A gender-inclusive approach to Qu'ranic exegesis. Wadud breaks down specific texts and key words which have been used to limit women's public and private role, even to justify violence toward Muslim women, revealing that their original meaning and context defy such interpretations. Her analysis clarifies the lack of gender bias, precedence, or prejudice in the essential language of the Qur'an.

The Prophet Muhammad’s reported traditions have evolved significantly to affect the social, cultural, and political lives of all Muslims. There has been a lack of focus on the contents of these narratives, known as Hadith or Sunnah, and their corroboration by the Qur`an. This book is a first step in a comprehensive attempt to contrast Hadith with the Qur`an in order to uncover some of the unjust practices by Muslims concerning women and gender issues.

Drawing on both revealed and interpretative Muslim texts, Ali critiques medieval and contemporary commentators alike to produce a balanced and comprehensive study of a subject both sensitive and urgent.

What did it mean to be a wife, woman, or slave in a society in which a land-owning woman was forbidden to lay with her male slave but the same slave might be allowed to take concubines?

Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be "Islamic," while many Muslims read the Qur'an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer's reading of the Qur'an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings.

It has been argued that Islam liberated Muslim women by granting them full rights as citizens. Yet we see that women have long been subjected to both cultural and political oppression. What are Muslim women to make of this?

In this comprehensive text, Mernissi argues that Islamic fundamentalism is in part a defense against recent changes in sex roles and perceptions of sexual identity.

Convinced that the veil is a symbol of unjust male authority over women, in The Veil and the Male Elite, Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi aims to investigate the origins of the practice in the first Islamic community.

Faith and Freedom examines domestic and political violence against women resulting from cultural segregation, conflicting legal codes, and the monopoly on the interpretation of Islamic texts by a select group of male theologians. It includes recommendations on empowering Muslim women to participate in general socialization and in public policy.

A collection of essays brings together voices from the most recent development in Muslim women's studies, namely, the burgeoning network of Muslim women working on issues of women's human rights through engaged revisionist scholarship in such areas as theology, law and jurisprudence, and women's literature.

Today, the issue of Muslim women is held hostage between two perceptions: a conservative Islamic approach and a liberal Western approach. At the heart of this debate Muslim women are seeking to reclaim their right to speak in order to re-appropriate their own destinies, calling for the equality and liberation that is at the heart of the Qur'an.

Islamic scriptural sources offer potentially radical notions of equality. Yet medieval Islamic philosophers chose to establish a hierarchical, male-centered virtue ethics. In Gendered Morality, Zahra Ayubi rethinks the tradition of Islamic philosophical ethics from a feminist critical perspective.

The relationship between Islam and feminism is complex. There are many Muslim scholars who fervently promote women's equality. At the same time, there is ambivalence regarding the general norms, terminology, and approaches of feminism and feminist theology.

This work explores the earliest extant discussions on the authority of the Hadith in Islam and compares them with contemporary debates. What makes this book unique is that it is the first study to take into account both the earliest and most recent discussions of the oral tradition of the prophet Muhammad.

A literal and holistic reading of the Quran's discussion of humanity, gender, intercultural, and inter-religious relations.