Muslims urged to use intellect to understand the Holy Koran

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the Holy Koran contains God's words, why did He create the religious text in such a way that it could be open to multiple interpretations and misunderstandings?

The answer, according to Muslim scholar Asma Barlas of New York's Ithaca College, is to provide readers with an opportunity to give it meaning.

"If you place every burden on the text, where is your responsibility as a reader? Within the multiplicity of meanings actually lie the universality of Islamic teachings," Barlas explained during a seminar on Tuesday hosted by the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) where the question was raised.

Her concern, however, was with the patriarchal and "misogynistic interpretations" entrenched worldwide, which she perceived as mainstream, yet benign extremism.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing that Islam is a religion of patriarchy. The Koran makes a strong case against patriarchy and in favor of sexual equality. Thus it gives us scriptural sanction to contest violence and discrimination against women from within an Islamic network," said Barlas, a Pakistan-born scholar.

The mainstream extremists, she said, were actually considerate and loving to women, but nonetheless follow the consensus to accept a patriarchal reading of the Koran that oppresses women.

These people, usually men, recognize the rights Islam gives to women and are even willing to engage in conversations with them, but refuse dialogs to define religious meanings and to question why only men's work is considered authoritative.

According to Barlas, the benign extremists believe that Islam elevates Muslim women only over other, for instance, non-Muslim women, but certainly does not put them on par with Muslim men.

"They believe that the Koran puts men in charge of women, establishes God's preference for them, gives them the right to marry several wives, allocates them a larger share in inheritance, and even instructs husbands to beat disobedient wives," she said.

The verse about disobedient wives, she added, has been read by many Muslim men generically as if it authorizes all men to beat all women.

In Pakistan, for instance, the men have extended the verse as the right to beat women family members and even their own mothers.

Barlas herself was one of the first Pakistani women appointed to the country's foreign service, but was later dismissed from her post by the dictator, Gen. Zia ul-Haq. In the mid 1980s, she left Pakistan for the United States, where she is now an associate professor at the Ithaca College department of political science.

Her best-known work is the 2002 book Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an.

Barlas' experience showed her that when challenged that the Koran was being read in patriarchal societies with flawed methodology, the benign extremists barricade themselves behind the text, tradition and reason, which they claim had stood the test of time.

"History shows women's role in constructing tradition, such as Ayesha, one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives, who had narrated more traditions (hadith) about the Prophet's life than anyone else. But the benign extremists undermine that," she said.

There is no perfect solution in getting through to these people, she said, but there is space for conversations and dialogs in between hostility and ignorance.

The extremists, according to Barlas, should notice how the Koran says that "those who listen to the word and follow the best (meaning) in it are the ones whom God has guided".

"Injecting sexism, violence, inequality and theories of male privilege into the Koran, corrupts our idea of a just God who never transgresses against human rights and who is above sexual bias and partisanship," Barlas said.

Secondly, she added, one should take responsibility for how he/she interprets Islam as there is no ordained clergy or institution comparable to a church in Islam.

Tradition is important as it gives identity and ensures survival, but the community is not always right. Muslim history is also a litany of wrongdoings and errors in addition to the achievements and triumphs.

"Taking responsibility for our own understanding of divine truth is central to the Koranic conception of moral individuality," Barlas said.

After all, she added, the Koran asks Muslims to use their own intellect and reasoning to reflect upon its verses, and severely criticize those who blindly follow the "ways of their fathers" without reflecting upon the meaning of the divine truth for themselves.