Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion

(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993); 

‘Abdullah Ahmed Na‘im, Toward an Islamic Reformation

(Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1990).

wilayat al-faqih

  See k

homeini

, r

uhollah

.

wine

  See 

dietary

 

laws

.

women

The earliest Islamic exemplars for women are 

the wives, daughters, and women companions of 

m

Uhammad

 (ca. 570–632). The wives of Muham-

mad, known as “Mothers of the Believers,” were 

witnessed by the two earliest and most authorita-

tive Islamic sources, the q

Uran

 and 

hadith

. Fur-

ther, they were significant transmitters of the oral 

record of Muhammad’s life (the hadith) and the 

experiences of the early Muslim community. The 

women of his household are “causes of revelation” 

(asbab al-nuzul) in the Quran in several specific 

contexts: (1) the definition of modesty required 

of Muhammad’s wives is the first use of the term 

hijab

 (usually translated as “

veil

”), in this instance 

not meaning a garment but rather a physical 

barrier or screen between the private women/

children’s quarters of Muhammad’s household 

and the public areas where non-kin male visitors 

might approach (Q 33:53); (2) the prescription of 

casting an outer garment (jilbab) over their person 

when outside the home (Q 33:59); (3) Muham-

mad’s wives are “not like other women” and must 

keep a higher standard of public modesty, domes-

tic seclusion, voluntary charity, and supereroga-

tory piety (Q 33:28–34); and (4) the case of a

isha

bint

  a

bi

  b

akr

 and accusations of sexual miscon-

duct, which became the occasion for the Islamic 

code of witnesses required for accusations against 

a woman (Q 24:4–5, 11–20, 23–26). The stan-

dards set for Muhammad’s household, of Islam’s 

foremost prophet, become the ideal standard for 

Muslim women thereafter. Expectations regarding 

modesty, domestic seclusion, and piety based on 

this household, which later became applied to all 

Muslim women, are being questioned by modern 

interpreters of Islamic tradition. Precisely because 

the standards set for Muhammad’s wives were 

extraordinarily high, and their social situation 

unlike that of any other Muslim woman, many 

modern Muslim women have challenged tradi-

tional legal interpretations of Islamic sources (the 

Quran and hadith) and see them as inappropri-

ate legal exemplars for modern Muslim women’s 

behavior. Although adherence to the traditional 

values of female modesty continues, the precise 

forms of that adherence vary widely from veiling 

in diverse forms to “modest dress” (long sleeves/

hems, loose clothing), to modesty of behavior and 

attitude rather than dress.

Aside from the social role and spiritual exam-

ple of such historical figures as Muhammad’s 

Turkish women invite American visitors to join them at 

a park in Istanbul. 

(Juan E. Campo)