From: hyder@cs.utexas.edu (Syed Irfan Hyder)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Women and Burqa: Analyzing the recent discussion
Date: 9 Apr 1992 13:11:23 -0500
Organization: U Texas Dept of Computer Sciences, Austin TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: pageboy.cs.utexas.edu

In article <12047@tamsun.tamu.edu> 
	gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal) writes:

> [some stuff deleted]

>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>The Thought Experiment: 
>			Now ASSUME that the Quran explicitly (I mean 
>really explicitly in big bold CAP fonts) mentioned that all women MUST 
>(100%/definetely/under all circumstances) follow the hijab or purdah 
>system, covering your entire body from head to toe at all times (forever). 
>I mean showing any part of your body is an ABSOLUTE NO NO. Its worded 
>in such a way so that there can be absolutely no doubt as to its meaning.
>
>WOULD YOU WEAR THE PURDAH THEN ?  
>-------------------------------------------------------------------

> [some stuff deleted]
>
>Clearly they did not understand the meaning of 'thought experiment'. 
>I hope you do. Or if you feel this is offending to Quran, maybe you 
>could assume that you belong to some religion X (not Islam) and your 
>faith in X is just as strong as it is now in Islam. Then assume that 
>the holy book of X says the above thing.  (Is it too unimaginable
>for you as being born in another religion?).  
>

I think this is the right time to explain the way such problems
are approached in Islam:

First Islamic proofs ("nuqli dallail") are sought.

	1: A given hypothesis is confirmed or refuted through Quran
	2: Further substantiations of the position are then
		obtained through Hadith, if (1) remains ambiguous.

Then scholors resort to using their own intelligence:

	3: To further substantiate the position obtained 
	   from (1) and (2), a scholor tries to use his own
	   reasoning and intellectual abilities to find
           confirmations.

It is the attempt in 3 above which may be a failure, because to
err is human. However, the confirmation obtained from 1 and 2
still stands (because it is Allah given). This is because 1,2 do not
depend on 3. 
3 is simply a converted Muslim's attempt to find intellectual
justification of 1-2. Fallibility of 3 was so admirably
discussed by Mr. Nadeem (deathstar, stanford fame) in his
thought provoking article "bad arguments".
However, as it turns out the "fallibility" of 3 is not a 
weakness but in fact a strength 
      [see the appendix on an interesting aside].

But, because 1-2 do not depend on 3, later Muslim scholors can
easily come forward and without hesitation throw away an
earlier scholor's intellectual attemp. Thus if I simply
throw away Maudoodi's logic (about women weaknesses etc. which
I think has been outdated),
it will not in any way stop me from putting forward a 
new set of "intellectual" arguments, which will probably
work for my time and place and may soon become
obsolete in 50 odd years. This will allow a subsequently
coming Muslim scholor to throw away my arguments and
propose a new set of fresh arguments, and so on.

It is the above proces which people are now calling "resurgence"
in Islam. Such "resurgences" are simply an ongoing process of
throwing away all acculturations, accumulating taking place
through human endevor, allowing for a fresh start by newcomers. 
The current "resurgence" has only
become prominent because it had required a great "intellectual"
effort on the part of the Muslims and has come after a lot
of pre-preparation and self-searching.


Appendix:
=========
However, as it turns out the "fallibility" of 3 is not a 
weakness but in fact a strength. After all, Allah knew
that human brain works in only in the confines of his time-place and 
experience. The sort of limit-lessness of time and space
required for "ultimate truth" can never come out from his
"limited brains and senses". But, this never deters him
from effort does it? 
This is what makes him "ashraf-ul-mukhlooqat. And
it is probably in this sense in which Allah says that it was
only human who accepted the "burden and responsibility" of
intelligence after all other creatures have refused to take it!
(Ah! another fascinating direction of thought)