THE RESPONSE OF QURAISH SHIHAB TO THE BIAS OF FEMINISTS

This item is published by Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya

Mukhtar, Naqiyah (2012) THE RESPONSE OF QURAISH SHIHAB TO THE BIAS OF FEMINISTS. In: Conference Proceedings: Annual International Conference on Islamic Studies (AICIS) XII, 5 – 8 November 2012, Surabaya – Indonesia.

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Abstract

Some feminists’ views are regarded as biased by Quraish Shihab. These viewpoints,according to Shihab, were due to excessive enthusiasm to protect women from the old bias, besides, they rest on a claim of absolute equality between men and women. So, they ignored the arguments that do not absolutely equalize men and women and they even thought that Islam abuses women. Therefore, these produced views that are inconsistent with the naš or it’s spirit, and the religious guidelines. That was why Shihab urged that these views needed to be reconsidered and realigned with the teachings of Islam, in harmony with the nature of women. This study resulted in three points, first, Shihab’s responses to the contemporary views can be grouped into three categories: 1. Shihab completely rejected equality of inheritance between sons and daughters, the right of divorce to a wife, and a wife as a breadwinner obligation in addition to her husband. 2. Shihab did not fully reject the necessity of guardian in marriage, the requirement of an agreement between the prospective bride and her guardian, the obligation of ‘iddah for men is a merely religious moral obligation, and wife beating permission is sometimes still needed. 3. Shihab accepted the feminists’ opinion of women's testimony.Second, the difference between Shihab’s and the feminists’ point of views is due to the fact that they used different methodological approach and in defining the nature of women. Although Shihab and feminists scholars who were considered as bias, they both claimed that their ideas were based on the text and its spirit, but they used them in different portions. Furthermore, Shihab responded contemporary issues with a deductive approach, which was grounded from the texts and then he interpreted it textually to the the qaţ'ī verses, then, for the verses that were considered as żannī he interpreted it contextually. While the feminists responded contemporary issues with an inductive approach (empirical) and then looked for arguments in the texts to interpret it contextually. Moreover, these differences occured because of their differences in defining the nature of women. Feminists define it with something that is physically attached to the reproductive organs in women. While for Shihab, the nature of women is not only that, but also includes gender roles. Third, I argue that if Shihab and feminists used the same methods and had the same definition of the nature of women, they would produce more or less the same views. The primary reference is Perempuan Dari Cinta Sampai Seks Dari Nikah Mut'ah Sampai Sunnah Dari Bias Lama Sampai Bias Baru by Shihab. The Data were analyzed with the maqasid al-Syarī‘ah approach and gender perspectives. The significance of this study is to explain theoretical views of feminists who are considered as biased by Shihab as well as Shihab’s response to these problems. In addition, it analyzes the response of Shihab against the views of feminists which are considered as biased in the gender perspective.