The critics rush to claim that Islam teaches that women are stupid, mentally inferior in every sense, or less human than men.

That reading is false.

The Prophet ﷺ himself explained exactly what he meant, and the scholars repeated that explanation clearly.

The objection is that the Prophet ﷺ said women are “deficient in intelligence and religion”, therefore Islam insults women and says they are inherently stupid.

“Isn’t the witness of a man like the witness of two women?”

Volume 2
Page 73
Commentary on narration number 304
Print of al-Maktaba al-Islamiyyah

“Isn’t the witness of a man like the witness of two women?”

For your info: This scan is being used to show that Ibn Uthaymeen explained the hadith through the Prophet’s own wording. The highlighted discussion connects the phrase “deficient in intelligence” to the fact that the testimony of two women equals the testimony of one man in the specific context discussed in the hadith. The point is that the meaning is legal and contextual, not a blanket statement that women are stupid or worthless.

For your info: This scan is used as supporting evidence from another classical commentary. It reinforces that the scholars did not understand the hadith as saying women are stupid in an absolute sense. Rather, they linked the meaning to the Prophet’s own explanation about testimony.

For your info: This scan continues the same line of explanation. It is being cited to show that this interpretation is not some late apologetic escape route. The commentators themselves explained the hadith by returning to the wording of the Prophet ﷺ, especially the issue of testimony and legal responsibility.

It is right there in the hadith and in the classical commentaries.

He would simply have said women are unintelligent in every way.

But that is not what happened.

If women were stupid, the Prophet ﷺ would not have allowed Aishah رضي الله عنها to become one of the greatest teachers in Islam.

So the stupid reading is nonsense.

For your info: This scan is being used to support the explanation that women may be more affected by emotional factors in some situations, and that this is relevant to why the legal structure of testimony can differ. The argument is not that women cannot think, but that emotional and situational differences may affect recall in some cases.

Females generally access their memories faster than males, date them more precisely, and use more emotional terms when describing memories.

For your info: This image is being used to show that modern research itself discusses sex-based differences in memory function rather than pretending men and women are identical in every cognitive pattern. The point here is not that one sex is universally better in all things, but that differences in memory type, recall style, and emotional expression are real topics in scientific discussion.

Why?

Because it shows that cognitive differences are not the same thing as calling one sex stupid.

Different strengths and different vulnerabilities can exist at the same time.

For your info: These images point to the explanation of Shaykh Uthman al-Khamis on the hadith of “deficient in intelligence and religion.” The purpose is to show that contemporary scholars continue to explain the hadith through the Prophet’s own wording and not through the absurd claim that Islam says women are stupid.

Source: Majmu‘ al-Fatawa 6/447

If the hadith meant that every woman is mentally inferior to every man in every sense, then statements like this from Ibn Taymiyyah would make no sense.

The Prophet ﷺ himself explained deficiency in intelligence by saying:

“Isn’t the witness of a man like the witness of two women?”

Classical scholars such as Ibn Uthaymeen, Ibn Hajar, and the commentators of Sahih Muslim explained it the same way.

This is therefore a contextual and legal explanation, not a universal insult.

The greatness of Aishah رضي الله عنها as a scholar destroys the claim that Islam treats women as intellectually worthless.

Modern research also discusses sex-based differences in memory without reducing one sex to stupidity.

Ibn Taymiyyah explicitly stated that there are women smarter than men.

Therefore, the claim that this hadith means women are stupid is not an honest reading.

It is a lazy and dishonest distortion.