Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
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(Although not in the usual sense of the word).
It is perhaps easier to arrive at the truth by examining
the wording of this particular condition of the pact.
Here we quote Bukhari’s version, which may be taken
as the most authentic: “You will have to return any of
our men who come to you, even if they have accepted
your faith.”
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The expression “any of our men” (
rajul
)
obviously gave Muslims a loophole by which to
exclude women from the application of this condition.
This condition of the pact had not been put forward by
them, but by the Meccans, and the actual wording had
been dictated by the delegates of the Quraysh. It seems
that when one of them, called Suhayl ibn ‘Amr, was
dictating, he was thinking of both men and women,
but that the actual word he chose in order to convey
“any person” (inclusive of both men and women) was
rajul,
which in Arabic is actually used only for men.
Most probably this was why the Prophet could
legitimately refuse — according to Imam Zuhri — to
hand over Umm Kulthum bint ‘Uqbah to her brothers
when they came to him to demand her return. Razi is
another annalist who records the Prophet on this
occasion as having explained that “the condition
applied to men andnot to women.”
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