Best of BAM: Did Muhammad Believe in Women’s Rights? with Mary Jo Sharpe

From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, you're listening to the best of the Bible Answer Man broadcast with Hank Hanegraaff. We're on the air because life and truth matter. The mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip believers to answer life's essential questions soundly and persuasively and to give the reason for the hope that you have with gentleness and respect. For more information, go online to equip.org. The following program was pre-recorded. And now, here's Bible Answer Man host, Hank Hanegraaff.

One of the questions I've addressed in my book, of course it is the question, the foundational question, it is the question, has God spoken? Muslims answer by pointing to the Koran as God's only credible, uncorrupted revelation. So it's not the Bible in their view, it's the Koran. And from the Muslim perspective, God spoke through the archangel Gabriel who dictated the Quran to Muhammad over a period of 23 years. The question is this, has God really spoken through the Quran? We say the answer is emphatically no. Indeed, the Quran is a hopelessly flawed document. It's full of faulty ethics and not only that, factual errors. In terms of the ethics, Surah 4-3 immediately comes to mind. There, Muhammad allegedly receives a revelation from God allowing men to

marry women of their choice, two, three, or four. And also troubling is the fact that the Quran allows men to beat their wives in order that their wives might return to obedience. which raises the question, what does the Quran, what does Islam teach in general about women? Is it different from what is taught in the Bible? In the Christian Research Journal, Mary Jo Sharpe asks a provocative question.

Did Muhammad believe in women's rights? And Mary Jo now joins me on the broadcast. She's a former atheist from the Pacific Northwest who actually at one point in time thought religion was simply a crutch for weak-minded Christians. She's also the founder of Confident Christianity Apologetics Ministry. She's a graduate of Biola University. She participates in public and formal debates on Islam. And we want to ask her the question because she produced this excellent article for the Christian Research Journal. Mary Jo, good to have you on the broadcast.

Hi, good to be here.

You know, this is, I guess you would call it a very provocative article. A lot of people have not wanted to go directly where you have gone in this article, demonstrating that the Quran really makes a substantive difference between the status of men and women.

Yeah, definitely. I see that it's an issue that is somewhat untouched, a lot untouched by women, and it's Definitely something that's in the news, and it's in positive image campaigns, such as the Inspired by Muhammad campaign. And it's something that I think we really need to have a discussion on.

And this is something that gets down to the very fundamental issue of ontology of women. In the Muslim view, a woman's intellect is not as keen as that of a man, and the afterlife treats them very differently as well.

Yeah, definitely. On the view of the intellect, that was one of the things that I really picked up on when I was studying for my debate that I had on this issue. In Surah 2, 282, Allah is revealing on fixed contracts how you handle a fixed contract to Muhammad. And in revealing this passage, he actually says that you need either one man or two women witnesses. And the reason for that is in case one of the women forgets. Now, that in and of itself doesn't seem too bad. But when Muhammad further talks about this, it's related to her position in the afterlife. And that's where we get into some serious ontology issues in that one of the reasons that women are a majority in hell, according to Muhammad

himself in Sahih Muslim number 142, is because of her deficiency in intellect. That's one of the reasons that women are a majority in hell.

One of the issues I think we have to deal with right up front, Mary Jo, is that there are a lot of people that will make the same charge against the Bible. I've mentioned the polygamous practices of Muhammad, but a lot of people will say, yes, but if you look at the biblical patriarchs, you find the exact same thing. How do you defend that?

That was something that was brought up in the debate, and I think it's a valid question. And when you look at polygamy in the Bible, you don't see a condoning of it by God. You never have a command for it. What you have is one man and one woman, as according to Genesis. And whenever there is polygamy in the Bible, such as with David or Solomon, the consequences of the polygamy are great. In fact, if you look at what happened with David and the polygamy in What was happening between his family members is we have rape going on between family members and murder. There's never a good outworking of polygamy, whereas with Muhammad's revelation, this is just the way things are, and this is what is actually good. A man may take up to four wives.

Muhammad himself slept with all of his wives in one night, according to Sahih al-Bukhari. And this is something that's actually good in Islam. It's very different from the view you have of polygamy in the Old Testament.

So just to clarify, you're making it very clear that with respect to the Bible, the Bible describes what people did, but it doesn't prescribe the practice of polygamy.

Exactly. That's a good way of putting it.

And another thing that you broach in this article is the oppression of women, actual physical abuse. And you say that this is prescriptive, according to the Quran.

Yeah, and I think this is something that people don't know. They've heard maybe about the beating of women. They've heard some Muslim responses to this, but if you really read through the passage from Surah 4, 34, it goes in order of how you are to treat a woman who is in rebellion, which is to first admonish them, then you banish them to beds apart, or you separate yourself sexually from the woman, and then you scourge them. Now, the more modern translation of Yusuf Ali, he actually adds, first you do this, next you do this, Then finally, he says, and last, you beat them. And so there's a prescriptive order of discipline. So not only is there a discipline order, it's also setting up a discipliner, which

is the man, and the disciplinee, which is the woman. And to me, that's a lot like a parent to child relationship, but not like the husband and wife relationship.

We're talking to Mary Jo Sharp again. She's the author of an incredible article in the Christian Research Journal asking this question, did Muhammad believe in women's rights? One of the things we need to make clear from a biblical standpoint is that a man is supposed to submit himself to his wife. In fact, the truth of the matter is we're to submit to one another. A lot of people know about the passage in Ephesians that talks about women submitting to men. And of course, they misunderstand the word submit. but they don't recognize that that is preceded by a passage that teaches us to submit to one another, that we are to, in fact, as men, love our wives and give ourselves for our wives as Christ gave

himself for the church.

Yeah, that's a very good point. Further, in the Ephesians passage from Ephesians 5, in that 28-29, that husbands are also supposed to love their wives as their own bodies. And the scripture says, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. And that's a high contrast to this passage from the Quran in Surah 434 of the disciplining of the woman through physical punishment.

And this gets, Mary Jo, right down to the oppression of women and sexual control and really undermines the whole concept of love. For love to be meaningful, it has to be volitional. But In the Muslim concept, as communicated through Muhammad in the Quran, you actually have sexual control by the male over the female.

Yeah, that's the way that it comes across, because we have in Surah 2-23, a passage that Muhammad is revealing how you are to go to your women sexually. And he says, you go to them however you want. Go into your fields whichever way you like. Now, again, you know, I've heard this described as tending a garden and taking care of the woman. But the problem was when Muhammad explains this passage, it's not in the context of loving and caring for her. In fact, he says that when a man calls a woman to bed, that she is to come right away and that if she does not fulfill her husband, that the angels will curse her until dawn.

But you see, these things come out of the Islamic traditions, out of the Hadith. And the Hadith are what we use to get a clearer picture of the Quran. It's what we use to get context for these passages from the Quran.

I want to ask you a couple more questions after the break. I do want to ask you to take a minute or so to address the problem even within Christian circles where a man doesn't recognize the fact that there is no ontological distinction between male and female. We may have different roles, but there certainly is no ontological distinction, and therefore we should never consider a woman inferior to a man.

All right.

Sounds good.

We'll talk about that and more when we come back from the break. Also want to broach this issue. Muslims are all over the map with this in terms of how old Aisha was when Muhammad married her. But there is some very troubling information in the article about Muhammad's marriage, not only to many women, but to Aisha in particular. Again, we'll talk about that right after the break.

Be right back.

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And now....

Here's Hank Hanegraaff.

Thank you, Randy. And we're talking to Mary Jo Sharp about an article she wrote for the Christian Research Journal titled, Did Muhammad Believe in Women's Rights? Mary Jo Sharp is a former atheist from the Pacific Northwest who used to believe that religion was just a crutch for weak-minded people. She's also the founder of Confident Christianity Apologetics Ministries. And before I get to my question, that's a great title for an apologetics ministry. We need to be ready and confident because Christianity does ultimately find its root in history and evidence, and so we can be confident.

Yeah, that's exactly why we chose the title for it, was because we noticed Christians weren't very confident what they believed, and so they weren't going out and talking to other people about their beliefs.

And one of the things that you broach in this article, and I think it's a very important point, Mary, is females in general. If you look at where Christianity was birthed in terms of the coming of Christ, the disciples, and the epicenter of a Caesar cult, this was a time in which females were not even allowed to serve as legal witnesses. It was a time in which A Roman could have a baby girl and leave the baby girl in front of the statue of Nero and let that baby girl expire. It was a time in which women were second-class citizens. And Christ comes into that milieu, and you point this out beautifully in the article. You point out that Christ comes into this context and he chooses women first. to be witnesses of the central event

in Christianity. He certainly did not treat them as second-class citizens, and yet somehow or other, I think in modern-day Christianity, we still forget the ontological equivalency of men and women.

Yeah, and that's a great point. We were hitting on that a little bit earlier. Of course, we have the Genesis account that God made both of them in His image, and that's a very important difference, too, when we're discussing Islam. But yeah, the central foundational doctrine of the Christian faith, the resurrection, was first witnessed by women. That's one of the things that I pointed out in the debate that I had on this issue, is that we don't see anything like that, not in the world of the pagan myths, and certainly not in Muhammad's 6th century culture. And so when I see articles or I see women coming on television shows saying, Muhammad gave women greater rights than anybody in that time frame. I go, wait a minute, what

about Jesus? And what about what he was doing, even to the point of the central doctrine of the Christian faith being witnessed to by these women in a time, like you said, when they didn't have, their testimony wasn't considered as strong as that of the man. There wasn't as valuable. This is the radical doctrine coming into the world.

Let me take it from the first century to the 21st century. I've said many times publicly that I have been taught by many women. There have been women who have helped me in the embryonic stages of my ministry, particularly in apologetics, like Gretchen Passantino and others, who have been incredible mentors who have taught me so much. If I say that publicly, sometimes I fear that people are going to raise their eyebrows and say, how can a woman teach a man? How do you respond to that?

Well, what I have to do is I have to go back to the scriptures and base the view of, do we have any women in teaching roles in the scriptures? And of course, I do see that we have Priscilla in the scripture with Aquila, and she's not just correcting any old guy, you know, just some guy in the local congregation. She's correcting a great man of the scriptures, Apollos.

And that's a big deal in the scriptures. And I just, I want to make sure when we say that a woman shouldn't be teaching, that we've looked through all of the, you know, teaching a man specifically, that we've looked through what is our foundation for that? And are you looking through the entirety of the scriptures, a comprehensive view of what Paul's saying in order to come at that? And how have we looked through the context and the culture as well as our scriptures? I see the example in the Bible of the prophetess Anna and of Priscilla, and they are teachings. So... That's what I want to see.

I want to see actually an investigation there and make sure that we're looking at things in the context, like the spiritual gifting and those sorts of things.

Truly reading the Bible for all its worth. The other issue here is you're a woman. If you did not exercise your gift, you would be in sin. Your gift is teaching. Therefore, if you didn't teach, it seems to me you'd be in sin.

Yeah, that's a way that you certainly could look at it and say, you know, hey, it's This is something that God has placed on my heart. I've been a teacher. I was a band director before, and obviously my goal, my role is to teach. So I highly encourage churches and people in general in the Christian church just to investigate what it is they think a woman can do or can't do within the church, and then set that firmly in the context and the passages of the scripture.

There's a lot of debate amongst Muslims about how old Aisha was when Muhammad married her. He was around 50 years of age. She was right around 10 years of age or younger. Talk about what you have written in the Christian Research Journal with respect to a prophet who wrote a marriage contract with a young girl and then consummated his marriage when she was around nine years old or 10 or 11. Again, there's a debate amongst Muslims on this. How can a girl be expected freely to choose marriage at the age of 10 or 11 or even younger than that?

That's a very important issue. And as you brought up, you know, Muslim scholars are debating this as well. This is not just something that Christians are using, you know, hey, look at that, Muslims. This is awful. This is something that Muslims themselves are trying to reconcile and are struggling with because Muhammad said, was married to Aisha when he was in his 50s, and yet she was much younger, reported at about six years old. And where this comes from is Sahih Bukhari. Sahih Bukhari, one of the collections of Hadith, in fact, a gold standard collection of Hadith, reports the consummation of their marriage. Quote, the prophet wrote the marriage contract with her when she was six years old,

and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old. That comes out of Sahih Bukhari. My issue with this is how could a girl be expected to freely choose marriage at the age of six and then the consummation of marriage at the age of nine? She's not fully developed yet, and this leads into all sorts of problems psychologically as well as there could be some physical issues.

And I don't see how then a Muslim could turn this around and say, hey, you know what? Muhammad really improved the rights of women. That's where I'm having a disconnect with the positive image campaigns.

Yeah, well, talk about that a little more, Mary Jo. Here we have in America a politically correct culture in which we're supposed to say Christianity, Judaism, Islam, we should treat them all with respect. And that means not just tolerance when it comes to personal relationships. Obviously, we should have tolerance when it comes to personal relationships. But it also extends to tolerance when it comes to doctrinal issues, these kinds of issues with respect to women's rights, factual problems with the Quran. So the ethics and the faulty information that you find in the Quran, it has to be engaged so that we can use the deviations to communicate truth.

Oh, exactly. And I do want to point that out because with an article like this, it's so pointed that it can seem like what we're doing is we're just, you know, it could be labeled as hate language or we're just speaking against Islam and there go the Christians again. But really, this is out of a great respect for the Muslim people because we want to get at what is actually written in their text. And we want to see, you know, does that match up with reality? Do we really think that girls should be married at six and then consummation of marriage is at nine? Because we're not dealing with just a story from the Koran. We're dealing with the prophet of Islam himself, and this is his actions that he demonstrated to the world, and as being okay,

as being condemned by Allah himself. So I really think that out of respect, out of a great respect for the Muslim people, that we need to bring this issue up, and it needs to be dealt with. Specifically, this one of young girls being married, which we know is not good for young girls physically, and how it can damage their reproductive systems to be having sex at such young ages.

And you have talked about this, obviously, from a physical standpoint and alluded to the spiritual implications as well. Elaborate on that just a little bit as we close this segment. The spiritual implications, everyone that does not know the genuine God who spoke in the universe leapt into existence, the God who revealed himself alive, in time and space through the person and work of Jesus Christ, cannot have a meaningful relationship with the creator of the universe, and that's what it's all about. God providing a way for humanity to be reconciled to him, not just for time, but for eternity.

Exactly. That's why it can't be stressed enough. And when you see the great difference, the the sort of darkness that you see involved with, you know, consummating marriages at nine with girls and then divorcing them before they're even in their mid-teens. And then you see the kind of freedom that Jesus Christ gives to women and how he puts them up so high, even to the point of being the first witnesses to the resurrection. We just can't pay attention to that enough, especially today when we get kind of caught up in our own culture, and we get caught up with all of these things that just really don't amount to much. We really need to focus back on what's important, and that is the gift that Jesus Christ has given us through his resurrection, and how

important that is, not just to men, but also to women. And boy, Hank, you hit on it. We can't stress this enough.

And we are talking to Mary Jo Sharp. She, again, is the author of a very insightful article in the Christian Research Journal, Did Muhammad Believe and women's rights. Mary Jo, thank you so much for your contributions to the journal and to our broadcast today.

Thank you so much for having me on.

Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time with more of the show.

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Best of BAM: Did Muhammad Believe in Women’s Rights? with Mary Jo Sharpe

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