All praise is due to Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala). May Allah's
peace and blessings be upon His final Prophet and Messenger to
mankind, Mohammad bin Abdillah. May Allah's blessings be upon
all the rightly guided companions, and household of Allah's
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
I believe I
will not present any new issues or items on the topic,
"Women's Rights in Islam". However, I have attempted to
collect, arrange and summarize all I could find of the
writings on this subject and present it in a new fashion for
the benefit of the reader.
I hope, seek
and pray for guidance from Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala), in
this regard. I also hope to be successful in reaching my
goals. Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala), stated in the Glorious
Quran (49:13) which the meaning of is translated as:
“O Mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and
made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one
another. Verily, the most honorable of you in the Sight of
Allah is the believer who has Taqwa (i.e. piety and
righteousness) and loves Allah most. Verily, Allah is
All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
Mr.
Ghalayenee, the author of Islam Is the Spirit of Civilization,
(in Arabic), stated on page 267, quoting from "The Crescent
and the Cross", quoting the well known French thinker and
philosopher, Voltaire, in his book The Dictionary of
Philosophy, under the essay "The Quran": "We have attributed
many ridiculous things to the Quran of which it is indeed
pure. Our authors, who increased in numbers, notably find it
easy to rally women behind their party by convincing them that
Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) considered
them merely intelligent animals. Further, women are, in the
sight of Islamic Laws, no more than owned slaves who own
nothing of their world, and are entitled to nothing in the
hereafter either." It is very obvious that statements as such
are nothing but falsehood. Yet, there were readers who
believed such statements.
We do not
ignore the fact that the Quran has given men a special natural
characteristic. The Quran, however, differs from the Old
Testament which considers the weakness of the woman a divine
punishment, as it was stated in Genesis (3:16) which the
meaning of is translated as:
“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee.”
It is a great
confusion to attribute to a great legislator like Mohammad,
such unacceptable treatment of women. The truth is that the
Quran stated (4:19) which the meaning of is translated as:
“...If you dislike them, it may be that you dislike one thing
and Allah brings through it a great deal of good.”
Also, in
verse (30:21) which the meaning of is translated as:
“And among His Signs is this, that He created for you wives
from among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and
He has put between you affection and mercy. Verily, in that
are indeed signs for people who reflect.”
Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Karim Al-Sheha.
E.mail. alsheha@cocg.org.
K.S.A RIYADH 11535 P.O.BOX (59565).
