Elevation of Women's Status
by Shaikh Ali Al-Timimi
The topic that I was asked to discuss here at McGill University is
the elevation of the
status of women in Islaam. Many, upon hearing the title of this lecture,
might assume it to be
an oxymoron because the prevalent idea - at least in the West - is that
Islaam does not elevate
the status of women, but that Islaam oppresses and suppresses women. So
people might find the
title in itself to be shocking or a curiosity at least.
In discussing this topic - since it appears to me that this is a
mixed audience of Muslims
and non-Muslims - I'd like to make my remarks and comments brief. I will
take no more than
thirty to forty five minutes, and then allow you an opportunity to ask
your questions. Perhaps
the question and answer session might be more fruitful in addressing
specific accusations,
understandings or misunderstandings regarding the status of women in
Islaam.
As we all know, in the world today, there are - for the overwhelming
majority of humanity
- basically two world views. These two views are often in conflict - not
only on the personal
level where individual human beings are making choices, but also on the
international level in
terms of the debate over the authenticity and correctness of these two
world views.
The first world view, which I am sure most of us are aware of, is the
Western liberal
view. A view which claims to draw its roots from the Judeo-Christian
tradition that probably,
upon investigation, is more well rooted in the ideas that appeared after
the reformation; ideas
that are rooted in secularism and the world view that appeared thereafter
during the 'era of
enlightenment'.
The second view is that of the Muslims - the Islamic world view, and
this view says that
its roots and ideas lie in the revelation given by God (or Allah in
Arabic) to the prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam). Those who proclaim this view say
that it can be used
by humanity during all ages and times, and that its relevance and benefit
is not restricted to
a certain period of time, geographic area or certain race of human beings.
Likewise, the
adherents of the first view, that of
Western secularism and the liberal tradition, believe that their
world view, ideas,
culture and civilization are the best for humanity. Some of you might have
read a book that
came out a few years ago by an American author of Japanese decent (Francis
Fukuyama) called
"The End of Time". He basically put forth the theory that human
development in terms of its
ideas has concluded with this final period of liberal secular thought and
nothing more will
come to humanity. However in his book he adds that that the only part of
the world which has
not adopted this secular human view is the Islamic world and proposes that
there will be a
conflict in terms of this ideology in the Islamic world.
With that brief introduction, one of the topics of contention between
these two worlds
views, that of the secular liberal humanist in the West and the Islamic
tradition, concerns
women. What is the position and status of women? How are women looked to?
Are women elevated in
one culture and oppressed in another?
The Western view is that women are elevated only in the West and that
they are getting
more and more rights with the passage of time, while their sisters - they
say - in the Islamic
world are still being suppressed. The Muslims who they encounter say that
in actuality it is
the Islamic system that provides the true freedoms for men and women
alike, and women in the
West as well as men, are deceived into an idea of freedom which really
doesn't exist. What I'd
like to discuss this evening is exactly how Islaam looks to women. And
therefore my discussion
will be more upon - what we might say for the lack of a better term - the
philosophical basis,
rather than the individual practices which vary from one country to the
other. How women are
understood in Islaam cannot be properly understood - and this is more
significant, I feel -
unless one understands exactly what we might call the philosophical basis
or ideological
understanding - since this is really a theological concept.
First, let's review how exactly women were thought of and understood
in the western
tradition, to compare and contrast perspectives. We know that the western
tradition sees itself
as the intellectual inheritors of the Greek tradition that existed before
the prophet Jesus
Christ (peace be upon him), and so therefore many of the intellectual
traditions of the West
are found to some degree in the writings of the early Greek philosophers
like Aristotle, Plato
and so forth.
How did they look towards women? What were the ideas of Aristotle and
Plato towards women?
When one reviews the works of these early Greek philosophers, he finds
that they had very
disparaging views of women. Aristotle in his writings argued that women
were not full human
beings and that the nature of woman was not that of a full human person.
As a result, women
were by nature deficient, not to be trusted and to be looked down upon. In
fact, writings
describe that the free women in many aspects of the Greek society - except
for the very few
women of the elite classes - had positions no better than animals and
slaves.
This Aristotelian view of women was later carried on into the early
Christian tradition of
the Catholic church. Saint Thomas of Aquinas in his writings proposed that
women were the trap
of Satan. The issue of Adam and Eve added a dimension to the earlier Greek
ideas of Aristotle;
women were the cause of the downfall of man and therefore were Satan's
trap and should be
looked at with caution and weariness because they caused the first
downfall of humanity and all
thus evil precedes from women. This type of thought was persistent within
the writings of the
Church fathers throughout the Middle Ages. In their writings we find this
theme proposed in one
aspect or another. However, after the Protestant reformation Europe
decided to free itself from
the shackles and chains of the Catholic church. Ideas which have been
entitled as the Age of
Enlightenment or thought of as such, caused them to feel that they needed
to free themselves
from many of these ideas. Some of these ideas were scientific in nature,
that the earth goes
around the sun, instead of the sun going around the earth; theological in
nature, as in the
writings of Martin Luther; and also social in nature, like the position of
women in society.
However, the writers of the Enlightenment still carried this basic theme
that was not much of a
switch - women where not full human beings. French writers during the
revolution, like
Rousseau, Voltaire and others, looked at women as a burden that needed to
be taken care of.
This is why I believe it's Rousseau in his book "Emile", which he wrote
concerning the
education of women, proposed a different form of education for women based
upon the fact that
women were unable to understand what men were able to understand.
This is the tradition that the West inherited and thereafter we find
in the 1800's the
first writings appearing by women and some men calling for the change of
these ideas. And with
this we have the origins of the first feminine movements. One of the first
books written was
the "Vindication for the Rights of Women" by Mary Walsencraft which
appeared in the 1800's.
Thereafter the tradition of women receiving certain rights came. The first
of these were
basically legal rights because until the 1800's women were not able to own
property and were
not able to dispose of their wealth as men did. It is very well known that
the first laws that
allowed women to own property in the United States or in Europe appeared
only in the last
couple of decades of the 1800's.
The Industrial Revolution caused another impetus, another search, to
this feminist
movement. Women in the Industrial Revolution, especially England, were
forced to labor for many
hours in the coal mines and so forth, and would receive no pay whatsoever
compared to men. So
therefore the first calling of the movement was that people who work the
same amount of hours
deserved the same amount of money or pay.
Finally a break occurred in this century of basically all which is
understood from the
Western tradition. Coming from the latter feminist movement which appeared
after World War II,
a new movement called for the emancipation of women not only in terms of
legal rights, but it
also questioned some of the morals of society and called for greater
sexual freedoms for women
and men alike. It contended that basically a lot of problems were caused
by the institution of
marriage and the ideas of family and so forth. People wrote concerning the
need to break from
these.
And finally in the 1990's, the prevalent argument in the West is that
we should discuss
genders, not sexes. This idea was expressed recently in a book which came
out a year ago called
"The Age of Extremes". The author discusses the idea that there is no
difference between male
or female and that gender is so only due to environment. So therefore we
can change the
environment so that men could take the roles of women and women take the
roles of men by
changing the education and climate. This is where it has ended up now. So
we find in this 2500
year old western tradition, we come from the first extreme which was
expressed by the Greeks,
where women were denied their essential humanity, to this extreme
expressed today where there
is no differences between the sexes and it is an issue of gender, climate
and environment. This
is, of course, a very brief summary of the first world view. I didn't do
justice to those 2500
years in just those few minutes, but it just gives us an idea.
The other view which I would like to talk about in more detail is the
Islamic view. How
does Islaam look at the issue of women? Well, first of all, we should
understand that Muslims
unlike, for instance, the Greek philosophers or the French writers after
the French revolution,
do not feel that their concepts, ideas and beliefs are those of fellow
men. But rather they
believe that what they are taught, what they believe, what they practice,
and all that is tied
to this, is part of a divine revelation given to them by God. And so, its
truth and veracity is
not questionable because of it being revelation from God. The argument is
that God knows best
that which He created. He created human beings, He is a God of wisdom, and
a God of all
knowledge and so therefore He knows what is best. And He decrees that
which is best for
humanity, His creatures. Therefore, Muslims try to live by a code of law
which is an expression
of that belief.
Now I don't want to discuss the various details of the code of law
because that, I feel,
would not really benefit us in this lecture. Although perhaps some of that
might come out in
the question and answer session and I'll be glad to entertain any
questions you might have. But
what I would like to discuss is how does Islaam look at women, i.e. what
is womanhood in
Islaam? Did Muslims believe like the early Greek writers or early church
fathers that women
were not full human begins? Did they feel that women where Satan's trap,
so therefore should be
shunned and looked at as something evil and dangerous? How did they
perceive women? Upon
investigating into the traditions of Islaam which is, as I said, based on
revelation known as
the Qur'aan, we find that it becomes very clear that Muslims are taught
that men and women
share a single humanity - that they are equal in their humanity and that
there is no difference
in the amount of human nature in them. We might now take that for granted,
but as I explained,
the initial western civilization was based on the fact that women were not
full human beings.
So this being something that was taught 1400 years ago was a
revolutionary idea in the
sense that it is only within the last 100 years or so that the issue of
women being full human
beings has come to be accepted in western intellectual circles. Initially,
women were not
considered full human beings.
The Qur'aan in describing the origins of human beings tells them, the
translation of which
would be something like "O humanity! Verily we have created you from a
single male and a single
female, and have made you into tribes and peoples so that you may know one
another. Verily the
most honorable of you are those who are most pious with God." [49:13] This
verse in the Qur'aan
teaches that humans come from a single male and a single female. The
indication here is that
the male and female in terms of their human nature are at an equal level.
Likewise another
verse, from a chapter which is known in the Qur'aan as the chapter of
Women - because most of
the issues discussed there are laws dealing with women - starts off with a
verse which could be
translated as "O humanity! Verily We have created you from a single soul,
and have made from it
its mate," this is a reference to Adam and Eve, "and have made from both
of them many people,
men and women, and scattered them throughout the earth." [4:1] So here
again is the issue of
men and women and all human beings coming from a single source, a single
family, a single set
of parents. This shows that women share in full humanity with men.
Likewise in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam) - which
is the second source of the Islaamic religion - we find that the Prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam) said in a Hadith that indeed verily women are the twin
halves of men. The
Arabic word shaqaa'iq, which I translated as twin halves, means taking
something and splitting
it in half. The understanding is that there is a single humanity, a single
essence which is
shared, and there are twin halves of that - one is man and one is women.
This is repeated often
in the Qur'aan. The words of the Prophet Mohammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam) also
emphasize this. As I said, this is a very important concept to understand
when one reflects on
how traditional western civilization looked at women as not being full
partners and not sharing
in humanity. Although now, we might not find much surprise to that because
it is a given
perhaps that men and women are full human beings. But this is something
that is a late
occurrence in western traditions.
Let us take it to another step, what is the aim of humanity? What is
the purpose for which
human beings exist on earth, to what ends do they strive? What will occur
to them if they
strive to those ends and what will occur to them if they did not strive to
those ends? Since
Islaam is a religion which sees itself as revelation from God and the
truth, Muslims would feel
that human beings have a set purpose here on earth; that in everything of
God's creation there
is wisdom. There is nothing of God's creation that does not have any
wisdom. There is nothing
for sport or play and so therefore human beings have a purpose, and that
purpose has been
elucidated for them in the teaching of Islaam. They were created to
worship God. A verse from
the Qur'aan says that God says that He has not created human beings except
to worship Him. So
therefore, the essence of humanity is the same between male and female,
and they also share the
same aim and that is to worship God. And that is the most important issue
in the Islamic
culture and civilization. You know that the Islamic culture and
civilization is rooted in
religious belief. American civilization is rooted in what? In the writings
of the founding
fathers of the United States of America. It is rooted in the Declaration
of Independence, the
ideals which were placed therein. It is rooted in the Constitution of the
United States. It is
rooted in some of the arguments between monarchy or democracy which were
written by some of the
early writers or founding fathers. So it is rooted in a political thought.
Yes, it might have
some traditions which go back further and extend to certain ideas like in
parts of Christianity
and so forth, but in its essence it is a political thought, unlike Islaam
which is a religion
in its essence.
The civilization of Islaam - a civilization which is 1400 years old -
is one which is
rooted in religion. For a Muslim the greatest aim is to serve God, to
worship God alone, and
that is what the word Muslim means.
Muslim is not a racial description, it is not an ethnic category,
Muslim means one who
submits. Islaam means submitting to the will of God - the voluntary
submission to God - so
Islaam is a religion of submission. Therefore, in the most important
aspect of the Islamic
religion, we find that men and women share in the same aim and are
expected to have the same
responsibilities, in that men and women are both required or obligated to
testify that there is
none worthy of worship but Allah alone - God alone - and that Muhammad is
His Messenger. Men
and women are both obligated to pray five times a day, which is the second
pillar of Islaam.
They are obligated to fast the month of Ramadan. They are obligated to
make pilgrimage to
Makkah. They are obligated to give charity. They are obligated to have the
same beliefs. They
are obligated to have the same type of morality and the same type of code
of conduct and behavior.
Men and women share these essential ingredients of Islamic behavior,
which define a Muslim
from a non-Muslim. And this is of extreme importance because it breaks
from the tradition of
religions. For instance fifty years before the birth of the prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam) who was born around 560 CE we find that there was a
gathering of bishops in
France to discuss whether women possessed souls or not, and that, if they
do possess souls,
what would be their purpose on earth? Was it to worship God? And if they
worshipped God, would
they go to paradise? In the end it was decided that, yes, women do possess
souls - which was a
break from previous tradition - but that their purpose was not just to
worship God, but also to
serve men.
In Islaam, however, the basis of submission is not that women are
submitting to men, but
that men and women together submit to God. So therefore, when you read the
passages of the
Qur'aan, it becomes very clear that the obedient from among both the
believing men and women
receive paradise, which is the greatest aim and objective in a Muslim's
life, and the basis of
that civilization. Likewise, those who are disobedient and who are
renegades, and who do not
want to worship God also receive the same punishment whether they are male
or female. This is
why throughout the Qur'aan you find the wording addressed to both males
and females. The Arabic
language like French has two types of verbs, one representing the feminine
and one the
masculine. So in the Qur'aan you'll find both categories of the human
race, both sexes, being
addressed. This you find over and over and over. There is no need to now
recite all these
passages, but they are there if anyone wants to know.
In summary we found three bases: that they share the same humanity,
that they have the
same aim on this earth, and also, they expect the same reward, which is
the goal which they are
working for collectively as human beings. And this is a break as I said
from the previous
religious traditions and also political and social understanding prevalent
among the
philosophers before the coming of Islaam. And as a result of that, we find
that Islaam accorded
women rights which perhaps we take for granted now, but were given by God
to men and women some
1400 years ago. These rights like the right to own property, the right to
dispose of property
according to their own wishes as long as they follow the laws of the
religion of Islaam, which
apply the same for men or women and the right to certain what we would
call now political
rights, like the right to enter into a treaty with combatant, are
something very recent
relatively speaking in the West.
One of the rights given by Islaam in the time of the prophet Muhammad
(sallallaahu `alayhi
wa sallam) was that if a woman gives a treaty to a combatant from a
non-Muslim attacking force
- her treaty would be considered as was the case with a female companion
of the Prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam). In the Christian church these
companions would be
called disciples for instance, the disciples of the Prophet Muhammad are
the companions as they
are called. They were in the hundreds and thousands not just twelve as
with Jesus Christ, and
there are both men and women amongst them. When the prophet Muhammad came
to Mecca, one of the
women companions by the name of Umm Hani, who was an inhabitant of Mecca
and a believer in the
Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam), accorded certain
relatives of hers protection
that they would not be harmed. Her brother who was one of the main
companions of the Prophet
Muhammad and married his daughter, Ali Bin Abi Talib, wanted to execute
two of these men who
were known for harming the Muslims and fighting against them. So Umm Hani
went to the Prophet
Muhammad and complained that she had accorded them protection and the
Prophet recognized her
giving protection to those two individuals.
This is what we might call, in the classification and terminology
that we now use, a
political right. In the sense of according protection for another person
during the state of
war is something which is relatively new in the West and was a known
tradition in the Islamic
world 1400 years ago. Likewise, in terms of what we might call public
participation, there are
certain acts of worship which are public acts of worship in Islaam, and
there are certain acts
of worship which are private. One of the public acts is the pilgrimage,
when men and women all
make pilgrimage, and this is one of the pillars of Islaam. Likewise
another public act of
worship is the two `Eid prayers which occur twice a year, once after the
pilgrimage and once
after the pass of Ramadan. Men and women both participate in that
publicly. Likewise, we have a
verse which shows that the social contract between men and women is the
same in Islaam. This
verse might be translated as the following: "And the believing men and
women are," what we
might translate as, "awliyaa" - the word in Arabic for friends or allies
or supporters of one
another, "they" - meaning men and women - "bid to that which is correct"
i.e. they commend that
which is correct, "and they forbid that which is evil". And this is a
corrective process in
society, removing evil and commending that which is good. And then "they
perform the prayer",
both men and women, "they pay the alms", or the charity to the poor, "and
they obey God and His
Messenger." And then God shows them the reward and that they are those
upon whom God will have
mercy and God is Almighty and All-Wise.
So in this verse, we find that the social contract between men and
women, as individuals
in the society, is the same, that they both go for the highest goal of
bidding or commanding
that which is correct, forbidding that which is evil, and that they share
in the two major acts
of worship, which are the prayer and giving charity. They share in the
beliefs and obedience to
God and obedience to the Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam)
and likewise, they
share in the reward in the end of obtaining Allah's mercy. This is a very
important concept,
which is in contradiction with what the western tradition is upon today,
and that is as I said
as a result of the initial extreme of the Greek philosophers that women
did not share in
humanity. As the result of that extreme another extreme occurred - at
least the Muslims
consider it extreme - that there is no difference between men and women.
So therefore, the idea of having genders - this is a term which is
not used in a
biological sense, as we might use the word sex in a biological sense for
male and female, but
the understanding today is that the traits that define maleness or
femaleness, the social
traits and so forth are determined by upbringing, culture, and environment
and that there is no
inherent difference in the way men and women think or act or what their
make up is and so
forth. And that is why they use the term gender.
This extreme resulted from the initial extreme that occurred 2000
years ago, when the
Greek thought that the women did not posses humanity. So as a result of
this 2000 year
processes we now come to another extreme - at least this is what Muslims
would say - this
extreme now is that men and women are the same, that there is no
difference.
Islaam, although confirming that men and women do share in the same
essence of humanity,
also confirms that men and women are different. But does this difference
mean that men are
inherently good or women are inherently evil? No. And this is why when you
look at one of the
verses in the Qur'aan that sheds light on this aspect, God says,
recounting His creation, that
He is the One Who created the night, as it envelops, as it comes - if you
look at the horizon,
it comes like a sheet enveloping the horizon - and He is the One Who
created the day as it
comes bursting, shining, - that is how Sun rises and He is the One Who
created male and female.
And then the next verse says, verily, what you strive for - human beings
are into different
ends, diverse ends - some strive for God's pleasure, some strive for
disobedience of God, some
strive to do good to humans, some strive to do harm, different ends. But
what is the example
here? God mentions night and day and then mentions male and female. The
understanding is, yes,
night has a purpose, and in the Qur'aan you always find verse after verse,
describing that
night has a wisdom behind it. And also it tells humanity that had it been
only night and no day
human beings could not live on earth. And this is now shown scientifically
that if it was only
night and there was no sunlight, certain hormones of body would not be
able to reproduce and
human beings would die. Life as we know it on earth would not exist. And
likewise, day has its
wisdoms behind it. But can one argue and say, that night is good and day
is evil? No, and no
Muslim would believe that. And can one argue and say that day is good and
night is evil? No.
Likewise, male and female also have their roles to play. But can one say
that the role of men
is inherently good and the role of women is inherently evil? No. And can
one say the opposite
to that - the role of women is inherently good and the role of men is
inherently evil? No. But
they both have a role.
This is the main contention now between western thought and Islamic
belief. Western
thought has basically accepted, except for maybe some few corners perhaps
in the Vatican or so,
that men and women share in their humanity and that they are the same.
Muslims have believed
this for 1400 years. But the difference is that in western thought, as a
reaction to the
initial thought that women did not share humanity fully, the argument is
that the roles of men
and women in society are only defined by culture, environment and
upbringing, therefore there
is really no true role for men and no true role for women and that we can
switch this, if we
just teach the society correctly. But in Islaam there is a defined role
for men and a defined
role for women. Who is the one who defines this role for men and women?
It's their creator.
This is the major, if you want to use the term philosophical, even though
it is an inaccurate
term in that sense, but we can just use if for the lack of
better term, philosophical, ideological or theological difference
between the two opposing
arguments. Now with that said, it is important to understand that when
Islaam gave these roles
to men and women alike, it put responsibilities equal to obligations to
both. I will give you
an example for that: Islaam senses that women have the nature of mother
not by cultural
tradition or by sociological system but inherently are better in providing
and taking care of
the offspring, that there is a bond there which goes beyond tradition. A
psychological bonding,
a physical bonding, something which is more than just traditions of human
beings. As a result
of that it has placed greater responsibilities upon women towards their
children are then those
of men.
At the same time, the obligations that children have towards their
mother in Islaam is
greater than they have towards their fathers, and this is why when the
prophet Muhammad
(sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) was asked by a man one was his companions
"Who should I
befriend in this world?" The prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam) replied "your
mother." And then the man asked a second time, and the prophet replied
your mother, and then a
third time, and again he replied your mother, and on the fourth time, he
said "your father".
Likewise in the Qur'aan we find that it tells human beings that your
mother bore you from one
hardship to the other hardship, talking about the labors and difficulties
of pregnancy and
childhood, and then fed you for two years, suckled you, and tells us to be
kind to our parents
and reminds us of our mother first before our fathers.
The point is that even though it has defined a role for women with
the children which is
different than the role of the father, at the same time it gives women
honor and respect from
their children which is greater than that received by the fathers. The
fathers do receive
respect and their honor, they are not just thrown out of the picture, but
it is given to them
and according to the degree of their responsibility. And likewise, because
the mother
inherently, not just because of cultural tradition, has something inherent
which makes that
bond greater between her and her child then the male. She receives a
greater honor and respect
from the child and at the same time she is required to give a greater
obligation.
I only gave that as an example to show you that while Islaam
recognizes differences
between the sexes, it does not accept the concept that gender is just an
issue of upbringing or
cultural traditions, for there are inherent differences in males and
females, and as a result
of that the obligations and responsibilities of each of the two sexes are
together. Imported
from that is another matter that even though men and women are different,
they are not in
opposition to one another, which is the basis of much of the western
thought and especially of
feminist traditions. That there's a struggle between men and women, "There
is a battle of
sexes", as it is sometimes said in the popular sort of designation. This
doesn't exist in
Islaam. Men and women work in tandem, just like day and night revolve, and
you live in day time
and you live in night time. You cannot live only in night, and you cannot
live only in day,
likewise, men and women are not against one another, they are not pitted
against one another
but rather they share in the same aim, the same purpose of being, the same
humanity. They have
different roles, but these roles complement one another and are needed by
one another in order
for the success of humanity, not in this world, but also - of course since
Muslims believe in
the hereafter- in the hereafter, which is the ultimate goal for Muslims.
Now, I would like to make one final comment and then I'll leave it
open for questions.
Let's look at the applicabilities of both of these programs. We discussed
a lot of ideas,
thoughts and beliefs and historical concepts, but when they are actually
applied, which of the
two view points is more successful. Which brings more bliss to humanity?
Is it the secular
western view or is it the Islaamic view? And I have a concrete example
which I'd like to share
with you. When I was in Beijing this last summer for the UN 4th world
conference on the women,
there was a platform for action which was being discussed by the different
nations and
organizations there. The aim of the platform for action was to upraise,
uplift, and to embetter
the status of women around the world, which are of course noble and
correct aims, there is no
contention concerning that. The platform for action was divided into
different areas of
concentrations, such as poverty, health, finances, conflicts and violence
and so forth, and one
of it was the girl child. The 12th issue of the 12 concerned areas for the
platform for action,
the girl child, the status of girls - future women - in the world today.
The country which was
hosting the conference, China is known for the practice of killing girls.
The reason why is
because of their population. You can only have one child per couple and
Chinese by their
tradition view males as fewer then females and so as a result they will
usually kill the female
child, in hope that the wife gives birth to a boy.
This is an issue which exists and because the hosts were the Chinese,
the United Nations
didn't really want to get into this issue. They didn't want to talk about
it because it was not
politically correct to address that issue in China. Moreover, even though
they might have
passed certain regulations, platforms for actions and certain commitments
which they have
required of citizens of the world to follow, they at the end will see that
perhaps in
twenty-five to fifty years the status of the world child will not have
markedly improved.
We can see from other things, one of the major issues which the
United Nations was created
for after World War II, was the slaughter of so many million human beings,
six million Jews in
Europe, and yet fifty years later, in the year of the fiftieth celebration
of the UN, a
genocide has taken place in Europe of the Bosnians. All the human rights,
all of the
declarations in the last fifty years has not been able to change anything
on the ground. Now
when the prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) was sent to the
Arabs, the Arabs had
the same practice. They used to kill their girl children. The Arabs killed
their girls for a
number of reasons, most of the time due to poverty. Being a desert people
without industry or
any sort of means of trade, existence was very minimal. And as a result,
out of fear of poverty
they would kill their girl children, and they would bury them alive. This
is a fact which is
mentioned in the Quraan and was well known during the time of the prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam). God condemns in the Quraan with verses, the idea of
killing of the girl
child, the burying in the ground, and also the attitudes of the Arabs
towards girls. One verse
in the Quraan says that "when he is given the good news that his wife is
given birth." God
calls it a good news, " - to a female child, a girl - his face becomes
blackened and he becomes
ashamed. Will he hide the fact "that he has given birth to a girl and not
tell the people,
because he feels it as a shame. "Or will he bury it in the ground", this
is a condemnation of
the practice of the people. And likewise the companions of the prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam) before they accepted Islaam, many of them killed their
girl children. One
man came to prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) and said I
killed ten of my
daughters in my lifetime, will I receive paradise? For will God accept my
repentance for this
sin, now that I have left this pagan religion of before, worshipping idols
and killing girl
children and so forth. Within one generation, within 23 years this was how
long the prophet was
amongst the Arabs, the practice of killing girls ended. It no longer
existed in Arabia. And
likewise, it didn't just stop like that, but a change in attitude came
towards women, in
educating them and making morally upright people.
People receive no other reward, but paradise. Again that is the
greatest aim for the
Muslim and that is their motivation and reason of being. So Islam not only
tried removing the
negative aspect of murdering girls, but also included the positive aspect
of educating girls
and raising them in society, and this brings me to my final point. This is
something of course
which we can look at the previous declarations of human rights or
whatever, irrespective of
whether these being true or false, but they have not been able to achieve
the aims which they
have stated. As the example of human rights and the UN in Bosnia shows.
Fifty years after the creation of the UN, there is no change in
Europe, the same land
which killed six million Jews. The same genocide of the Bosnians occurs
fifty years later by
the same people who started the UN. They are unable to stop their own from
this matter, and
with this I come to my final point, that I would like to leave you with.
Islaamic civilization
unlike any other civilization is based, of course on revelation, but it is
in its essence
supported and founded by women. The first person to believe in Prophet
Muhammad (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam) was his wife Khadeejah, and it was through her money
and through her support
of him, her financial backing, and also her encouragement that the prophet
was able to spread
the message of Islaam in his first year of prophecy. The pagans did not
have the ideas of
freedom of religion, that you can take your own beliefs. This was not
practiced by the pagans
of Arabia - they saw this as an insurrection, they saw this as a changing
of their ways, so
they sought to stop it out by torture, by killing and by all other means
that they could. And
likewise, they tried to stop the Islaamic revelation, this tradition, when
the prophet Muhammad
(sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) converted only the people of Arabia. But
as you know there are
about one billion Muslims in the world. They are in every single continent
of the world, even
in Beijing where the UN was convening. There was a mosque there which is
over a thousand years
old. And the neighborhood that lives there is about forty to fifty
thousands Muslims. Now the
king’s palace, the forbidden city in front of Tien Anh Man square which
many of you have heard
of, is only 500 years old. This shows how the growth of Islaam and the
sprit of Islaam is not
just a Middle Eastern phenomenon or an Arabian phenomenon but extends to
all people and races
throughout the world.
Where is this teaching from, of course when prophet Muhammad
(sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam) died after twenty three years Islaam only spread in Arabia. This
religion of Islam was
basically spread by four or five individuals who had the most in teaching.
One of them was the
prophet's wife `Aa’isha. She is among the most to have narrated his
statements and likewise she
is amongst the three, four, five who have mostly given religious
pronouncements, who have given
religious verdicts, explained what these verses in the Quraan meant or
what the words of the
prophet meant.
Look at any other civilization in the history of humanity, you will
not find a women
playing a role in its establishment where it can be attributed to her
efforts for its
establishment. The Greeks - look at the philosophers Plato, Aristotle and
others - all were
men. The early church fathers writings were basically men and until today
the idea of women
scholarship is limited in some areas of the church. The French writers at
the French revolution
and Voltaire and the Russians were men. The founding fathers of the United
States were men, and
also other civilizations are basically based upon men. Islam is the only
civilization which is
known by humanity where a leading input in terms of its transmission and
establishment was
based upon the efforts of women. Central - and this is an historical
matter which is not open
to interpretation, it is a fact - these are the people who transmitted
these teachings these
are the people who supported it hereafter. Those are just some thoughts
and impressions
concerning how Islaam uplifted women.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
**
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