SO IT IS THE MOVING FINGER WRITES?

CHIEF SECRETARY OFFICIAL OPENING ADDRESS
FORUM ON WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP FROM ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW)

Bismillahir rahmaanir rahim
Assalamualaikum and A Very Good Afternoon,

Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Dr. Noorul Ainur Mohd. Nur,
Secretary General, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development

Y. Bhg Datuk Dr. Rafiah Salim,
Director, NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW)

Yang Berhormats,
Secretaries General,
Directors General,
Your Excellency Ambassadors and High Commissioners,
Distinguished panellists

Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri-Tan Sri, Dato’-Dato’, Datin-Datin, Professors,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to be at this Event. In the course of preparing for today, when “Women in Islam” was Googled, there were over 1.2 million hits on this topic. Even more staggering was on “Women and Islam”, there were almost 43 million results on the subject.

2. The subject of Women and Islam, or Women in Islam is a charged one. This is often enveloped by many preconceptions, prototypes, stereotypes, not least biases, depending on which side of the aisle you are writing a judgement from. Much of the heat often surrounds the topics of women’s roles and their rights. This is often then benchmarked and evaluated to Western and secular prerequisites of a woman’s place in society.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

WOMEN WHO CHARTERED FUTURE

3. Ibn Battuta (February 25, 1304–1368 or 1369), was a Moroccan Berber scholar and traveller whose journey lasted for a period of nearly thirty years. He covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. In his mémoire he wrote of one of his most memorable teachers, Zaynab Bint al Kamal. From Damascus in Syria she transmitted popular and major works such as Sahih al Bukhari, Muslim and the Muwatta. These are some of the most trusted books that compiled the traditions (or hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Ibn Battuta received a degree from Zaynab and in his book, Rihlat Ibn Battuta, he calls her a “traveller of the world”. Her rise was during a time when women in western civilisations had not even seen schools, never mind being educated. It was a time when Muslim women were at the forefront of the science of knowledge.

4. In his memoires too, Ibn Battuta wrote of Razia Sultan, the Sultana of Delhi in India in the 13th Century. Razia Sultan rose to become the fifth Mamluk Sultan and was one of the few female sovereigns in the history of Islamic civilisation. She was the first woman to rule India. Razia is said to have pointed out that the spirit of religion was more important than its parts. She established schools, academies, centres for research, and public libraries that included the works of ancient philosophers along with the Qur’an and the traditions of Muhammad.

5. The number of prominent Muslim women who have made our history make a formidable list. Some of the prominent Muslim women leaders in the early centuries include Shajar ad-Durr, the Sultana of Egypt who led resistance against 7th Crusade and captured King Louis IX. Shaghab who ruled Abbasid Empire due to her economic power as a land owner giving rise to the independent property rights of Muslim women. Governors and judges reported to her. Rabi’ah Bint Mu’awwad, a great scholar of fiqh who taught intellectual scholars of Madinah.

6. I will not do justice in this limited time to list the many women who have written the history of Islamic civilisation over the last 1,400 years. It is safe to say that if asked, we can each name at least 5 Muslim women who made history. Such was their stature. Such was their legacies. Such indeed was their influence in the history that wrote our futures today.

JUST ROLES – – NOT AUTONOMY?

7. But today, when the subject of “Women and Islam”, with whichever conjunction we choose to use is raised, the obsession, if you like, always centralise on the role of women and their rights. For centuries Muslim scholars have reasoned women in terms of their roles as daughters, as wives and mothers and as sisters. They have debated and prescribed the respective rights, roles and responsibilities by pigeon holing them in these simplified silos.

8. Perhaps the alignment of this entire discourse needs to change, and change altogether. We need to simply discuss “women” as “women”, first and foremost. A “being” who have a relationship with her Creator and herself, before any obligation to anyone else. Discuss their rights as a “person”, their own persons. Someone who is autonomous and self-governing and not whose identity is defined by their roles and attachments.

9. This discourse becomes urgent in a world that is made up of almost 50% of female. It becomes relevant as they make the core of life itself. If the discourse on women is subjugated to roles rather than personal responsibility, the outcomes of a person would not be optimal. There is a dire need for a comprehensive debate on the tacit issues that relates to Muslim women’s identity with their own communities and the society at large.

THE KING MAKERS
10. The Quran often portray viewpoints through personalities. Some of the most poignant personalities in the Quran are of women. Queen of Sheba, or Bilqis, the exemplary leader; the mother of Moses surrendering her son to the will of God; Asiya the wife of Pharoah begging God for protection from the oppression of her husband; and Maryam dedicating her unborn child to the service of God. The story of Prophet Isa (PBUH) is probably the most gripping, so much so the Chapter (Surah) is named after her, Suratul Maryam.

11. Dr. Jeffrey Lang an American Muslim, and Professor of Mathematics at Kansas University who embraced Islam in the 1980s wrote in his acclaimed book, “Struggling to Surrender” and I quote, “An interesting observation is that while the men portrayed in the Quran range from utterly despicable disbelievers to noble prophets, all dramatisation involving women are ultimately positive”.

Ladies and Gentlemen

SHED VICTIM SYNDROME, GET ORGANISED

12. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “The search for knowledge is obligatory for all Muslim men and women.” He exemplified this by having women fight side by side with him on battle fields, trade in markets, lead in knowledge and jurisprudence. His own wife Khadījah bint Khuwaylid was a successful business woman.

13. Like men, women must be an accountable proponent of all societies – from the United States of America to Egypt, Europe and Malaysia, they make society not by quota, but by participation, by their intellectual strength and on their own ontological terms. The writings of a society’s destiny lie as much in the hands of men as they do in women. This is why it is often said that when you educate a woman, you educate a whole village. She bears and nurtures a family, builds a home and she makes the face of a community. The progression of any society today is seen in the status that society grants their women, not necessarily of their men.

14. But influence comes with responsibility. Muslim women must shed the “victim mentality” and take personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is the core to life itself. By succumbing to being a victim, we isolate ourselves psychologically from the world around us. Muslim women must acquire understanding of their own faith and tackle intellectually the arguments often put forward by the seemingly patriarchal viewpoints of men. They must attain knowledge, confront the tough issues and be part of the solution.

15. Muslim women must drive integration in societies, be key contributors in the countries they call home. They must compete on intellect, on knowledge, on substance and have equal access as men in all aspects of a country’s economy. When as a community and nation, not least civilisation, we rise to these benchmarks, no job can be out of bounds to women; we will not need to debate salary disparity by gender, but only debate on capability. This I am persuaded lies in the hands of women themselves. Simply put, Muslim women must get themselves organised and not leave their lives to the world to decide.

16. Zaynab Al-Ghazali was a prominent Egyptian activist and arguably the most famous woman Islamist internationally. In an interview at home in Heliopolis, Egypt in 1981 she said:
“Islam has provided everything for both men and women. It gave women everything – – freedom, economic rights, political rights, social rights, public and private rights. Islam gave women rights in the family granted by no other society. Women may talk of liberation in Christian society, Jewish society, but in Islamic society it is a grave error to speak of the liberation of women. The Muslim woman must study Islam so she will know that it is Islam that has given her all her rights”.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

UNIVERSALITY OF FAITH

17. Islam is a universal religion for all times. It should therefore follow that there is room for diversity, both in space and time. As there is room for many different interpretations, there must also be room for evolution with the passing of time. The importance of critical reasoning – or ijtihad – in Islam, cannot be overemphasised and underscored for these times. These are times when we need to seek solutions for current realities and prepare for the unknowns of the future by challenging status quo, by questioning the rules that has been. Times when we need to search for answers to honour life itself for the common good of all who make humanity.

MAKERS OF OUR DESTINY

18. Literature and history of Islam is filled with injunctions on the importance of education and knowledge. The centrality it has placed on ethics and personal responsibility is core to our own Shahadah, the Muslim declaration of belief, and the pillars of Islam. We are the witness to our own actions, witness to the outcomes of our actions. We are the makers of our own destinies.

19. The essence of personal responsibility is the crux to changing our own circumstances. Whatever our surroundings may be made up to be, it is our own personal responsibility and the collective responsibility of a society that can change a state of any community. This is clearly stated in Surah (Chapter) ar-Ra’ad, Verse 11 – 13:11
“God does not change the condition of people until they change what is in
themselves”.

This verse puts it to us that our destiny to improve our own conditions, our own states lies not on others but rather in taking this responsibility ourselves.

20. Malaysia has and continues to offer much access and opportunities for women, Muslims and non Muslims alike. As women in this society, you can and must define those critical success factors. We take pride in the many leading women in our society, Muslims and non Muslims. Malaysia’s first woman Minister, the late Tun Dr Fatimah Hashim was appointed Welfare Minister on May 20, 1969. We have since seen many more women in politics, in the corporate spheres and leading NGOs. But we can do better and we need to do better at all stratums of our society. Women must feel empowered. That empowerment is not liberalisation but a right as a human being. That empowerment comes with education and the eco-system we set and approve collectively and communally as a society.

THE ECO-SYSTEM OF LARGER WORLD

21. Ali bin Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661 was quoted saying, “A person is either Your Brother in Faith or Your Equal in Humanity.”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

22. Our roles, men and women alike, are to our societies at large and not to only parts of it. Whether in Malaysia, China, France, Kazakhstan, India or Indonesia, we must work with the rest of humanity on contemporary crises and agree on common ethical principles, without compromising our own faith when addressing crises with our own societies or internationally.

23. Whether we can seek consensus on common ethics is another question entirely. But this discourse must be given room. Our collective future cannot be shaped on one rule, one perspective. Even amongst Muslims we have varying interpretations. We must build alliances with the global communities to change the parameters we judge success – from simple profit to dignity and justice for all, for instance. Seek solutions on how we define common values, what wealth really means and what radical changes we must make to save the environment and how to deliver ethical economies. How poverty, epidemic and corruption can be eradicated in societies? Empower those sidelined by globalisation and provide equitable equity for all to make it in this life – – men, women, Muslims and non-Muslims. Why? Because how we define these parameters and set them in motion today will be the backdrop we establish for the generations to come. It is then our choices as individuals, communities and societies how we’d like this backdrop to develop.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

THE MOVING FINGER WRITES

24. Permit me to leave you with these thoughts, please. Omar Khayyam, Persian by origin was an Islamic scholar, a poet as well as a mathematician. He compiled astronomical tables and contributed to calendar reforms and discovered a geometrical method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle. One of his most quoted poems in the Western world which has seen many translations is “The Moving Finger Writes”. It reads as follows:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

25. This poem has seen many interpretations. In its element, it challenges choice over predestined lives. How much choice do we have to shape our lives? How much is simply predestined? In the book of life, are we the writers or the subject, the paper or the pen? Is it not our moral and personal responsibility to make a difference, albeit inconsequential, in this life? Is that not what this journey is all about for each of us? Do we then blame the moving finger writes for our ills, or are our conditions a mirror of our own actions?

26. The answers to these questions will anchor us all back to the essence of personal responsibility. It will anchor us back to the very grain of our purpose in this life. It will ultimately anchor us back to our roles and responsibilities as men and women. I hope the Panel will deliberate some of these in its discussion.

27. I thank you again for inviting me. I would like to congratulate NIEW and SENADA for organising this Forum. I am pleased to now officially open the Forum on Women in Leadership from Islamic Perspective.

Wabillahittaufiq walhidayah
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh.