Analysis and Evaluation of the Islamic World Exegetes (Ibn ‘Arabī, Ibn ‘Aṭīyya, Qurṭubī, and Ibn ‘Āshūr) About Woman’s Blood Money

Women’s blood money is one of the most challenging issues related to women’s social rights, and it is gauged based on verses 178 of the Baqara chapter, 45 of Ma’ida chapter, and 92 of Nisā’ chapter. The exegetes’ stances are different in this regard. Some believe in the equality of the man and woman’s blood money, while others support taking the women’s blood money as half of the man’s blood money. The second view has led to challenges such as the suggestion of the existence of gender biases in the Qur’ān. Therefore, in this study, through collection and personal investigation of the themes, the viewpoints of the Western Islamic world exegetes (Ibn ‘Arabī, Ibn ‘Aṭīyya, Qurṭubī, and Ibn ‘Āshūr) have been explained and evaluated under verses related to women’s blood money. The purpose is to clarify the viewpoints of these exegetes on women’s blood money, express their principles in this regard, and explicate their treatment of the challenges related to women’s blood money. Although all aforementioned exegetes have taken man as primary and woman as secondary in creation, Ibn ‘Arabī is the only exegete that has related the amount of blood money to the human ranks of man and woman. Since he believes in the lower status of woman to man, he takes halving the women’s blood money as evidently natural. This view is used as the evidence for the challenges in this regard. Nonetheless, the qur’ānic thought is based on the natural similarity and unity of man and woman. A point that supports this latter view is that the criterion for evaluating all humans is piety. The indications existing in Ibn ‘Aṭīyya’s commentary, as a political figure in Andalusia, reveal that he believes in the equality of man and woman’s blood money, though due to his political status, he has refrained from explicitly commenting on this point and has dissimulated his opinion. Quoting opinions without giving priority to any of them, Qurṭubī interprets the verses related to blood money. However, the indications existing in his commentary indicate that he – like Ibn ‘Aṭīyya – believes in retaliation without giving the difference in blood money. As a modern exegete with reformist opinions in the Western Islamic world, Ibn ‘Āshūr has expressed the woman’s blood money to be half that of the man, without giving any further evidence. Moreover, he has not answered the challenges posed against woman’s blood money and the questions about gender bias in the noble Qur’ān. This is while – unlike the three previous exegetes – the foregoing challenges were present in his era.