Is it unusual for women to be intelligent and talent? Is it totally impossible for women to be intelligent and talented? Are they completely and totally deficient in intelligence according to Islam? Or it that confined to being witness and leadership? It would be easy if you could clarify it. It would be easy to understand if you would give a direct answer instead of showing other fatwas.

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

There is nothing that prevents a woman from being intelligent or talented. Indeed, ‘Aa’ishah was knowledgeable of the rulings of the Shariah, and the Companions and the Taabi’is (generation following that of the Companions) learned from her. She was also knowledgeable of medicine and the lineages of the Arabs.

As regards the meaning that women are deficient in mind and religion and the position of women in the Islamic Shariah, then this is something that we have already clarified in detail in the following fatwas: 81205, 81237, 84040, and 87751; so there is no need to repeat it here.

In brief, the meaning of the statement that women are deficient in mind and religion is clarified in the hadeeth itself, in which the Prophet said that the deficiency in mind is that the testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man and that the deficiency in religion is that a woman spends several days without praying or fasting when she has her menses or is in post-partum bleeding after childbirth.

However, there is no blame on the woman in all this, and it is out of her control; the first matter is because she was created like this, and the second is because she is commanded with it by the Shariah.

These rulings that were mentioned in the hadeeth are in fact a relief and alleviation for women, because testimony is a responsibility, as well as the prayer and fasting. So when Allah eases the matter for the woman in all that, it is an honor from Allah to her. At the same time, it is evidence of the Justice of Allah, as He gives each of the genders the rulings that suit their respective creation upon which Allah created them.

You will find more details in this regard in the fatwas cited above, so please refer to them.

Allah knows best.