6. Narrated “Abu Huraira“: Apostle of God said “Superstitions of infections, bird spells, Safar month, and owls are all false, Superstitions are limited to Women, horses and houses”. Indexed by: Bukhary.
This hadieth is discredited in this specific narration, as it conflicts with many other hadieths of the Muhammad (pbuh), the evidences discrediting it are numerous, on top of it, the conflict with apostolic teachings regarding infections and sanitary precautions. Like, “If the plague spread in a city, then, whoever outside it shall not enter to it, and whoever within its boundaries should not get out.” In addition, “Better for a healthy man not to get exposed to a diseased one.” Then, it conflicts with many hadieths rejecting all the superstitions by any shape or form, like, “No superstitions and no spells by birds. And I like optimism.”
A final discrediting fact of this teaching, is what “Bukhary“ himself indexed after it, which was a totally opposing narration, with one word changing the meaning by 180 degrees, the teaching was narrated by “Aisha“ as “Before Islam, Superstitions were about Women, horses and houses” needless to mention the word “before Islam” lead to a totally different direction. Seemingly, the Apostle was explaining a wrong and mischievous believe of bedouins before Islam, when some of the attendees thought he was confirming it!
7. Apostle of God Said: “Women (as a source of shame) has two covers, marriage and grave” when asked which is better, he replied” the grave”. Indexed by: Tabrany
8. Apostle of God Said: “Your worst enemy is your wife who shares your bed” Indexed by: Tabrany
9. A woman asked Apostle of God about husbands’ rights, so if she can tolerate it she will marry, otherwise she will not, the Apostle said “Even if the woman shall drink a pus bleeding from her husband’s nose she did not give him his rights, and if I were to order human to apostate to human I would have ordered women to apostate to their husbands” Indexed by: Bazzar
10. Apostle of God Said: “If women did not exist, God would have been faithfully worshipped”
11. Apostle of God Said: “I do not fear a threat to my people but women and wines”
12. Apostle of God Said: “Do not inhabit your women in comfortable homes, do not educate them, or grant them a plenty of clothing, and say ‘No’ frequently to them, as ‘Yes’ let them ask for more” Indexed by: Al-Hakam
13. Apostle of God Said: “Keep them shorted in clothing, as if they got a plenty they like their looks and go out frequently” Indexed by: Al-Hakam
14. Apostle of God Said: “A Good woman is rare among women” Indexed by: Ibn Magah
15. Apostle of God Said: “Obedience to a woman leads to grief” Indexed by: Ibn Asaker and Oqaily
16. Apostle of God Said: “Men were destroyed when the obeyed their women” Indexed by: Ibn Asaker and Oqaily
17. Apostle of God Said: “Consult other men, if you find no one but a woman, consult here and do against what she advise” Indexed by: Ibn Asaker
These claimed teachings were all discredited by Imam “Albany” may God bless him (died in 1999) for his efforts discrediting the wrong and mischievous hadieths, those are falsely linked to Muhammad (pbuh). He discredited it based on weaknesses in its linkage to profit by narrators and by conflicting contents, while many others before him had accepted and indexed it. Again, we list it here to know it is not linked to Muhammad (pbuh), and to understand that indexing a hadieth by one or more of the hadieth collectors was never a solid proof of its relation to apostle of God. As many hadieths were acceptable, only before Imam “Albany” discredits it with his own efforts in the 20th century.
18. Narrated “Osama ibn Zaid“: Apostle of God said: “I looked in Heavens, only to find the majority of its inhabitants are the poor, and looked into hells to find the majority of its inhabitants are women” Indexed by: Boukhary
19. Narrated “ibn Abbas“: Apostle of God said: “I looked into hells to find the majority of its inhabitants are women” Then women asked: Why Apostle of God? He replied “you do not admit goodness of your husbands, for a woman, if the man treated her superbly all time and did bad to her once, she only says ‘I had never had a good day with you’ “ Indexed by: Muslim
20. Narrated “Omran ibn Hossayn“: Apostle of God said: “O’ women, adhere to almsgiving frequently, as most of you will be the ashes of hells” Then a woman asked: Why Apostle of God? He replied “you frequently complain and you do not admit goodness of your husbands“ Indexed by: Bukhary
With all our respect to these honorable hadieths, we see it –if truly said by apostle- to be educational metaphors that should never be perceived as gender prejudicial destiny. It is obvious that apostle of God wanted to alarm against wrong behaviors among Medina women by that time, and we can say it exists today as well among both men and women, such behaviors like being frequent complainers or being ungrateful to partners …etc.
Shall this mean women are really the ashes of Jahanam?
We see this contradicting with many verses we listed before, wherewith God committed Himself to absolute justice among women and men based on their deeds. Moreover, contradicting with many of Muhammad’s teachings. e.g.:
- “May one of you have a grateful heart, a tongue glorifying God, and a good wife who supports him in god deeds” Indexed by: Turmudi and ibn Magah.
- “Life is joyful, and the best of its joy is the good wife” Indexed by: Muslim
- “If the woman prayed the five prayers, fasted in Ramadan, been faith to her husband, she will be let in afterlife, to choose the gate she wishes to heaven” Indexed by: Al-Albany
We should also know, apostolic metaphors were not limited to women. He used it to educate husbands how to treat their spouses, as we will see in coming parts of this chapter.
21. Apostle of God Said: “A woman resembles a rib, if you tried to rectify her you will break her, you can only accept her as is” Indexed by: Bukhary and Muslim
Shall it be surprising if we say this hadieth, we find to be very genuine and very true?
Apostle of God stated a very true statement that applies to both men and women. It is the fact you can get whenever you try changing the character of a mature adult. Usually, you can change some behavior of your partner, but you can never change his/her character, as defects are a human nature, and this is what the teaching means to us, it means nobody is perfect, and we need to accept other as they are, not as we wish them to be. Every human is subject of these defects, evidenced by the verse “And I do not claim myself non-guilty, one’s self usually pushes to wrong deeds” Josef: 53
One might wonder, why then the teaching is limited to women?
Most probably, it was directed to a complaining man, should it be a woman complaining about her husband’s style? Apostle would have told her the same about him.
22. Narrated “Abu Huraira“: Apostle of God said “Whoever a woman asked by her husband for matting and rejected, Angels shall condemn her until next morning” Indexed by: Bukhary and Muslim- Agreed on
Here, we have an educational model that is not essentially meant literally. It is related to a specific social disease in patriarchal communities, where males control the economics of the family, and where women usually create pressure using their feminine talents to get what they want financially. The aim of the teaching then is to stop such behavior relating sexual life to financial gains, without essentially meaning the angels shall condemn her as it might be a metaphor to magnify how the behavior is unacceptable. Obviously, apostle found it unacceptable, as it first disregard women, putting her in a situation closed to selling her body for money, also it gives the sexually frustrated husband an excuse to seek sexual pleasure elsewhere, which shall alter the family stability.
The problem comes to surface, when some jurists uses this teaching to push a woman to respond to her husband’s desire apart from her emotional and physical status. I listened once to one of the so called “Satellite Imams” answering a woman, who were asked to make love to her husband after he bruised her! For my amazement, the Satellite Imam answered her with this teaching, asking her to respond positively whatever the conditions were. This, I find awkwardly inhuman, using the teaching in such an understanding, ignores another teaching of Apostle wherein he said, “I find the one of you beating his wife with a web like an animal, and then try to sleep with her by the end of the day! Doesn’t he ashamed from what he commits?”
Another wrong perception of this teaching is claimed by Sheikh “Yousif Qaradawy” a former Muslim Brotherhood Imam, who once said on satellite T.V. “Islam in this hadieth understood the fact that men usually cares more about sex, as males’ libido is usually much more intense compared to females’ one”. Needless to mention, what Sheikh “Qaradawy” said is an urban legend. Science proved sexual libido to be intense among both male and female. Its variations are mostly individual variations. Moreover, here, we raise a question,
Who said it is a right granted to men only?
One of the major teachings narrator, who is “ibn Abbas” once said, “I like to look neat to my wife as much as I want her to look to me”. And we have a plenty of teachings from apostle of God, educating men about foreplay, sexual rights of the wife and how God count it as good deeds for a man to take good care of his spouse desires…etc. So, Muhammad (pbuh) had understood several centuries ago the intimate relation to be bilateral, it takes two to tango.
23. “Whoever a woman used a perfume, and passed over a group of men, so that they could smell her essence, she is perceived as a fornicator” Indexed by: Turmudi
“Women should not use perfumes when they go to mosques for prayer” Indexed by: Turmudi
Shall this mean perfumes are prohibited for women outside?
If going out perfumed was unlawful to women, why did the apostle except Mosques? If she shall not use a perfume outdoors, whatever her direction was, why it was not said overtly?
We understand the first teaching to be related to the intention of seduction, limited to whoever uses a perfume to seduce a man or group of men deliberately, indicated by the word “so that” in this translation, that resembled the words “Le-yagedo” in Arabic. So, she is perceived as a fornicator as she intended seduction as pre-act to fornication. We find what is meant her is not the perfume, but the seductive style based on special agenda, whether it is about clothing, gait, gestures…etc. Accordingly, we understand the teaching as denouncement of deliberate seduction as a pre-act to adultery or fornication in general.
Second teaching is limited to preventing perfumes while going to mosque, aiming to avoid men distraction during worshipping, which is very understandable. And again, for us this does not mean prohibition of perfume usage outside home, as when you tell your son “O’ son, do not get your football inside the house” this will never mean you are preventing him from playing football, on the contrary, it can be considered as an indirect approval for playing football anywhere else but in the house.
24. “May God bless a man who hangs a web in his house, to behave his family with” Indexed by: Muslim
Awkwardly Imam “Muslim” had indexed this teaching, while it contradicts with many others, these are:
- “You beat them, and only the worst of you do so” Indexed by: Abou Dawod, Ibn Magah, and Nesai’y
- "Last night, many women visited my wife complaining you, their husbands are beating them, I swore to God, the good among you never do so, only the worst” Indexed by: Abou Dawod, Ibn Magah, and Nesai’y
- “You beat them!!!, only the worst of you do so” Indexed by Nesai’y
- “I hate seeing a man agitated and beating his wife” Indexed by: Abou Dawod
Based on these four narrations we surely can discredit this “Web Teaching”. Leave alone its conflict with the “Marouf” concept in Quran and the deeds of Apostle treating his wives with superb kindness and intimacy.
25. Hereunder, I list some quotes, humiliating to women, and we find it listed in some orientalists’ writings and some websites as teachings of Muhammad (pbuh), while it is NOT, and have never been even claimed to be hadieths by whomsoever. We wanted to list it here to disambiguate about this, which is the same reason why we listed the discredited hadieths by Albany:
- “Women are your toys, so select for yourself”
- “Let them go to back rows, this is where God placed them”
- “Thank God, burial of a daughter is an honor”
- “Their minds in their genitals”
- “Three you do not rely-on, life, governor and woman”
- “Be cautious even from the good women”
- “The best woman, is the chastised masculine one”
- “A man will never be asked why he bet his spouse”
We started with this essential clarification and revision of the Holy Scriptures and its content related to woman, woman perception and woman rights, as it represents the major source of misperceptions common in Muslim societies about the subject. Despite its incoherence with Quran and righteous Sunnah, it is extensively narrated every day here or there in our mosques and over satellite channels.
