I remember reading an interesting story. A story that picks at our brains and forces us to think on why we blindly believe certain beliefs and deliberately carry out certain actions that are passed on to us through history, and which we innocently chose to take into the future — without ever trying to understand why.
The story I am talking about is that of a young woman famed for her baked-fish dish. Every time she offers this dish to her guests they “ooh” and “aaah” over how delicious it is. Finally one day a close friend of hers dared ask “the question” that no one ever thought to consider. “Rose” she said “when baking the fish, why do you cut its head and tail? Surprised and speechless, Rose had no answer, but she promised to ask her mother who lived next door…
Story had it that the mother too had no answer, so both mother and daughter paid a visit to the grandmother who luckily was still alive and lived nearby in a nursing home. During their visit they eagerly asked the burning question. “Grandma dear… Why did you cut the head and tail of the fish every time you baked it?” Puzzled and surprised, the aging grandmother answered “Honey… back in our days dishes came in one size only… and the fish your grandfather used to bring home was always too big to fit in them!
The moral of the story…? Read on.
Last week, as I sat with a group of young adults visiting Saudi Arabia on a cultural visit, the conversation of women’s rights popped up and I thought it was noteworthy to mention that Muslim women descendants of our Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), did not have the right to pass on the traditional title of ‘Sayid or Sayidah’ to their children — nor did they have to the right to document the names of their offspring born from a non-Sayid or Sharif father in their family-tree heirloom as male descendants of the Prophet (PBUH) did.
Now, before that evening, I never dared question this tradition. It had been engrained in my belief system since childhood, and most probably I would have taken it into the future had this subject not been raised.
But that night, something happened. Just as Rose’s friend dared to ask the right question, a Saudi professor dared to make the right observation: “It was strange” he said “that tradition deprives women of this honorable status authority when in fact it was Allah “The All Merciful” who chose a woman Sayidah Fatima Alzahraa to be the sole bearer of all of Prophet Mohammed’s descendants… It was Allah the “All Knowing” who chose that a woman had the power to bestow this honorable lineage to her sons, Al Hasan and Al Hussain… it was Allah “the All Powerful” who chose to leave the Prophet with no male descendants and thus empowered a woman to bear the responsibility and the authority of passing on the noble bloodline to all future descendants.”
Listening intently, I told myself that nothing happens without reason, and that Allah “The All Knowing” acts with purpose and intention — and if His will is to honor and position and empower a woman as he did with Sayidah Fatima, then who is man to decide otherwise?