Can Women Become Imams And Rulers Of Muslim Countries ?
I was talking apart from authenticity issue, even if we accept the health of narration, it still points to a very specific situation. But on health of narration, here are the points raised by Dr. Shehzad. Rest you can weigh the arguments from each side yourself. This Hadith suffers from the following flaws: 1 . It is evident from the very text of the narrative that it was never known until the battle of Jamal took place in 36 AH. It was brought forward only after A’ishah (rta) faced ‘Ali (rta) in battle. Before that it was never heard of – which of course is quite strange. 2 . One of the narrators is ‘Awf Ibn Abi Jamilah about whom scholars of Rijal know that he used to give preference to ‘Ali (rta) over ‘Uthman (rta) and it is also known that since A’ishah (rta) sided with ‘Uthman (rta), a group of the followers of ‘Ali (rta) targeted her to besmear her character. Moreover, the Hadith can never be applied to the case of A’ishah (rta) since she never claimed to be the ruler of the Muslims. 3 . It is a Gharib Hadith. In Hadith parlance, a narrative which has just one narrator in any section of its chain is called ‘Gharib’. It makes the narrative quite weak. It is only Abu Bakrah who is reporting this narrative at the top of this chain. The nature of the narrative is such that other companions too should have reported it from the Prophet (sws) but we find none. 4 . If the content of the Hadith is analyzed, one can easily conclude that the Prophet (sws) could never have uttered these words. After all, success in this world was attained by many nations who had women rulers until the time of the Prophet (sws) and even after him. 5 . Last but not the least, this Hadith is against the Quran. It is the purport of the Quran (42:38) that anyone who enjoys the confidence of the majority is eligible to become the ruler of the Muslims: وَأَمْرُهُمْ شُورَى بَيْنَهُمْ (٣٨:٤٢) And their system is based on their consultation. (42:38) Nowhere does the Quraan exclude women from this general principle.
1. I seem to find your 1st point of this hadith not being heard long, as having merit. If Prophet indeed said it, it should have been more common than that. I don’t know the history of the hadith. 2. You are doubting the integrity of the narrator because he sided with Ali over Uthman. In other words, you are indicating the possibility of the narrator deliberately attributing false thing to the Prophet. That clearly means he will go to hell. 3. If it is a Garib hadith, why Dr. Zakir Naik and Yasir Qadhi are considering it authentic ? This again points me to my unanswered question here: Discussion 1788 4. For a muslim, yes, but for a non-Muslim, Prophet can be wrong and he could utter wrong things too, as many hadiths are there which mention many wrong things said by him. 5. Again, for a Muslim, yes your argument is correct, that a hadith should not contradict Qur’an, but we know that many hadiths do contradict Qur’an and are considered authentic. Is there any example of a woman ruler/judge/governor in Prophet’s time or in the rule of the 4 rightly guided caliphs ?
https://www.al-feqh.com/en/a-ruler-s-rights-and-obligations It is the right of the legal Muslim ruler that people obey him to do Ma`ruf (that which is judged as good, beneficial, or fitting by Islamic law and Muslims of sound intellect) in their adversity, prosperity, pleasure and displeasure even when he is given (rather undue) preference over them.