Women Scholars of Hadeeth (1/3)

History records few scholarly enterprises, at least before modern times, in which women have played an important and active role side by side with men. The science of hadeeth forms an outstanding exception in this respect. The texts of the Qur’an and teachings of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) always stressed the importance of women and defended their rights against pre-Islamic customs. As a result, the Muslim community was happy to entrust matters of the greatest religious responsibility to women, who, as sisters to men, were of equal worth in God’s sight. Only this can explain why, uniquely among the classical Western religions, Islam produced a large number of outstanding female scholars, on whose testimony and sound judgment much of the edifice of Islam depends.

Since Islam’s earliest days, women had been taking a prominent part in the preservation and narration of hadeeth, and this function continued down through the centuries. At every period in Muslim history, there lived numerous eminent female-traditionists, treated by their brethren with reverence and respect. Biographical notices on very large numbers of them can be found in the last sections of the virtually all biographical dictionaries.

During the lifetime of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), many women had been not only the cause for prophetic many traditions, but had also been their transmitters to their sisters and brethren in faith. After the Prophet’s death, many women Companions, particularly his wives, were looked upon as vital custodians of knowledge, and were approached for instruction by the other Companions, to whom they readily dispensed the rich store that they had gathered in the Prophet’s company. The names of Hafsah, Umm Habeebah, Maymanah, Umm Salamah, and ‘Aa’ishah, are familiar to every student of hadeeth as being among its earliest and most distinguished transmitters. In particular, ‘Aa’ishah is one of the most important figures in the whole history of hadeeth literature - not only as one of the earliest reporters of the largest number of hadeeth, but also as one of their most careful interpreters.

In the period of the Successors, too, women held important positions as traditionists. Hafsah, the daughter of Ibn Seereen, Umm al-Dardaa the Younger (d. 81/700), and ‘Amrah bint ‘Abdir-Rahmaan, are only a few of the key women traditionists of this period. Iyaas ibn Mu‘aawiyah, an important traditionist of the time and a judge of undisputed ability and merit, considered Umm ad-Dardaa to be superior to all the other traditionists of the period, including the celebrated masters of hadeeth like al-Hasan al-Basree and Ibn Seereen.  [1]‘Amrah was considered a great authority on traditions related by ‘Aa’ishah. Among her students, Aboo Bakr ibn Hazm, the celebrated judge of Madeenah, was ordered by the Caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdil-‘Azeez to write down all the traditions known on her authority. [2]

After them, ‘Aabidah al-Madaniyyah, ‘Abdah bint Bishr, Umm ‘Umar athThaqafiyyah, Zaynab the granddaughter of ‘Alee ibn ‘Abdillaah ibn ‘Abbaas, Nafeesah bint al-Hasan ibn Ziyaad, Khadeejah Umm Muhammad, ‘Abdah bint ‘Abdir-Rahmaan, and many other women excelled in delivering public lectures on hadeeth. These devout women came from the most diverse backgrounds, indicating that neither class nor gender were obstacles to rising through the ranks of Islamic scholarship. For example, ‘Aabidah who started life as a slave owned by Muhammad ibn Yazeed, learnt a large number of hadeeth with the teachers in Madeenah. Her master gave her to Habeeb Dahhoon, the great traditionist of Spain, when he visited the holy city on his way to the Hajj. Dahhoon was so impressed by her learning that he freed her, married her, and took her back to Andalusia. There she related over ten thousand traditions on the authority of her Madeenan teachers.[3]

On the other hand, Zaynab bint Sulaymaan (d.142/759) was a princess by birth. Her father was a cousin of as-Saffaah, founder of the ‘Abbaasid dynasty, and had been a governor of Basra, Oman and Bahrain during the caliphate of alMansoor. Zaynab, who received a fine education, acquired a mastery of hadeeth and gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished women traditionists of her time. She counted many important male traditionists among her pupils.[4]

This partnership of women with men in the cultivation of the Prophetic Traditions continued in the period when the great anthologies of hadeeth were compiled. A survey of the texts reveals that all the important compilers of traditions from the earliest period received hadeeths from female shuyookh. Every major hadeeth collection gives the names of many women as the immediate authorities of the author. And when these works had been compiled, the women traditionists themselves mastered them, and delivered lectures to large classes of pupils, to whom they would issue their own ijaazahs.[5]

In the fourth century, we find Faatimah bint ‘Abdir-Rahmaan (d. 312/924), known as as-Soofiyyah because of her simple dress her great piety; Faatimah, granddaughter of Aboo Daawood of Sunan fame; Amatul-Waahid (d. 377/987), daughter of the distinguished jurist al-Muhaamilee; Umm al-Fat’h Amatus Salaam (d. 390/999), daughter of the judge Aboo Bakr Ahmad (d.350/961); Jumu‘ah bint Ahmad, and many other women, whose classes were always well attended by reverential audiences.[6]

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