ABSTRACT
Many of the female personalities of the Qur'an and sunna may be seen to be in diametric opposition to what hacdiths demand and expect of women. Most of these women, if not all, acted completely independently of men in general and their husbands in particular. Therefore, women are not normally defined by men, but the authoritative texts of Qur'an and sunna tend to describe individual women in terms of a human nafs on its journey. Decisions taken by women independently were the ones deemed worthy of comment by the Qur'an and sunna. Sometimes traditions and exegesis, but not the Qur'an, try to limit these women's human experiences. Zulaykha's passion and guile is incorrectly read as a feminine example, but the similar behaviour of men in her story was not seen as gendered. The difference between the two sexes, the relativity of their excellence, and their single goal of actively progressing towards God may be seen in the verse.
