Voices of Islam (134 page)

(Qur’an 3:104)

Achievement of the overriding purpose of life outlined in these verses pre- supposes a level of social and gender equality, freedom of speech and thought, and access to education, whether between spouses or siblings, kin or neighbors, or community members at large. For an individual, carrying out this purpose requires that the indicator light of God-consciousness be always ‘‘on.’’ For the community, it means that collective responsibility must be borne for fulfi ling this purpose. This is the true meaning of the phrase, ‘‘Islam is a way of life,’’ which some modern thinkers seem to find so mysteri- ous and excessive. It makes mockery of a concept that has often been touted as a goal of Western governmental policies toward Muslims, namely that they should become secularized and that Islam should become a mere accessory, a bland but perhaps mildly interesting cultural identity. If the principles of Islam are linked to daily life in essential and convincing ways, then it is difficult to see how one could conceive of separating the Islamic faith from the daily life of Muslims. Such an option would leave daily life without purpose or substance in the absence of the spiritual goals that daily life in Islam is meant to support.

NOTES

1. Sahih al-Bukhari,
   Hadith 1.51, cited from
   The Alim,
   software.
   

2. See, for example, ‘‘Morning and Evening
   Du‘a,
   ’’
   http://www.geocities.com/ mutmainaa/dua1/morn_and_evening.html.
   Du‘a
   is the Arabic word for a prayer of supplication.
   

   The Fabric of Muslim Daily Life
   33
   

3. Sahih Muslim,
   hadith 475, cited from
   The Alim,
   software.
   

4. Sahih al-Bukhari,
   hadith 2.12, cited from
   The Alim,
   software.
   

5. See, for example, http://pages.britishlibrary.net/smb/halal.htm.
   

6. See, for example, the guidelines of the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians, Toronto, Canada. These Halal guidelines can be found at the web site, http://www.jucanada.org/halalguidelines.htm.
   

7. Ezzedin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davies,
   Forty Hadith Qudsi
   (Beirut: The Holy Koran Publishing House, 1980), Hadith Qudsi 4, 48.
   

8. See for example, Yusuf Islam,
   Prayers of the Last Prophet
   (London, U.K.: Mountain of Light, 1998), 18, and many other sources with similar texts.
   

9. Sherman A. Jackson, ‘‘Jihad and the Modern World,’’
   The Journal of Islamic Law and Culture,
   7 (Spring/Summer 2002): 1.
   

10. The most common supplication for travel is cited in Yusuf Islam,
    Prayers of the Last Prophet
    , 18. It includes part of the Qur’an and is as follows: ‘‘God is the greatest, God is the greatest, God is the greatest. How perfect is He, the One who has placed this [transport] at our service, for we ourselves would not have been capable of this. To our Lord is our final destiny. O God, we ask You for piety and blessing in this jour- ney of ours, and we ask You for deeds which please You. O God, ease our journey and let us cover its distance quickly. O God, You are the companion on the journey and the Trustee of the family. O God, I take refuge with You from the difficulties of travel, from having a change of heart and being in a bad predicament, and I take refuge in You from an ill-fated outcome in wealth and family.’’
    

11. See for example, http://www.duas.org/routine.htm.
    

12. See for example, the map of Muslim populations from
    The Islam Project,
    

    2003, http://www.theislamproject.org/education/Africa_Mideast_etc.html.
    

13. Umar Faruq Abdullah,
    Islam and the Cultural Imperative, a Nawawi Foun- dation Paper
    (Chicago, Illinois: The Nawawi Foundation, 2004). h
    ttp://www. nawawi.org/courses/index_reading_room.html.
    

14. Richard W. Bulliet,
    Islam: the View from the Edge
    (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 185–207.
    

15. Steven Runciman,
    A History of the Crusades, Volume III
    (London, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1951), 472.
    

16. Sahih al-Bukhari,
    hadith 8.336.
    

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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The Family Structure in Islam.
Indianapolis, IN: American Trust Publications, 1977.

———.
Islam in Focus.
Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 1998.

Ahmed, Akbar S.
Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World.
London, U.K.: I.B. Taurus, 1999.

Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans.
The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an.
Brentwood, MD: Amana Corporation, 1993.

Bulliet, Richard W.
The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

34
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society

Douglass, Susan L., ed.,
World Eras: Rise and Spread of Islam, 622-1500.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Esposito John L., ed.,
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.

New York : Oxford University Press, 1995.

———.
Islam: The Straight Path
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Ibrahim, Ezzedin, and Denys Johnson-Davies, eds. and transl.
An-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith: an Anthology of the Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.
Cambridge, U.K. : Islamic Texts Society, 1997.

———.
Forty Hadith Qudsi
. Beirut: Dar al-Koran al-Kareem, 1980.

Jackson, Sherman A. ‘‘Jihad and the Modern World,’’
The Journal of Islamic Law and Culture,
7:1 (Spring/Summer 2002).

Naqvi, Syed N. Haider.
Ethics and Economics: An Islamic Synthesis.
Leicester, U.K.: The Islamic Foundation, 1981.

Nasr, Sayyid Hossein.
Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man.
London, U.K.: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1986.

———.
Islam, Islamic Secularism and the Environmental Crisis.
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Pickthall, Muhammad M. trans.
The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an.
New York: Muslim World League, 1977.

Robinson, Francis.
Atlas of the Islamic World Since 1500.
New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1982.

Runciman, Steven.
A History of the Crusades, Volume III.
London, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1951.

Shah, Shahid N.
The Alim Islamic Software, Release 4.5–6.0
ISL Software, Inc., 1986– 1996.

Smart, Ninian, and Heritage, Ailsa, eds.
Atlas of the World’s Religions.
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The Islam Project at www.theIslamProject.org.

Von Denffer, Ahmad.
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[One day with the Prophet].

Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1981.

2
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I
SLAM
, C
ULTURE
,
AND
W
OMEN IN A

B
ANGLADESH
V
ILLAGE

•

Sarwar Alam

Whatever way it is defi power is a factor that infl the lives of all people. In studying power and powerlessness in Appalachia, John Gaventa observed that the feeling of powerlessness comes about as a response to the perceived experience of defeat.
1
He found that belief systems that justify powerlessness as a natural condition are created by social and economic factors that lead one to think that a person does not have the power to affect one’s course of life. This study complements Gaventa’s fi ngs by examining the perceptions of power and powerlessness among village women in Bangladesh. Power has different meanings for Bangladeshi men and women in many aspects of life, including decision making in the family or community, employment, health care, and education. Such differences in the understanding of power often stem from religion because power-laden issues such as inheritance, marriage and divorce, custody of children, and social mobility are governed, at least in part, by religious laws and customs. Hence, it is natural to conclude that religion would have an important infl on the perceptions of power and powerlessness among Muslim women in the rural communities of Bangladesh.

Experience shows that the statuses of men and women are not the same in many Muslim societies. This impression is reinforced by data such as the sex ratio of the population, maternal mortality rates at childbirth, and the different rates of adult literacy between men and women. In Bangladesh, the male–female ratio is 104:100, and 87 percent of the country’s population is Muslim.
2
Bangladesh is also an agrarian country; 76.61 percent of its population live in rural areas and 51.3 percent of the civilian labor force are engaged in agriculture.
3
Although agriculture is the dominant sector of the economy, the government traditionally gives priority to urban development, which is refl in the resource allocations of the central government’s annual development programs. The unequal allocation of resources creates

36
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society

unequal development patterns between urban and rural areas and between men and women in the country as a whole.

In addition, the rise of religious politics in recent decades has adversely affected the position of women. From the very inception of Bangladesh in 1971, the government has taken constitutional, legislative, and administra- tive initiatives to address inequalities between men and women. Such initia- tives have included the establishment of equal rights for every citizen irrespective of gender, ethnicity, or faith; quotas for women in Parliament as well as in local government bodies; a family law ordinance, the Child Marriage Restraint Act, the Prohibition of Dowry Act, and the Violence Against Women and Children Act; tuition waivers and stipends for female students up to grade 12; and quotas for women in all public sector jobs.
4
Despite these governmental initiatives, however, disparities between the male and female populations of Bangladesh still exist, especially in the rural areas. For example, the adult literacy rate of urban and rural males is 77.1 and

57.3 percent, respectively, whereas the adult literacy rate for urban and rural females is 59.7 and 37.8 percent, respectively.
5
Life expectancy at birth is more equally distributed; it is 72.9 years for a male and 72.7 years for a female in the urban areas, but 67.1 years for a male and 66.2 years for a female in the rural areas. The maternal mortality rate per 1,000 live births is 2.7 in the urban areas, whereas it is 4.2 in the rural areas.
6
Disparity is also visible between males and females in the political arena. For example, out of 300 general Members of Parliament in Bangladesh, only seven are women.
7

In discussing the roots of gender inequality, Amartya K. Sen has drawn attention to factors such as adapted perceptions, customary patterns, and social arrangements.
8
Some researchers have argued that gender inequality is related to intrahousehold decision-making processes that determine re- source allocations for education, training, health, and nutrition.
9
Feminist theorists have discussed the issue of inequality and the subordination of women in terms of sexuality and the sexual division of labor resulting from social change, colonialism, dependency, and modernization.
10
Some researchers argue that women’s issues are subsumed in the nationalist discourse without acknowledging women’s sufferings and contributions, and the prevalence of inequalities between males and females.
11