Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
~ 87 ~
WOMAN — AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE
There is a famous saying of the Prophet that the
acquisition of knowledge is the duty of all
Muslims.
77
In this saying, the word
muslim
is in the
masculine form,
muslimah
being the feminine form,
but the work of scholars carried out on the
traditions makes it clear that
muslimah
may be
legitimately inferred. That means that the
acquisition of knowledge is likewise the duty of
Muslim women.
In the biographies of the narrators of Hadith
literature, mention is made of the academic services
of women, which is a clear indication that during
the first era of Islam, there was a strong tendency
among women to acquire knowledge. The benefits
ensuing from their efforts were far-reaching. For
example Imam Bukhari, whose
al-Jami’ as-Sahih
is
by far the most authentic source of Hadith learning,
set off, when he was 14 years of age, to acquire
knowledge from far distant scholars: if he was in a
position to appreciate the lessons given by the great
teachers of the time, it was because his mother and
sister had given him a sound educational
