Dear members of the list,
Assalamu Alaikum.On the subject , you can also read Rasail wa Masail(Question
and Answers) by Sayyid Maududi, vol--3, answer to a question, how Hawa was
created? He also holds the view that there is no Quranic or Qati( unequivocal)
Hadith evidence that she was created from the rib of Adam.
Shah Abdul Hannan
----- Original Message -----
From: Kaniz Fatima
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 7:15 PM
Subject: Was Eve made from the rib of Adam?
Q:
I am an East Indian Trinidadian from the Caribbean and I have a question that
has been tugging at me for the longest while. Was Eve made from the rib of
Adam? Some Muslims say yes and some say no. I believe it is not true, because
it does not sound like Islam at all. I just want to be sure. Is it true or not?
I don't think it is true because why does a woman need to be part of a male to
be as equal? Or has this somehow entered Islam all of a sudden from western
influence?
Date
2002/10/18
Name of Consultant Salem Al-Hasi
Answer:
As you mentioned in your question, the issue of creating Eve contains some
points that are disputable among scholars. So, let's explore the whole issue.
First of all, Allah in the Qur'an explained how He created Adam (PBUH). He
states in different verses that he had created Adam from clay.
Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I am about to create man from clay:
Surah 38 Verse 71
The similitude of Jesus before God is as that of Adam; He created him from
dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was.
Surah 3 Verse 59
The Qur'an also clearly states Allah also created Hawa (Eve) by His Hands from
the same nature of Adam.
O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single
person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like
seeds) countless men and women....
Surah 4 Verse 1
Hence, the Qur'an does not state that Eve was created from Adam's rib. Yet,
there is an authentic Hadith of the Prophet (PBUH) which uses the metaphor of
the shape of a rib to describe women.
The authentic Hadiths says:
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: "Treat women kindly. Woman has been created
from a rib and the most bent part of the rib is the uppermost. If you try to
turn it straight, you will break it. And if you leave it alone, it will remain
bent as it is. So treat women kindly." (Bukhari and Muslim)
Another version adds"..if you wish to draw benefit from it, you can do so
despite its shape."
Some scholars perceived the Hadiths in their literal meaning and accepted the
idea that Eve was created from Adam's rib. Yet many scholars, on the other
hand, totally rejected this interpretation. They based their argument on the
fact that in Arabic, the words "created from" do not necessarily refer to the
substance of creation; they can also refer to the nature of something. These
scholars sustain their argument with an example from the Qur'an in which Allah
says "That man has been created from hastiness". Of course, this does not mean
that man's substance is hastiness; it only refers to man's nature and behavior.
The Hadith then means that if a man wants to be happy with his wife he should
not attempt to re-shape her character, but accepts her the way she is and try
to be happy by understanding her habits and her personality. It can be taken as
a very soft and kind Hadith recommending tenderness and implying how a wife and
husband should compliment each other. Sadly it was interpreted according to the
cultural traditions and bias against women in some tribal societies and that
such misinterpretation gained wide circulation to foster the unislamic ideas of
womens' inferiority.
This also affected the way women were perceived in the society; as their image
was directly linked to the shape and "crookedness" of the rib!!
There are numerous verses that state the equality of women in the public space,
and the life of the prophet teaches us about the relation between a man and a
woman in the private sphere. Any text should be put within the context of the
paradigm and understood accordingly.
We might for example, note that the poetic symbolism of ribs being the nearest
bone to the heart and that the ribs of the chest protect the organs of the
chest. It is a matter of how we read the text and contextualize it and search
the merciful meanings in revelation, not grab the text to use it for our own
purposes.
Allah knows the best
Wa Salam
Salem Al-Hasi
source:www.islamonline.net
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{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in
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The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if
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camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever
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follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
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