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Women in the Balance of the Islamic Law
Compared with Their
Actual State in the Western Society
I am going to talk about the woman's duties and rights in the
balance of the Islamic Law, regardless of the reality of the Islamic
societies, which differ one from the other in the extent to which
they adhere to the verdicts of the Islamic Law.
First; in the Holy Qur'an, Allah addresses men and women equally,
both with the honorable address and the human value in which they
participate, when He says, for example: "Whoever works righteous,
whether male or female, while he (or she) is a true believer, verily
to him We will give a good life" [Al-Nahl 16:97], and
"Verily, the
Muslims, men and women, the believers, men and women, the men and
the women who are obedient (to Allah), the men and women who are
truthful, the men and the women who are patient, the men and the
women who are humble (before their Lord – Allah), the men and the
women who give alms (i.e. Zakat ), the men and women who fast
(within and without Ramadan), the men and women who guard their
chastity and the men and women who remember Allah much with their
hearts and tongues, Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a
great reward (i.e. Paradise)." [Al-Ahzab 33:35].
Second; The Qur'an imposes what the Islamic Law calls `The
mutual
responsibility undertaken by the man and the woman Thus it makes the
man responsible for looking after the woman, and makes the woman
responsible for looking after the man when it says: "The
believers,
men and women, are Awliya' (helpers, protectors and supporters)
of
each other, they enjoin what is right and forbid what is evil".
[Al-
Tawbah 9:71]
Third; Islam decides a wide spectrum of duties imposed on both men
and women as it decides a wide spectrum of rights enjoyed by both
sexes. But what might be the source of the duties which go abreast
with both? What is the source of the rights given to both of them?
In reply, I say: The source of the duties that the man and the woman
bear is their servitude to Allah, The Great and The Almighty, and
their being absolutely possessed by Him, and since the attribute of
servitude never varies in the male and the female, the duties that
Allah demanded from both were also exactly the same. Should we
review the commissions that Allah imposes on His servants, the
veracity of what I say will appear clearly. We may meet a few cases
excepted from this general rule, where there are duties in which men
and women are not equal, but when we meditate on them, we find that
masculinity and femininity have nothing to do with them.Other
factors, certainly, should be playing another role, exactly as those
which appear between the men themselves and result in variation in
the duties among them.
Whereas the source of the rights granted to the man and the woman is
represented in the sense of humanity they assimilate, and since the
sense of humanity is the same in men and women and never varies, no
man will be higher in rank than a woman, or a woman higher than a
man, because the rights Allah endowed upon each of them are alike.
Should there be cases beyond this rule, they are certainly not
attributed to the quality of masculinity and femininity. They are
really attributed to contingents requiring such difference, a point
which will be clear enough through the examples I am going to
mention.
It is necessary, when laying such comparison, to inquire about the
source of the woman's duties and rights in the Western societies.
The reply that we clearly discern from the witnessed reality she
lives in is that the source of the duties going abreast with her lie
in the material interests, whereas the source of her rights lie in
her femininity.
One of the outcomes of the dominion of the material interests which
represent the source of the woman's duties resulted in the
appearance of various sorts of despotism and injustice, most of
which befell the woman because she is commissioned by the dominion
of this material stimulus to sustain herself no matter whether she
be a girl in her parents' house or a wife under the shelter of
her
husband as long as she is strong enough to practice any work and
earn her living by herself!..
Accordingly, what was the consequence the West has realized from
surrendering to this source?
There have been two results: First;it annihilated the family as a
whole when it destroyed its most essential component, because the
family only relieves and survives through the feeling of solidarity
which flows among the hearts of its members, and is represented in
the husband's responsibility for the wife and the parents'
responsibility for the children, a feeling which was condemned to
death by the philosophy of realism which made every individual
responsible only for his/her own self. Second; the West, thereby,
exposed the woman's femininity to destruction because she has
been
forcibly thrust to work. She has not gone to work optionally for
making more money. A condition that caused her to be deprived of the
opportunity of choosing a job that fits her and accords with her
femininity. Should she be fortunate, she would attain an easy job,
otherwise she would approve of any other work when she finds no
better.
In such an environment, and under the dominion of such necessity,
the differences between men's and women's labors certainly
disappear. Therefore, no matter how much hard and laborious the work
practiced by men be, a lot of women are found to have exceeded them
to it, driven by the inevitable necessity.
On the other hand, the consequence of the dominion of her
femininity, which workably represents the first source of the
woman's rights, is that no sooner does her femininity disappears
and
the brilliancy of her youth fades than all the phenomena of dignity
and respect, which she had already enjoyed, vanish and may be
replaced by various types of abuse and humiliation.
Laws written on paper may state something different from what I have
said, but the painful realities which befall the Western woman who
has passed the stages of youth and middle age eradicate, and never
leave, any trace of the dominion and charming enchantment of the
texts of law.
A lot of asylums of a special kind are widely met with in America
nowadays. Those asylums are prepared for receiving the women who
managed to escape from the downpour of blows and limb break by their
husbands or friends. Asylums are usually surrounded by ornamented
decorations for camouflaging so that the buildings which shelter
them may not be known, and the herd of the ill-fated women remain
out of reach, in order not to be followed by their husbands and
friends to the place of safety so as to beat them and hurt them!
Mr. Richard F. Jones, the professor at the Institute of Obstetrics
and Gynecology in America, has written an article about this
horrific and epidemic phenomenon titled, "Domestic Violence, Let
Our
Voices be Heard". He starts his article saying: "An epidemic
is
attacking our country. It is a very awful epidemic which we cannot
skip." Then he added: "Within every second a woman is beaten
and put
to death, or has a limb broken, by a friend or a husband. Everyday
we witness the consequences and influences of such striking in the
rooms of emergency in our offices and clinics!"
I can, accordingly, say, "It is most likely that all women in the
West suffer from this epidemic save those who have had the chance of
occupying high posts or distinguished social ranks.
In comparison with such a reality, in which the Western woman lives,
a woman in our Islamic societies (bearing in mind that the Islamic
system and education still prevail in most of them) possesses a high
rank, which becomes exceedingly higher when she grows older and
older. The old aged woman in an Islamic house is undoubtedly the
first ladyin it, She has the operative word in the house, and all
its members treat her with respect and glory. A treatment which
originatthe fact that the source of women's rights in Islam is
her
humanity, as I mentioned beforehand, and the Islamic education is
(by Allah's Grace) still effectual in our Arab and Islamic
societies
no matter whatever we speak about the Muslim's negligence in
adhering to their Islam and being disciplined to its systems and
ethics.
The dependency of the Islamic Law on this source (i.e. the
woman's
humanity) resulted in realizing the aim of Islam at making women
enjoy the right of practicing labor which, in quality ought to be
lawful, provided that her sufficient sustenance ought to be by way
of the liability of her father or her husband; then her endeavor to
labor will be for her luxury and for improving her standard of
living, not induced by necessity. She can thereby preserve herself
from the laborious works which never fit her femininity. On the
other hand, the work wage, according to what the Islamic Law
decides, correlates with how proficient the worker is. It has
nothing to do with the identity of the worker, because the male and
the female are equal in wage as long as the standard of proficiency
in achieving it be the same. This rule should be observed in the
schedule of priorities when works pack.
Another effect of the same source also is the equality between the
male and the female in the right of consultation whether in
selecting the members of its council, in participating in its
membership with the men or in selecting the ruler and pledging
allegiance to him.
* * *
Alas, some people stimulate criticism contradicting with the facts I
have clarified above. They, for example, pause at the Qur'anic
Verse
in which Allah, The All High, says "Men are qawwamun (the
protectors
and maintainers of women)" [Al-Nisa'4/43] criticizing. They
give the
word qawwamun the false sense which accords with their criticism;
i.e. that the man is supreme over the woman in marital life, and
entitled to use humiliation and oppression over her, whereas the
meaning known linguistically, and legally reliable, of this word is
care and management she feels under the protection of the man
without humiliation or oppression which the Islamic Law warns of.
It is scientifically and practically decided that the woman is
pleased and relieved in her marital life when she feels that she is
beside her husband and under his protection, a fact which
Istravella, a German doctor, decides. Had she been destined to have
an opposite marital life so that she be the protector and attendant
and the man be under her care, she would have consequently fallen
into horrible wretchedness.
Another example is represented in what they say: "The Qur'an
makes
the woman's testimony equal to half the man's, which proves
clearly
that she gains only what equals half the man's share of the
rights."
In reply, I say: Those who studied the Islamic Law know that its
attitude towards the value of the woman's testimony is exactly
the
same as that of the Western laws and societies. Just as other laws,
the Western laws are interested in the element of testimony at the
stage of investigation and collecting information, not at issuing
those verdicts. It is also known that these laws do not
differentiate between men's testimony and that of the women. It
is
also proven that the Islamic Law absolutely accords with the
positive laws in this regard. The investigator, accordingly, has to
resort to the available correct testimonies, in which case men and
women are exactly alike, whereas depending on the testimony
according to Allah's Words: "And if there are not two men
(available), then a man and two women." [Al-Baqarah 2:282], is
sought at issuing the verdict, and the testimony is then considered
a support to issuing the verdict.
If the Islamic Law lays the condition of requiring two women in
place of one man to depend on the testimony in this case, positive
laws never regard her testimony in such a case at all. They even
disregard the man's testimony.
The reason for which the Qur'an lays the condition of two women
to
testify in place of one man in financial case has nothing to do with
the woman's femininity as some people imagine. It springs from a
basic condition in the testimony itself, represented in the
witness's being highly related to the subject to which he
testifies
no matter whether the testifier be a man or a woman. When the
subject of dispute is more relevant to women and a woman is more
acquainted with its details (such as nursing, offspring or sucking)
then the woman has the priority in giving testimony. Being more
relevant to men (such as criminality, burglary and murder) priority
in giving testimony then shifts to the man.
Another matter they arouse when they imagine that the woman's
share
in inheritance always equals to half the man's share of it,
depending on what Allah, The All-High says: "To the male, a
portion
equal to that of two females." [Al-Nisa' 4:11] ! It is mere
an
illusion springing from deep inexcusable ignorance, for the
Qur'an
decides this verdict only in one case: when the testator dies
leaving male and female children or brothers and sisters. It is well
known that both of the son and the brother make their sisters their
partners in possessing the rest of the inheritance after the owners
of the other shares have had their shares. In such a case the
brother- who has made his sister a partner-receives twice as much
share as his sister who has been made partner. In all the other
cases the man and the woman are equal in the limited inheritance
portions, and the woman's potion may even exceed the man's in
many
cases.
Another point of criticism is their disapproving preventing the
woman the right of nominating herself for presidency in the Islamic
society. In short, I say to those who protest: a large number of the
tasks that the Muslim leader undertakes are purely religious, such
as Friday and the `Id (feast) prayers and oratory, prayer of rain
and eclipse, etc. It is also known that a woman cannot practice such
rituals of worship personally at all times. Moreover, she is to
undertake such rituals while she is in a rank at which she
represents an example to be followed by others.
Regardless of such private excuse, the actualities of history from
the earliest ages up till now agreed, and still agree, with the
attitude of the Islamic Law. Should you have a deep look at the
names of those who have been nominated as kings and presidents since
the most ancient history up till now, you will find that the women
who undertook such positions never exceed a dozen in number. The
most prominent example in this regard is the USA which calls upon
the women of the world to demand the restoration of their rights. We
have neither heard of a single woman ever undertook presidency in
it, nor heard of any woman ever nominated herself to presidency in
it ever since it was born up to date.
I reckon these are the only points of criticism mostly mentioned
concerning women under Islam in the West. What we say about the
tragic society in which women live in the West however is so much. I
have alluded to few of them in this epitome, and expect that the
dialog and discussion to follow will give way to further explanation
and clarification.
Finally, all the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the
Worlds.
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