SHAFAQNA- The Social Customs of the Hejaz
Fatima was the fourth and youngest daughter of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH). She was the youngest daughter of a household in which no sons survived. She was a girl born into a society in which special value was placed upon a son.
Centuries before Islam, the social order of the Arabs had passed beyond the Age of the Matriarch. During the Age of Ignorance, prior to the mission of the Prophet, the Arabs had established the Age of the Patriarch. The gods had become masculine whereas their idols and their angels were feminine. The tribes were governed by ‘white beards,’ and the family was ruled by the grand-fathers. Essentially, their religion was a kind of ancestor worship. They adhered to whatever beliefs and practices their fathers had maintained.
It was against the religion of ancestral fathers that the great prophets, mentioned in the Koran, revolted. When confronted with these prophetic revolts against ancestor worship and myths of the first fathers, the Arab tribes preserved their masculine traditions. It was a kind of inherited, imitative worship based upon the principle of father worship.
The Prophets brought a revolutionary message. They tried to awaken thought based on the principle of worshipping God. Beyond this, the difficult life of the tribes of the dry desert was filled with mutual hostilities. The basic principles were ‘defend and attack’ and ‘keep your promises’. In this society, the son played a special role based upon the ‘uses and needs’ of the society’s social and military principles.
According to a universal principle of sociology, where profit is substituted for value, being a son is by and of itself of the highest essence. A son embodies virtues, meaningful social and ethical values and human nobility. For this very reason, being a girl or having a daughter, is humbling. A girl’s frailness is ‘being weak’. Her ‘being weak’ pushes her towards slavery, which lessens her human values.
She becomes a creature who is a disgrace to her father, the toy of a man’s sexual urges and slave of the home of her husband. Finally, this creature always threatens her kinsman’s sense of honor, as she is considered the highest form of shame and disgrace. For the betterment of society and the relief of one s mind, how much better to kill her while still a baby! Thus the honor of her fathers, brothers and ancestors, of all men for that matter, was not stained. As Ferdowsi tells us in the Shahnameh:
It is better to bury women and dragons in the earth The world will be better off if cleansed of their existence.
An Arab poet tells us: “If a father has a daughter and thinks of her future, he should think about three different sons-in-law: one, the house which will hide her; two, the husband who will keep her; and, three, the grave which will cover her! And the last one, the grave, is the best.”
The saying which refers to the grave as being the best son- in-law has existed in all languages of the wealthiest and most honorable men. All of the honorable fathers and brothers who are bound to and place emphasis upon their male ancestors, all who understand the ideals of name and honor live in anticipation of ridding themselves of their sister or daughter through marriage. A poet reminds his daughter of the most beloved of sons-in-law, “The most beloved son-in-law is the grave.”
This is that very same poet who says women and dragons are both better covered by the earth. “Covering the girls with earth is a way of preserving honor.” This is why the Koran, in the strongest terms, warns of the dangers of this frightening ‘highest honor’ when it says: He hides himself from the people of evil for the tzdings given him. Should he keep her with disgrace or bury her alive in the dust? Behold, evil is what they decide” [16.59]. As an Islamic commentator on the Koran has shown, this tragedy essentially has economic roots. Society’s fear of poverty was prevalent in the Arab Age of Ignorance.
Girls have been buried alive because of the fear that they might bring dishonor in the future by marrying an unsuitable husband or fall into the hands of an enemy during a war thus becoming slaves in a strange land. All of these are secondary phenomena. But the basic reason is an economic one.
As we previously indicated, in the old Arabic tribal system, people were faced with the hardships of life (particularly in the deserts of Arabia) and the constant difficult relations among the tribes. Such a life required strong and powerful support. Automatically, a son became an important factor in economic and social life as well as in the defense of his family or tribe. He was a necessary social element of the family and the tribe. A son brought bread, but a daughter ate it. It was natural that the sexual differences caused class differences. Men fell into the class of ruling and owning, and women fell into that of the ruled and the owned.
The relationship between a man and a woman was like that between a landowner and a peasant. A man and a woman, as economic entities, had different human and spiritual values placed upon them. A landlord, for example, might embody a noble blood-line and possess inherited wealth and princely virtues. The opposite might be true of a peasant or a woman.
Poverty sends all the male gains or can gain to the four winds. Through poverty, a woman may become the cause of the family losing self respect. The possibility always exists that she will “disgrace” the family by marrying someone who is her social inferior. In my opinion, this fear (although disguised as an ethical phenomenon) is related to economic factors of inheritance law whereby the son preserves the ownership of land and assures the continuation of centralized wealth for the next generation of the family.
In patriarchal societies, when the father dies, the oldest son inherits everything not only the land, but also the wives of his father, including his own mother! So, if daughters did not inherit, the wealth of the father would not be divided up and distributed to other families through the daughters. This is the reason why in our old wealthy families, there is still a very strong emphasis placed upon the daughter marrying within the family. They pledge an uncle’s daughter to an uncles’ son ‘in heaven’. Thus the uncle’s daughter cannot take her inheritance out of the family as she would if she were to marry a stranger.
This is why ancient historians and modern scholars who write the history of religion have different explanations for the burying alive of female children in the Age of Ignorance. Some of the scholars say, in primitive religions, girls were sacrificed to the gods. But the Koran most strictly and clearly says that the reason for their murder was the fear of poverty. In other words, it was an economic factor. The other explanations are just words.
In my opinion, this clear interpretation and description is not only scientifically correct but also emphatically rebuts those who talk about the ethical, chaste and noble responsibility a tribe had in burying new born females alive. This crude, cruel action resulted from baseness, vileness, fear of poverty and love of wealth. It was a direct result of their fear greed, and weakness, although they tried to hide their deed by explaining it with noble words of honor, integrity, chastity, respect.
The Koran emphasizes: “Do not kill them from fear of poverty for We will provide for you and your children” [6:151]. It expresses the main reason for the tragedy. It awakens people. It directly and straight-forwardly says that this practice is neither ethical nor noble but rather is one hundred percent economically motivated. It stems from greed and wealth, from weakness and fear.
Before Islam, the public was not aware. The majority of the people believed female infanticide to be a reaction of the public conscience. They believed it showed a brave spirit. and that it protected the family honor. Arab tribal society gave all the human values to a son, whereas a daughter was considered to lack all virtues and human authenticity.
A boy was not only capable of earning his livelihood, but he was also a help to his father, a protector of his family, a tribal hero, the bearer of his heritage, the continuer of society, the spirit of his family, and the flame which lights the family lamp upon the death of his father. A daughter was a living piece of furniture. After she married, her personality dissolved in a stranger’s house. She became the furniture in another house where she could not even retain her family name. Her children belonged to a stranger. They carried his name and were/inheritors of his heritage.
A boy had the material power to generate capital, aides society and perpetuate the patriarchal system. He had prestige, fame, value and spiritual credit. He supported the authenticity of the family. He was the giver of security and subsistence and the future authority of that family. But a girl was nothing. She was considered to be so weak that she must always be protected.
Like a bird whose foot is tied to a stone that prevents it from flying freely, she prevented a warrior from freely attacking the tents and castles of his enemies. And when defending his tribe, the warrior was always anxious that she not be taken as a slave. His slightest negligence could put her into the hands of the enemy. Then the entire tribe would suffer the shame of her enslavement.
During times of peace, the family must be careful that she didn’t cause them shame by marrying an outsider. After all of these efforts, expenses, and anxieties, a stranger might come and take her away. She was like a field that one cultivates and whose crops another bears off. This was why the best solution was naturally to kill her at an early age. She should be given in wedlock and call the cold grave, ‘son-in-law’.
A man who had no sons was called ‘cut-off’. He had no progeny and no continuation; he was barren. Yet the word Kawthar in the Koran means fullness, advantages, blessings as well as progeny and many children. God in answer to the disbelievers who called God’s beloved Prophet (PBUH) ‘cut-off’ gave the Prophet (PBUH) the good news that he would have many offspring.
In such an environment, the moment was ripe for fate to rend the veil. It was the time to direct the state of things. Life had become a stagnant, spoiled lagoon. It was time for a serious, creative revolution. It was the moment for a strong wind to blow. Suddenly an amazing plan was put into action, sweet but difficult. Two people were selected to carry out this plan, a father and a daughter. The Prophet (the father) must carry the heavy load and Fatimah (SA) (the daughter) must reflect within her-self the newly created revolutionary values.
Source: Shariati.com
Part of a Series: Fatemeh is Fatemeh by Dr Ali Shariati