God Is Not Androgynous
Some say that if human beings could only give up old ideas of gender, we would experience true freedom and advance to the next frontier of human progress. I’m sure there are plenty of women and men who would feel relieved to throw off their heels and neckties, respectively. But this is hardly the sort of existential freedom that precipitates utopia. People who think this way are only really concerned with what they call the social performance of gender, things like dress, mannerisms, and who opens the door for whom.
It is atheistic to think that we can remake ourselves in the image of our choosing as if we are gods in full control. It's not possible nor is obvious that it would lead to a desirable outcome. While modern theorists hold that true freedom rests in throwing off the shackles of masculine and feminine in favor of androgyny, others argue that living to our full humanity does not necessitate a rejection of gender in favor of androgyny. If ultimate freedom were to come through androgyny, then we would imagine major religions conceptualizing God as androgynous. Yet, Allah in the Qur’an does not describe Himself as both male and female or on a gender spectrum. Rather, Allah talks about Himself as transcendent. The pronouns Allah uses are simply a tool, just like the Arabic language was a tool for Allah’s speech to be intelligible to human beings. (To read more about Allah's use of the masculine pronoun in the Qur'an, click here.)
Gender informs our position as stewards, khulafa. As Muslims, we can imagine that the more we embrace our God-given role as stewards, the greater the expression of our humanity will be and the more liberated we will feel. The greatest crime a steward could make is refusing to acknowledge that he is a placeholder for the king, not the king himself.
Muslim metaphysicians would argue that gender is inextricable from humanity and in truth enriches our selfhood. For the believer on the path to God, learning to express the positive aspects of one’s gender is a help rather than a hindrance. And learning to observe the pairings of the world grants us a deeper vision, not a skewed one.
Muslim thinkers of the past sought to explain the dynamic structure of the universe by utilizing a large number of symbols, of which gender is a key component. At the same time, they rejected the idea that the symbolized could be equated with the symbol. The former is always far greater in importance and scope than the latter, although the latter is more tangible. Muslim thinkers in the sapiential and Sufi traditions have utilized and championed gender as an analogy for the world more broadly. They take seriously God’s teaching in the Qur’an that He created all things in pairs and use that as a lens to clarify what otherwise would have remained nebulous. By lifting up this teaching, they affirm and celebrate human fullness with regard for, instead of disregard of, the body. Female and male is perhaps the greatest pairing because it gives rise to multitudes. That's why it is often used to talk about the phenomenon of pairing more broadly.
When we read our origin story, we see a derivation from oneness, as exemplified in Adam before Hawa, then duality, Adam with Hawa, then multiplicity, ourselves as the progeny of Adam and Hawa. While nearly all animals exist in pairs, none, as far as we know, was created from its own self like Adam and Hawa were created from the same nafs (soul). And while all other creatures live in accordance with their natures, none of them is conscious of their origin. The first verse of Surah Nisa illustrates human derivation from oneness, through to duality and then multiplicity: "O mankind, have taqwa of Allah who created you from one soul and created from it its mate, and spread from it countless men and women…" (Qur’an 4:1). Surah Hujurat reinforces this movement from singularity to multiplicity with the added benefit of encouraging us to reflect on proverbially climbing the ladder from multiplicity back to singularity: "O humankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted" (Qur’an 49:13).
Gender is, perhaps, one of the greatest expressions of God’s creative power. Gender defines creation, but it does not define the creator of creation. It exemplifies the concept of complementarity and wholeness that makes us wonder about true indivisibility and unity. Embracing gender in this context is about contemplating creation, existence, and Allah in the way the Qur'an has invited us to.