Rachel's Week 3 Post

I think one big point that was raised in the two sections of "A Tradition of Misogyny" is the reliability of the misogynistic Hadith. The fact that many of them are merely things men claimed to have heard the Prophet Muhammad say shows that they cannot be taken as full truth. The example of Abu Bakra, the author of some Hadith, being punished for false testimony shows the dangers of treating Hadith like real truth. Some Hadith even appear to be contradictory to other teachings of the Prophet. Mernissi describes this conflict. "'Why would the Prophet' have said a Hadith like that, which does me harm? Especially since this saying doesn't correspond at all with what they tell us elsewhere about the life of Muhammad.'" This question which the author asked herself at age 16, shows the discrepancy that can exist between the teachings of Muhammad and some of the Hadith.

To illustrate this, Mernissi examines the Hadith, "Three things bring bad luck: house, woman, and horse," and the history surrounding it. According to 'A'isha, this Hadith was only part of a quote from the Prophet. "'A'isha responded: 'Abu-Huraya learned his lessons very badly. He came into our house when the Prophet was in the middle of a sentence. He only heard the end of it. What the Prophet said was: "May Allah refute the Jews; they say three things bring bad luck: house, woman, and horse.'" A lack of full context gives this Hadith a completely different meaning. So many factors, such as context and reliability of the narrator, influence the reliability of a Hadith. None can be taken as infallible.

Far from attacking the credibility of the Hadith or calling for their rejection, Mernissi brings up these examples to show that there is hope. Instead of just accepting the misogynistic Hadith as infallible truth, people have a right to examine these claims for reliability and how they compare to the other teachings of Muhammed. Women don't have to just accept that misogyny is the way things are. They can investigate for themselves the way the deserve to be treated.