Muslim Women In History
Brief posts about Muslim women's contributions to society
-
Rafeef Ziadah - ‘We teach life, sir’, London, 12.11.11
RAFEEF ZIADAH is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names if their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel (cooing of doves) over Gaza.
I’m pretty sure I have already posted this before, but it is especially relevant today. Keeping those in Gaza in my duas. Make sure to participate in local protests if they are available in your community. It is our responsibility to make sure that Palestinian voices are heard, and to do our best to stop the violence.
Tweet
-
I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face.Rabi´a al-Adawiyya. Doorkeeper of the heart:versions of Rabia. Trans. Charles Upton
Tweet
-
In Afghanistan, where four-fifths of the population is illiterate, poetry has always had a strong position—especially among women. The Afghan writer and journalist Nushin Arbabzadah writes here a letter to the poet and Princesse Rabia Balkhi, who lived in the 900’s and faced a tragic fate. She fell in love with a slave and was imprisoned by her own brother because of it. She wrote her most famous poem in prison right before she died. She wrote it on the wall with her own blood.
Tweet
-
Poetry Against Purdah || Himal
Women Sufi poets were part of a widespread emancipation movement in the Indian Subcontinent and West Asia that started more than a thousand years ago and lasted till the nineteenth century. Interestingly, these poets fought for women’s rights at a time when that concept was still unformulated. This movement saw the emergence of women saints on an unprecedented scale, and was one of the most significant characteristics of the medieval age in West Asia and Southasia. Mystic women poets subverted conventional notions of gendered behaviour, helping women to defy stereotypes and break the chains of tradition and orthodoxy, which sought to control their sexuality. In the spiritual sphere of Sufism, physical distinction between male and female was often completely overlooked and the two were fused and identified. Many of the saints believed that all creation, being the product of the supreme creative power, was feminine.
Tweet
-
Wujood-e-Zan Se Hai Tasveer-e-Kainat Mein Rang/ The picture that this world presents from woman gets its tints and scents:
Issi Ke Saaz Se Hai Zindagi Ka Souz-e-Darun/ She is the lyre that can impart pathos and warmth to human heart.
Sharaf Mein Barh Ke Sureya Se Musht-e-Khak Iss Ki / Her handful clay is superior far to Pleiades that so higher are
Ke Har Sharaf Hai Issi Durj Ka Dur-e-Makoon / For every man with knowledge vast, Like gem out of her cask is cast.
Makalat-e-Falatoon Na Likh Saki, Lekin / Like Plato can not hold discourse, Nor can with thunderous voice declaim:
Issi Ke Shole Se Toota Sharaar-e-Aflatoon / But Plato was a spark that broke from her fire that blazed like flame.Muhammad Iqbal, Aurat (Woman)
“It is the existence of the woman that gives the universe its colors. She is the leading instrument in the grand orchestra of life itself”’ - Allama Iqbal [Another translation of the first two lines]
Tweet
-
Most important for the later literary development of the theme [equating and subsequent identification of the woman with the soul (nafs)], however, was a woman known to us from the Old Testament, Zulaikha (Sulaika) by name, the wife of Potiphar, who concentrated all her efforts on seducing Joseph (Yusuf). Countless poets have turned to her as a nafs symbol, and it goes without saying that this nafs is purified by boundless love and its resultant fathomless sorrow and is finally reunited with Yusuf. At the end of the road, the indefatigably seeking, unspeakably suffering, loving woman finds the incomparable beauty she so ardently sought manifested in Yusuf. Seen in this light, the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha is the story of the soul yearning passionately for the source of all beauty, for God. And many a seeker (both male and female) has identified with Zulaikha.Annemarie Schimmel, My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam (Amazon.com)
Tweet
-
NAHEED AKHTER - ALLAH HE ALLAH KIYA KARO
Female Sufi Singer (In Urdu)
Released on: August 1st, 1975
Tweet
-
Google Doodle Celebrates Nazik al-Malaika
Google’s doodle today celebrates Nazik al-Malaika, on the occasion of the 88th anniversary of her birthday. The famous Iraqi poet is known as one of the first Arabic poets to use free verse. As Salih J. Altoma puts it:
Nazik al-Mala’ika occupies a prominent position in modern Arabic literature not only because of her innovative, experimental poetry, but also because of her well-known systematic critical efforts and her views toward important artistic, linguistic, and intellectual issues in modern Arabic literature. Since the publication of her first collection, The Lover of Night (Ashiqat al-Layl, 1947), al-Mala’ika has contributed toward transforming Arabic poetry in terms of its orientation and structure. This is reflected equally in her own poetry and in her critical theorization of the new poetic form known as free verse.
Adab has a collection of some of her poems in Arabic. Her poems in English can be found in anthologies including The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, edited by Nathalie Handal and Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, as well as Iraqi Poetry Today edited by Weissbort, Daniel and Saadi Simawe, where she is represented here by five poems.
Read entire blog entry at Majjal (along with suggestions for further reading)
Muslimah Media Watch’s Original Post
Tweet
-
O Allah! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship You for Your Own sake,
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.A well known prayer by the saintly woman Rabia al Basri.
Tweet
