Amina Wadud :Meeting a Mentor

When I was growing up, I had hard time believing that it is possible that somebody could be my role model and I would look up to him\her.

However, now I am happy to admit that Amina Wadud is a role model and mentor for me, not just in the academic and activism level, as she is consider one of the pillars of the Islamic feminism school of thought but on the personal level, Wadud is always inspiring me.

I consider Wadud a pillar of Islamic Feminism because she contributed on the theory by writing one of the land marks which "Women in Quran" where she offers a very progressive interpretation of the first source of Islamic jurisprudence, the holy Quran. in this book Wadud analyzed b Quran from a women perspective, depending on the main fundamentals of Islam . in addition to that Wadud wrote another book "Inside Gender Jihad" where she combines between the personal and the public, she discussed many issues of the Muslim women and in the same time she shared with the readers details about her own struggle as Muslim woman.

And in practice Wadud challenged centuries of patriarchy and questioned the role of women in the traditional Islamic Fiqh by leading a Friday prayer, Wadud is the first Muslim woman claiming the right of spiritual leadership after centuries of exclusion women from this realm. She was faced by harsh critique from the whole Islamic scholars , that Sheikh Youssef el Qaradawi, the grand Sunni scholar dedicated a complete episode his show on al Jazeera TV to show how Wadud is considered a heretic and she is contradicting with the Islamic teachings, I believe that the only thing Wadud is contradicting with the unjust claims that discriminate against women in the traditional Islamic jurisprudence.

Wadud is inspiring many Muslims by her deep ideas and inspiring actions, currently she is blogging , she started blogging on various issues, starting Ramadan till the Haj time in sha Allah. Fellow her she is just a pious soul .
Wadud is my  role model because she is just practicing what she claims , her life is an endeavor of a soul seeking peace and justice