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women and islamic law 283possess qaww§ma (male or female) than others. 35 The gist of our argumentis that rather than defining ‘guardianship’ as a characteristicof men, we believe that women can acquire it as well. This is supportedby line 4 of our verse:‘Righteous women [ fa’l-ߧliȧt] are devout [q§nit§t] and guard whatGod would have them guard in their husband’s [sic] absence [ȧfií§tli’l-ghayb]…’. [AH]Righteous women are not those who are obedient 36 or who pray, fast,and give alms, as many exegetes have it, but those who possessqiw§ma (this is the theme of the verse after all), that is, those who docompetent work and provide leadership. The crucial term is ߧliȧt,which many, too hastily, have understood as ‘devout and piouswomen who pray and fast’. But a comparison to Sårat Al-Anbiy§"reveals that this is incorrect:And (remember) Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord: “O my Lord!Leave me not without offspring, though you are the best of inheritors.”* So We listened to him and We granted him YaÈy§. We cured[aßlaÈn§] his wife’s (barrenness) for him… ( Al-Anbiy§" 21:89–90)The term ߧliȧt means here that Allah cured (aßlaÈa) Zakariya’s wifefrom her barrenness. This surely does not imply that Allah’s curemade her pray and fast! Instead, the passage tells us what righteouswomen do who possess qiw§ma, that is, those to whom God has givenspecial skills and the power of leadership: they ‘guard what Godwould have them guard’, what God has given to them in terms ofspecial gifts and talents. And if they keep and use their talents forthe benefit of all, they are ‘righteous women’ (ߧliȧt).35This breaks entirely with the unambiguously gendered definition of qiw§ma inIslamic fiqh. According to the \anafÊ school of law, qiw§ma means that the husbandis liable to pay the mahr (dower) to his wife and that he (and only he!) is responsiblefor the financial support and maintenance of his wife and his family throughout theirmarriage (see al-MåßilÊ, al-Ikhtiy§r li’l-ta#lÊl al-mukht§r, vol. 4, 229).36Most translators, though, render this phrase exactly like this, e.g., MP: ‘goodwomen are the obedient’; MF: ‘righteous women are obedient’; AA: ‘righteouswomen are therefore obedient’; YA: ‘righteous women are devoutly obedient’; AB:‘Right-acting women are obedient’, and only AH, YA, and AB see the verse as referringto a marital context. AhA expressly wants to avoid the potential (ideological andlegal) abuse of such a rendering and qualifies obedience as nonmarital: ‘women whoare virtuous are obedient to God’ [fn. only to God]. MS, in addition, wants toexclude the possibility of understanding ‘righteousness’ as obedience (to God) whichis expressed purely in outward forms of ritual devotion and as (purely quantitatively)increased piety.