Prepared By: Dr. Saeed Ismaeel Sini
However, women’s status in general could be classified under three categories:
1. Men and women are equals:
Islam made women close sisters of men, as the Prophet said,[1] and it made men and women guardians for each other. The Holy Quraan reads: {The believers, men, and women are guardians of each other. They enjoin what is just and forbid what is evil}.[2] The Quraan reads too: {To men is allotted what they earn and to women what they earn}.[3]It also reads: {Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has faith, verily, to them will We give a new life and life that is good and pure}.[4] In another verse the Quraan reads: {For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, for men and women who engage much in the remembrance of Allah, for them Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward.}[5]
Islam puts only some of the blame on Eve for eating the fruit and being discharged from Paradise as a result.[6] Not only that, but it puts the greater blame on Adam, because he had the final word.[7]
2. Women have greater rights:
In Islam, the mother’s rights are greater than the father’s.[8] In Saudi Arabia, for example, based on a Prophetic tradition related to after birth confinement,[9] the government’s civil service grants the mother a fully paid forty-five days vacation at least, in addition to her annual vacation. It also grants a widow about one hundred and thirty fully paid days off for mourning, on the basis of the period appointed for mourning, upon the death of a husband in the Holy Quraan.[10]
In Islam, only females are allowed to wear pure silk clothing and gold ornaments.[11]
Not only that, but Islam also promises great rewards for bringing up female children. The Prophet said: “Whoever has three daughters or sisters and takes good care of them will surely enter Paradise.”[12] Furthermore, it made the way a husband treats his wife a criterion of good character. The Prophet said: “The best among you is the best to his wife.”[13]
Men get none of these privileges. Shall we say that Islam discriminates against men?
3. Greater rights and responsibilities for men:
Islam made man in charge of his family concerning living expenses, and the final word in the family’s affairs. It assigned him twice as much as the female’s share of the inheritance if he is
responsible for her living expenses.
Thus, we notice that Islam considers the male and the female as equals in importance, as night is equal to daytime, but not as night is equal to night. Both men and women are indispensable for any happy family. Likewise, a complete day cannot exist without both night and day time.
By way of comparison, if we go back to the resolutions of the French revolution, which is a model of all cries of equal rights for women, and to some constitutions of the prominent Western
systems, we notice that these models did not grant women many of the rights that Islam granted to women fourteen centuries ago, except during the last century.[14] In fact, there are still more rights to be legislated and approved for women in the West, even after tireless efforts on their behalf, rights that are already part of Islamic law. Among these is to put the full financial burden of the family on the man’s shoulder and granting the female complete control over her own wealth.
[1]At-Termidhi: Purification
[2] Holy Quraan, 9:71
[3] Holy Quraan, 3:32
[4] Holy Quraan, 16:97
[5] Holy Quraan, 33:35
[6] Holy Quraan, 2:36
[7] Holy Quraan, 20:121
[8] See for example; Ismaeel, the Relation between Muslims and Non-Muslims p.86
[9] At-Termidhi, purity
[10] Holy Quraan, 2:234
[11] Muslim: Clothing
[12] At-Termidhi: Doing favor and care
[13] At-Termidhi: Qualities
[14] Dawalibi pp. 4-5; The American Constitution did not grant the right to vote (i.e. to play a role in the nation’s
politics in 1920.
