Hundred Questions - Imamat and Women
Imamat and Women
Q68 What is the reason or ta'wil that the Prophets and Imams have always been men, and women have never been exalted to the rank of Prophethood or Imamat?
A68 Prior to answering this question definitively let us make some allusions to the position of a woman in Islam. It is a self-evident and undeniable fact that it was a woman who gave birth to the noble Prophets and the great Imams, it was she who continued to perform the sacred duty of their physical and moral upbringing, and it was she who as the noblest mother in the entire world took those perfect men, who were to guide and hold the hand of people in the future, in her holy lap and embraced them with utmost affection and love.
How lucky and exalted were those great and revered mothers from whose children there arose a Prophet or an Imam of the time. How fortunate and auspicious were those women, chosen by God, who had the greatest honour of being the companions of Prophets and Imams.
How great were the favour, grace and kindness of the Lord of the world upon the sisters and daughters of Prophets and Imams that they were living very close to the fountainhead of heavenly knowledge and wisdom.
In this respect one useful suggestion is that you must study carefully the Qur'anic verses about the noble mother of Moses (May peace be through him) and the affectionate mother of Jesus (May peace be through him), how revelation became possible for them, and how the angels conversed with them, so that you will be able to assess the position of a woman and her spiritual progress in the religion of nature, Islam.
In the world of Islam the glory, magnanimity, purity and holiness of the pure ahl-i bayt, i.e. the panj-tan-i pak (Five Holy Persons' grandeur and sanctity) is a universally accepted fact in which no righteous Muslim has the slightest doubt. It is an evident fact that one noble person among them was a lady, whose blessed name was Fatimah-yi Zahra' (May peace be through her), and whose title was Khatun-i Jannat (the Lady of Paradise). She was that glorious example of the manifestation of the light of the sacred world (`alam-i quds) and the cleanest mirror of the beauty of divine manners, which were possible only in the corporeality and humanity of a miraculous lady who is in the rank of a wali. By recognising her, religious and pious ladies with angelic characters may have ample encouragement [in their spiritual progress and elevation].
It is true that despite having all these above-mentioned excellences and exalted attributes, no chosen lady has been able to succeed to the sublime office of Prophethood or Imamat. The reason for this is not exoteric, rather, it is esoteric (ta'wil), which follows as under:
The Prophet, Imam and teacher are man spiritually, whereas the community, follower and student are woman spiritually. Thus if a woman despite the presence of men would have been a Prophet or an Imam, the ta'wili allusion of this would be that (God forbid) the Prophet should obey the community, the Imam should obey the commandment of his follower and the teacher should learn from the student. This would have been against the law of nature, and therefore, no woman has ever been a Prophet or an Imam. (See also the answer to Q. 97 in the 4th part of this book, Hundred Questions).
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