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5. Women can’t become Heads of State |
A vast majority of Muslim scholars believe that women cannot become heads of state. Many of them base their view on the following Hadith:
عن أبي بكرة قال لقد نفعني الله بكلمة سمعتها من رسول الله أيام الجمل بعد ما كدت أن ألحق بأصحاب الجمل فأقاتل معهم قال لما بلغ رسول الله أن أهل فارس قد ملكوا عليهم بنت كسرى قال لن يفلح قوم ولوا أمرهم امرأة (بخارى رقم: 4163)
Abu Bakrah reports: Allah has given me the benefit of a word – which I heard from the Messenger of Allah – during the days of [the battle of] Al-Jamal, when I was about to join the people of Al-Jamal and fight alongside them: When the Messenger of Allah heard that the people of Persia had appointed the daughter of Chosroes (Qisra), he said: ‘People who appoint a woman as their leader will never succeed’. (Bukhari, No: 4163)
This Hadith suffers from the following flaws:
1. It is evident from the very text of the narrative that it was never known until the battle of Jamal took place in 36 AH. It was brought forward only after A’ishah (rta) faced ‘Ali (rta) in battle. Before that it was never heard of – which of course is quite strange.
2. One of the narrators is ‘Awf Ibn Abi Jamilah about whom scholars of Rijal know that he used to give preference to ‘Ali (rta) over ‘Uthman (rta) and it is also known that since A’ishah (rta) sided with ‘Uthman (rta), a group of the followers of ‘Ali (rta) targeted her to besmear her character. Moreover, the Hadith can never be applied to the case of A’ishah (rta) since she never claimed to be the ruler of the Muslims.
3. It is a Gharib Hadith. In Hadith parlance, a narrative which has just one narrator in any section of its chain is called ‘Gharib’. It makes the narrative quite weak. It is only Abu Bakrah who is reporting this narrative at the top of this chain. The nature of the narrative is such that other companions too should have reported it from the Prophet (sws) but we find none.
4. If the content of the Hadith is analyzed, one can easily conclude that the Prophet (sws) could never have uttered these words. After all, success in this world was attained by many nations who had women rulers until the time of the Prophet (sws) and even after him.
5. Last but not the least, this Hadith is against the Qur’an. It is the purport of the Qur’an (42:38) that anyone who enjoys the confidence of the majority is eligible to become the ruler of the Muslims:
وَأَمْرُهُمْ شُورَى بَيْنَهُمْ (38:42)
And their system is based on their consultation. (42:38)
Nowhere does the Qur’an exclude women from this general principle.