
Women in Islamic Law: Examining Five Prevalent Myths
For more on this topic, see Gender and Islam
Abstract
Introduction
General Principles Concerning Islamic Law and Women
Myth 1: Islam instructs men to beat their wives
The wife of Al-Waleed ibn Uqbah came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and she complained to him saying, “O Messenger of God! Indeed, Al-Waleed has beaten me!” The Prophet replied, “Tell him: the Prophet has protected me.”[32] It was not long before she returned again, and said, “He did not give me anything except more beatings!” The Prophet tore a piece from his garment (as a symbol of proof) and he said, “Say to him: Verily, the Messenger of God has given me protection.” It was not long before she returned and said, “He did not give me anything except more beatings!” The Prophet raised his hands and he said, “O God, you must deal with Al-Waleed for he has violated my command twice.”[33]
It is lawful for the authorities, when they know that spouses will not be able to implement the legislated reprimands appropriately, or if they will not stop from overstepping their limits, then the authorities can stop them from implementing such reprimands and announce that anyone who hits his wife will be liable to punishment, in order to avert the escalation of harm between spouses, particularly in times of weak personal restraint.[43]
Myth 2: Women cannot divorce
Myth 3: A woman’s testimony is worth only half a man’s
You who believe, when you contract a debt for a stated term, put it down in writing...Call in two men as witnesses. If two men are not there, then call one man and two women out of those you approve as witnesses, so that if one of the two women should forget [or err][70] the other can remind her.[71]
There is no doubt that the reason for a plurality [of women in the Qur'anic verse] is [only] in recording testimony. However, when a woman is intelligent and remembers and is trustworthy in her religion, then the purpose [of testimony] is attained through her statement just as it is in her transmissions [in] religious [contexts].[90]
The results were clear-cut. Males were more accurate and less suggestible about the male-oriented items while females were more accurate and less suggestible about the female-oriented items. This finding provided clear support for the hypothesis that females and males tend to be accurate on different types of items, perhaps indicating their differential interest in particular items and corresponding differential amounts of attention paid to those items.[93]
Myth 4: Inheritance laws favor men over women
In Muslim countries, laws governing inheritance are derived from verses in the Quran; men generally receive larger, sometimes double, the shares that women get. Distant male relatives can supersede wives, sisters and daughters, leaving women not just bereaved but also destitute.[107]
The Moohummudan [sic] law of inheritance comprises, beyond question, the most refined and elaborate system of rules for the devolution of property that is known to the civilized world, and its beauty and symmetry are such that it is worthy to be studied, not only by lawyers with a view to its practical application, but for its own sake, and by those who have no other object in view than their intellectual culture and gratification.[108]
Myth 5: Muslim men oppress women through polygamy
Conclusion
Notes
[1] Thus we have the four most famous schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam—the schools of Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150 H), Mālik (d. 179 H), al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204 H), and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 240 H), but also less famously other scholars who taught their own fiqh even though they did not garner the same following as the earlier four: Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 181 H), al-Layth ibn Saʿd (d. 175 H), al-Awzāʿī (d. 157 H), Abū Thawr (d. 240 H), Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 H).
[2] For a broader contemporary example, see Hatem al-`Awni. Kayfa Nahmi Anfusina min akhta’ turathina al-ijtihadi. Online publication. http://www.dr-alawni.com/files/books/pdf/1522776431.pdf
[3] For instance, see Jesse Prinz, Morality is a Culturally Conditioned Response. Philosophy Now 82: 6-9 (2011).
[4] Ibn al-Qayyim, I’lam al-Muwaqi’een, (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyyah, 1991) vol. 3, p. 12.
[5] Al-Shatibi, Al-Muwafaqat, (Cairo: Maktaba Tijariya, 1975) vol. 1, p. 148.
[6] Makki ibn Abi Talib, Al-Hidayah fi Bulugh al-Nihayah, (Sharjah 2008). p. 1206.
[7] Sahih Muslim 2564. Hadith citations in this article reference the Arabic numerals used on the search engine Sunnah.com. Those compilations not present on that site are instead cited using the numbering on the Arabic site IslamWeb.net.
[8] Musnad Ahmad 5869.
[9] Al-Khattabi, Ma’ālim al-Sunan vol. 1, p. 79.
[10] For a comprehensive discussion, refer to Eagly, A. H., Beall, A. E., & Sternberg, R. J. (Eds.) (2004). The psychology of gender (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
[11] Miller, Ivy N., and Alice Cronin-Golomb. Gender Differences in Parkinson’s Disease: Clinical Characteristics and Cognition. Movement Disorders, 25.16 (20 10): 2695–2703; Viña J, Lloret A. Why women have more Alzheimer's disease than men: gender and mitochondrial toxicity of amyloid-beta peptide. J Alzheimers Dis. 2010; 20 Suppl 2: S527-33.
[12] Thibault V., Guillaume M., Berthelot G., et al. Women and Men in Sport Performance: The Gender Gap has not Evolved since 1983. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. 2010;9(2):214-223; Knechtle B., Rosemann T., Lepers R., Rüst C.A. Women outperform men in ultra distance swimming: The Manhattan Island Marathon Swim from 1983 to 2013. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2014 9(6):913-24.
[13] Weisberg Y. J., DeYoung C. G., Hirsh J. B. Gender Differences in Personality across the Ten Aspects of the Big Five. Frontiers in Psychology. 2011; 2:178. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00178.
[14] Adenzato, M. et al. Gender differences in cognitive Theory of Mind revealed by transcranial direct current stimulation on medial prefrontal cortex. Sci. Rep. 7, 41219; doi: 10.1038/srep41219 (2017).
[15] Zahn-Waxler, C., Robinson, J. L., & Emde, R. N. (1992). The development of empathy in twins. Developmental Psychology, 28(6), 1038-1047.
[16] Sahih Muslim, 2548b.
[17] One counterpoint being that “Empirically, sex differences in most psychological traits—in personality, sexuality, attitudes, and cognitive abilities—are conspicuously larger in cultures with more egalitarian sex role socialization and greater sociopolitical gender equity.” Schmitt, D. P. (2014). The evolution of culturally-variable sex differences: Men and women are not always different, but when they are . . . it appears not to result from patriarchy or sex role socialization. In V. A. Weekes-Shackelford, & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The evolution of sexuality (pp. 221-256). New York, NY: Springer.
[18] Buss, D. M., Abbott, M., Angleitner, A., Asherian, A., Biaggio, A., Blanco, A., et al. (1990). International preferences in selecting mates: A study of 37 cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 21, 5–47.
[19] Sunan al-Kubra al-Bayhaqi (14264).
[20] Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3367.
[21] Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1162.
[22] Sunan al-Kubra al-Bayhaqi 11095, Sunan Said ibn Mansur, 295. Ibn Hajar considers its isnad hasan (good) in Fath al-Bari (Dar al-Rayan 1986), vol 5, p. 253. Contemporary hadith scholar, Hatim al-`Awni, notes that while this report is mursal, its narration by early scholars demonstrates that “this concept of equality springs from deep within our Islamic tradition.”
[23] Korteweg, Anna. The Sharia Debate in Ontario: Gender, Islam, and Representations of Muslim Women’s Agency. Gender & Society, August 2008, p. 448.
[24] For a discussion of such arguments, see Anne Barnhill, “Modesty as a Feminist Sexual Virtue,” in Out From the Shadows: Analytical Feminist Contributions to Traditional Philosophy, edited by Sharon L. Crasnow and Anita M. Superson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 115-137. From a social psychology perspective, see Cikara, M., Eberhardt, J. L., & Fiske, S. T. (2011). From agents to objects: Sexist attitudes and neural responses to sexualized targets. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 540-551.
[25] Fraser, Nancy. How feminism became capitalism's handmaiden - and how to reclaim it. The Guardian. Oct 14, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/feminism-capitalist-handmaiden-neoliberal.
[26] Slaughter, Anne-Marie. Why Women Still Can’t Have it All. The Atlantic. 2012. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/
[27] Sunan Ibn Majah, 2341.
[28] Ibn Asakir, Tarikh al-Dimashq (13/312), related as a hadith from the Prophet ﷺ.
[29] Sunan Abi Dawud 2146, Sunan al-Darimi 2122 (included under “Chapter on the prohibition of hitting women”). See also Sahih Ibn Hibban 4186 which concludes with this ruling.
[30] Sunan Abi Dawud 2144.
[31] Sunan Ibn Majah, 2060.
[32] What is important about this narration is that the Prophet ﷺ does not seek any justification or explanation from al-Waleed; in other words, he considers al-Waleed’s actions unacceptable regardless of the circumstances. He immediately declares his protection for the wife and does not make her feel as though she was to blame in any way, shape, or form. This is precisely the type of decisive action needed to protect women experiencing domestic abuse.
[33] Musnad Ahmad (1303), Majma’ al-Zawa’id (7745). It was declared authentic by Ahmad Shakir – al-Musnad lil-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (Cairo: Dar al-Hadith), vol. 2, pp. 138-139.
[34] For instance, Abdul-Hamid Abu Sulayman in Darb al-Mar’a wasilah li-Hal al-Khilafat al-Zawjiyah (Cairo: Dar Al-Salam 1424H). 2nd edition. This perspective is regarded by its opponents as far-fetched as it represents a departure from the plain sense meaning of the verb.
[35] Ayesha Chaudhry reviews the traditional exegesis of 4:34 in her work Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition; however, some mischaracterizations arise from the dogmatic attempt to paint the ‘pre-colonial’ scholarly tradition as fundamentally unconcerned with the well-being of women or mutuality in marital love. For instance, we are told “Pre-colonial scholars never mentioned the reciprocal nature of the marital relationship” (p. 141) and it is only modern-day ‘neo-traditionalist scholars’ who “describe an ideal marriage as one that is premised on love and harmony, positing Q. 30:21 as the necessary context for understanding Q. 4:34” (p. 159). Yet, this is refuted by the fact that one of the earliest exegetes in the tradition, Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 333 H), directly cites 30:21 in his explanation of 4:34 arguing that disciplinary measures are not permitted until all other means of returning harmony (ulfa) and love (mahabbah) have been exhausted. Moreover, pre-modern scholars were clearly concerned about men abusing this text and thus went to great lengths to limit this ‘hitting’ and insist that it could leave no bruises or injuries. Furthermore, they emphasized that avoiding hitting would be better for the sake of preserving love in the marital relationship—as al-Buhuti records in Kashshaf al-Qanaa’ (Dar al-Fikr 1982, vol. 5, p. 210): “And what is given priority is abandoning hitting in order to preserve marital love” (wal-awla’ tark darbiha ibqa’a lil-mawadda).
[36] See Barbara Walters’s interview with Sean Connery, in which he doubled down on his controversial statement that hitting a woman is justifiable if her behavior ‘merits it.’
[37] It's no surprise that pre-modern jurists catered to that ubiquitous economic reality in their writings. Postindustrial egalitarianism shifts authority in the family so that the husband is not responsible for the discipline of the wife, although the hierarchical element that has remained is the perception that parents are still responsible for the physical discipline of their children. It is very interesting then to compare modern legislation about parents hitting children with the pre-modern juristic discussion on husbands hitting wives—both of which share a similar concern for distinguishing physical discipline from physical abuse and violence.
[38] E. Salisbury, G. Donavin, M.L. Price, Domestic Violence in Medieval Texts (Gainesville: University Press of Florida 2002), p.18.
[39] T. Alkiek, D. Mogahed, O. Suleiman, & J. A. C. Brown, “Islamic Perspectives on Domestic Violence,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/tesneem-alkiek/islam-and-violence-against-women-a-critical-look-at-domestic-violence-and-honor-killings-in-the-muslim-community/
[40] Al-Dasuqi, Hashiyat al-Dasuqi ala Sharh al-Kabir. Vol. 2, p. 343.
[41] Ibn Al-`Arabi, Abu Bakr. Ahkam al-Qur’an 4:34.
[42] Al-Qurtubi, Al-Jami’ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an, vol. 5, p.169.
[43] Ibn Ashur, al-Taḥrīr w-al-tanwīr, vol. 5, p.44. Discussed in Abdullah Hasan, “The End to Hitting Women: Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence,” MuslimMatters.org. n.p. 21 Dec 2013.
[44] Suyuti, Jami al-Saghir, 1088 and Ibn Sa’d, Tabaqat al-Kubra, 10516.
[45] See, for instance, M.R. Holmes, The sleeper effect of intimate partner violence exposure: Long-term consequences on young children's aggressive behavior. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 54, n. 9 (2013): 986-95; and S.V. Menon, J.R. Cohen, R.C. Shorey, J.R. Temple, The impact of intimate partner violence exposure in adolescence and emerging adulthood: A developmental psychopathology approach, J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. (2018): 1-12.
[46] Sahih Bukhari 6042.
[47] Abu Ishaq Al-Jahdami (d.282H). Ahkam al-Qur’an. (Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm 2005), p. 113. This is recorded with isnad (chain of transmission) from al-Jahdami to Ataa ibn Abi Rabah. The earliest source and the isnad are mentioned to note an error in two of the reasons used to dismiss Ataa’s opinion by Gabriel Al Romaani in “Domestic Violence: Critique of some modern opinions on Qur'an 4:34”. ICRAA.org. http://icraa.org/domestic-violence-critique-of-some-modern-opinions-on-quran-434/
[48] According to Ibn Uthaymeen (d.1421H), it is something that “cannot cause pain or hurt” (la yahsul bihi al-alam wal-adha’). http://audio.islamweb.net/audio/Fulltxt.php?audioid=112236
[49] Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi comments that this is from the profound insight of Ataa in that he ascertained that hitting was disliked (makruh) by integrating the Prophetic hadith in his interpretation of verse 4:34 (Ahkam al-Qur’an 4:34). Ibn Ashur takes Ataa’s perspective farther and links it with interpreting the verse as addressing legal authorities rather than husbands, and suggests that other scholars alluded to by Ibn al-Faras al-Gharnati would have agreed (Tahrir wal-Tanwir 4:34). Yet, there is something about Ataa’s statement that is not described by Ibn al-Arabi nor Ibn Ashur, and that is how it relates to his narrating Ibn Abbas’s comment on the siwak. According to Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman (“Darb al-Mar’a”, 2010, p. 18), there is a clear difference between taking the verse as referring to a gesture that is purely symbolic as indicated by Ibn Abbas’s statement versus hitting with intent to discipline. The value of Ataa’s statement is fully appreciated when interpreted as an explanation of Ibn Abbas’s comment.
[50] Sahih Muslim, 1479a.
[51] John L. Esposito, Women in Muslim Family Law (Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 2001), p. 29.
[52] Sunan Abi Dawud, 2178. Declared weak (da’if) by al-Albani.
[53] Judith Tucker, In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 109.
[54] Esposito, 30.
[55] Judith Tucker, Women, Family, and Gender in Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 91.
[56] As with almost any legal matter, both of these concepts—delegating and stipulating divorce—entail very nuanced discussions and differ based on legal school.
[57] The exception is in the Maliki school, which does not obligate husbands to pay for their children’s expenses in the custody of a wealthy mother.
[58] Esposito, 34.
[59] Esposito, 35.
[60] Tucker, Women, 95.
[61] Ibid.
[62] Ibid., 96.
[63] Ibid., 100.
[64] This does not mean that women throughout other empires or eras were not active in asserting their rights; rather, the Ottoman Empire was among the first in instituting official measures for notaries and recordings of court proceedings.
[65] Tucker, Women, p. 109. The author here notes that this is the apparent trend only, since ṭalāq divorces were not required to be recorded in court, and thus, cannot be measured against the number of khulʿ divorces recorded.
[66] Tucker, In the House of Family Law, p. 80.
[67] Tucker, In the House of Family Law, p. 81.
[68] Esposito, 53; Azizah al-Hibri and Hadia Mubarak, "Marriage and Divorce," The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World.
[69] al-Hibri and Mubarak, "Marriage and Divorce.”
[70] “an taḍillah” is often translated as forget or err depending on the English text.
[71] Verse 2: 282. Translation based on M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
[72] Mohammad Fadel, "Two Women, One Man: Knowledge, Power, and Gender in Medieval Sunni Legal Thought," International Journal of Middle East Studies 29, 2 (1997), 187.
[73]Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. Mafatih al-Ghayb verse 2:282. The Arabic reads: أَن تَضِلَّ إْحْدَاهُمَا فَتُذَكّرَ إِحْدَاهُمَا ٱلأُخْرَىٰ } والمعنى أن النسيان غالب طباع النساء لكثرة البرد والرطوبة في أمزجتهن. The invocation of such Hellenistic physiology in deliberations about women’s nature is widespread in the classical tradition of Muslim scholars, encountered for instance from Abu’l-Layth al-Samarqandi (d .375 H) in Transoxania (Bahr al-`Ulum exegesis of 4:34) to Abu Abdullah al-Qurtubi (d. 671 H) in Cordova (Jami’ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an exegesis of 4:34). Muslims seeking to ground Islamic orthodoxy in the tradition must distinguish between a commitment to those elements of the tradition which emerged from Hellenistic thought versus a commitment to those fundamentals of their tradition which are derived unequivocally from the sacred texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
[74] Jean-Baptiste Bonnard, Male and Female Bodies according to Ancient Greek Physicians, translated by Lillian E. Doherty and Violaine Sebillotte Cuchet. Clio 1, n. 37 (2013): 21-39.
[75] Ahlam Muhammad Ighbariyah. Shahadat al-Nisa: Dirasah Fiqhiyyah, Qanuniyah Muqaarinah, Masters Dissertation, Hebron University 2010. pp. 210-211.
[76] Ibid, pp. 94-95.
[77] Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah (Makkah: Dar 'Alam al-Fawa'id, 2007). P. 415.
[78] Mohammad Akram Nadwi, al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam (Oxford: Interface Publications, 2007), p. 18.
[79] Men like Urwah ibn al-Zubayr testified that Aisha was the most knowledgeable scholar amongst all the companions, and in many cases she contradicted and corrected the hadith of other companions like Abu Hurayrah or Ibn Umar, and no jurist in the history of Islam ever claimed that her testimony was less than theirs because she was a woman. Imam al-Shawkani (d. 1250 H) attests to this in his writings.
[80] Nadwi, p. 20.
[81] Nadwi, p. 21; Fadel, p. 189.
[82] Fadel, p. 188.
[83] Ibid.
[84] Fadel, p. 189.
[85] Fadel, p. 190.
[86] Fadel, 192. For a more detailed discussion on the hadith that this phrase is referring to, see Abu Amina Elias, “Are women deficient in intelligence and religion in Islam?”
[87] Fadel, pp. 193-6.
[88] Fadel, p. 194.
[89] Fadel, p. 197.
[90] Fadel, p. 197; Ibn al-Qayyim, Iʿlām al-muwaqqaīn, 3 vols., ed. Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raʾūf Saʿd (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, n.d.), 1:95.
[91] Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah (Makkah: Dar 'Alam al-Fawa'id, 2007), p. 430.
[92] See, for instance, Ja’far Sheikh Idris. Haqa’iq `Ulum al-Tajribiyyah...Haqa’iq Shar`iyyah. November 12, 2012. Majallah al-Bayan no. 149. Available online. Among the evidences the author cites is the hadith in which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did not prohibit intercourse with breastfeeding women (al-Gheelah) after noting that it was practiced by Romans and Persians without any ill effects to infants conceived as a result (Jami’ al-Tirmidhi 2221). The author precedes this with the comment, “There is a hadith which demonstrates the Prophet utilised as evidence empirical matters (haqa’iq al-waqi`iyah) in ascertaining religious rulings (al-masa’il al-shar`iyyah).”
[93] Loftus, E. F., Banaji, M. R., Schooler, J. W., & Foster, R. (1987). Who remembers what? Gender differences in memory. Michigan Quarterly Review, 26, p. 79. Other research has noted that women generally have advantages in short-term memory, working memory, facial memory, while men excel in visuospatial memory. Encyclopedia of Human Memory. Ed. Annette Kujawski Taylor. (Greenwood 2013). p. 509.
[94] Rashid Rida. Tafsir al-Manar. 12 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifah), vol. 3, p. 124-5.
[95] Gomaa, Ali. Al-Musawiya al-Insaniya fi’l Islam bayna Nadhariyya wal-Tatbeeq. Arabic: (لكن إذا تطورت خبراتها وممارساتها وعاداتها، كانت شهادتها حتى في الإشهاد على حفظ الحقوق والديون مساوية لشهادة الرجل). P.57. Available Online.
[96] Ibid. In his exegesis, Mafatih al-Ghayb, Al-Razi notes that in practice this is the ijmaa of the Muslims despite isolated viewpoints from Ibrahim al-Nakha’i and Ibn Jareer al-Tabari to the contrary.
[97] Al-Wahidi, Asbab Nuzul al-Qur’an (Beirut: Dar Al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah 1991), p.150.
[98] Mary F. Radford, The Inheritance Rights of Women Under Jewish and Islamic Law, 23 B.C. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 135 (2000), p. 135.
[99] Ibid., p. 193.
[100] Salah Soltan, Woman’s Inheritance in Islam: Discrimination or Justice?, trans. Gihan ElGindy (Hilliard: Sultan Publisher, 2004), p. 39.
[101]International Islamic Fiqh Academy. Jurisprudential leaflet on the divine justice on women and men's inheritance in Islamic Sharia. Prepared by Rashid Al Baloushi & Mohamed Albashir. Available online:. http://www.oic-iphrc.org/en/data/docs/articles_studies/jurisprudential_leaflet_divine_justice_women_inheritance_islam_en.pdf
[102] Nasr, Seyyid Hossein (ed.), The Study Qur’an (NY: HarperOne, 2015), p. 194.
[103] International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Op. Cit. p .65.
[104] Sunan al-Daraqutni (4/97) and Sunan al-Kubra of al-Bayhaqi (6/263).
[105] Ibn Abdul-Barr, Al-Tamheed (14/307). There is a minority of dissenting views with some scholars (from the four schools as well as the Dhahiris) unconditionally prohibiting any bequest to heirs (regardless of whether the other heirs consent) and others unconditionally permitting it. See Kitab al-Fara'id wal-Mawareeth wal-Wasaya of Dr. Muhammad al-Zuhayli (Damascus: Dar al-Kalim al-Tayyib 2001), pp. 440-5.
[106] Ibn al-Mundhir (d. 318 H) notes an early consensus on this point (al-Awsat fi al-Sunan wa-lIjma wa-l-Ikhtilaf, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, vol. 4, p. 378).
[107] Lindsey, Ursula. Can Muslim Feminism Find a Third Way? The New York Times. April 11, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/opinion/islam-feminism-third-way.html
[108] Almaric Rumsey, Moohummudan Law of Inheritance and right and relations affecting it: Sunni Doctrine, 3rd ed. (London: W.H. Allen, 1880) as cited in Alshankiti, Asma. A Doctrinal and Law and Economics Justification of the Treatment of Women in Islamic Inheritance Laws. Masters Thesis. 2012. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
[109] Translation of Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
[110] Mashhour, Amira, “Islamic Law and Gender Equality: Could There be a Common Ground?: A Study of Divorce and Polygamy in Sharia Law and Contemporary Legislation in Tunisia and Egypt,” Human Rights Quarterly (Volume 27: 2, May 2005), 568.
[111] Al-`Imrani, Yahya Ibn Abi Khayr. Al-Bayan fi Fiqh al-Imam Shafi’i. (Jeddah: Dar al-Minhaj 2000) vol. 11, p. 189.
[112] Mushir Hosain Kidwai, Women Under Different Social and Religious Laws: Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, 103 (1976).
[113] Rashid Rida. Tafsir al-Manar. 12 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifah), vol. 4, p. 349; Mashhour, Amira, “Islamic Law and Gender Equality,” 568.
[114] Souaiaia, Ahmed E, From Transitory Status to Perpetual Sententiae: Rethinking polygamy in Islamic Traditions. Hawwa (Volume 2: 3, 2004), 294.
[115] Ibid., and Nasr, Seyyid Hossein (ed.), The Study Qur’an (NY: HarperOne, 2015), p. 190.
[116] Mashhour, Amira, “Islamic Law and Gender Equality,” p. 569.
[117] Ibid., p. 1793.
[118] Tabaqat Ibn Sa’d (Cairo: Maktabat Khānjī, 2001), vol. 10, p. 195.
[119] Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi. Al-Mughni. (Cairo: Maktabah al-Qahirah 1968). Vol 7, pp. 92-93.
[120] Khazan, Olga. Multiple lovers without jealousy. July 21, 2014. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/multiple-lovers-no-jealousy/374697/
[121] Sheff, Elisabeth. How Many Polyamorists Are There in the U.S.?. Psychology Today. May 10, 2014. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-polyamorists-next-door/201405/how-many-polyamorists-are-there-in-the-us
[122] https://scroll.in/article/669083/muslim-women-and-the-surprising-facts-about-polygamy-in-india
[123] Mich`ele Tertilt. Polygyny and Poverty. Job Market Paper 2003. University of Minnesota. http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Tertilt2003.pdf
[124] 2003 Health and Demographic Survey. Atlas of Gender Development. OECD. p. 276.
[125] Dalton and Leung. Why Is Polygyny More Prevalent in Western Africa? An African Slave Trade Perspective. Volume 62, Number 4 | July 2014. Economic Development and Cultural Change.