More surprising is the fact that, in the constitutions of some of these so-called developed countries, woman is forbidden from being head of state. What moral right do these countries then have to call for women liberation?
This should not however be surprising, for it seems that these infidel countries understood the following Prophetic statement more than the so-called Muslim advocates of women liberation. The Prophet said,
In a version reported by Ahmad, the Messenger of Allâh said,
Dear brethren! What the reality shows is that the greatest achievement of those countries in which women have been ‘liberated’ is that she has been turned into a humiliated commodity in brothels or images in musical clips or mere bodies displayed to advertise goods.
Three: Using the word ‘freedom’ or ‘liberation’ in every issue relating to women have become an instrument in the hands of ignorant, deluded and evil-intentioned people who seek to disintegrate the Muslims’ social cohesion. It has actually becomes a door through which the enemy throws his time bomb, because to the term ‘freedom’ has a magical way of deluding the masses especially the teenagers. The strangest thing is the three phases that the advocates of so-called women liberation want to use to liberate the woman from her self-enslavement through adherence to the teachings of Islâm.
The first phase is exemplified by their assertion that they are responsible for treating the problems that occur among the Muslims, and that no view would be accepted if it contradicts their own way of reasoning. Their proof for this is the wide intellectual and cultural difference that is between them and ordinary citizens.
In the second phase, they claim that their write-ups and essays indicate their sincerity to and sense of compassion for the Ummah, in that they are calling for truth and knowledge. They assert that knowledge is a product of freedom and that if there is no freedom from previous ideologies, the desired goal cannot be achieved.
In the third phase, these self-styled intellectuals establish that that everything should be subjected to free scientific research; and their word ‘everything’ exclude nothing, even our belief, teachings and our virtuous heritage.
These phases undoubtedly seem attractive to simple-minded individuals. But the sooner they know that they are like smoke released by the enemy to disguise their invasion the better.
Four: There is no society that toyed with the issue of woman and her values and cast doubt on the Islamic regulations laid down for her protection and sought to undermine those qualities with which she is distinguished from and qualities with which man is distinguished from her except that the society incurred on itself evils and woes and Allâh afflicted it with what it is trying to escape from. The Messenger of Allâh was right when he said,
He also said,
Brethren in faith! Let us recall the incidence of the famous Dhî Qâr Battle, which is one of the fiercest battles of pre-Islamic period. This battle was initiated because of a woman whom Chosroe wanted to marry and Nu‘mân refused to let him marry her. Another example was the Jewish conspiracy to remove hijâb from the head of a Muslim woman in the market of Banû Qaynuqâ during the time of Allâh’s Messenger.
Five: The Islamic religion will never accept extremism in matters relating to woman. Never will Islâm condone the woman being humiliated or relegated to the margins of life. Neither will it accept her being led to moral degeneration. Both paths are extreme. The Ummah should not tolerate the pessimistic bigots nor should it give a chance to those who toy with religious values.
The Muslim Ummah is not a nation that suppresses woman and deny her her rights, though some bigots may support their negative attitude to women with spurious hadîths like, “Obeying a woman brings about a regret.” On the other hand, it should not allow those who seek to lure woman out of her nature through deceit and lies. These elements also support their deviated ideology with fake narrations like, “Take your religion from this humayrâ [meaning: ‘آishah].”
The proper thing is to maintain a moderate stand, which is just and fair. Whatever has a proof from the Qur’ân and the Sunnah is the truth even if it followed by a single person, and whatever contradicts them is falsehood even if it followed by the vast majority.
It is also a big error to claim that conciliation could made between those who call woman to observe the proper Islâmic covering and those who call her to abandon the hijâb, to shamelessly expose herself and to do away with modesty. Allâh says about those who try to reconcile between these two groups,
Fellow Muslims! Fear Allâh and beware of innovations for every innovation is heresy and every heresy is misguidance. Allâh says,
Brethren in Islâm! The sixth factor is specially related to woman. Her job in this life and in the society is not based on enslaving her or exploiting her body. The woman rather has rights in the society and family. She has right to attend mosques, she has right to eliminate illiteracy, she has right to give and receive admonition and in receiving and imparting knowledge and education. She has right to enjoin virtues and forbid vices. She has right to improve herself whenever she has a job that is suitable for her naturally and religiously like in the fields of useful knowledge and righteous deeds. For the Ummah is in dire need of female Muslim teachers, Muslim female nurses and doctors and Muslim female writers. The woman herself needs to fill her head with knowledge and righteous sciences and not to strip her head and her body naked and to regard her religion with displeasure.
The job of the woman in the society shall remain critical and delicate, and no negligence or bitter experiment shall be tolerated on her. The entire society is also required to maintain honours and not to toy with them. The successful nation is the one capable of striking a balance between these noble goals for woman and the society’s needs. It does not put in a guilty cage nor does it leave her free to become prey to sins and immoralities.
The final factor, dear brethren, is that, it has to be made clear that a call for equality between male and female in all aspects of life is like a call for impossibility. The true Muslim believes that Allâh created both man and woman and created for each, peculiar qualities. He only made man excelled over woman with a degree. He says,
Allâh distinguished man with prophethood, political leadership, administration of the law, leadership in prayer, fighting in the way of Allâh, marrying without a guardian, power of divorce, having double of what woman has in some cases of inheritance, the fact that the child carries man’s name, permission to marry up to four wives and the fact that his testimony equals that of two women.
Imâm Ahmad reported that Umm Salamah asked the Messenger of Allâh, “O Allâh’s Messenger, why do men engage in jihad and we [women] do not? Why are we apportioned the half of [of a male’s share] in inheritance?” Thereupon, Allâh revealed the verse:
Al-Qurtubî said, “Man’s virtue over woman is clear for every wise person. Had there been no evidence for this besides a fact that she is created from man and that he is her origin and she is prevented from undertaking anything without his permission that would have been enough.”
Dear brethren! The excellence of man does not, however, mean looking down upon woman and discriminating against her. Nor does this mean that every man is better every woman. It is an established principle that declaring a thing as better than another does not mean degrading the latter. The Qur’ân is entirely the word of Allâh, yet the Messenger of Allâh said that ‘آyah al-Kursiyy’ is the best verse in the Qur’ân, as reported by Muslim. Also the Messengers and Prophets also excelled one another. Allâh says,
This verse does not however mean that the status of the Messengers and the Prophets above whom others are preferred.
Fellow Muslims! Having mentioned evidences on men’s excellences over women, we are also asserting, in the light of the evidences of the Qur’ân and the Sunnah, that women are halves of men. They are equal to men in matters of belief and morals. They are equal to them in their entitlement to reward and punishment.
We are also asserting the falsehood and injustice of a statement being a male augments one’s scale of good deeds and that being a female decreases one’s scale of good deeds. This statement vividly contradicts the saying of Allâh,
Real life experiences have shown that woman can be better than many men as in the case of the mothers of the faithful and those who were after them. Being a male or female is not a criterion for weighing deeds on the Day of Resurrection. As femininity is not an imperfection for the sun so does masculinity is not a source of pride for the moon. And as the saying goes, a lioness in her jungle is better and stronger than a cock among the fowl.
Therefore, the fundamental rule in this matter lies in Allâh’s word that goes says,
