April 07, 2008
Of Human Bondage
Section: WRITINGS | 133 reads
Shakespeare’s Misogynistic Myth
If he had known and understood Islam fully and properly, Shakespeare would not have felt the need to malign and denigrate the prodigious strength of “Woman” – as in “Frailty, thy name is Woman!” He would not thus have perpetuated a sexist and misogynist theme in the English language down to our times.
For, Shakespeare should have known that it is only the woman – any woman anywhere – who conceives a child; carries it around in her belly for nine months; feeds it of her own body; eats, sleeps and walks about with that child still bouncing around in her tummy; delivers it through an orifice in her own body which tears open to allow the baby to pop out; nurses it endlessly at all times of day and night; takes care of it through thick and thin; and dotes on it through a succession of most demanding and painful stages of growth, development, education, health and illness.
Which man can do any of that, other than maybe take care of the baby a little bit after it is born and delivered – that too accompanied by a thousand complaints and excuses.
If all these things add up to one large human quality of “frailty,” then Shakespeare did not know a thing about the English language. Nor did he seem to understand how things work in the real world.
Either he should have studied Islam more carefully. Or he should have observed the world around him more rigorously.
Qur’an and Islam Exalt Womankind
In sharp and clear contrast to Shakespeare referring to womanhood as “frailty,” the Qur’an puts the woman on a pedestal. It gives the woman a place of honor and respect which she did not have before Islam and which she has not fully attained to this day, even after 1400 years after the advent of Islam in this world.
Among other things, the Qur’an predicates a woman’s exalted position in the world on her unique gift to bear children and all the challenges and hardships that are associated with that role. Listen to the Qur’an state it in its own inimitable style:
Hamalathu ummuhoo kurhan wa wada-athu kurhan.
Paraphrase: His mother conceived and carried him in pain and distress and gave birth to him in pain and distress.
Elsewhere, the Qur’an sums it up thus: Wahanan alaa wahanin.
Paraphrase: the entire process of pregnancy and childbirth was a succession of one stressful situation after another.
Human Frailty and God
At the same time, Shakespeare’s plays – both comedies and tragedies – can in some ways be summed up to precisely one clear conclusion: human frailty, dependence, helplessness, unpredictability, lack of mastery and control over life and the vagaries thereof.
The mysterious workings of “Fate,” (or Chance if you will) some people may call it. I call it God.
You can’t prove it is not. I can’t prove it is. We are even.
So, let us talk. Wow!
That is where God wants it to be: a level conceptual field for humans to play their little mind games on.
Even though individual powers and capacities vary, and even though access to resources is often uneven, success in this world is still tied to effort, and outcomes are fairly open if the game of life is played observing the rules of truth, justice, equality, generosity and compassion mandated by God Almighty in all human dealings.
God Abhors Injustice and Oppression: An Abomination Called Zulm
God Almighty abhors injustice, oppression and coercion. He calls it Zulm and says in the Qur’an that Zulm is one of the worst things anyone can do.
As a result, God does not want to stack the cards at the one level that really matters: the simple threshold of saying yes or no to him.
When it comes to that one, he wants you to be fully and entirely on your own.
Everything else you can negotiate. But that simple affirmation of his existence and your relationship of slavish servitude to him and dependence on him he makes entirely your business.
If you are confused about that most fundamental fact of life, then he says go and find yourself another master. Go, be the slave of anyone and anything you want.
Go back to the one(s) you think you love and cherish most and who love and cherish you most and hook up with them. Then come back when your mind is a bit clearer and when experience has taught you better.
How fair the whole deal!
What a master God Almighty is! How fair indeed! How respectful of the autonomy you don’t have and would yet like to claim and cherish the illusion of!
But of that another time.
Being God’s Slave Liberates and Empowers You
So, that is your master, your Rabb!
That is the one you should be proud to be a slave of, without any hesitation or prevarication or reservation whatsoever.
Dhaalikumullahu Rabbukum, as the Qur’an puts it.
Being his slave shall set you free from all other types of bondage. And it shall empower you.
His slavery shall empower you and give you access to and mastery over the rest of his creation: not to control, abuse, manipulate, dominate, tyrannize, corrupt, lie; not to propagandize about, misrepresent, mislead, waste and exploit; but to love and to serve and to protect and to cherish and to nurture.
And to leave it all in a better condition than you found it.
If there is a better deal being offered anywhere in this world, let us hear about it. As someone once put it: Bring It On!
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