My Soul Is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam

Annemarie Schimmel

Paperback, 194 pages

9780826414441

Annemarie Schimmel examines a much-misunderstood feature of Islam: the role of women. Schimmel is critical of those – especially Western feminists – who take Islam to task without taking the time to comprehend the cultures, language, and traditions of the many societies in which Islam is the majority religion. Shattering stereotypes, Schimmel reconstructs an important but little-known chapter of Islamic spirituality. With copius examples, she shows the clear equality of women and men in the conception of the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, the feminine language of the mystical tradition, and the role of holy mothers and unmarried women as manifestations of God. This work is studded with luminous texts from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and particularly Indo-Muslim cultures, which reveal how physical love can give expression to the highest forms of mysticism.

Contents

1. Women and the Prophet

2. Women in Sufism

3. Women in the Quran and in the Tradition

4. Woman or "Man of God": The Education of the Soul (nafs)

5. The Old Woman

6. The Mothers

7. Woman as Manifesto of God

8. The Brides of God

9. Woman-Souls in Indo-Pakistani Poetry

10. Sassi's Wanderings

11. Sohni Mehanwal

12. Oman Maru