Christians & Jews often use a Hadith to malign Islam that women are not given equal rights and are condemn to remain in the hell fire. While they lie they try to make some issue out of the following Hadith.
The very first thing that is a must to be kept in mind when going through the Islamic Sources is that you cannot pick up a verse or a Hadith, take it in isolation from the rest of Islamic rubric and run to races with it. This is an intellectual & moral crime and a means of deceiving oneself and others. Indeed one has to consider all the various hadiths pertaining to an issue one way or the other, consider the context of each of them and then draw some conclusion. Unfortunately most of the Christian & Jewish readers of Quran and Hadith fail on this account.
Now clearly we see that at the time this was said, Holy Prophet – peace and blessings of Allah be upon him- was not actually dwelling on the point if men or women will form the majority in the Hell and Paradise, he was only asking women to mend their ways and was pointing to a common problem in the attitude of the women. This was his duty being Al-Nazir (the Warner).
One needs to understand that women do not go to hell for being women. The Hadith does not say they go to hell for being women, it actually points out to a wrong behavior on women’s part.
The real misunderstanding comes with the notion that women outnumber men in hell because of their womanhood. This is indeed wrong, there is nothing like that in the Hadith, not even in the least. Secondly, most probably either men or women will be more in the hell. It’s very difficult that they number exactly the same. Whoever will do more wrong deeds will be punished for that. It’s about deeds not gender and that’s where people take a wrong turn and are lead astray.
In fact there is another Hadith which tells us that there will be more women in the Paradise then the men. It is recorded in Sahih Muslim.
Ibn Kathir commenting on this Hadith said:
Hafiz al-Ayni has also mentioned that it refers to the women of this world.
Ibn Hajr while discussing the issue says:
This brings us to the next question - is there any contradiction between the two hadiths?
The very first thing that is a must to be kept in mind when going through the Islamic Sources is that you cannot pick up a verse or a Hadith, take it in isolation from the rest of Islamic rubric and run to races with it. This is an intellectual & moral crime and a means of deceiving oneself and others. Indeed one has to consider all the various hadiths pertaining to an issue one way or the other, consider the context of each of them and then draw some conclusion. Unfortunately most of the Christian & Jewish readers of Quran and Hadith fail on this account.
Now clearly we see that at the time this was said, Holy Prophet – peace and blessings of Allah be upon him- was not actually dwelling on the point if men or women will form the majority in the Hell and Paradise, he was only asking women to mend their ways and was pointing to a common problem in the attitude of the women. This was his duty being Al-Nazir (the Warner).
One needs to understand that women do not go to hell for being women. The Hadith does not say they go to hell for being women, it actually points out to a wrong behavior on women’s part.
The real misunderstanding comes with the notion that women outnumber men in hell because of their womanhood. This is indeed wrong, there is nothing like that in the Hadith, not even in the least. Secondly, most probably either men or women will be more in the hell. It’s very difficult that they number exactly the same. Whoever will do more wrong deeds will be punished for that. It’s about deeds not gender and that’s where people take a wrong turn and are lead astray.
In fact there is another Hadith which tells us that there will be more women in the Paradise then the men. It is recorded in Sahih Muslim.
Ibn Kathir commenting on this Hadith said:
The same is mentioned by Hafiz Zainuddin al-Iraqi.
Hafiz al-Ayni has also mentioned that it refers to the women of this world.
Ibn Hajr while discussing the issue says:
This brings us to the next question - is there any contradiction between the two hadiths?
Let me first clarify another thing about the hadiths that say women were in majority in the Hell. There are hadiths that contain the words ‘I was shown the Hell-fire’ and we know from other hadiths that Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was shown the Hell-Fire on his journey during the miraculous Night of Ascension. So we can easily conclude that hadiths indicating women being in majority in the hell refer to the time when the Holy Prophet actually saw it and they do not mention if same is the case even now.
There is a narration that seemingly contradicts the above.
But this narration does not mean women will always form the majority in the hell. Zainuddin Muhammad al-Manawi explained this Hadith saying:
We also ought to keep in mind that women today outnumber men. Even if more males are born, their mortality rate is higher then female babies and we learn in Hadith that near the End of Times women will outnumber men greatly so if equal ratio of men and women goes to hell and the paradise even then it is quite possible that women remain in majority in both.
There is a narration that seemingly contradicts the above.
But this narration does not mean women will always form the majority in the hell. Zainuddin Muhammad al-Manawi explained this Hadith saying:
Hafiz Ibn Hajr and Hafiz al-‘Ayni have explained it the same way.
We also ought to keep in mind that women today outnumber men. Even if more males are born, their mortality rate is higher then female babies and we learn in Hadith that near the End of Times women will outnumber men greatly so if equal ratio of men and women goes to hell and the paradise even then it is quite possible that women remain in majority in both.
Let me make clear another point that the Hadith does not ask woman to bear with her husband even when he is wrong and refrain from complaining. No, this is not the case as we know that there is complete Surah (chapter) in the Quran i.e. Surah Mujadila (No. 58) which is about a woman who came to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) to complain against her husband and the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not say that she was going to hell for complaining and in fact he listened to her and Allah also revealed verses addressing the issue and condemning the unacceptable behavior of the husband.
Thus the conclusion is that Holy Prophet –may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him- stated only what he had seen during his Miraculous Journey which is not bound to remain the same for ever. And that women will be fewer in the Paradise only initially and eventually women will form the majority in the Paradise as more and more of the people are taken out of Hell and admitted into Paradise. Other traditions plainly establish that in the Paradise women will be much larger in number compared to men. And the particular tradition that Christians/Jews dwell upon only asks women not to complain and be ungrateful to their husbands without reason.
And Allah knows the best!
Thus the conclusion is that Holy Prophet –may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him- stated only what he had seen during his Miraculous Journey which is not bound to remain the same for ever. And that women will be fewer in the Paradise only initially and eventually women will form the majority in the Paradise as more and more of the people are taken out of Hell and admitted into Paradise. Other traditions plainly establish that in the Paradise women will be much larger in number compared to men. And the particular tradition that Christians/Jews dwell upon only asks women not to complain and be ungrateful to their husbands without reason.
And Allah knows the best!