Gendering the Ḥadīth Tradition

Abstract Gendering the Ḥadīth Tradition: Recentring the Authority of Aisha, Mother of the Believers presents for the first time a partial translation and study of Imam Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī’s work, al-Ijāba li-Īrādi mā Istadraktahu ʿĀ’isha ʿAla al-Ṣaḥābah—The Corrective: ʿĀ’isha’s Rectification of the Companions. It critically analyses from the perspective of ḥadīth criticism a number of sections presenting Aisha’s corrections of key Companions, including ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿAbdullah b. ʿAbbās, and Abū Hurayra, applying classical ḥadīth methodology to the scrutiny of narrators by way of impugnment and validation (al-jarḥ wa al-tʿadīl) in an effort to re-construct and re-present Aisha as a central authority in Islamic knowledge production. Sofia Rehman offers a major rethinking of the ḥadīth and jurisprudential traditions by evaluating how Aisha responded to ḥadīths that were being ascribed, often incorrectly, as authoritative statements of the Prophet Muhammad. The study elicits a methodology for ḥadīth criticism which is sure to challenge classical approaches. Rehman unearths the scholarly acumen of Aisha in her discussion of several legal positions which Aisha held in contradistinction to many of the male authorities among the Companions. She offers an emergent methodology of Aisha in the scrutiny of the actual statements (matn) of traditions, not just the chains of transmission (isnād). The contributions of this study to the development of the legal tradition (fiqh) also lies in a framework based on the pattern of how Aisha approaches juridical matters. The implications for this are many, especially regarding women and their spiritual and daily life and practice.