Re: Hamza Yusuf: Permissible For Women To Lead Men In Prayer
Psyah- I agree that because there is a movement of women wanting to lead prayer, it's important for scholars to take an in-depth look and compare tradition with progressive thinking. However, many movements are effecting society in a negative way, such as the gay's movement, so just because it's a movement it doesn't mean we must develop progressive ideology's to feed that movement.
I personally think we have clear tools present such as: Hadit, traditions from our Prophet's (PBUH) time, and common sense to draw a conclusion which will keep Islam intact and keep it from dividing (like other religions). So I don't find it a necessity to pass some sort of "law" or fatwa that women can lead prayer. **I think tradition/ Hadit should be upheld to it's utmost importance, and when needed common sense can be applied.
**For example, at the Mosque I have seen less than 10 people praying (men and women), and if the Imam got stuck reciting a Surah and no man standing in the front row could help him out, I have heard a woman from the back of the room help him continue and the prayer goes on. This is what i mean by common sense.
What I said earlier about, what if the woman has the most knowledge in the community, should she be able to lead the prayer from the back; my own answer would be no. Because in that situation I would go back to the Hadit where it clearly states "no women should lead a prayer." However, that does NOT mean she cannot be the leader and guider of that community.
As others mentioned about periods and after-pregnancy, in Islam we have to keep society as pure and clean as possible. Therefore, there is no reason to to have a woman Imam ( not that she's not pure) but the fact that it only will create more problems which can easily be ignored with a male Imam.
Peace Gaia
Personally based on what I have seen from this thread I have a deep concern that people second guess the motives of scholars, insinuate that they are saying something that they are not, create a a premise for what following Islam is on their own simplistic idea of what it means to extract rulings and assert that the scholars themselves are not following it ... Quite frankly this is distasteful ...
First point - in the initial quote Sh. Hamza Yusuf did not issue any fatwa, second point, no one asked his motives for saying what he said, third point, unless people are more qualified than him to talk about the issue (he having studied this formally), then they aught to remain silent, fourth point, for those who say such things will cause disunity are themselves leading that disunity by protesting not the Shuyukh.
To deal with the point you raised about the gay movement - we need to understand the stark difference between this issue and the issue of female imams. In your mind these are comparable matters, in the minds of scholars every issue has its own place, level of felxibility and importance - things are a spectrum of greys not black and white like us laypersons see it.
Give them a bit of trust to deal with our affairs, if you can't then learn the Deen and you lead us ... for sure I will follow you, respect you and protect your honour and dignity if you acquire the status of scholar through the process of traditional ijaza.
A small point - in an ignorant society the scholars relax (widen) the tolerances and in a mature society the tolerances are tightened ... When a person spoke out in rudeness against a scholar in a time when Islam was the higest ideal and little blame could be given to the goverment for the affairs of people then the penalties were strict. Such a person would be thrown out - because he would have no excuse to be ignorant. However in todays society we have progressed in technology that is for sure but we have suffered losses with regards to etiquettes and general Islamic understanding, our governments are partly to blame for our condition and hence the tolerances should be widened so that the law that is here to protect us doesn't become a noose that strangles us.
Your fear of scholars making everything acceptable may be a genuine one, however the need of the time is to make governments bend society back to the Islam we need ... what we are facing is the side-effect of secularism. The scholars are against this ... but the people are doing this without the scholarly consent. The idea of governments being alien from religion will only encourage this type of relaxation. If you don't want it to happen then appoint political leaders who seek council from scholars.
