Women in Islam

What makes one gain value and honour with God, is not the level of one’s prosperity, position, intelligence, physical strength or beauty, but rather one’s consciousness and awareness of God Almighty. However, due to the social disparity between men and women in the West and other cultures influenced by it, and the common lack of understanding about Islamic teachings regarding the status and role of women, it is important to address this topic in a clear manner.

In Islam, women are highly protected, favoured and respected by the Divine law. This can be ascertained when one considers the rights and freedoms endowed upon women by Islam.

• Prior to Islam women were denied any part of inheritance, Islam gave them their share. Women did not have the right to choose a husband, Islam put an end to this inequality.

• Men could divorce women at will and take them back at will, Islam diminished this practice and decreed that if a man was to divorce, he had to sustain the women for four successive months.

• Women were given complete rights of owning property by Islam and in addition to that, they could spend their wealth when they liked while previously this was not the case.

• Islam declared that even if women were wealthy, it was the responsibility of the husband to provide sustenance.

The teachings of Islam are based essentially on the Qur'an (God’s revelation) and hadeeth (sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him). Women have always enjoyed a very high status in Islam, indeed the very first person to become a Muslim after the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) received revelation was his wife, Khadija bint Khuwailid. Moreover, some of the most learned Islamic scholars have been women. History records few scholarly enterprises, at least before current times, in which women have played an important and active social, economic and intellectual role alongside men.

The science of hadeeth literature forms an outstanding exception in this respect. Since Islam’s earliest days, women took a prominent role in the preservation and cultivation of hadeeth, and this function has continued through the centuries. At every period in Muslim history, there lived numerous eminent women- traditionalists, treated by their brethren with reverence and respect. Biographical notices on very large numbers of them are to be found in biographical dictionaries.

Islam considers kindness to parents next to the worship of God. “Your Lord has decreed that you worship none save Him, and that you be kind to your parents. . .” (Quran 17: 23).

Moreover, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon you) recommended the good treatment of mothers by saying:

“Paradise is at the feet of mothers" (Ibn Majah, Ahmad).