Books : Muslim Women – You are not Oppressed!
Books
Muslim Women – You are not Oppressed!
After the Muslims conquered Egypt
in 20 AH a delegation of the local community approached the Muslim
governor, Amr Ibn al-Aas, with an important matter. According to custom
the river Nile demanded a human sacrifice every year. On the 12th night
of June a virgin girl was dressed as beautifully as a bride and thrown
into the river. If this was not done the river would dry up, according
to them. Amr Ibn al-Aas immediately answered that Islam opposed all
superstitious rituals of this nature. Months passed but the river did
not flow. People began migrating away due to the lack of water. Amr Ibn
al-Aas wrote to the caliph Umar seeking advice.
Umar
replied : "You have done the right thing. Islam stands to destroy all
rituals of ignorance. I am sending you a note. Drop it into the river."
The note was addressed to the river. It read : "From the servant of
Allah, Ameer-ul-Mumineen, to the Nile of Egypt.
If you had been flowing due to your own accord you can stop flowing.
But, if it is Allah, the Almighty, who makes you flow then we ask Him
to make you flow. Amr Ibn al-Aas dropped the letter into the Nile . The
next morning the Nile had started flowing again at its normal level.
(Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah Wan-Nihayah, vol. 7, p.100)
Islam elevated the status of women and honoured them
with rights long before the Western world.
In the 1860s, a married Englishwoman did not even exist as a legal
person. Upon marriage she entered into the possession of her husband.
Her name was changed to indicate the new ownership, a practice that
continues till today.
In today’s modern age the West has portrayed the model woman as a career woman who earns a living in the outside world. The world has been brainwashed to think that home-making and motherhood is slavery.
According to the peculiar logic of the West if a woman serves tea to
her husband and children with affection, it is slavery. If she provides
the same service to total strangers in a restaurant, aircraft or
office, risking their never ending advances, that is emancipation.
Strange don’t you think!
However,
these 'progressive' career women have a flip side that is rarely
depicted in the media. Women in Western society are engulfed in a vast
array of problems. While high profile career women are regarded as
successful in the corporate world the unfortunate reality is that their
role as mothers and wives is neglected. Many times, the result is
family conflict and a host of mental disorders like depression and
bulimia. Having left her role as the queen and mother of the home she
has caused the very core of society to crumble. By associating with any
and every man of her choice she has lost her God-given honour. Her
intermingling with strange men has introduced deceit and tension within
her family unit. By exposing her body she has invited rape upon
herself. By allowing her figure to be placed on magazine covers to sell
anything from truck tyres to soft-drinks she has been degraded. In
simple words the West has made her a worthless commodity : her physical
charms and beauties are sold in the market place in exchange for a few
coppers in order to satisfy the dirty lusts of men. Her body belongs,
not to herself, but to society. From a young age she desperately tries
to match and imitate the beauty of the 'touched up' actresses and
models she admires in the media. In this quest she induces damage to
her natural body by undergoing surgery and following weight loss diets.
After loosing her appeal and looks she is cast aside like a dirty rag
having fulfilled her role of cheap entertainment.
Islam
being a balanced religion has given her rights and at the same time
placed certain obligations upon her which enhance her femininity. Her hijaab, modest dressing and concealment ensures
that she no longer needs to spend a fortune on designer clothing, perfumes and beauty parlours in order to impress strange men.
The success of pure Islamic families is where the mother remains the
core of the home. In an attempt to destroy this Islamic fortress the
West aims to lure Muslim females out of their homes. Muslims should
never be defensive and apologetic when it comes to women. Islam is a
perfectly balanced and divine system.
Islamic
history is filled with great leaders, scholars and luminaries who were
produced due to the nurturing of their pious mothers.
Thanks to Allah that this glorious legacy is still present in many
Muslim homes today where Ulama, Hufaaz and great personalities are
produced because of the careful grooming of an intelligent woman. Yes
intelligent! Contrary to common belief, an intelligent woman is one who
uses her life and time to guide her offspring. She knows that her
future well-being will be due to the children she brings up in her own
home under her care. These same children will make dua for her, respect
her and care for her in old age as they have been intimately touched
with the spirit of affection from her. An unintelligent woman is one
who craves to earn in the outside world and dumps her children at a
creche or daycare centre, despite her husband's salary being more than
sufficient for the family. The common result of this is that children
who do not have motherly guidance do not respect her and ill-treat her
in old age. All her money that she earned in her younger years will
never teach her children respect now.
The farce of gender equality
One of the greatest deceptions of the West is their cliché of gender equality. If men and women were equal why are there so few female truck drivers and why are there so few male nurses and kindergarten teachers? The fact is that men and women are biologically and mentally different. There is no need to compare them. They have different roles in society according to their natural makeup.
One of the greatest deceptions of the West is their cliché of gender equality. If men and women were equal why are there so few female truck drivers and why are there so few male nurses and kindergarten teachers? The fact is that men and women are biologically and mentally different. There is no need to compare them. They have different roles in society according to their natural makeup.
The
Prophet Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam cursed those men who assume the
manners of women and those women who assume the manners of men.
(Bukhari)
In Islam men and women are complementary to each other in a multi-function society rather than competitive with each other in a
uni-function society.
The West, on the other hand, vociferously claims and demands equality
of the sexes. For this they force a woman to abandon her natural
disposition and adopt the qualities of a man. This she can never
achieve no matter how hard she tries. When she is, now, unnaturally
forced to live like a man her role in society is compromised. Her
potential for spiritual development is weakened because she can only
gain closeness to the Divine by functioning within the framework that
the Creator has chosen for her.
It
is high time that the world stops regarding the Western convoluted
system as a yardstick for progress. Their system has failed and
continues to throw up untold problems. It is time for the world to try
the system of Islam and taste the divine sweetness of balanced living.
Comments can be sent to the author at the following email : info@maw.za. org
