Women & al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl

Question:

Is Al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl (disparagements and appraisals) accepted from women?

Answer:

The disparagements and appraisals are accepted from women, if the conditions which are stipulated in this are found with the woman disparaging and praising.

And if the male scholars in al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl are few in relation to the rest of the scholars of the religion, then how about the females.

For this reason you barely find any statements belonging to a woman in the books of al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl.

This being said if the conditions are found with them; then their statements, if they came about through knowledge and capability, are accepted.

And the position of the lack of accepting their statements in this subject, while the conditions have been met, is a position which is rejected.

Al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl is from the angle of informing and narrating; and there is no stipulation for multiplicity (multiple narrators) nor being male nor freedom (non-slave), and the proofs for this are many, from it being:

➖1- the statement of the Most High:

( إِن جَآءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌۢ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوٓا۟ أَن تُصِيبُوا۟)

“If a rebellious evil person comes to you with a news, verify it”
[Al-Hujarāt:6]

This is general and it includes males and females; because this is the basis of the legislation; that males and females share the rulings except where proof points to its contrary, and there is no proof to single out the men from the two in this subject.

➖2- the statement of the Most High:

(يَٰٓأَبَتِ ٱسْتَـْٔجِرْهُ ۖ إِنَّ خَيْرَ مَنِ ٱسْتَـْٔجَرْتَ ٱلْقَوِىُّ ٱلْأَمِينُ)

“O my father! Hire him! Verily, the best of men for you to hire is the strong, the trustworthy.”
[Qasas:26]

The acceptance of a righteous man of his daughters appraisal, and before this, the approval of the Qur’ān of her appraisal, is a proof for that consideration is paid to their informing.

➖3- The enquiring of the Prophet ﷺ of Burayrah about ‘Aisha in the affair of the great lie, and his approval of her appraisal.

And Al-Khatīb chaptered a chapter in his book “Al-Kifāyah” (p121-122) entitled:

“The chapter of: what has come in the appraisal coming from a woman or a slave or a child.
The basis of this chapter is the enquiring of the Prophet ﷺ in the affair of the great lie about the condition of ‘Aisha the mother of the believers.”

[End of speech]

Then a consensus has been relayed from Al-Qādi in the lack of acceptance of the appraisal of a child nearing or at puberty.

➖And in the Sahīh, and other than it of the compilations of the Sunnah, are many female companions narrating and many after them, and there is an consensus of the Imāms of Hadīth on the acceptance of the narration of a woman, at the presence of Dabt (precision at the preservation of the narration) and ‘Adālah (uprightness).

And al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl are from the angle of narrations, as both are from informing.

➖The Salaf unanimously agreed upon the acceptance of the fatwa of the female Companions and those after them, and acceptance of their statement in fatwa necessitates, even more so, the acceptance of their informing; because the conditions of fatwa are more severe.

➖Those that rejected female narrations and their disparagements and appraisals due to their deficiencies, are mistaken, because if being female was a deficiency then it would’ve prevented giving fatwa and other than it.

➖So men and women are equal in the subject of narration; so similar to there not being any condition mentioning the must for it to come from a man, then this is the case also for al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl.

➖Neither multiplicity nor freedom are stipulated at informing/narrating, al-Jarh wat Ta’deel being of this type, due to what it’s connected to being general, and it don’t contain levels (one person’s statement counting as more), due to this singular narrations suffice in being accepted, and there is no stipulation for multiplicity nor being male nor freedom; for this reason the singular narration is accepted and the likewise narration of the slave and the narration of a woman.

Contrary to the bearing of witness, what it relates to is specific, and there’s levels in this, for this reason multiple witnesses are requested; and due to the witness of a man equalling two women, and also freedom.

And these things are not stipulated in the subject of informing and narrating, which is where al-Jarh wat Ta’dīl is from.

And the speech of the people of knowledge in this topic is a plenty, and Imām Al-Wādi’ī, may Allah have mercy upon him, has a beneficial fatwa on the narration of a woman and her disparagement and appraisal, in his book “Al-Muqtarah” (p190-193).

Answered by:
Shaykh Abu Hatim Yusuf Al-‘Inaabi Al-Jazaa’iree – may Allaah preserve him.

Source:
t.me/abouhatem/393

Answered on:
16th, Safar, 1438H.

Translated by:
Abu ‘Abdirrahman ‘Abdullaah bin Ahmed Ash-Shingaani.