The Woman Before and After Islam

[المستغفرة]

All praise is for Allah Lord of the worlds. May Peace and blessings be upon His trustworthy Prophet.

Dear Brothers, This topic has demanded time from me which is not sufficient to cover it, and I hope you will be able to read it and benefit from it as I intended for it to help the masses in understanding this issue. Allah is the best compensator and from him we seek reward.

· Reality

The reality is that the woman has suffered a great deal. She has been victimized in every society, and she has grieved in every era. Humanity has never witnessed such deprivation, sorrow, and oppression. In other words, no one has endured more than the woman.

· History of Disgrace

From the annals of disgrace that humanity has seen is a woman being treated like she was not even human.

The Greeks said regarding a woman: She is like a poisonous tree and she is evil from the Satan. She may be sold like any merchandise.

The Romans said: She does not have a soul. They would torture women by pouring boiling oil on them, or dragging them using horses.

The Chinese said: She is cursed water that washes away good fortune. A Chinese man would have the right to bury his wife alive. If a man were to die his wife would be passed on as inheritance.

The Indians said: A woman is worse than death, hell, and fire. A woman doesn’t have the right to live after her death, but she was required to be burned along with his corpse.

The Persians deemed it permissible to marry female relatives without exception. A Persian husband could command his wife to die.

The Jews said: A woman is a curse because she is the cause of sin and temptation. She is impure during her menses. It is permissible for her father to sell her.

The Christians: The French held a discussion in the year 568 A.D. some of the issues discussed were; Is a woman a human or not? Does she have soul or not? If she has a soul is it a human soul or an animal soul? And if it is a human soul then is it equal to a man’s soul or is it below a man’s soul?

Finally after deliberation they came to the conclusion that she is human, but she was created to serve man.

The Parliament at the time of Henry VIII (King of England) decided that it is unlawful for women to read the New Testament (Bible) because she is impure.

The Arabs before Islam: hated women more than death. They were buried alive or thrown into an abandoned well.



· Freedom of the Woman

Then the Mercy of Allah came to all of humanity with the qualities that changed the horrible history of man, and created a life which humanity had never witnessed in all its civilizations.

Islam came to say:

جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَلَهُنَّ مِثْلُ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِنَّ بِالْمَعْــــــــــــــــــــــرُوف )) ا

Islam came to say:

And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them,




جاء الإسلام ليقول ((ٍ وَعَاشِــــــــــــــــرُوهُــنَّ بِالْمَعْــــــــــــــــــــرُوفِ)) ا

Islam came to say:

live with them on a footing of kindness and equity




جاء الإسلام ليقول (( فَـــلا تَعْضُــــــــــلـُـــــــــــــــــوهُـــــــــــ ـــنَّ )) ا

Islam came to say:

Nor should ye treat them




جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَمَتِّعُوهُنَّ عَلَى الْمُوسِعِ قَدَرُهُ وَعَلَى الْمُقْتِرِ قَـدَرُهُ)) ا

Islam came to say:

(A suitable gift), the wealthy according to his means, and the poor according to his means;- A gift of a reasonable amount is due from those who wish to do the right thing


جاء الإسلام ليقول (( أَسْكِنُوهُنَّ مِنْ حَيْــثُ سَكَنْتُـــــــمْ مِنْ وُجْدِكُــــمْ وَلا تُضَــــــــارُّوهُنَّ لِتُضـــــَيِّقُــوا عَلَيْهِــــــــــــنَّ )) ا

Islam came to say:

Let the women live in the same style as ye live, according to your means: Annoy them not, so as to restrict them.


جاء الإسلام ليقول (( فَآتُـــوهُنَّ أُجُـــــورَهُنَّ فَــرِيضَـــــــــــــــــــــــة )) ا

Islam came to say:

give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed



جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَلِلنِّسَـــــاءِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُــونَ )) ا

Islam came to say:

From what is left by parents and those nearest related there is a share for men and a share for women, whether the property be small or large,-a determinate share.


جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَلِلنِّسَـــــــــــاءِ نَصِيــــــبٌ مِمَّا اكْتَسَبْــــــــــــنَ )) ا

Islam came to say:

and to women what they earn:


جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَآتُوهُـــــمْ مِنْ مَالِ اللَّهِ الَّذِي آتَاكُــــــــــــــــــم )) ا

Islam came to say:

, give them something yourselves out of the means which Allah has given to you




جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَأَنْتُـــــــــــــــــمْ لِبَــــــــــــــــاسٌ لَهُـــــــــــــنّ )) ا

Islam came to say:

and ye are their garments




جاء الإسلام ليقول (( هَـــــؤُلاءِ بَنَـــــاتِي هُنَّ أَطْهَرُ لَكُــــــــــــــــــــمْ )

Islam came to say:



(Lut said ) O my people! Here are my daughters: they are purer for you (if ye marry! )






جاء الإسلام ليقول (( فَلا تَبْغُـــــــــوا عَلَيْهِــــنَّ سَبِيـــــــــــــــــــــــلاً )) ا

Islam came to say:

seek not against them Means




جاء الإسلام ليقول (( لا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَرِثُوا النِّسَاءَ كَرْهــــــــــــــــــــاً )) .ا

Islam came to say:

Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will




جاء الإسلام ليقول (( وَلا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ لِتَذْهَبُوا بِبَعْضِ مَا آتَيْتُمُوهُـــــــــن )) ا

Islam came to say:

O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should ye treat them with harshness, that ye may Take away part of the dower ye have given them


جاء الإسلام ليقول ((ِ فَإِمْسَاكٌ بِمَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ تَسْرِيحٌ بِإِحْسَـــــــــــــانٍ )) ا

Islam came to say:

hold Together on equitable terms, or separate with kindness.



The Noble Prophet came to teach the status of women.

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) was asked who is the most beloved person to you? He replied: "Aishah".

The Prophet would be brought a gift and he would say "take this to so and so because she was a friend of Khadija’s".

He said: "Treat women good".

He said: "The best amongst you is the one who treats his family the best, and I treat my family the best".

He said: "You (men) are responsible for providing for them (women) in the best way".

He said: "The most rewarding wealth is the wealth you spend on your family".

He said: "From the good fortune of the man is a righteous wife".

From His teachings: "Aishah narrates that the Prophet and I would bathe together".

He said: "Whatever you spend (on your family) is counted as a good deed even the morsel of food that you place in the mouth of your wife".

From His teachings: "A woman came to the Prophet and said O’ Prophet of Allah pray for me and my husband. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said, May Allah shower His blessings upon you and your husband".

There is an abundance of evidence that Islam is the true Liberator of women. To further clarify this I will elaborate on how Islam has preserved the rights of a woman since she was a fetus in the womb of her mother till she was laid to rest in her grave.