Saturday 9 February 2008

Women In Islam

Never in the history of the World, under any religious or constitutional systems, have women enjoyed the rights and privileges which Islam gave to her. The status of women in Islam is something unique, novel and something that has no similarity under any other system other than Islam.

The Qur'an categorically stated that women are as vital to life as men themselves and granted a status to women equal to that of men. The rights and responsibilites of women are equal to that of men, but they are not necessarily identical to them. Equality and identity is not that same thing. The difference lies in the very nature of the roles that the two have to play and there is no ground to assume that she is in any way less less important or inferior to men. Islam gives her due consideration and recognises her independent personality, makes her directly accountable to Allah and confers rights on her equal with men though not identical.

In the pre-Islamic world the plight of women was abject and pathetic. Somewhere she was brannded as a product of evil or the seed of evil. Some systems placed men as the lord of women who has to surrender to his will. Somewhere else questions were raised if she at all possessed a soul. Never in the history of Islam has any muslim doubted the dignity of women, her possession of a soul and other fine qualities.
The Qur'an has honoured women so much so that there is an entire chapter titled Surah Nisa'a (chapter on women) and her status and dignity are explicitly stated therein as well as in many other verses of the Qur'an. Those who look at Islam with a positive view will realise what rights Islam has really granted women; as Lady Cobbold says in her 'Pilgrimage to Makkah'; " It was Islam that removed the in which women are held from the very dawn of history and gave them a social standing and legal rights such as were not granted to them in England till many later centuries. "

Islam did more than that. What it gave her suits her nature, gives her full security and protects her against disgraceful circumstances and uncertain channels of life. It is a pity on those who have failed to understand that the divine system that gives every male and female their due rights.