Partners of Zaynab

A Gendered Perspective of Shia Muslim Faith

Diane D’Souza, Diane D'Souza

• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781611173772
• eBook ISBN: 9781611173789
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

How do pious Shia Muslim women nurture and sustain their religious lives? How do their experiences and beliefs differ from or overlap with those of men? What do gender-based religious roles and interactions reveal about the Shia Muslim faith? In Partners of Zaynab, Diane D'Souza presents a rich ethnography of urban Shia women in India, exploring women's devotional lives through the lens of religious narrative, sacred space, ritual performance, leadership, and iconic symbols.

Religious scholars have tended to devalue women's religious expressions, confining them to the periphery of a male-centered ritual world. This viewpoint often assumes that women's ritual behaviors are the unsophisticated product of limited education and experience and even a less developed female nature. By illuminating vibrant female narratives within Shia religious teachings, the fascinating history of a shrine led by women, the contemporary lives of dynamic female preachers, and women's popular prayers and rituals of petition, Partners of Zaynab demonstrates that the religious lives of women are not a flawed approximation of male-defined norms and behaviors, but a vigorous, authentic affirmation of faith within the religious mainstream.

D'Souza questions the distinction between normative and popular religious behavior, arguing that such a categorization not only isolates and devalues female ritual expressions, but also weakens our understanding of religion as a whole. Partners of Zaynab offers a compelling glimpse of Muslim faith and practice and a more complete understanding of the interplay of gender within Shia Islam.

· CHAPTER 1 ·

Foundations of Shia Faith

To understand how devout Shia women construct and experience their religious lives, one must first grasp what they “know.” By this is meant not just the normative essentials of faith but also the rich world of familiar stories, personalities, and ideas that form the basis for religious meaning. To introduce this foundational knowledge, two pivotal moments in religious history serve well as orienting points: the leadership struggle following the death of Prophet Muhammad and the martyrdoms and other happenings associated with the battle of Karbala.

In my quest to encounter women at the center rather than on the margins of faith, I draw upon a wide range of Shia sources, including prayers, poetry, hagiographic accounts, and the reflections of women preachers and others. While these informal narratives are meant to supplement the usual male-dominated texts, academic treatises, and religious literature, it is also true that they are at least as central to the religious lives of Hyderabad women as the more formally recognized texts. The possibility that some of these stories and traditions are embellished at the cost of historical accuracy is a point of contention among Shias, with reformers stressing the need for factual accountability. My own interest lies not in debating historical provenance but in highlighting narratives that illuminate the character and qualities of personalities who are central to Shia faith, providing a window into the everyday stories and beliefs that shape women’s spiritual lives. I thus follow Mahmud Ayoub (1978, 180) who, in relating a dramatic and moving poem recited in a Shia remembrance gathering (majlis), notes: “Perhaps the poet knows, as well as his audience, that the picture presented is not the actual story. Yet, while the . . . majlis lasts, myth transcends itself; for the moment it becomes history.”

The Rightful Successors to the Prophet

To have a sense of Shia faith, we need to start at its heart with the belief in a prophet of God who came to bring people back to the “right path.” Like other Muslims, Shias know that Prophet Muhammad struggled and suffered to spread the message he divinely received. He overcame the indifference and attacks of his enemies and founded a community based on the revealed word. Contributing to this success were the guidance, revelation, and blessing of God, as well as his own strengths and qualities of leadership. With the Prophet’s death, however, the survival and growth of the community became uncertain. Shias are clear that the Messenger of God intended his cousin and son-in-law Ali to be his successor and that political maneuvering prevented the Prophet’s will from being followed. In fact, it is from Ali that the term Shia arose. Muslims who affirmed Ali’s right to leadership of the community against those elected by a select consensus came to be known as Shiat (party or supporters [of]) Ali. For Shias the fact that Ali did not assume leadership for twenty-five years—then was assassinated after ruling for less than five—is the result of actions taken by members of the Muslim community whose concern for power led them astray from the teachings and example of the Prophet. As Moojan Momen (1985, 18–19) notes in his introductory book on Shia Islam, the division began at the time of Muhammad’s unexpected death in 632 C.E. (11 A.H.): “When Muhammad died, his daughter, Fatima, her husband, Ali, and the rest of the family of Hashim, gathered around the body preparing it for burial. Unbeknown to them, two other groups were gathering in the city.” Shias recall how the immediate family—including Fatima and Ali—were consumed by grief and did all they could to attend properly to Muhammad’s remains. Meanwhile, however, certain clan leaders seemed poised to withdraw from their former alliances with Muhammad, splintering the young Muslim community into factions and precipitating a political crisis. The quick action, skillful strategies, and clever oration of Abu Bakr overcame this immediate threat and resulted in his being accepted as the first caliph. Ali and those closest to him, however, were absent from the leadership negotiations. Knowing that the son-in-law of the Prophet also had claims to leadership, Abu Bakr and Umar (who eventually became the second caliph) decided to meet the matter head on. They sent a summons for Ali and his followers to come to the mosque to give their vows of allegiance to the new caliph. The group refused, implicitly denying the legitimacy of Abu Bakr’s command. The historian S. Husain M. Jafri has described what happened next in his retelling of the origins and development of Shia Islam (1979, 50–51):

Umar, with his cut-and-thrust policy, advised Abu Bakr to act promptly before it was too late. The two men marched to Ali’s house with an armed party, surrounded the house, and threatened to set it on fire if Ali and his supporters would not come out and pay homage to the elected caliph. Ali came out and attempted to remonstrate, putting forward his own claims and rights and refusing to honour Abu Bakr and Umar’s demands. The scene soon grew violent, the swords flashed from their scabbards, and Umar with his band tried to pass on through the gate. Suddenly Fatima appeared before them in a furious temper and reproachfully cried: “You have left the body of the Apostle of God with us and you have decided among yourselves without consulting us, and without respecting our rights. Before God, I say, either you get out of here at once, or with my hair disheveled I will make my appeal to God.” This made the situation most critical, and Abu Bakr’s band was obliged to leave the house without securing Ali’s homage.

In this narrative, and in Momen’s earlier description, we encounter Fatima: passionate, devoted, and furiously loyal to the Prophet. As the mother of Hasan and Husayn, her place in the young community is especially important—given that Muhammad had no surviving sons and lived in a society that placed great value on the contribution and continuation of the male line. In Jafri’s recounting we see Fatima full of rage, grief, and bitterness. She does not hesitate to speak out, confronting the men who have not respected the rights of the immediate family of the Prophet and now threaten to attack her husband, her home, and those who remain loyal to her family. She shames the attackers, drawing on her power as a woman whose disheveled hair signals severe emotional pain and turmoil. Her threat to take her appeal before God escalates the situation, for it would be a serious matter to have such a powerful entreaty made by the still grieving daughter of God’s prophet. Fatima’s intervention defuses a situation of escalating violence, for Abu Bakr and Umar feel obliged to retreat. According to most Shia accounts, Ali did not recognize Abu Bakr as caliph until six months later, after Fatima had died. We return to the story of Fatima in more depth below.

There are many stories that testify to Shias that Ali was the Prophet Muhammad’s intended successor. These include tales of his courage and leadership, his prowess on the battlefield, and his deep loyalty to the Prophet. Shias know the Prophet often appointed his cousin and son-in-law to be his standard bearer when he and his followers entered into battle. He called Ali his brother and remarked that if he himself were the city of knowledge, Ali was surely the gate to that city. At one point the Prophet likened his relationship with Ali to the one between Moses and Aaron; on another occasion he affirmed, “I am from Ali and Ali is from me.” Of prime importance for Shias in demonstrating Ali’s special status is the speech given at the oasis of Ghadir-e-Khumm, where the Prophet Muhammad addressed his followers upon returning from a final pilgrimage to Mecca. After summarizing the essentials of faith the Prophet declared: “To whomsoever I am the mawla [the patron, master, leader, friend], this Ali is his mawla. O God, be Thou a friend to him who is a friend to him (Ali), and be Thou an enemy to him who is enemy to him” (Ali 1999, 493, note 703). When the Prophet finished this affirmation, God sent a revelation: “This day have I perfected for you your religion and have completed My favour on you, and chosen for you islam [to be] the Religion” (5:3). This revelation is important, for Shias see the perfecting of religion as embodied by two essentials: the commands of God about faith, practice, and belief and the designation of Ali as leader of the Muslim community. Ali’s succession is not just the will of the Prophet but also the intention of God. Shias know, however, that not all people heard and adhered to these instructions. Some Muslims—including those who would eventually lead the community following the death of the Prophet—deviated from the divinely ordained course. In the words of the Quran these are Muslims whose “faith has not yet entered [their] hearts” (49:14) and who are to be clearly distinguished from the community of the true and faithful who remained steadfast to God’s word.

The story of succession does not stop with Ali, however, for Shias see God’s relationship with the community of believers as direct and ongoing. Although Muhammad is the last of the prophets, something of his divinely inspired nature or prophetic light is carried through his bloodline, giving rise to a chain of leaders with political and religious authority. These infallible male leaders known as imams (the first of whom is Ali) are the temporal and spiritual guides of the community. They are defined and elevated by three characteristics: being divinely chosen, descended from the Prophet, and without sin. These qualities set them apart from ordinary believers and ensure their status just below the rank of prophet. Indeed their importance as a source of guidance is second only to the Quran and God’s Messenger, for the imams illuminate the community’s understanding of the Quran. As a popular Shia tradition testifies, the imam is the “speaking Quran,” and the Quran is the “silent imam.” While this chain of divinely inspired leaders came to an end with the Twelfth Imam, his occultation ensures that the imam’s invisible guiding presence remains ever available. Like the sun, which gives light and warmth even when it is concealed by clouds, the Twelfth Imam’s unseen presence helps sustain the world until his return on the Day of Judgment. He speaks to faithful believers through the words and actions of religious leaders and through inner guidance along individual spiritual paths.

In many introductory texts on Shia Islam, a discussion of the key issue of succession concludes with a description of the twelve imams. Yet, the story of those who followed the Prophet is more complex. Henry Corbin (1988, 169) explains, for example, that when he refers to “the Imam” in his descriptions of Shia spirituality, he is actually indicating two things simultaneously: each individual imam and the collective fourteen “pure” or “sinless” ones (masumeen; from masum or “purity”): Muhammad, Fatima, and the twelve imams. From a metaphysical point of view, Corbin writes, “each one is equivalent to all the others” in “the unity of their essence.” To put it more simply, the imams cannot be considered in isolation from the Prophet and Fatima. The Shia philosopher and scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1988, 103) also elaborates on this point. He notes that Muhammad had two distinct powers as the leader of the Muslim community: prophecy and spiritual leadership. The power of prophecy is unique to prophets. But the power of spiritual leadership is passed on: being transmitted from Prophet Muhammad to Fatima and Ali, then through them to their sons and on to the remaining nine imams.

The Family of the Prophet

For most Shias there are three distinct groupings of elevated persons within religious belief. The first is known in the Indian subcontinent as the panjatan-e-pak, or “the five pure ones”: Prophet Muhammad, Fatima, Ali, Hasan, and Husayn. These are not just exemplary people but beings whom God created first and loved best. The second is the masumeen, which expands the initial circle to fourteen by including the remaining nine imams. Finally, there is the Ahl-e-Bayt, literally, “the people of the house[hold],” that is, the people of the Prophet’s house or family. Some Shia scholars use this term to refer only to Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn (the panjatan); others to the holy fourteen, the masumeen. Most often, however, and especially at the contemporary popular level, the term encompasses a larger group of special men and women within the family of the Prophet.

It is not uncommon for Shias to use metaphysical terms to emphasize the primacy of the Prophet’s immediate family. A common story concerns the light (nur) that God created before bringing the universe into being. The following version of this popular hadith is taken from a biography of Fatima (Sayyid 1981, 1–2) and is credited to the Prophet’s uncle Abbas who once asked Muhammad to explain the truth about his “real self.” “As soon as Allah willed to create our ‘essence and spirit,’ He decreed two ‘words,’ one after another. The first ‘word’ created the light, the second created the soul. The light was joined with the soul to create me, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn. We praised Him when there was no one to praise Him, we worshipped Him when there was no one to worship Him.”

The panjatan, then, are pre-eternal embodiments of light and soul who were present before God created the world.* They praised and worshiped the creator and were the first to know and be known by God. The whole creation affirmed this, with nature, the prophets, and the sages all recognizing these special souls and having knowledge of the heartrending sacrifices they would eventually make in order to follow the path of God.

Numerous traditions uphold the central and primary place of the holy five. One commonly cited story concerns the incident of the “Mubahila,” a spiritual contest where the two disputing parties were to settle their disagreement by evoking God’s curse upon those speaking untruth. The Quran (3:60–63) briefly records the theological dispute between a group of Christians and the Prophet, the occasion prompting a revelation that directed Muhammad to invoke divine action to determine who stands on the side of truth: “And unto him who disputeth with thee therein after the knowledge hath come unto thee, Say! [O’ Our Apostle Muhammad! Unto them] ‘come ye, let us summon our sons, and [ye summon] your sons, and [we summon] our women and [ye] your women, and [we summon] our selves and [ye] your selves and then let us invoke and lay the curse of God on the liars!’” (3:61) Muhammad follows the direction from God and the challenge is accepted. He and the Christians of Najran agree to bring their sons and women together at an appointed time and place to evoke a divine curse. The matter is serious for at risk is a twofold tragedy for the erring side: the striking down of the young men who, according to Arab culture and society, are the legacy of a community, and the annihilation of the mothers, sisters, and daughters who bear and nurture the succeeding generations. We take up the story from when the two sides meet for the contest, drawing upon the Quranic commentary of the religious leader Ayatullah Allama Agha Mirza Mahdi Pooya Yazdi:

At the appointed hour the Christians witnessed the Holy Prophet entering the field with Husain in his lap, Hasan holding his finger and walking beside him, Lady Fatema following him with Ali behind her. The Holy Prophet reaching the appointed spot stationed himself with his daughter, her two sons and her husband, raising his hands to [the] heavens said . . . Lord these are the people of my house [Ahl-e-Bayt]. At the appearance of these godly souls with the hallow [sic] of the divine light radiating from their holy faces, the chief Monk who had brought the selected group of the Christians, began to gaze at the faces and exclaimed, “By God! I see the faces which, if they pray to God for mountains to move from their places, the mountains will immediately move.” (Ali 1997, 302)

The monk enquires about the holy ones whose halos are so visible. After Prophet Muhammad explains who they are, the Christian leader encourages his people to withdraw from the contest, telling them that they will be wiped eternally out of existence if “these godly souls” curse them. The capitulation is a victory of truth for the Muslims. For Shias it is something more: a testimony to the spiritual purity and the holiness of the Ahl-e-Bayt. It also confirms the primacy of the panjatan, for although the Prophet could have brought many others to the fateful contest—including his wives—he chose only four: his daughter, her husband, and their two sons. These, say Shias, are the closest family to the Prophet.

The second tradition that confirms the special place of this select group of five is Hadith-e-Kisa, the “Tradition of the Cloak.” Within Sunni and Sufi traditions, the Prophet’s cloak has a long and rich history, most often symbolizing protection and even something of the soul of the Prophet (Stetkevych 2010, 62–66). Among Shias the Tradition of the Cloak uses this powerful symbol to underscore the centrality of the panjatan. The devout believe the recitation of this story brings great blessing, and it is a well-known staple in many Hyderabad rituals. For this reason it is useful to analyze it in detail and, to give a flavor of the text, to reproduce a portion of its English translation from the Arabic as it appears in a popular widely available book on the life of Fatima (Sayyid 1981, 41–45).^*

One day her [Fatima’s] father came in. He was not feeling well. She brought a Yameeni blanket ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Preface
• Notes on Transliteration and Translation
• Introduction
• 1 · Foundations of Shia Faith
• 2 · A Sacred Community Space
• 3 · Remembrance Gatherings
• 4 · The Female Face of Religious Leadership
• 5 · The Alam—A Symbol of Presence
• 6 · Rituals of Intercession and Blessing
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Sacred Dates in the Shia Muslim Calendar
• Glossary
• References
• Index