
equality of all humankind, without respect to race or ethnicity, is the
basis on which Wadud, as an African American/Muslim/woman, argues
that any literal reading of the reward of the huri must be unacceptable,
because it implies an elevated status of a particular ethnic, physical, and
racial type.
Chapter Four, "Rights and Roles of Woman: Some Controversies,"
concentrates on those Qur'anic verses that have been interpreted by male
interpreters (and assimilated into societal patterns) as indicating both
hierarchy (man over woman) and limitation of women and men to
certain roles in society. Using the hermeneutical method described in
her introduction, she analyses the language of those verses traditionally
interpreted as indicating that men are "a degree above" women, that the
good woman must obey her husband, that men may strike their wives,
that men may have up to four wives. Wadud critiques the
interpretations, linguistically, theologically, and juridically, presenting
alternative interpretations more in line with both Qur'anic egalitarian
sensibilities and modem understanding of the impact of culture and
context on the development of religion.
The conclusion is an appeal for the value, admissibility, and
necessity for every generation of Muslims to study and interpret the
Qur'an, so that its guidance is truly for all humankind in every era and
every social context. Qur'an and Woman is a must read for both
Muslims and non-Muslims who want to read a text that has become
foundational for contemporary progressive Muslims who insist
affirming both their religious self-identity and their commitment
solving problems of human injustice and gender inequities that ha
been legitimated in the name of religion.

Reviewed by Gisela Webb t

t Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.

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