Before delving in the topic of how gender and family are perceived in Islam, Dr. al-Hibri shared a few tips on how we can improve our daily and communal behavior in our efforts to create a balanced and harmonious community. In our age of information, information becomes power, and Dr. al-Hibri emphasized how sharing information with others can have good but also detrimental effects that create or exacerbate divisions among communities. Gossiping and spreading rumors only creates conflict. However, if we spread information in an attempt to bring about justice or rectify a bad situation, spreading information can be justified.
Dr. al-Hibri then explained what the Quran actually says about men and women, and clarified some deeply flawed misconceptions about gender relations in Islam. Many Muslims believe that women must be inferior to men because of the different ways in which God created Adam and Eve. According to one interpretation, Eve was created from Adam’s rib, and when asked why she had been created, she answered that she was created to give Adam tranquillity. This conversation between Adam and Eve, however, is the product of an author who wrote it from a patriarchal perspective. Nowhere in the Quran does this conversation occur. On the contrary, the Quran only says that God created Adam and Eve from the same soul.
We cannot find proof that Eve was made from Adam’s rib in the Quran. It mentions the woman being like a rib, but that is just a way to illustrate relations of men and women. It is not to be taken literally. The Quran asserts that men and women have a different approaches to life and that men should accept the differences. It also tells men about how to treat women and how to respect a woman’s individuality and independence. But never does the Quran make any statement about the inferiority of women. The Quran says a man has the duty to take care of a woman (“guardian”) under only two circumstances. First, when the man has been given a quality in excess than what an ordinary woman possesses. Second, when the man must support the woman financially at a time of need and transition. Too often do men overlook these conditions and try to assert guardianship over women at all times by oppressing them and robbing them of their consent and self-determination.
In this important lecture Dr. al-Hibri questioned the interpretation that woman was created to serve man, and the story of creation that justifies that thought. She concluded that a relationship that conforms to Islam is a relationship based on freedom—not oppression.
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