Fig & Olive

Shaykh: A male religious figure in Islam, usually someone who is well learned in traditional knowledge.

The term ‘Shaykha’ is probably not one known to many, it means a ‘female shaykh’, i.e. a woman who has pursued and acquired sacred knowledge. Islam is often blamed for oppressing women, many point to “wife beating”, veiled women, and the lack of female leadership. Though the idea that Islam promotes wife beating is laughable when looking towards the example of Prophet Muhammad, peace upon him, who was the last prophet of Islam and the idea that the veil itself is oppressive is no more of an empty statement then believing wearing a bikini is freedom but the lack of female scholarship… there may be a case to be made. The usual response is to simply say; “Islam has many female scholars” but if any ask their names it would become a stuttering affair. For anyone well versed in history, it may become a bit easier, but what of the modern day religious scholars, is there a woman among them?

Though Islamic scholars in the west are incomparable to Christian religious figures in their cultural importance there are a few who stand out in the crowd. Imam Zaid Shakir and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf are two figures that not only hold importance to Muslim Americans but also to their non- Muslim counterparts. Both Imam Zaid and Shaykh Hamza have studied long year’s overseas pursuing Islamic knowledge. Recently they both, along with Hatim Bazian created Zaytuna College, a school dedicated to religious studies as well as liberal arts. Both men and women attend the college, studying sacred and secular knowledge, side by side. Will this be the impetus needed to produce female scholarship?

Though it is a nice thought that men and woman pursuing Islamic knowledge side by side will lead to those same women pursuing Islamic scholarship in the future, it is unclear that the beginning will be as even-handed at the end. When I spoke to my sister, a graduate of Zaytuna, a while back she said to me “they want us to wait to get married, and focus on our studies”. Waiting for four years is palpable but serious Islamic studies take more than a fears years especially when being coupled with liberal arts. Serious Islamic scholarship is far more of a feat, whether it’s 3 or 5 or 10 years of religious study many in pursuit of scholarship may purposefully delay having a family or have a family with the understanding that it will be a struggle. A struggle for whom? And in what way? Al Ghazali and Ibn Arabi are two scholars who come to mind, both left their wives for an extended period of time –years, in the pursuit of sacred knowledge. There is a story of another scholar who left his wife for so long that upon returning she could no longer recognize him. Where are the stories of the women who left their families for years in pursuit of sacred knowledge? Non- existent. And this is not true merely of Islam, any religious tradition would be hard-pressed to find a woman who pursued sacred knowledge for years and upon returning found her loving husband and children waiting for her.

What we do find, sparsely, is a story of a woman like Rabia Al Adawi (a great scholar of Islamic spirituality) who was offered marriage by Hasan Al Basri, one of the greatest Islamic scholars in the tradition, and declined. And yet most women want to be married, the possibility of having both seems implausible. Is this imbalance just a part of the course? Do women stay home overseeing household affairs while men pursue sacred knowledge or women forgo family for sacred knowledge? The nice answer would be that woman in the modern day can have it all, but this saying has revealed its pitfalls even in mainstream culture. The issue relates to the bigger unresolved issue of a “woman’s place”. It was once said, in American society, that a women’s place is in the home, then feminist came along and told women ‘No’ women belong in the public space. But since then women have struggled with having it all. Women have been longing to keep their feminine qualities while taking on traditionally male roles and struggling. Some point to the answer of universal daycare without dealing with the quintessential issue that women may actually want to be caregiver of their children and the real struggle is wanting to and feeling forced to take on the traditional male role and feeling like it’s simply all too much.