To those wishing to respond to the above material, we would like to make some comments.

1. We had a lot of emails sent to us expressing vehement disagreement or strong support. The response of those who were angry came in the form of either calling on the mercy of Allah or his curse on us. But common to all those angry responses were the absence of addressing the issues mentioned in the article.

2. We would like to remind the reader that this article is simply a compilation of statements from the Qur'an, the Hadith, the books of Tafsir. Out of the 165 quotes there are only three from secular sources. We understand the anger of those who wrote calling even for Allah's curse upon us, but have failed to refute the specific quotations we documented.

3. Most of the readers of this booklet expressed that they have been nauseated. We too have been nauseated as we did the research for this booklet. The tragedy is that this material is still published year after year in Islamic books, classical ones and modern ones, and what is more this material is defended by religious leaders. Why do you not check to see if these quotations are true or not? If they are true, why do you feel indignant and angry with us? Rather feel angry with the sources of these quotations whoever they may be for this will lead you to the truth. Please do yourselves a favour and check the quotations.

4. Did we invent the Qur'anic verse that commands men to beat their wives [lightly] and to sexualy desert them if the fear rebeliousness on their part? Did we invent the Hadith concerning that verse? Did we invent the Hadith that says "Women are difficient in religion and intelligence etc."? If we invented that Hadith then we deserve to have our seat in the hell fire because we lied about the Prophet. This Hadith is mentioned in all the books of Hadith and in the mothers of all Islamic books. Check it in Bukhari and Muslim for example if you have no access to the others. If you deny that the Prophet of Islam said that, then you are lying about the Prophet, and you know what does that mean. Did we invent any of the quotations in that booklet? They all come from Islamic sources. Why do you get angry with us? Direct your anger instead at the sources of these quotation, not with us.

Do not you think that it is us who have the right to be angry with YOU? But we are not angry with you. As long as you feel nauseated from the material in this book there is hope for you. The tragedy will be when you accept it as the truth and defend it with all your might as millions do, that we will weep for you. Because that means that you are dead and your concience has been destroyed. But we pray to God that your nausea will continue till you judge fairly.

5. We have been asked by many to remove this article from the Net. The reason is that it does not represent Islam. We again repeat we have said earlier: This artcle is simply a compilation of statments from Islamic sources. The material in this booklet was even accepted in totality by a Muslim web site owner, since he put a link to our booklet on his web site! He found all what he read to be one hundred percent as representing authentic Islam. As he positively linked to it, not as a negative example.

We will be happy to remove our article from the Net so if you can convince the publishers of Sahih Bukhari and Muslim etc. to remove the Hadith pertaining to the deficiency of religion and intelligence of women from their next printing, because as many modern Muslims ignorantly say: This Hadith does not represent Islam. But if you cannot convince your MUSLIM BROTHERS of doing so, it is understandable that we will not remove our posting from the web either. Please, please, be fair.

And we are still happy to receive your angry email.

Articles by M. Rafiqul-Haqq and P. Newton
Answering Islam Home Page