There is an important distinction between fairness/justice (al-'adālah) and equality (al-musāwah) in Islam.

Knowing this distinction would make you understand why I cringe everytime someone calls the Prophet ﷺ a "feminist".

This is a thread, inshāAllāh.

Firstly, the definition of justice (al-'adālah).

al-'adālah, al-'udūlah, al-ma'dilah, al-ma'dalah all of them mean the same thing according to ibn Manzūr: al-'adl.

In his Lisān al-‘Arab, he defines al-'adl as "what is established in the souls as straight, and it is the...

opposite of al-jawr (injustice)".

"And in regards to one of the names of Allah, al-'Adl is that he is not inclined by his hawa' (passions) so as to be unjust in his ruling".

According to Professor Syed Naquib al-Attas in 'Islam The Concept of Religion and the Foundation of...

Ethics and Morality', justice means "a harmonious condition or state of affairs whereby everything is in its right and proper place..." and that injustice is "putting a thing in a place not its own...".

According to al-Attas, all acts of injustice ultimately lead back to..

injustice to man's self alone, because he has wronged his own soul, he has put his soul in a place not its own and all of this entails a violation of his Covenant with God.

The Covenant every person has with God is the acknowledgement of the truth of God's Lordship.

It is important to notice that the word 'equality' that is thrown around a lot these days does not appear anywhere and this tells us an important thing: that the concept of justice in Islam is much more profound than mere equality.

Thus, this metaphysical concept of justice...

translates the same way in Islamic social justice.

According to Sayyid Qutb in his Social Justice in Islam, all natures of relations, including social relations, are "expressions of different aspects of the one universal, comprehensive theory", which is sought only from...

the Qur'an and the Traditions (Sunnah).

Essentially, this theory is that humanity is an essential unity—that all creations were created by The One and that "individuals are as atoms, dependent upon and related to the world..." united by one purpose which is to serve The Creator

Therefore, this view of Islamic justice is "essentially an all-embracing justice which does not take account merely of material and economic factors".

Secondly, why is this comprehensive view of justice important?

The concept of 'equality' is that it is quantifiable and can..

be seen with our own human judgment.

For example, consider the fact that men can be in a polygamous relationship, but not women.

We can see clearly that the situation is unequal: one person has a right that the other doesn't.

The difference with justice is that justice takes into account things that are abstract, unquantifiable, and sometimes beyond human knowledge.

Some of these things include responsibilities which is difficult to say who has more and who has less.

Consider the following hadith where a wife can take the husband's money without him knowing if she receives less nafqah.

Is it equal? No: one clearly has a right while the other doesn't.

Is it fair/just? Yes: we can see clearly why the reason behind it, because Islam has... https://twitter.com/the_x_guy/status/1342443927417315329

dictated that it is the responsibility of the husband to give nafqah.

Is the above equal? No: one clearly has a responsibility while the other doesn't.

Is it fair/just? Yes: you can theorise all you want why Islam only dictated men for it but I'll just say wallāhu a'lam.

This is what Qutb meant when he said that the regulations "cannot be correctly understood individually, nor when they are understood only of the individual in relation to society...".

When you look at the situation above outwardly without considering other aspects, you will...

see it as unequal, which some people conflate with being unjust.

Thirdly, equality in Islam.

Does Islam then fight for equality? Yes.

But it is important to note that Islam does not fight for unlimited/unbounded equality. Islam grants every person equality in basic rights

The most important example is the basic right to live: the Prophet ﷺ forbid the Jahiliyya practice of burying daughters alive.

There is also the fundamental equality that since no "individual can be intrinsically superior to another, it follows that there can be no race and...

no class which is superior by reason of its origin or its nature".

Instead, each individual is judged solely on his deeds on the Day of Judgement and his taqwā.

"...Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you..."
—Q 49:13

But in other things, Islam clearly gives different rights and responsibilities between genders, as we have established above. This difference implies that it is unequal *in individual things*.

For the believer, our belief is that despite being unequal, it is fair and just,...

and this is the significance of one of Allah's names being al-'Adl.

What this means is that justice is this overarching concept in Islam which takes into account every possible aspect of humans, and that equality is just a subset of justice.

Your difficulty in understanding this simple concept is what causes you to have such confusions: (see attached tweet).

Yes, equality as prescribed by Islam will necessitate justice/fairness but not *every* equality will necessitate it. https://twitter.com/lightsong96/status/1342867823266123776

Fourthly, is the Prophet ﷺ a [modern label]?

I've argued many times that simply looking at similar outward actions to conflate two things together is a shallow way of looking at things. In Malay, we say "pemikiran dangkal".

For every action , there is an underlying...

reason behind it, and this is where Islam and other ideologies differ.

Feminism, according to this "Muslim feminist" is 'supporting gender equality'.

bell hooks, the famous feminist who I had to study in class defined it broadly as "a movement to end sexism and sexist...

oppression".

Okay, then in terms of equality and anti-sexism(however you define it), how would this verse in the Qur'an then be interpreted?

"Men are qawwāmūn of women..."
—Q 4:34

Qawwāmūn is typically translated as “protectors/maintainers”.

If the Prophet ﷺ were a feminist who fought for women's rights solely on the basis of equality, it would also make the Prophet ﷺ not a feminist until there exists a verse that also says the opposite of the above.

Therefore, putting that label on the Prophet ﷺ is incoherent.

He ﷺ fought for women's rights on the basis of a comprehensive Islamic justice, not on the basis of some abstract concept of "equality" and "ending sexism" as however they are defined by the postmodern West. https://twitter.com/aqilazme/status/1342886649542295552

Another typical argument put forward is that “anyone who fights for women’s rights is considered a feminist”. Again as I said, this is a shallow way to view things when you only look at the outward actions.

This is what causes the epistemic confusion: why are some feminists…

saying that the Prophet ﷺ was a misogynist, and why are some claiming he is a feminist?

More importantly: who is more correct in their understanding of feminism between these two given that there’s no central authority?

If both are correct (or both are incorrect), then that just dilutes the meaning of the label, which is why I asked, “why the need to ground his teachings to other ideologies” which as you have seen, is meaningless?

If the rest of feminism did have Islamic al-’adalah as their basis, they wouldn’t be “feminism”, they would simply be “Islam”.

Therefore, if the rest of feminism is opposed to al-’adalah, the Prophet ﷺ is simultaneously not a feminist.

This is just pure confusion.

Then who is he ﷺ? He is a Messenger who spread the message of Islam, which contained within in al-’adalah.

Islamic al-’adalah is unique to Islam.

Now read through my original thread again: https://twitter.com/aqilazme/status/1319219952843304960

My sincere advice to people who want to put modern labels on the Prophet ﷺ: leave him out of this and out of your man-made ideologies.

Instead, why don’t you people ever use the labels that elevate his rank? He ﷺ is Sayyidinā, Maulānā, our beloved, the best of creations ﷺ.

Make abundance of salawāt upon him ﷺ.

Wallāhu a’lam.
Correct me if I’m wrong.