#for my 3 30 am rant about this but its just... its so vile and im not sure how people can not see her as INCREDIBLY racist and many other

[volfoss]

like heres the thing- at surface level, you can really be impressed with rices inclusivity. like in a world where things were not horrible, to have a prominent black vampire in merrick, have an intersex genderfluid character in blackwood farm, billions of bisexuals etc, it all seems really nice. and then you look more into it and find that the way she writes anyone who doesnt fit a very specific mold is written horribly. merrick is treated as a sex object and a temptress as early as.. age 14 or so. she is never given the pov during the entire book that is TITLED AFTER HER because its all from a white guy who's been objectifying her forever. petronia (the character in blackwood) is misgendered often and treated as inhuman often in a very jarring way. her way of "inclusivity" with sexuality often includes very large age gaps between adults and minors treated completely normally and never really unpacking the damage that does to the victims, as well as incestuous relationships that if anything are fetishized to the point where i am positive she had a kink for it. her idea of representation is so incredibly surface level and doesn't really seem to examine many viewpoints outside of her own, nor take any care to handle any topic with any sensitivity. do i need to bring up the gay disabled vampire who is the only disabled vampire ever and is greatly treated with mass amounts of ableism from the woman who supposedly cares about him (if we are to believe rice's narrative that every slave owner just lovesss their slaves and wants the best for them and its GOOD for them to be enslaved). we are supposed to believe an author with this bad of a track record actually cares?

[quranreadalong]

#129, Surah 24

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 129

We’re gonna finish off the Great Slander of Aisha mess from last time, then move onto sunnier pastures. 27:18 is our starting point. Allah reveals to everyone yet again that those who spread the “slander” against Aisha would have been severely punished, were it not for Allah’s mercy. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly what he said four lines ago in 27:14. Mohammed Allah was just really upset about all this, okay? Anger was clouding his divine mind. Mohammed reminds everyone not to follow the ways of Shaytan, then says this, which is actually good:

let not those who possess dignity and ease among you swear not to give to the near of kin and to the needy, and to fugitives for the cause of Allah. Let them forgive and show indulgence. 

This was addressed to Abu Bakr, and it was mentioned in that long-ass hadith we read yesterday.

Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, who used to provide for Mistah bin Uthatha because of the latter's kinship to him and his poverty, said, "By Allah, I will never provide for Mistah anything after what he has said about Aisha". So Allah revealed: [24:22]

I mentioned yesterday that one of the guys spreading the rumor about Aisha and Safwan was one of Aisha’s own relatives, and that was this guy, Mistah. He was Abu Bakr’s cousin. Abu Bakr was very wealthy and his cousin Mistah seems to have been, to be blunt, a bit of a loser, so Abu Bakr helped him out sometimes. After The Incident, Abu Bakr vowed to stop giving him money, but Mohammed told him to keep providing for him.

Anyway, Mohammed finishes up his rant by saying yet again that those who slander “virtuous women” such as Aisha will be judged by Allah and forced to tell him about their “crimes”, and will then go to hell. Then he repeats 24:3, saying that “vile women” are for “vile men” whereas “good” women are for “good” men. Gross then and now tbh. You’ll see that a couple of the translators translate this instead as “vile words for vile men” etc, instead of vile women, because the “vile” things in question aren’t specified. But the context here is clearly about people (Pickthall’s translation, “...good women; such are innocent of that which people say” makes far more sense than the “good words” variant, as you can see). The real meaning is bad, but I’ll be nice as I always am and put it down as neutral due to the (non-)confusion over the wording.

And... look, Mohammed was being overdramatic but I’m gonna put all of the above down as neutral.... doin my best 2 ignore that all of this is related to his child bride tbh!! Now let’s move onto another topic, for the love of Allah.

How about... houses? Sure, whatever. Houses. If you enter a house, say “hi how y’all doin today” and wait for permission to enter. If you are denied or no one’s home, leave and try again later. This does not apply to houses you know are uninhabited, inns, etc. Um. I guess those first two are good-ish? It’s at least encouraging politeness!

Now we come to another topic that requires a lengthy explainer. 24:30 instructs men to “lower their gaze and be modest” ie to not stare at women. The next ayah:

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment.

In addition to “lowering their gaze and being modest”, women must abide by several other requirements when they are around men who are neither their slaves nor people they can lawfully marry (called non-mahram men--brothers, fathers, etc are mahram men. But cousins are not!). This is one of two ayat in the Quran that explicitly tell women to dress a certain way. There are other verses about “hijab”, but in those ayat the word is used in its literal form--a barrier between people (including between women and men). Not related to clothing.

So let’s take a look at what this one says in more complete detail. It tells women to guard their chastity (translated as “be modest” here) then to not display their adornments (zinatahunna) save that which is apparent when they are around non-mahram/non-servile men. Then, women are instructed to draw their bikhumurihinna over their chests, and to not stamp their feet to reveal their zinatahunna.

What are these two words, zinatahunna and bikhumurihinna, and what is this ayah actually saying?

I’ll start with the latter. Bikhumurihinna means the khimar of the women. As far as anyone can tell, a khimar in pre-Islamic times was simply a loose head covering that shielded people from the sun. It did not cover the neck; it hung straight down the back. It seems the word was used in a general sense, not in a gendered way. “Khimar” appears to have referred to the object itself, a rectangular piece of fabric, and does not seem to have had any religious significance. It may have had a class component, in the sense that richer women were more likely to wear it, but even that is uncertain.

Islam turned this garment into something tied specifically to women, and also turned it into a requirement for women. This ayah is telling women to drape the head coverings across their neck and chest, as these areas appear to have been uncovered in pre-Islamic times. (By “chest” I mean like the collarbone area, not the tiddies.) A sahih hadith states that women must wear a khimar if they want Allah to listen to their prayers, which is not something required of men. 🤷🏾

So okay, women were told to wear a khimar and drape it in such a way as to cover their neck/chest... and to cover zinatahunna “beyond that which is apparent” and to not stamp their feet to reveal zinatahunna. What does that mean? The Quran does not elaborate, so we have to do some investigation here.

Well, let’s start with this: the literal definition of “zinatahunna” is “their adornments”, as it was translated above. The question is more what Mohammed meant by “adornments” and what counts as an “apparent adornment”. Most early scholars interpreted this as women’s beauty in general or things that enhance their beauty--henna, jewelry, or things of that nature. So the “don’t stamp your feet” part would be in reference to jewelry that makes noise when you move, presumably. In terms of a woman’s body itself, the area that must be covered is called the awrah.

Whether a woman’s (bare) face is included in her awrah is a matter of debate, and the Quran does not really say one way or the other. Some ahadith indicate that it is not.

[Mohammed says] when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this, and he pointed to his face and hands.

The collector of this hadith points out that it is a mursal tradition, meaning the chain of transmission is missing a link. This does not mean that it is false (and most scholars think it’s fine as long as the person narrating it is trustworthy), but it is something to keep in mind. Regardless, if true, this means that covering the face was not considered necessary. Some women did cover their faces, but it seems it was not obligatory.

But the concept of niqab is more relevant to the other hijab ayah, so we’ll look more at this topic and the strange circumstances surrounding why women were commanded to cover themselves then. But for now I’ll leave it at this: 24:31 tells women use their headscarves to cover their neck and upper chest area, in addition to their jewelry and anything else construed as “attention-getting”. Also that’s bad, men be out here wearing long shorts and saying their awrah is covered (men’s awrah goes from below their bellybutton to above their knees) while women gotta put up with this nonsense in the desert heat smh!!

Let’s leave it there for today. There will be more hijab stuff in surah 33.

NEXT TIME: We can actually get more than 15 ayat in, inshallah!!

The Quran Read-Along: Day 129

Ayat: 14

Good: 3 (24:22, 24:27-28)

Neutral: 9 (24:18-21, 24:23-26, 24:29-30)

Bad: 1 (24:31)

Kuffar hell counter: 0

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