The Status of Women in Islām
Muslim Assembly (Cape) – The Status of Women in Islām
By the late Dr. H. M. Kotwal – Graduate of the Alighar University, President and founder of the Muslim Assembly (Cape)
i. Introduction
Allāh Almighty in His Infinite Wisdom and Mercy grants women a status like everything else in Islām, a status in Tawḥīd i.e. The Oneness of Allāh Almighty. Her status in life as a human being, like any male human being, is the same. But in the view of her different physical equipment and her role in life, she has rights, responsibilities and duties pertaining to her distinct role as a woman. Her relationship to her male counterpart, is like everything else in Tawḥīd, in a healthy balance. Her vital role as a mother makes her the backbone of humanity. Allāh Almighty’s Rasūl, Muḥammad (P.B.U.H.), emphasized this when he stated that heaven lies at the feet of the mother, for it is the mother to whom the child first turns for every need and it is the mother who is the first teacher of the child.
The early years of childhood are the years, when the child can implement every good act to reap good habits, and good habits result in a healthy, good character and a healthy good character results in a successful destiny.
ii. Pre-Islāmic Period
The world of humanity prior to the appearance of Muḥammad Musṭaphā (P.B.U.H.), was a world in which women had no established status. In every society of the whole world, women were subjugated and denied their status, even as a human being. Islām gives status to women with honour twice that of the male, twice that of the husband and twice that of the father is the honour of the mother. Twice that of the husband is the honour of the wife. Twice that of the brother is the honour of the sister. Twice that of the son is the honour of the daughter. In view of the gifts bestowed upon women by Divine Ordinance such as physical beauty, of voice, a greater capacity for shame and modesty, steadfastness and patience, her role is as the very heart of the home, which is the abode where one expects to find refuge and comfort from the trying challenges of each day.
iii. Islāmic Role & Status
Therefore Islām, as the Perfect and Eternal Message of Guidance for the whole of humanity grants a status to women in the spirit of Tawḥīd with crystal clear rights, unique to her being and her role in life. These rights are universal and eternal for all womanhood. These rights are entrenched in the very foundations of an Islāmic outlook in life. Ignorance of the Din of Islām breeds and harbours godless fear, i.e. fear of anyone and anything in creation, and this godless fear is the root of all evil. Ignorance of the Din of Islām makes a human being’s outlook confused and his stance in life warped with ignorance and he succumbs to the wiles, whims and ambitious fancies that are borrowed from other sources of ignorance. The status of women in Muslim Society at present is the result of essentially ignorant values taken up from adverse religious, political and economic circumstances and man made ideologies.
The only shield for safeguarding humanity against ignorance and its triple products of evil, poverty and godless fear, is the cultivation of the total human personality in the Dīn of Islām, which is the Basic Equipment that each and every Muslim male and female must acquire in truthfulness. For without the lamp of Tawḥīd, the human personality grovels in the fogs of alien teachings, customs and traditions. The safeguard of the dignity and the respect and the modesty and shame of any human being lies in the essential teachings, simple practices of the Din of Islām, and not in the usages of alien outlooks, garbs and customs that paralyse the human intellect.
It is only when the human personality functions in Tawḥīd, that it becomes a receptacle in harmony with the Harmony of all harmonies – Allāh Almighty, and thus it becomes a receptacle for the Blessings and Mercy of Allāh Almighty, in that it receives guidance, vision with wisdom and protection. It is prevalent in our Age and Time in the dominant materially developed nations, where the trend and fashion is to emancipate women by stripping her modesty and shame to a false position of total equality with man. It is a false position which distorts her sense of gracefulness, shame and modesty, defeating her true role in life, leaving her to naked exploitation and to a miserable perpetual state of insecurity and fear. Where Islām is just a formal practice of rituals and customs our poor women have been regimented to a status of social religious serfs, stifling all their expressions, depriving them as the backbone and nucleus of a healthy Ummah. Modesty and shame is the vital expression of the human personality, for imbibing true understanding, respect and love. It cannot be upheld by the paraphernalia of an alien custom and tradition. The Holy Qur’ān gives crystal clear direction as to the principles of dress and covering of a woman living a life in Tawḥīd, together with her relationship with her closest of relatives. This in no way curtails her, in her worship of Allāh Almighty, but on the contrary, enhances her honour and dignity as a woman.
Because of ignorance of the Din of Islām and its true spirit, present day Muslims have taken for granted alien customs which have shut up the backbone of the Ummah and have shut her out of the world around her, thereby, paralysing the most influential teachers of society, and that is the women of Islām.
The Messenger of Allāh Almighty (SWT) has stated that a man’s most treasured gift is a virtuous wife who advises him on worldly and spiritual matters. An ignorant, secluded, house-arrested woman is unable to equip her offspring to face up to the challenges of life, for she herself needs to be taken care of.
iv. Polygamy
Before the advent of Islām, all human societies practiced rampant polygamy. Allāh Almighty in His Infinite Wisdom grants humankind, an evolutionary path in which polygamy is disciplined and regularised. For Islām is Guidance to all human beings in all ages and at all times, under all circumstances. In restricting polygamy Allāh Almighty, in no uncertain terms, warns any Believer who partakes of such a Divine privilege ordained for man, that the relationship of multiple wives restricted to four, will have to be meted out with justice. Justice in Islām is an absolute social norm. If the Believer fears inability to uphold this condition, then The Creator in His Infinite Wisdom and Mercy reminds the Believer to restrict himself to one wife, which will be best for him.
Alien ideologies, in so called modern civilisation claim, the interest of the monogamistic social status for woman, but in its morality, practice permissiveness, rampant polygamy, debasing poor women with fanciful titles, mistresses, call girls, hostesses, which in most instances deprive poor women of motherhood and sisterhood. Now in this permissive, modern, man-made concept of human values, the free-will of man is used entirely for material success and excesses to cater for his whims and fancies for a false destiny of comfort and pleasure.
v. Women’s Rights in Islām
The Messenger of Allāh, the illustrious Muḥammad Musṭaphā (P.B.U.H.) has reminded the Believers, “The best among you are those who are good to your wives”. “Paradise is at the feet of the mother,” and the Holy Qur’ān states: “They have rights similar to those against them” (Surah 2 verse 228). The Holy Qur’ān states a common morality for both sexes in every respect and in most of the moral injunctions, the Holy Qur’ān mentions them together. Women share equality before the Law and they are granted civil rights. Marriage is a civil contract between man and woman in which any lawful conditions may be inserted. A pre-nuptial contract may be drawn up to safeguard her. Women are granted a right of inheritance and Allāh Almighty warns the Believers not to falter in this respect, for the price that is to be paid is an extreme one, that being condemned to hell. She has the right to own property in her own name.
vi. Role in History
Muslim women have made their mark in history as rulers, councilors, jurists and outstanding servants of Allāh Almighty. They have played their role in assisting Muslim armies and have even commanded Muslim armies. The Islām of Muḥammad (P.B.U.H.) gives clear and consistent proof of the fact that in the liberation of man, Islām does not forget women. A comparative study of legislation about the rights of women in different civilised nations and in this present age would bear out the truth of these assertions. The Believers therefore, must remember that, justice in Islām is an absolute social norm and that the mothers and sisters and the wives and daughters of the Ummah are its first and most influential teachers and fountainheads of actions, habits for the development of character for a destiny as true Believers in Islām. The woman in Islām must also remember that as Muslims they themselves, each one and collectively, must take on the struggle to equip themselves to assert their rights with responsibilities and duties, fearing no one and nobody, except Allāh Almighty, for these rights are Divinely Ordained and are meant to be asserted.
vii. Conclusion
The Holy Qur’ān is there to guide and inspire those who will strive constantly in the Glory and Majesty of Allāh Almighty, in each and every aspect in life to live by Its Guidance and live by the examples of Muḥammad (P.B.U.H.). Allāh Almighty will help them. For amongst them will arise Believers in the form of their fathers, brothers and sons who will enjoin and forbid what is wrong. Far too long has the Muslim world witnessed the consequence of tolerating ignorance, and all its consequent evils, especially in relation to the status of women in Islām. May Allāh Almighty strengthen us all to respect our mothers and cherish their tender love, and may Allāh Almighty strengthen all women in Islām to safeguard their modesty, gracefulness and shame, for these norms are great indicators to the quality of Imān that the individual and the society possess.
Wal Ḥamdulillāhi Rabbil ‘Ālamīn