Женщины-имамы в исламе: разногласия и дискуссии

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There is a difference of opinion among Muslims regarding the circumstances in which women may act as imams, i. e. to lead a mixed gendered congregation in salat (prayer). The orthodox position is that women cannot lead men in prayer (although they can lead women), which is justified by various Quranic verses and Hadith about the roles and responsibilities of men and women. A small number of schools of Islamic thought make exceptions for tarawih (optional Ramadan prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives. Women acting as leaders, teachers, and authorities in other capacities however is not deviating from the Islamic orthodoxy as women have never been restricted from becoming scholars, ulema, jurists, muftis, preachers, missionaries, or spiritual guides. There is a long history of female masters of Islamic sciences teaching men. Historically, certain sects have considered it acceptable for women to function as imams. This was true not only in the Arab heartland of early Islam, but in China over recent centuries, where women's mosques developed. The debate has been reactivated during the 21st century as the west and the world revisit sexism. Those critical of the ruling that women cannot lead congressional prayers have argued that the spirit of the Qur'an and the letter of a da'if (weak) hadith (saying of Mohammed) indicate that women should be able to lead mixed (albeit children) congregations, as opposed to sex segregated congregations, and they suggest that the prohibition against the practice originated from sexism in the medieval environment and from inaccurate patriarchal interpretations of religious texts, rather than from a spirit of "true Islam". Those who reply to these arguments typically mention that Islam has a long history of female scholarship and legal rulings and they claim that unlike other religions Islam never had a male dominated class of jurists. They also suggest that the arguments of those who support female leadership of congressional prayer often criticize the entire history of Islamic scholarship with sweeping accusations of patriarchy or sexism rather than pointing to jurisprudential methodologies or preexisting legal opinions, especially as preexisting rulings are the foundation of all judicial systems, and carry a lot of weight when jurists are considering new rulings.

The Qur'an does not address this issue; relevant precedents are therefore sought for in the hadith, the traditions attributed to Muhammad; the sunnah, his actions, including but not limited to hadith; and the principle of ijma, consensus. An indirectly relevant hadith is widely considered to be crucial, since the imam stands at the front of the congregation. The hadith in question is #881 of Sahih Muslim: "Abu Huraira said: The best rows for men are the first rows, as opposed to the last ones, and the best rows for women are the last ones as opposed to the first ones." The hadith of Umm Waraqa has given rise to debates among Islamic leaders on whether it is acceptable or not for women to lead prayers, including mixed gender congregational prayer. Umm Waraqa bint Abdallah, an Ansari woman, who knew the entire Quran, was instructed by Muhammad to lead ahl dariha, which consisted of both men and women, in prayer. The Arabic phrase means "the people of her home", but the ambiguity hangs on the exact translation of dar, "home", which can refer to one's residence, neighborhood, or village. The "people of Umm Waraqa’s home" were so numerous that Muhammad appointed a muezzin to call them to prayer. Umm Waraqa was one of the few to hand down the Quran before it was recorded in writing. She could do so because she had memorized the entire corpus. The use of the word dar in the hadith, when speaking of where the prayer was held, has resulted in different interpretations. A general translation is "area", constituting the community around where Umm Waraqa lived. This idea is not accepted by many scholars. Another translation of dar is "household", which would mean that Umm Waraqa led prayers in her home. Who was she leading? Imam Zaid presents three possibilities: the two servants of her household and the mu'ahdhin, or the women of her surrounding “area”, or only the women of her household. Each of these possibilities requires certain assumptions, but the most accepted is that Umm Waraqa was leading the women of her household, thus leading to the conclusion that women are allowed to lead prayers of all female congregations. Zaid insists that if Muhammed established a mosque in the household of a man, which was not uncommon, Itban b. Malik, then he must also have set up women only congregations.

Schools differ on whether a woman may be imam (leader) of a jama'ah (congregational) prayer if the congregation consists of women alone. Three of the four Sunni madhhabs—Shafi'is, Hanafis, and Hanbalis—allow this, although Hanafis consider it to be makrooh, a disliked act. (The fourth division, Malikis, do not permit women to lead women in prayer.) Where it is allowed, the woman stands among the congregation in the front row, instead of alone in front of the congregation. In 2000, six maraji among Iran's Shia leadership declared that they too allowed women to lead a woman only congregation, reversing a previous ban in that country. An unusual feature of Islam in China is the existence of nüsi, mosques solely for women. The imams and all the congregants are women and men are not allowed into the buildings. A handful of women have been trained as imams in order to serve these mosques. However, in at least some communities where these mosques operated, women were not allowed in the men's mosques. In recent years, efforts have been made to establish similar mosques in India and Iran.