Women In Islam

The status of women in Islam can be correctly understood only when we know the status during (jahiliyyah) the period of ignorance or pre-Islamic period. The reason is evident. No revolution can remove all traces of the past. Progression is always there and it is this progression that maintains an organic relationship with the past.
What was the status of Women before Islam? This is the most important question whose answer can lead us to the right path, of which Islam is, and what we have made Islam is different. The theologians maintain that women enjoyed no rights whatsoever and were treated no better than an artifact. Not only were they enslaved, but they could also be inherited as a possession. The Holy Quran interdicts this practice. After inheriting women from her father, a man would marry her. The Quran strictly forbids this. The Quran also mentioned that Arabs in jahiliyyah buried their daughters when they were born. This barbaric custom of burying female wean, comments a noted qur’anic commentator, Muhammad Asad 
‘Seems to have been fairly widespread in pre-Islamic Arabia, although perhaps not to the extent as has been commonly assumed. The motives were twofold: the fear that an increase in female offspring would result in economic burdens, as well as the fear of the humilities frequently caused by girls being captured by a hostile tribe and subsequently preferring their captors to their parents and brothers’.

The prophet of Islam, the last messenger of Allah Muhammad PBUH said ‘to one whom a daughter is born and who does not bury her alive, does not humiliate her, nor prefers a son to a daughter, will be sent by Allah to paradise’. Indeed everything swap when the last prophet Muhammad PBHU came. Woman’s started to receive their rights accurately. Jahiliyyah period was at its end. The word Women became pride. With the passage of time as Islam was reaching at its peak people’s mindset started to change. Women started to gain a position in society and in Islam.

“Since man and women have been created from one origin and one entity, neither of them can claim superiority over each other. They have been created from the same source and so their essence is the same”. This is reinforced in the Qur’an many times so as to ensure mankind is aware that both are equal in the eyes of Allah. An-Nahl, 16::72
Allah almighty elevates women to the position of equals of man. With the advent of Islam, the status of women was revolutionized. She was now considered an essential part of the society, indispensable to man, honored. Revered and to be respected by all. Having been neglected for so long women were dramatically catapulted into the limelight of life and offered full participation in society. Islam used both inducement and the threats of hell to dissuade Arabs from burying their female infants alive. This becomes all the more important when we remember that even in communist China people still prefer sons over daughters and even started to bury daughters alive when the one-child norm was enforced by the government in the early 1980s. Then we’re also told in the pre-Islamic period there was no restriction on the number of wives a man could have. The tribal chiefs and leaders had many wives. This practice of wooing other families and forging political alliances through marriage was practiced in other feudal societies too on a very wide scale. When this verse was revealed many who had more than four wives (Al-Harith bin Qays had eight wives, Naufal bin Muawiyah had five wives) the Prophet PBUH advised them to opt for four and divorce the rest. Thus it can be seen that Islam did not take any initiative in allowing more than one wife; on the contrary, it discouraged it, restricted it, and reluctantly permitted up to four wives in the prevailing situation. Islam ordered women to do purdah; in purdah women cover themselves to protect her from the evil eye of man. Purdah is a shelter for women. Islam is that religion which will never force you to do something, here two things come (Farz) and (Sunnat) Farz is something that Muslims must follow to stay in the circle of Islam and the second come to Sunnat, which over beloved Prophet (last messenger of Allah) did in his life, the predictions which Muhammad PBUH narrated 14 hundred years ago are proved by scientists. So being Muslims we need to follow all the things which the Quran and Muhammad told us to do. The essential message was that women needed to be protected and that man (her Mahram only) was her protector, and all other men are her (Na Mahram). In Saudi Arabia even today women can’t go outside alone without their protector, there must be a Mahram with her. The Quran says:

“Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of believers to let down upon them their over-garments. This is more proper, so that they may be known, and not be given trouble. And Allah is ever forgiving, Merciful”. 
So from this, it is clear that purdah is for women’s safety. She can do everything, she can do a job, go outside, etc but it is better if she is in a shelter what am talking about purdah. Today our ladies have forgotten Islam; we’re stepping back from Islam which is destruction for us in Duniya and Akhrat. Women are marching on the roads for their rights, though Islam has already given them a great position in society so what is the propaganda? Well, there are many evil powers out in the world, which is trying hard to destroy Islam and Muslims. A good man once said that ‘If you want to destroy a country without doing anything, just mislead their young generation’. All this is happening today. The point of view here is that Muslim Ladies should start to change themselves, just read the Quran by Tarjama study our history of Islam. A woman is the one who starts the generation; she is the one who can change the whole family by her moral character. She can change the beast into a man. If Women start to change themselves, I guarantee our society will change automatically. Ladies time is less, our world is Akhrat this world is just a test for our Nafs. Let’s begin our preparation by following on the right path (siratal-mustaqeem) and lead our beloved ones in Jannah, for which Allah has promised us. Change your today for tomorrow. (Fi-emaniAllah)