Women�s Leadership Based on a Hadith on Deficiency of Intellect in Women

Abstract

The vast amount of views by Islamic scholars in debating this issue of leadership of women as a driving force and juristic authority stems from their respective comprehension on the scriptures of the al-Quran or the al-Sunnah. In this regard, the hadith explicitly mentions the lack of intellect in women being associated as one of the reasons women are prevented from leadership positions. Therefore, this research aims to study the hadith on lack of reasons in women that is compiled in the Sahih al-Bukhari to gain a true understanding of the meaning and intention of the hadith. To achieve this aim, this research applied qualitative research method conducted through data collection sourced from the master compilation works of hadith and subsequently analysing the data based on inductive and deductive methods. The findings of the study indicate that the hadith does not point to the prevention to appointing women as leaders in organisations. The lack of intellect mentioned in thereof refers to the aspect of memory of women in matters of testimony. Therefore, this study has significance as it explains the reality of what it means with the implied lack of reason in women based on the hadith.