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Islambasics Library: Women In Islam versus Judaeo-Christian Tradition The Myth & The Reality
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3. Eve's Legacy
The image of Eve as temptress in the Bible has resulted in an extremely
negative impact on women throughout the Judaeo-Christian tradition. All
women were believed to have inherited from their mother, the Biblical
Eve, both her guilt and her guile. Consequently, they were all
untrustworthy, morally inferior, and wicked. Menstruation, pregnancy,
and childbearing were considered the just punishment for the eternal
guilt of the cursed female sex. In order to appreciate how negative the
impact of the Biblical Eve was on all her female descendants we have to
look at the writings of some of the most important Jews and Christians
of all time. Let us start with the Old Testament and look at excerpts
from what is called the Wisdom Literature in which we find: "I find
more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare....while I was still searching but not
finding, I found one upright man among a thousand but not one upright
woman among them all" (Ecclesiastes 7:26-28).
In another part of the Hebrew literature which is found in the Catholic
Bible we read: "No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a
woman.....Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die"
(Ecclesiasticus 25:19,24). Jewish Rabbis listed nine curses inflicted
on women as a result of the Fall: "To the woman He gave nine
curses and death: the burden of the blood of menstruation and the blood
of virginity; the burden of pregnancy; the burden of childbirth; the
burden of bringing up the children; her head is covered as one in
mourning; she pierces her ear like a permanent slave or slave girl who
serves her master; she is not to be believed as a witness; and after
everything--death." 2
To the present day, orthodox Jewish men in their daily morning prayer
recite "Blessed be God King of the universe that Thou has not made me a
woman." The women, on the other hand, thank God every morning for
"making me according to Thy will." 3 Another prayer found in many
Jewish prayer books: "Praised be God that he has not created me a
gentile. Praised be God that he has not created me a woman. Praised be
God that he has not created me an ignoramus."
The Biblical Eve has played a far bigger role in Christianity than in
Judaism. Her sin has been pivotal to the whole Christian faith because
the Christian conception of the reason for the mission of Jesus Christ
on Earth stems from Eve's disobedience to God. She had sinned and then
seduced Adam to follow her suit. Consequently, God expelled both of
them from Heaven to Earth, which had been cursed because of them. They
bequeathed their sin, which had not been forgiven by God, to all their
descendants and, thus, all humans are born in sin. In order to purify
human beings from their 'original sin', God had to sacrifice Jesus, who
is considered to be the Son of God, on the cross. Therefore, Eve is
responsible for her own mistake, her husband's sin, the original sin of
all humanity, and the death of the Son of God. In other words, one
woman acting on her own caused the fall of humanity. 5 What about her
daughters? They are sinners like her and have to be treated as such.
Listen to the severe tone of St. Paul in the New Testament: "A woman
should learn in quietness and full submission. I don't permit a woman
to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam
was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was
the woman who was deceived and became a sinner" (I Timothy 2:11-14).
St. Tertullian was even more blunt than St. Paul, while he was talking
to his 'best beloved sisters' in the faith, he said: "Do you not know
that you are each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours
lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the
Devil's gateway: You are the unsealer of the forbidden tree: You are
the first deserter of the divine law: You are she who persuaded him
whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so
easily God's image, man. On account of your desert even the Son of God
had to die."
St. Augustine was faithful to the legacy of his predecessors, he wrote
to a friend: "What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a
mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any
woman......I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes
the function of bearing children." Centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas
still considered women as defective: "As regards the individual nature,
woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male
seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine
sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active
force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external
influence."
Finally, the renowned reformer Martin Luther could not see any benefit
from a woman but bringing into the world as many children as possible
regardless of any side effects: "If they become tired or even die, that
does not matter. Let them die in childbirth, that's why they are there"
Again and again all women are denigrated because of the image of Eve
the temptress, thanks to the Genesis account. To sum up, the
Judaeo-Christian conception of women has been poisoned by the belief in
the sinful nature of Eve and her female offspring. If we now turn our
attention to what the Quran has to say about women, we will soon
realise that the Islamic conception of women is radically different
from the Judaeo-Christian one. Let the Quran speak for itself: "For
Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and
women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient, for
men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in
charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their
chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise-- For
them all has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward" (33:35). "The
believers, men and women, are protectors, one of another: they enjoin
what is just, and forbid what is evil, they observe regular prayers,
practise regular charity, and obey Allah and His Messenger. On them
will Allah pour His Mercy: for Allah is Exalted in power, Wise" (9:71).
"And their Lord answered them: Truly I will never cause to be lost the
work of any of you, Be you a male or female, you are members one of
another" (3:195). "Whoever works evil will not be requited but by the
like thereof, and whoever works a righteous deed -whether man or woman-
and is a believer- such will enter the Garden of bliss" (40:40).
"Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has faith, verily to
him/her we will give a new life that is good and pure, and we will
bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions"
(16:97).
It is clear that the Quranic view of women is no different than that of
men. They, both, are God's creatures whose sublime goal on earth is to
worship their Lord, do righteous deeds, and avoid evil and they, both,
will be assessed accordingly. The Quran never mentions that the woman
is the devil's gateway or that she is a deceiver by nature. The Quran,
also, never mentions that man is God's image; all men and all women are
his creatures, that is all. According to the Quran, a woman's role on
earth is not limited only to childbirth. She is required to do as many
good deeds as any other man is required to do. The Quran never says
that no upright women have ever existed. To the contrary, the Quran has
instructed all the believers, women as well as men, to follow the
example of those ideal women such as the Virgin Mary and the Pharoah's
wife: "And Allah sets forth, As an example to those who believe, the
wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: 'O my lord build for me, in nearness
to you, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his
doings and save me from those who do wrong.' And Mary the daughter of
Imran who guarded her chastity and We breathed into her body of Our
spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of
His revelations and was one of the devout" (66:11-13).
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