Beyond Ḥalāl and Ḥarām: Ghayra (‘Jealousy’) as a Masculine Virtue in the Work of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya

Abstract

Scholarship on gender in medieval Islam often focuses on the normative rulings of the Sharīʿa, examining rules applying to women through the lens of ḥalāl (‘permissible’) and ḥarām (‘forbidden’). However, these issues can also be approached in terms of models of pious masculinity. This paper focuses on the theme of ghayra (‘jealousy’) as a normative masculine emotion in the work of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350). While the word ghayra most directly designates sexual or romantic possessiveness, its broader semantic range encompasses the zealous defense of other prerogatives, both human and divine. Thus, appropriate ghayra can be understood as the affective motivation for a pious man's efforts to protect the modesty of his wife or daughter as well as of God's commandments and the social order more generally. Deficient ghayra is associated with Others such as pre-Islamic Arabs and European Christians. However, medieval Muslim scholars did not unqualifiedly endorse and encourage male jealousy; rather, they probed the boundaries between appropriate jealousy and jealousy that was sinful, unjust or even dangerous.