Amidst new and dynamic approaches to religion, the Orientalist understanding of Islam as a backward and incompetent faith in the modern world became common owing to the widespread colonial influence across the globe. Even in the Muslim world, many distanced themselves from Islam, adopting what they saw labelled as a ‘superior Western’ lifestyle.
On the other hand, ‘foreign’ culture was also rebuked by many who considered science, education, democracy and similar concepts as a threat to Islam. Women’s response was generally dichotomic: they either confined themselves to domestic life or rose against traditions emphatically. But Aisha Abd al Rahman, a young Egyptian girl born in the rural city of Damietta in 1913 chose beyond this binary.
Feign in public memory she is the earliest woman exegete of the Quran in the modern world, who was known for her prolific Islamic scholarship and knowledge of the Arabic language. Quite uniquely, she broke conventional barriers by daring to study in a formal school, away from home at an early age, but also managed to pen down her influential opinions on the Quran, religion, economics and Muslim women’s history at a time when the Islamic scholarship was severely deficient of women academicians in the field.
She challenged dominant religious, political and economic trends throughout her life, for which she was felicitated with the King Faisal Award in 1994 for her studies dealing with ancient Arabic prose.
She had a religiously rooted childhood, being born in a family of Sheikhs of Al Azhar (the biggest Islamic educational institution in the world). Unlike most girls of her age, she was interested in books, which led her to accompany her father to his study circles where she learnt about the Quran. After much resistance and effort, her father allowed her to study in a formal school, but not for long.
Owing to her determination, she topped the exams while studying at home and finally completed her schooling in 1932. This opened doors for going to university, where she went on to pursue a BA, MA and PhD in Arabic language and literature at Fuad l University of Cairo. She became interested in Quranic Studies due to her teacher, and later husband Amin al Khulli, whose academic method of the literary school of tafsir she followed rigorously. Her love for writing was reflected in her zeal to contribute to magazines such as al-Naha al-nisāiyya (Women’s Renaissance),
Al Misriyaa magazine (The Egyptian Woman) and Al Ahram newspaper, where she debated socially brewing issues. But sharing ideas as a Muslim woman was not as easy, which compelled her to adopt the pen name Bint al Shati, which meant daughter of the coast signifying her rural roots and love for her hometown.
As a successful scholar, she taught at Ayn Shams University and Qarawyyin University in Morocco.
She has to her name more than sixty works dealing with a range of subjects. Her interest in the themes of economics, politics and gender justice is reflected in her works al-Rīf al-Mirī (‘The Egyptian Countryside’) and Qaiyyat al-fallā (‘The Peasant Question’) and Sayyid al-izba: qiat imraa khāia (‘Lord of the Manor: The Story of A Sinful Woman’).
Besides this, her biographies of the wives and daughters of Prophet Muhammad shed light on these ideal Muslim women, sketching their role primarily in the domestic household. She also biographed the granddaughter of Caliph Ali (RA), Sukayna, and Khansa, a companion of Prophet Muhammad and renowned poetess of her time to elucidate their contributions to the Arabic language.
She also wrote several other books and articles where the question of women was underpinned in works such as Maqāl fi’l-insān (‘A Treatise on the Human Being’,) ‘al-Mara al-muslima ams wa’l-yawm’ (‘The Muslim Woman, Yesterday and Today’) and al-Mafhūm al-Islāmī li-tarīr al-mara (‘The Islamic Concept of Women’s Liberation’).
Her commentary of the last fourteen Surahs or chapters of the Quran called al-Tafsir al Bayani li’l Quran al Karim (The Literary Interpretation of the Quran) was published in two volumes in 1962 and 1968 respectively.
This is her most fascinating work as she effectively earned her place as an accepted woman exegete. Her work is known for her rhetorical analysis of each word, emphasis on the topical structure of the book, explications of vocabulary and the contextual as well as textual approach applied therein. In this work, she presents the Quran as a miraculous book, which according to her needs to be studied respecting the intricacies of the Arabic language.
She seems to be proving the eloquence and divine nature of the Quran, by asserting the need for each letter and vowel at its place for a reason. Although she quotes the works of Zamakhshari, Ibn Kathir, Tabari and even Muhammad Abduh amongst other important exegetes, she does not refrain from critiquing their interpretations when needed, based on clear linguistic evidence. Her Tafsir is fundamental in providing a distinct literary flavour to the Quran at a time when political and scientific commentaries of the Quran were gaining ground. Her analyses of the oaths, rhythmic structure and the words Na’im, Maqabir, Bayan and Natq provide a fresh flavour contrary to the popular understanding of the text.
But nowhere in her work does she seem to apply a feminist hermeneutical approach. This makes her a traditionalist, who avoided deploying feminist theories to evaluate religion critically. Although she advocates for the same origin of man and woman, making them equal as human beings, with the capacity to learn and explain divine discourse she firmly asserts men to be Qawwam (caretakers), naturally and morally. Such views were dealt with scepticism by feminists of her time.
Women have seldom appeared at the centre stage of Islamic tradition, which makes her one of the few who have tried to grapple with a subject otherwise dominated by men. She has certainly left a legacy for Muslim women who might have been uncertain of their scope in the field of Islamic Studies due to existing gender disparities, misogynistic approaches and the classical intent of the subject. Her primary focus was to reclaim the right to attain education granted by Islam to women and produce literature, interpret the Quran and actively engage in intellectual endeavours rather than merely interpreting the religion from a feminist lens. Her work approved of a religious ontology validating women to interpret the Quran.
She also wrote several other books and articles where the question of women was underpinned in works such as Maqāl fi’l-insān (‘A Treatise on the Human Being’,) ‘al-Mara al-muslima ams wa’l-yawm’ (‘The Muslim Woman, Yesterday and Today’) and al-Mafhūm al-Islāmī li-tarīr al-mara (‘The Islamic Concept of Women’s Liberation’).
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