Motherhood in the Islamic Tradition Rethinking the Procreative Function of Women in Islam

Abstract This paper focuses on the reproductive function of women from an Islamic religious perspective. It aims to depict motherhood as it is imaged in some verses of the Qur’an with the objective of understanding how the Islamic Tradition positions the feminine with regards to maternity. Motherhood is not all a bundle of joy and the Qur’an clearly acknowledges that pregnancy, as well as childbirth, are painful events that mothers live with much difficulty; meanwhile, some verses portray maternity as an act of deep spirituality, mingled with an intellectual awareness of the role to be undertaken and much feelings. Through a thorough study of some verses of the Qur’an, I will undertake a deep literary analysis with the objective of outlining maternity from an Islamic perspective. The objective is to answer one major question at the core of the feminist debate: is motherhood an acknowledged only a biological destiny that is incumbent on women as a duty meant for the species’ survival and therefore rather a burden hindering women’s full engagement as productive agents in society or contribution by women and thus a feminine particularity to defend.