Women's Leadership: Khaled M. Abou El-Fadl's Authoritative Hermeneutics Perspective

Abstract

This article discusses the status of women's leadership in the perspective of Khaled M. Aboul El-Fadl's authoritative hermeneutics. The status of women's leadership is debated among fuqaha' (Islamic jurists). The analysis of this article is qualitative in nature with the main source being the hadiths about the prohibition of women becoming leaders such as women becoming presidents and judges. The approach used is a philosophical approach by using the concept of authoritative hermeneutics of Khaled M. Abou El-Fadl. The analysis process is carried out by collecting traditions related to women's leadership and then analysing them in terms of the validity of the hadith using the methods of takhrij al-Hadis (tracking the history of the hadith) and syarh hadis (explanations of hadith and fiqh experts in Hadith syarh books). Once the validity status of the hadith is known, it is then analysed by applying Khaled M. Abou El-Fadl's theory of authoritative hermeneutics. This article finds that the traditions on the prohibition of women as leaders are qualified as sahih. However, although the traditions are historically qualified as sahih, when looking at the authoritative hermeneutics offered by Khaled M. Abou EL-Fadl by considering itsbat al-ma'na, the prohibition is not absolute. This means that in the current context, whose conditions are different from the conditions when the hadith was delivered by the Apostle Muhammad, it is possible that women are allowed to become leaders.