“Al-insān al-kāmil, perfect or complete? Why are female humans excluded from being an insān kāmil?“

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Abstract:
God’s representative on earth as described in Verse [2:30] generated many discourses, from designating the Prophet the most perfect human, all the way to Sufis who aspired to an insān akāmil. Before political correctness took root even in academia, the term al-insān al-kāmil was usually translated to English as “the perfect man,” replacing the umbrella term human, thereby excluding half the human race from achieving or aspiring to perfection. Consequently, the preservation and protection of divine creation on earth, rational reflection and judgement, legislative and scholarly privileges and interactions became exclusive to male humans rather than all humans. This was also reflected in the ḥadīth corpus and supported by the exegetical tradition in circular arguments, describing female humans as deficient in mind and intellect, the cause of fitna needing restraints and keepers, readily provided by the rules of fiqh declaring them often as minors requiring guardianship. However, looking at the women described in the Qur’an, a different picture emerges. Women’s voices and actions change the course of history many times, some receive divine inspiration, others preserve and protect divine creation and prophets, most serve God in many ways, and all are capable of rational reflection and sound judgement. This lecture analyses the ethical inclusive Qur’anic messages gleaned from the stories and actions of several extraordinary women and argues that the Qur’an designates them as entitled to being among others aspiring to being al-insān al-kāmil.
The event is organized in cooperation with the Orient Institut Beirut (OIB) within the framework of the DAAD project “Clusters of Scientific Innovation in the Middle East and North Africa” (COSIMENA), which is a platform that aims to strengthen and initiate scientific cooperation and networks between researchers and universities in Germany and the MENA region. As a result, existing cooperation is made visible and potential synergies are initiated.
 

Bios:
Yasmin Amin is an Egyptian-German who received her PhD in Islamic studies in 2021 from Exeter University’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies researching ‘Humour and Laughter in the Ḥadīth’. She obtained a postgraduate diploma in Islamic Studies in 2006 and an MA in Islamic Studies from the American University in Cairo in 2010. Her research covers various aspects of gender issues, early Muslim society and culture as well as the original texts of Islamic history, law and Hadith. She is the author of the forthcoming ‘Musnad Umm Salama and the factors affecting its evolution’, co-translator of ‘The Sorrowful Muslim’s Guide’, and co-editor (with Nevin Reda) of Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion and Change (2020). Since 2022, she is the OIB’s representative in Cairo.

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