Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam by Amina Wadud

raised to fulfill the view of themselves as masters, providers, and protectors in the family. Such characteristics of manhood minimize the ideals of deference to women, women’s services, to children, and even
    among themselves,
    but this deference is not equally emphasized in the
    development of manhood. Instead, autonomy and independence are woven into the ideas about their Islamic responsibility as leaders in both the public and the private domain. Occasionally taqwa for men might be referred to through the rhetoric of a Friday khutbah ( sermon) or in community discus-
    sions. It remains disconnected from fundamental or intimate
    family
    relationships of genuine spousal reciprocity since its discussion remains locked within the rhetorical double-talk and the language of complement- arity. Furthermore, the domestic parameters of taqwa are never essentially integrated as a basis for public policy. The purpose of public policy has been

    What’s in a Name? 41

    the power of men in the male public space. Women and women’s organiza- tions increasingly raise issues of the domestic realm and the politics of family as a mandatory part of public policy. Therefore an epistemological schism forms, which restricts the dynamic incorporation of taqwa from its comprehensive contribution to the building of public policies and for its private establishment within men as fundamental to a truly just social order. Taqwa is one of those few principal theoretical ideals or concepts outlined here as part of the foundation of a paradigm shift in the movement to attain social justice in the context of today’s Muslim communities. As I mentioned above, my first inspiration to consider these ideas from the Qur’anic worldview was Rahman’s insistence that the purpose of the
    Qur’an was to establish a just social order. 52 As a conceptual ideal the word
    taqwa continuously surfaces in confessional discourse. Here I draw directly from female inclusive readings of their fundamental Qur’anic origin in order to mainstream women’s voices into political reforms.
    Therefore these articulations are premised upon some of the inter- relations between previously existing themes and principles such as tawhid (the unicity of God), khalifah (moral agent), and taqwa intentionally recon- structed to build more gender-inclusive understanding of human nature and to effect changes in laws and governance on behalf of Muslim women’s mainstreaming in “Islam.” Taqwa is essential to the moral attitude of the agent as an individual as well as a member of society since it assists in activating the tawhidic principle, both as a matter of personal practice and as the basis for extensive Islamic legal reform. Injustice is a sign of neglecting these concepts. Muslim women have been victims of such injustice in their homes, in Islamic cultural practices, and in public policies, in various ways in modernity as the idea of empire is transformed into that of nation-state.
    Despite the utility of these social justice aspects of tawhid and khalifah , I reiterate that theory alone will not suffice to bring an end to patriarchy and gender asymmetry. There is a crucial interplay between belief in certain ideas and the practical implementation of gender justice in the context of the present global circumstances. This book will address this further in various ways since the relationships between theory and practice, and between Islamic ideas, ideals, goals, and the historical development of shari‘ah , all bear some effect on efforts to construct gender-equal Islamic reforms.

    42 inside the gender jihad

    Justice and Human Dignity
    I further developed my ideas about the importance of considering the implications and significance of underlying ideas about human nature as related to the politics of gender theory and reform when I read Alison Jaggar’s groundbreaking book, Feminist Politics and Human Nature . 53 One objective of her book was to highlight the underlying