surah iv: women

"these are the limits," ALLAH tells us, (4:13).

the surah on women may be the most discussed, most referred to in generalities, in conversation to discuss the shortcomings of islam, to debunk the message of prophecy, to contrast the freedoms of women in the west vs women of surrender (islam). yet, in reading this surah, it is clear to me that most people who engage in these diatribes, do so in a way that most middle east correspondents on cnn discuss issues there. somehow, their 2 weeks spent in a sheraton, well guarded hotel, has made them an expert on a people and a history. deep. real deep. somehow, we have grown into these expert correspondents without time spent to read, extrapolate, contextualize, decode.

surah iv lays forth a clear code of conduct. but what has become apparent to me in reading and rereading this surah, is that there is a secret code here, a code for believers. believers are not those who subscribe to the literal, nor those looking to rationalize their position of privilege in the world (which i often see/hear from people of religion, people who praise the One for their cars and houses and bank accounts - something got missed in communication here), but those who surrender (the arabic word of which is muslim). surrendering requires humility, requires reading beyond the lines, requires understanding code.

the limits are boundaries, code, what we understand in poetry as meter, in lyricism as bars, in english essays as structure - thesis, evidence and supports, in architecture as a blueprint, in the language of the web, it is html and java, in cooking, soapmaking, lotion making, medicine-making, the codes are illustrated in recipes.

caraka and sushtra, two of the sages of ayurveda who received the Word, laid out the ratios and codes of making medicinal tailas, arishtas, kashyas, rasyanas.

egyptologists tell us that the pyramids may not have been tombs, but vessels of vibration arranged to be aligned with a frequency. the khemets of burkina faso tell us that khemet, which modern man understands as ancient egypt, was not the demarcations placed by the british and zionists in divvying up the magrheb and middeleast. instead, it was this entire region. this makes sense if you look at the ancient egyptian book of the dead. the short hand, of medu (the language we understand as hieroglypics) looks almost identical to the arabic, written and spread by the people of medina, the language of the Qur'an.

there is code in surah iv. the code is more than prescriptions, but meter set to flow into whatever situation in whatever period of time you exist in. this code appears as who a man can marry and who a man cannot marry among the woman in a society; it appears as what a woman is entitled to in the case of a death of her husband, what she is exempt from, what her options are in the case of adultery, etc. but, it is much more.

the set of laws are code for positionality. for instance, if the job of a supervisor in a supermarket is to hire and fire, then regardless of whether that boss is a male or female, that boss holds these responsibilities. a code of conduct for managers may state procedures they should follow.

surah iv lays this out as a code of ethics. literally, the addressed are males, and literally it may be understood as patriarchal, as the Word is being conveyed to men. but if historical context, social context, etc are weighed, if the lines are extended beyond the confines of the words that encapsulate them, and if the Word is from a Divine Source, it inherently can't be purely literal because all changes, because the law of Life is change, than implicit is the code. decode the code. all praise is due, all praise is due....