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decades ago, I juxtapose these developments to the historical continuum while simultaneously maintaining the necessity of more female-inclusive analysis.
    Chapter 7, “Stories from the Trenches,” provides an opportunity to discuss a few areas that have become central to considerations of gender in Islam, like hijab , an essay about 9/11, and explanations and responses to some public controversies as they have impacted my identity formations and feelings of belonging in community. Selective persons or arguments have constructed the gender jihad as an exclusion from modern Islamic realities, rather than as an indication of the failures of inclusive diversity and practices. A short rendition of the paper presented at the International Muslim Leaders’ Council on H.I.V./A.I.D.S. in 2002 in Malaysia provides proof of the continued male sanctions of gender inequities of sexuality.

    12 inside the gender jihad

    My concluding chapter, “Why Fight the Gender Jihad ?,” juxtaposes spirituality as an essential qualification for just actions and public policy reforms. I return, after a long journey, to my original motivation to stand up and rejuvenate faith by “spiritual activism,” that is, to augment the abstract epistemology of reform discourse over revelation and human meaning toward acts of kindness and good, by joining them into a single process – change of heart, body, and soul for participants hoping to create a meaningful alternative in governing Islamic affairs worldwide. Ultimately, it is the divine gift of spirit in agency that mandates service toward building a reformed Islam to replace the chaos and corruptions, including gender oppression currently at the forefront and on the rise.

    Introduction 13

    1 What’s in a Name?
    What’s in a name?
    That which we call a rose,
    by any other name would smell as sweet.
    – Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet , II.ii.1–2

    My interest in language grew from my childhood love of reading. “I was not [then] fascinated so much with the story lines: saved damsels and handsome heroes, as I was intrigued with words which could unfold images and meaning. Worlds of words. Meanings through naming.” 1 Throughout this book, several key theoretical or conceptual ideals continually surface. Here they are defined in detail as foundational to a paradigm shift in the movement to attain social justice for all Muslims. In addition, these defini- tions are critical for understanding and appropriately applying them as they are referred to in this book. The definitions themselves were drawn directly from female-inclusive readings, especially of fundamental Qur’anic themes like tawhid (the unicity of God), khalifah (moral agent), and taqwa (moral consciousness). In my earliest research, Fazlur Rahman’s scholarship inspired me to consider terms and their relationships to a Qur’anic worldview. He insisted that “There is no doubt that a central aim of the Qur’an is to establish a viable social order on earth that will be just and ethically based.” 2 Later, I would use these terms in transforming and recon- structing an understanding of human nature in Islam. I conclude that the notion of what it means to be human is built upon a dynamic relationship between tawhid and khilafah (agency). Taqwa is essential to the moral

    14 inside the gender jihad

    attitude of the agent both as an individual and also as a member of society in Islam. Activating the tawhidic principle as a matter of personal practice and in the definitions, establishment, and sustenance of a just social order – the primary responsibility of being human – is the means for practicing a more egalitarian, humanistic, and pluralist Islam today. Injustice ( zulm ), on the other hand, signals neglect of these conceptual developments. Such zulm has been directed toward women not only throughout Islamic history, but also with new and more vicious consequences today.
    Whether ultimately it is the individual that is