God allows humanity the freedom
to sin or make mistakes even as he is patiently pushing us toward his ideal. God
meets us where we are at. We will always be free to sin, and God will always
try and work with the mistakes that we make. In 1 Samuel 8 God’s people demand
that he give them a monarchy even as he warns them of the corruption and
violence it will create. Even in the most obscene instances of our injustice
God tries to make the world a little more just. In Deuteronomy 22:28-29 God
commands that if a man rapes a woman, he must marry her. From our perspective
today this is seen as a horrific injustice. Yet in the historical context of
the ancient scripture a woman’s virginity was her central possession, and it
would be more of an injustice for her to lose it without the promise and
protection of marriage.Despite how unjust we may make society, God is always looking for a way to
bring justice, however limited that justice may be in order to allow us our
freedom to sin.
Muslim
theologian Amina Wadud is in agreement with many Christian theologians today that men and women were originally created equal based
on her reading of the creation story in the Quran.
Sura 4:1 declares men and woman to be created from the same divine substance
and they are equal in the eyes of God. Yet just one verse later in Sura 4:2 the
Quran states that man can marry up to “two, three or four” women who have no
homes to protect them. The central condition of this is that the man must treat
all of them fairly and justly, and if they cannot do so then they are called to
marry “only one, to prevent you from doing injustice.” For Wadud God’s ideal
marriage is about harmony “which is mutually built with love and mercy.” However, God is also patient with society’s
“cruel heart” and “inability to submit to truth and justice.”
The Quran is doing something similar to Deuteronomy 22:28-29 in this instance.
In the patriarchal context of a woman being primarily an economic resource,
those who have no protection through marriage should be provided protection by
the grace of God. The ideal is that men and women are equal, however God will
once again allow us to operate out of our sinful context, even it means there
will be some measure of injustice for the time being. From this perspective,
Wadud declares that:
Evolution in society which is
indicated in the Qur'an that explains why many Muslim countries have instituted further
legal and social reforms with regard to women. These reforms operate outside the
literal content of some Qur'anic passages and make modifications on the basis
of greater Qur'anic intent with respect to such issues as repudiation,
polygamy, inheritance, and the rules for witnessing, etc.[5]
For Wadud it only makes sense that
countries trying to be faithful to the ideal of the Quran would continue to
push toward a greater sense of gender equality. Most of what the Quran and the
Bible depict is not the ideal, but it is alluding to a greater telos in God’s story of redemption.
Slavery and the oppression of women are a reality throughout the Bible, yet we
can see signs of God pointing toward a larger story of justice and love
throughout the Biblical narrative in both the Old and New Testament. Yet both
Scriptures point toward a creational beginning where there is peace, justice,
and a proper social order.
William J. Webb, Slaves, women & homosexuals : exploring the hermeneutics of cultural analysis (Downers Grove, Intervarsity Press, 2001) 14
Phyllis Trible, God
and the rhetoric of sexuality, (Fortress Press, Chicago, 1978) 15-22; Amina
Wadud, Quran and woman: Rereading the sacred text
from a woman's perspective. (New York, Oxford University Press.) 19-21; N.T. Wright Women’s
service in the church: The Biblical Basis. (September 4 2004) http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Women_Service_Church.htm
Sura 30:21; Sura 4:128
(Wadud 1999) 82
(Wadud 1999) 82
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