Women: The Spiritual Masters of Islam
by britishmisk
Recently I went to a friend’s house where he invited Sheikh Abu Ja’far al-Hanbali to first of all perform a nikah, and afterwards was kind enough to stay with us and give us an intimate discourse in Islam regarding any questions we may have. The Sheikh like most orthodox Hanbalis, is an adherent of the Qadri Tariqa. I took it as an opportunity to ask him some questions regarding the Qadri path and there was one thing he mentioned, which I did not ask about but I found very profound. I am paraphrasing the following from memory, so I apologise for any mistakes:
“Women do not have a tariqa. They don’t need one. That’s because they are naturally inclined towards a higher spiritual level. If you look at the female companions around the Prophet (SAWS) and the questions they asked him, they were all questions based on fiqh, they didn’t ask about aqeedah, because they didn’t need to. All the great spiritual women of our history such as Rabia al-‘Adawiyah [al-Basri], they did not have a tariqa.
Afterwards I thought about what he said and it made a lot of sense.
The only hadith I am aware of in my limited knowledge of them, where a woman is involved in anything Aqeedah related was when the Prophet (SAWS) asked a woman “Where is Allah?” to which she replied “Above the Heavens”. If we take it in the context of what the Sheikh said, it has a much more profound and deeper meaning. Why did he (SAWS) ask the woman this? How did she know the answer? To this day male scholars have pondered over, studied, and interpreted this simple hadith that was spoken by a simple believer whose voice would echo through the ages.
It also made me reflect on the matriarchs of my family. My mother, her mother and her mother were all very similar with the regards to the vigour in their faith. Many of us will have mothers and grandmothers both here and back home who are always constantly praying and making dhikr of Allah, always reciting Qur’an, always making d’ua. This is despite the fact that they will most likely have never taken a formal class in religion, let alone give bayyah to a Sheikh. Ihsan comes to mothers naturally in their very nature of being a mother. One of the most spiritually uplifting and inspiring things Allah can place a person into has been reserved only for women.
Take it into the context of men who need to read volumes of books, go to numerous classes, listen to countless scholars, but never in any point in their life achieve the complete level their grandmother back in a village thousands of miles away has achieved.
I see this today even in our sisters in this country. Go to any Islamic bookshop you will nearly always find a humble sister in hijab looking for her next book to read. Go to any class the sisters will always have notes and pens ready to internalise what they’re learning. Even though she knows she doesn’t have to, she still goes to the Masjid to pray with the jama’a because her heart yearns to.
It makes you think, if it wasn’t obligatory for us, how many men would still go to the Masjid to pray?
And to Him is our return.
Britishmisk's Blog 
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Hmm. TBH I think your experiences are anecdotal. If your gran was religious then that’s why her daughters and grand-daughters are, it’s a value/way of life that’s been passed on. And of course Asian women have traditionally stayed at home etc and so have more time to practise, or make religion more of their lives.
>It makes you think, if it wasn’t obligatory for us, how many men would still go to the Masjid to pray?
Uh, as many men as women attend now. And conversely they’d be more women at the mosque if it was made obligatory for them too. The numbers are a consequence of the prescription, not the other way around.
But are you seriously saying that more women practise in your peer group than men? Maybe we hang in different circles; although I know plenty of religious women all of whom are much higher than me in the deen… on the whole I see that number-wise it’s the men who have more of an interest in religion. And to address your flip point, it’s usually the women who seem to need to attend lectures and stuff nowadays. And if FB is anything to go by they’re certainly more vocal about their religion.
Either way, these are all cultural issues rather than anything inherent to our genders.
Wonderful post! Exactly the kind of thing I was thinking for a long time now when reflecting upon the women in my family. They the ones who manifest the beauty of the religion. Near his end Imam Juwayni is reported to have said that he wished to die upon the religion of his grandmother. The salafis take this comment in a totally wrong way. If true, it certainly meant that he wanted to die with that fullness and beauty of faith that was manifested in his grandmother. Nothing to do with recanting the Ashari creed.
There’s, of course, the famous story of the old woman and the Shaykh. The Shaykh had written a book giving 500 proofs for the existence of God. And the old woman’s retort: Why did the Shaykh need to do that? Allah is so self-evident!” And the subsequent dua of the ulama: “Oh Allah! Grant us the faith of this old woman!”
Salaam ‘aleikum Brother Britishmisk. I’m surprised that Shaykh Abu Ja’far has a Tareeqah. In his talks and blog posts on Meeraath it seems that he holds Shaykh Bouti’s position on Sufi Tareeqahs. So Shaykh Abu Ja’far really does have a tareeqah? Also, who is his Shaykh in bay’ah, do you know? jazakAllahu khairan.
Walaikum Salaam, the Shaykh is Qadri in tariqa, one of my close friends has taken the tariqa from him personally, I don’t know who the Shaykh took bayyah from. He is quite conservative when it comes to certain things in tasawwuf, and he has written about his views in some of his articles on htspub.com, for example he criticises those who say it is obligatory to take a tariqa, he has also mentioned how he does not hold many people from the Sub-Continent who claim to be Qadri to have a valid initiatic chain (silsila), I remember him writing once he has only met two people who were not Hanbali whom he considered to have a valid chain, one Maliki and one Hanafi.
Asalaam Alaikum brother, I don’t know where you’re based but I’ve just been informed today that the Shaykh will be giving a talk on this exact topic at SOAS in London on the 1st of February if you are able to make it.
Hmmm I’m curious to learn and understand more about the context in which the Shaykh narrated the bit about females not needing a tariqa. I can totally accept that opinion as what you have written makes sense but I’m just curious and interesting to know more about this…
Salaam as the Shaykh is a Hanbali Qadiri I think he was speaking from the context of what he’s been taught and what the methodology of how his tariqa has been handed down to him. He is available to contact through email I’m sure he would be more than willing to explain further.