Marriage and Society in Contemporary Islam

Amina Wadud’s essay on the rights and roles of women in Islamic society raises a number of pressing questions about the relationship between Islamic revelation, familial structures, and the ordering of society.  She attempts to bridge a fundamental tension between two assertions. First, she wants to argue that the Qur’an does not stipulate a particular social order, but permits a wide array of social arrangements. Thus she claims, “The Qur’an does not divide the labour and establish a monolithic order for every social system which completely disregards the natural variations in society” (161).  In fact, she judges that the Qur’an acknowledges the need for variation in society, and allows these to develop.  

On the other hand, Wadud devotes considerable space to setting forth Qur’anic view of a particular social institution — marriage and the family — and describing its contribution to Isamic society. The Qur’anic procedure for divorce, which undeniably grants an advantage to men over women, is acknowledged; it does not seem to admit the relativizing and contextualizing that Wadud elsewhere engages in.  She proceeds to argue that the Quranic view of marriage and resolving marital differences provides “an ideal obligation for men with regard to women to create a balanced and shared society” (166). Clearly there is something of considerable value here, with considerable value for Islamic society however it develops. But is it merely an ideal? Or is there more force to the Qur’anic principle? More generally, how is the relativizing and contextualizing approach to Islamic society to be balanced with a recognition and defence of the goods of the traditional Islamic social order?