Promoted to the front page
If I'd been in an actual classroom, I would have walked out in protest. But as this is an online class, I'm trying to distract myself in the hope that I'll be able to listen without wanting to scream at my computer. The insanity being peddled as fiqh sets my teeth on edge sometimes, and it makes me even crazier when it's insanity I paid to hear.
I signed up for a short class on the fiqh of menstruation and lochia. I could swallow inconsistencies and seeming illogic regarding past rulings, presuming that certain medical facts wouldn't always be known to medieval religious scholars. But for an American woman born in the 20th century to think up and spout the rubbish I heard today just takes the cake. The discussion turned to tampon use during Ramadan, and while I didn't immediately see the connection, I figured it would make loads of sense by the time I took it all in. It still doesn't. Apparently, if any substance enters your vagina (water, urine) while fasting, it breaks the fast. So if I shove a piece of cake in there, does it count as eating? And does this mean that any substances that may be in the vagina from the, ahem, previous evening, must be washed out before Fajr? I guess giving birth, then, counts as vomiting. I certainly hope it's that easy- hurling is a snap compared to shoving a person out of your body. (Schenectady, chill. I promise not to eat you- with any part of my anatomy.)
Another question was about gynecological exams and their effect on virginity. Many fatawa on medical matters have been quite pragmatic, and I thought that the possibility of a broken, stretched, or absent hymen would take a backseat to the need to protect and preserve the health of a young woman. I thought wrong. The professor claimed that the routine gynecological exam wasn't necessary for good Muslim women; that the only women who needed to be checked for CANCER were the bad girls who ran around having sex with uncircumcised men. So, if you're a Muslim girl who develops a yeast infection due to antibiotics or diabetes, very painful cramps or other irregularities and you decide to seek medical treatment, congratulations. You are now a hussy. The chicks who let infections rage while having oral or anal sex with their boyfriends can lord it over you, as they are "virgins", and you are one no longer, even if you've not so much as held a guy's hand. Got to love it.
How much of this can I swallow before I can bring a lick of sense to the party? How many people will I be required to transmit this stuff to before I can issue a disclaimer- "The stuff you're about to hear is rubbish, but it's what's on the books now. Please excuse the insanity while we remodel fiqh." And more importantly, how am I going to get through the next week without screaming loudly?
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The bottom line is that as the collective body of human knowledge increases and moves forward, Muslims will decide to what degree they wish to embrace it and move with the global community. To the extent that they reject the movements forward of science and social emancipoation, and they have every right to reject it all, but this will determine the degree to which they fall behind and out of the world community and are further ostracized by the world community. As is appropriate. The Amish know this and they have isolated themselves from the world community and they two get along just fine. When religion as we understand it falls behind human knowledge of creation that God has given us, then it will be incumbent upon Muslims and other religious to reject religion as we know it for the religion of truth that is neither static nor ignorant. During the days of galileo, the Roman Catholic church issued a decree that the passing comet that was visible to the naked eye was the congealed gasses and fats of human sin circulating the earth to warn humanity. The Roman Catholic church has abandoned this understanding of comets for something more realistic. I truly hope that Islam does not fall back into being something that can only be understood and loved by people living in a 13th century village. But if it does, then that is Allah's will. Or maybe it will just splinter off, as religions do naturally, into sects that answer the needs of various social groups and perspectives. And it seems to be doing that already. Part of the trial of spiritual life is seeing God in the mix of humanity and human ignorance, even when that ignorance tries to masquerade AS God.
Think of how you would answer the question, then write the opposite.
I'd signed up for the class so that I could sort out lochial issues for myself, but also to learn to assist other Muslim women. One can't be of much help with rubbish like this.
One can't be of much help with rubbish like this.>>>
Sadly, we have to pick our battles. And a big part of picking the battle where you might win, or plant the seed of intelligent and rational change is identifying the fertility of the soil. Many people are so deeply entrenched in their ideas and world views that any question of them will only make them cling harder, and they derive most of their self identity from that world view. Do you think you would do anything but waste your time trying to "educate" Rush Limbaugh on the error of his thinking? Do you think he wants to be enlightened? We have to learn to to recognize who is open and who is not. And most of the time the subtle off-handed probe will reveal who might be open to discussion. This is why I do not involve myself, at all, with groups of people whom I know are beyond me. And I don't let them work on me, either.
I'm not interested in trying to convince folk who think like the professor- I'm hoping to provide good advice to women who are trying to wade through the sea of bad information. Alas, in my attempt to do that, I've landed in a swamp of bad information myself. Is there a way to get out and learn to help women dodge it for themselves? Can I provide good information from within "the system"? Those are the questions I struggle with.
I'm not interested in trying to convince folk who think like the professor>>>
No, I thought you were trying to address the women, and that's who I was referring to in my comments. People, the women, probably give off all kinds of cues as to whether they are open to reconsidering different points of view and interpretations of what they believe. But going into a classroom, any classroom, and trying to present a countering position to what is taught by a professor, teacher, group leader, whatever the big monkey in front of the podium is called, is a losing battle. Better to hand pick a few successes ripe for understanding than launching a campaign. Not saying you were. But it sounded like you were trying to reeducate a group of people and met with resistance. All I was saying was that closed minded people broadcast that closedness to any and all. engaging with them is a waste of time, unless one has a martyr complex. Not saying you do, but a lot of people do.
Part of the reason why I took this course is that I'm sometimes asked about issues like this, and I wanted to provide helpful and well-researched answers. I've long since given up trying to convince folk whose minds are closed- but when someone asks me what they should do with a very spotty menstrual period, they are generally not only open to what I have to say, but eager for an answer that is well-founded and sensible. I'm nowhere near the point where I can start writing my own opinions, which makes me wonder how long I must refer to trash like what the professor's spouting without following it up with a, "but fudge all of that- let me tell you what might actually help". I've had to tell women that fiqh doesn't have comforting or easy answers for their situations, and I'm OK with that. What I'm not OK with is telling women that fiqh has no good or helpful answers for them.
What I'm not OK with is telling women that fiqh has no good or helpful answers for them.>>>
And that's a big problem that all of Islam is wrestling with these days. How do you sort out what is good and true from what is the result of a certain body of people siting in a university in 1300 for example figuring things out according to their own prejudices, fetishes and cultural limitations. What criteria do you use, or anyone, to decide that one law is a cultural fetish and another is not? It is not even remotely possible that over a thousand years worth of academic jurisprudence, produced in varying times and cultural milieus and for God only knows what political agendas, is all the word of God. If it is NOT the word of God, or the validated word of His prophet, then I ask, on what grounds do you, or anyone, accept these rules and laws? If it's to ensure a safe place in the club, more power to anyone using that method. But they can't complain about it either.
While certain opinions may well be sincere attempts to pursue Divine Wisdom but are hampered by human limitation, some are clearly rubbish merely wrapped in religious trapping. Discussions over whether anonymously donated breast milk creates a fosterage relationship are sincere attempts to sort through new issues with timeless values. But asserting that chewing gum is a Zionist plot to render Muslim men infertile is nothing more than ignorance and fear mongering posing as religious advice. Islam should never be a rubber stamp for the ideas of any time, modern or ancient. No one can say for certain that one opinion represents Divine Wisdom- but we can all be a little more diligent in its pursuit.
"Discussions over whether anonymously donated breast milk creates a fosterage relationship are sincere attempts to sort through new issues with timeless values."
To the everywo/man, it's a wordgame played by jurisprudents. Far more attention is paid to taboos and caste-like privileges: serious discussions I have had including trying to convince a woman that the imams-e masjid (wow that's an odd plural) she talked to were incorrect in telling her that her child was unwell because his name is Zaman Ali, which is "too heavy with holiness"; trying to convince a 17yo boy that if he is overwhelmed with sexual desire, the idea that he should not just rub one out but instead bind himself into ferocious neuroses about women and self-denial is a terrible idea because he will be unable to see women as human beings because all he thinks about is sex; and that women are not inferior to men because they are "too emotional" to be jurists even though they are smart enough. (As you might expect, it was the WOMEN who demanded that women are too emotional and the men who laughed in their faces and asked when the last time they noticed how men behave.)
Sorry, but sometimes the jurisprudence is just WRONG. I'm here to say that masturbation is good, women are capable of leadership, and there is no such thing as black magic.
No one can say for certain that one opinion represents Divine Wisdom- but we can all be a little more diligent in its pursuit.>>>
Of course. And a multilateral global education is the key to dissolving ideas and beliefs, wherever they occur, that are nothing more than provincial superstition. Sorry to use the following language, but poorly educated hicks, no matter what culture they live in, must not be allowed to foster their world views outside of their natural environments. Those within their natural environments must undertake to rise in the natural order of such things. There is nothing we can do to force feed social change in entrenched areas. But accepting such ideas in places like the US just to be either politically correct or foster solidarity with all our bro's is not the answer and I see it happening a lot. I hear about it a lot. How many times do we hear about mosques being taken hostage in the US by damn near taliban organizations? I hear people whining and bitching about it all the time in their damn blogs. A blog is not the place to stop that in its tracks and retake the sacred space for all. This is why I have nothing to do with any of these people, any of these mosques. Half of the people I encounter online ranting about the need for Wahabbi Islam in US mosques weren't even born when I came to Islam and they're going to train and correct me? Yeah ..... And I do understand the political rise of these forms of Islam and I might even agree with 75% of those reasons. But it's not the method that's going to work and it's not the method that is going to foster sincere practicing Muslim communities. Each to his own path in these matters, but I don't give ignorant farckles the time of day, even if they are Muslim. Muslims will get tired of this kind of thing and either stand up to it, or submit to it and become tyranized further and fall further from the campfire of global human civilization.
In addition to what I just wrote above, I would note that as a lesbian, I am a virgin - except that I am not, because I have to use dilators (uncomfortable medical devices that go in the vagina).
So despite all the sex I've had in my life, I'm a virgin because I've not been penetrated. But I am not because I have a surgical device I have to use (similar to the usage of a tampon).
Uh, what?
What is fascinating also in a lot of these discussions is that much of what has been attributed to women is the result of thousands of years of exclusion from education and full participation in civic life. I recall reading numerous letters by Greek and Roman male citizens who complained about the fact that women were so stupid and only cared about breeding and family intrigues whereas men were intriguining, interested in all aspects of life, courageous, creative, and full of ideas. Yes. All the result of a complex series of educations that started ar early childhood and only became more intense and competitive as the young man grew into society. By contrast, women were uneducated, confined to the home, and their social status and well being as well as the safety and security of their children was determined solely by keeping a man happy and amused and pumping out male children. Now I ask you, how else could women possibly be viewed in the midst of such educational and social isolation? It would be like saying in the American south in the 18th century ... Damn, those black slaves, they can't read, and all they know is manual labor. Oh well, I guess that's all they're fit for. ... And I have read that very argument in period words defending slavery.
But now, given the possibility of full education and participation, low and behold, we find that, just like men, there are all kinds of women who clock in everywhere from dumb Bambi, to the breeder who lives only for kids, to the Rhodes scholar and every other possibility. Gee, who'd have thought?
I am laughing my __off trying to figure out how to get enough urine on a tampon to render it a vessel of hydration. Because in fact that is what this woman was saying that a tampon can give you enough hydration to render your fast void. That's the same silly argument about spit and chewing gum, swallowing ones own saliva. I love searching the net looking for wisdom on womens issues and so forth, but really I run across so much mythology I can't seem to get anywhere. Good luck. And remember during Ramadan you have to empty your body of all fluids otherwise you are not fasting at all.
And remember during Ramadan you have to empty your body of all fluids otherwise you are not fasting at all.>>>
During the Middle Ages and in high plague seasons, people were known to compete with one another on how extreme and absolute their acts of penance could be. The modern S&M community has no imagination compared to these people. I suggest people not even think of water or mention anything consumable, because a lot of people have a very vivid imagination and can derive pleasure from things imagined. This can of course apply to a variety of things .... I find that fasting produces a very fine highly meditative state condusive to deeper prayer and meditation. If one is obsessed with all they are giving up and finding new ways to give things up, what, really, have they given up and have they understood the potential of the fast? It's not penance, it's an opportunity. And you are right Lailah, all fluids must be removed from the body or the fast is void. This applies to moisture in the air which is taken in through the skin. Both of these practices will result in a guaranteed meeting with one's Lord. All you people who believe like this, you go on ahead, the rest of us will follow, later.
Thanks for the reminder of why I take Islamic jurisprudence with a grain of salt. That, and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_toilet_etiquette
In the BashirKareem madhhab, we evaluate all fatwas and rulings by subjecting them to the "giggle test": If I read the ruling and start to giggle, roll my eyes, or groan, then it's time to scrap it and author my own damned ruling! :-)
A few rulings from the BashirKareem madhhab:
Menstruation during Ramadan: Deal with this however is healthiest and most hygenic for you.
Gynecological exams: Get them!
Toilet hygeine: Whatever gets your fanny all squeaky clean! (Admittedly, Muslims seem to excel in this arena...)
Zakat: Make an honest effort to figure out what is a reasonable and generous contribution for you, and stick to that.
Etc., etc.
Not every fatwa needs to be immediately understandable to everyone, but God does not require us to be foolish.
God does not require us to be foolish.>>>
No, but a lot of people are really banking on it.