Why are you Here?
Woman from Man, for Man, against Man? Vol 2/3
In the first part (here), we saw that in the Qur’an there is no distinction was made between men and women in terms of where they are created from since they both come from the same species. But what about their purpose of existence? Does the Qur’an make any distinction between both sexes in terms of that? Does the Qur’an shows that men are more superior than women and says that women are created for men? In this second part, we will try to find an answer.
The claims: “woman are created for man” or “to serve man” has been widely adopted in the patriarchal ‘Islamic’ countries. However, when we look at the Qur’an, which is the main source of Islam, the absence of these claims draws attention. In fact, the Qur’an presents a completely different picture of the existential purpose of women. First of all, the Qur’an addresses human beings without discriminating between men and women and explains our purpose of creation as follows;
“I did not create the jinn (unknown free-willed beings) and the humans except to serve Me (God)!” 51:56
According to this verse all human beings, men and women, were created to serve God alone. Serving to God includes all the actions done for the sake of God from helping the poor to being just and moral, from fasting, to thinking about God’s creation. Is adding the extra claim for the very reason of existence “existing to serve men” next to “existing to serve God” an acceptable approach considering the mentality of the Qur’an (in terms of serving God alone)?
Attributing additional and (wrong) purposes to women might not only deviates them from the original purpose of their creation but also opens the door to abusive structuring in society. This structuring deeply affects the relations of women with their family, partner, and community.
In the established Islam interpretations obeying or serving men, such as an husband, a father, and even a brother is presented almost as a religious duty for women. Is this kind of view, restricts women by making them actually slaves of men? Starting from childhood women are unfortunately instructed to obey men in most patriarchal Islamic societies. Girls are being raised as more obedient and especially being told to obey, serve and fear their fathers or brothers. On the contrary, in the Qur’an, while being good to parents is advised, obeying, serving, or fearing them is not! Instead, Quran emphasizes these borders specifically in the verses about family-child relationships;
“Your Lord decreed that you shall not serve except Him, and do good to your parents…” 17:23
“We instructed the human to be good to his parents. But if they strive to make you set up partners with Me (God), do not follow them willingly!…” 29:8
So, neither women nor men are obliged to serve to the wishes of their parents and live their life based on their instructions. Instead, they are obliged not to repeat their mistakes and be good towards them. However, women culturally destinated from their childhood to serve the men in their family continues this pattern in their marriage. Then their most important duty became to satisfy their husbands by serving and obeying them. Here the role of men becomes decision making and commanding. These pre-defined roles are closer to a master-servant relationship rather than a healthy partnership. However, the Qur’anic verses challenge these cultural roles too by saying partners both need to find tranquility/contentment in the relationship in verse 30:21;
“From His signs is that He created for you spouses from your own kind that you may have tranquility/contentment with them, and He placed between you affection and compassion. In that are signs for people who reflect.” 30:21
As you may notice, in this verse genders are not being specified while explaining for what purpose humans were created as different genders. More importantly, It talks about the mutual benefits of spouses in a relationship without giving any superiority to one side. Based on that we can easily say; men are created for the benefit of women as much as women for men. Additionally, a compassionate relationship is between the partners can be emphasized among the signs of God.
Despite all of these, some still claims that there are verses in the Qur’an about the obedience of women to men such as verse 4:34. However, this verse has been subjected to many manipulations by not giving the appropriate meaning to the words based on the context. For example, a word in the verse which is generally translated as “obey’, can also be translated as “willingly (follow/do/etc)”. Because this word comes from the Arabic root “TwE (طوع)” and among meanings of this root are “giving consent/doing willingly or voluntarily”. Actually, the translators give this word a correct meaning in other places in Qur’an when the topic is not related to woman and man relationships. Luckily enough, the Qur’an does not leave any place for confusion about the correct usage of the word. When the context and other verses containing the same word are examined, the meaning becomes clear. For example, in the following verses, the context does not leave any other options than translating the word as “(doing) willingly”;
“Furthermore, He settled to the heaven, while it was still gas, and He said to it, and to the earth: “Come willingly (TwE) or unwillingly.” They said, “We come willingly (TwE).”” 41:11
“Say, “Spend willingly(TwE) or unwillingly, it will not be accepted from you…” 9:53
The Qur’an already gives us the correct meaning of the root TwE by using it as the opposite of doing something unwillingly or without consent. Not seeing this and generally translating this word as “obey” when it comes to women can be the result of either an ulterior motive or an unconscious patriarchal or hierarchy-based mindset. Not seeing this and generally translating this word as “obey” can result towards women, either an ulterior motive, an unconscious patriarchal or hierarchy-based mindset.
The other translation errors in the verses about women can be discussed in another article to wrap up the issue without further ado.
The understanding that presents women’s subordination to men clearly does not come from the Qur’an because it contradicts the principles outlined in the Qur’an. While the traditional narrative suggests that ‘the man are superior to women’, the Qur’an rejects this doctrine as it rejects the general superiority doctrine that states everything in the universe was created for the man(kind) which has already been discussed (here) in a previous article. Instead, Qur’an measures the superiority neither with gender nor race but it measures with the responsible actions as it is clearly understood from the following verse;
“O people, We created you from a male and female, and We made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Surely, the most superior among you in the sight of God are the ones behaving the most responsible…” 49:13
In short, according to Qur’an, women are not created for men or to serve men. Both genders need to mutually benefit from each other in their consent-based relationship. Above all, our very purpose of existence must be relevant to God rather than any other thing. So, this is the end of Vol 2/3. In Vol 3/3 we will try to understand the perspective of the Qur’an about the first sin and the woman’s role in it. Enjoy reading.
Sources;
https://www.canertaslaman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/islamvekadin.pdf
