Tips for Faithfreedom.org : How To Reuse Old Bullets Correctly

Published on:
Friday 14 Oct, 2005

Recently, a Christian missionary by the name of “Lazarus” published the results of an e-mail dialogue with a misleading title of Is Islam Women-Friendly?. A plethora of wild imagination and false interpretations form the nuclei material for the above “dialogue”. Most of what was addressed have been dealt with before.

However, what we are concerned with here is the blatant twisting of one particular hadith by the Christian missionary. In an attempt to “show” that there is little difference in treatment of a dog and a woman in Islam, the missionary stated as follows:

Please explain exactly what facts we have twisted by quoting Muhammad’s wife Ayesha [sic] who said:

Narrated ‘Aisha: Do you make us (women) equal to dogs and donkeys? (Sahih Bukhari 1.486, cf. Sahih Bukhari 1.490, Sahih Bukhari 1.493, Sahih Bukhari 1.498)
—-, I hope that you can see that we are not here to mislead or to deceive but rather because we love the truth and desire for Muslims to find and to know this truth.

It is interesting to note here that the missionary have purposely not reproduced the whole hadith from Bukhari which he had referenced. The following is the actual full citation of the hadith partially quoted by the missionary:

Volume 1, Book 9, Number 490:

Narrated ‘Aisha:

The things which annul the prayers were mentioned before me. They said, “Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people).” I said, “You have made us (i.e. women) dogs. I saw the Prophet praying while I used to lie in my bed between him and the Qibla. Whenever I was in need of something, I would slip away for I disliked to face him.”

Does it require too much intelligence to understand this hadith? There was a discussion between `Aishah, the wife of the Prophet (P), with some Muslims who were not knowledgeable about religious maters on the issue of what would nullify the salat (the Islamic ritual prayer). She told them that she was knowledgeable about such rules. They remarked that when a woman or a dog, or a donkey passed in front of a praying person, the latter’s prayer was nullified. She corrected their wrong understanding with sarcasm (by saying that they are equating woman with dogs) and said that when the Prophet (P) prayed his tahajjud (midnight voluntary prayers) in her room, her bed (where she lay) was right in front of him. Hence, those Muslims were wrong in their understanding of the rules of nullification of salat: a salat is not nullified if a woman is in front of a praying person.

Other ahadith that closely follow in Bukhari further collaborates the matter.

Volume 1, Book 9, Number 491:

Narrated ‘Aisha:

The Prophet used to pray while I was sleeping across in his bed in front of him. Whenever he wanted to pray Witr, he would wake me up and I would pray Witr.

Further Readings:

http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/archives/2005/are-women-equal-to-dogs-and-donkeys/