Ahkam infarada biha al-Nisa an al-Rijal
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- Ahkam infarada biha al-Nisa an al-Rijal
Ahkam infarada biha al-Nisa an al-Rijal (Legal Rulings in Which Women Are Distinguished from Men) is an Islamic legal treatise by the contemporary scholar Muhammad Hasan Abd al-Ghaffar, dedicated to examining jurisprudence (fiqh) issues and rulings that apply specifically to women rather than men .
Legal Premise and Scope
The author frames the treatise around the foundational legal principle that religious obligations and legal rulings generally apply equally to men and women, based on the prophetic tradition: النساء شقائق الرجال ("Women are the counterparts of men") . However, Islamic law differentiates certain rulings according to gender to accommodate the distinct physical dispositions and innate qualities of each, reflecting divine wisdom and mercy .
Key Subject Areas
The work systematically covers multiple chapters of jurisprudence where gender-specific distinctions arise:
- Attire and Adornment (al-Libas wa-l-Zinah): The text addresses the lawfulness of women wearing gold jewelry—whether annular (muhallaq) or non-annular—and garments made of pure silk, which are forbidden for men . It also assesses the majority position prohibiting women from using silk as furnishings or bedding (iftirash) . Furthermore, it outlines rulings regarding extending the hem of garments below the ankles (isbal) for women to cover their feet, the prohibition against imitating men or non-believers in dress, and the boundaries of nakedness (awrah) during prayer, affirming that a woman's entire body except her face and hands is awrah, with her feet required to be covered according to the sounder opinion .
- Ritual Purity (Taharah): The work examines the legal status of vaginal discharge and moisture (rutubat farj al-mar'ah), detailing the scholarly disagreement over whether it is ritually pure (tahir) or impure (najas) . It also discusses purity differences relating to nursing infants, noting that female infant urine must be washed from garments while male infant urine may be sprinkled or sprayed with water (nadah) .
- Prayer and Congregations (Salah): The author discusses the rules governing women attending congregational prayers in mosques, including the recommended etiquettes such as going out at night and remaining fully covered, while highlighting that praying at home remains superior for them . It covers the rulings on women leading prayer (imamah) for other women and the legal discussion concerning an adult woman passing directly in front of a worshiper .
- Family and Social Law: The treatise addresses the exclusive obligation of the post-marital waiting period (iddah) incumbent upon women upon divorce, separation (khul), or the death of a husband, detailing its primary purposes such as verifying the vacancy of the womb to prevent confusion of lineage . It reviews the newborn sacrificial offering (aqiqah), wherein two sheep are slaughtered for a boy and one for a girl, and discusses scholarly views on shaving a newborn girl's head . It also examines legal discussions surrounding public leadership roles, such as the judiciary (qada) and supreme governance (khilafah), as well as the placement of divorce (talaq) in the hands of the husband .
Method
The text adopts an analytical fiqh method that lists divergent scholarly opinions (ikhtilaf), evaluates the evidential strength (dalil) of hadith reports from canonical collections, and determines the weightier legal ruling (al-qawl al-rajih) based on textual evidence and jurisprudential maxims (qawa'id fiqhiyyah) .
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