An analysis on the Muslim scholars’ viewpoint about women’s management and the content of the hadith "lan yufliḥa qawmun asnadū amrahum ilā imra’atin"

Belittling the women, disregarding their capabilities and deeming the women’s management inefficient is one of the observable trends in the history of societies including the Muslim society. The case study of this research is the tradition “lan yaflihḥa qawmun asnadū amrahum ilā imra’atin” (Any people who commend their affairs to a woman will never see prosperity).  Analyzing the opinions of those who approve and those who disapprove the [reliability of the] tradition, as well as the cultural, political and social factors and backgrounds of the issuance of such traditions constitutes the problem of the present study. Having applied an analytical-critical method this research demonstrates limiting thoughts that by gradual return to the precedents of the Pre-Islamic era (jāhiliyyah) prevent the women not only from political and social macro management and decision making, but also from acquiring literacy, going to markets and even attending the mosques. It may even lead to house arrest of the women! Regardless of the discussions pertaining to the dating of this hadith, and supposing that it is authentic, it should be noted that this hadith had been accepted by most of intellectual trends of the Sunni community during the second to the eighth centuries AH, and that due to its frequent quotation it has also crept into Shi’a hadith collections such as  Kitāb al-Khilāf and Biḥār al-Anwār. Despite its occurrence in Shi’a sources, this idea has less advocates among the Shiites (compared with the Sunnis). Having studied the historical conditions of the early Islamic decades one notices that such factors and backgrounds as the conquests, the Companions' and the Successors' engagement in wars, and exertion of personal tastes by the caliphs [altogether] caused the return to the tribal precedents and those pertaining to the Pre-Islamic era, thus disregarding the women. The religious new thinking trend with its critical approach believes that whether the text of this kind of traditions is considered as fabricated, or is deemed originated from a historical and regional understanding, the achieved result will be the same: such traditions are rejected.