FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Dr. Farida Khanam has been a professor at the Department of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. A Study of World's Major Religions, A Simple Guide to Sufism are two of the books amongst others, of which she is the author. She has also translated many books on Islam authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently, the chairperson of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS International), an organization founded by her father Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, she is a regular contributor of articles to journals, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. Under Maulana Wahiduddin Khan Peace Foundation, along with the CPS team, she has designed a series of courses on peace-building, countering extremism and conflict resolution.
WOMANHOOD IN ISLAM
O MANKIND, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul. He created its mate from it and from the two of them spread countless men and women (throughout the earth). Fear God in whose name you appeal to one another, and be mindful of your obligations in respect of ties of kinship. God is always watching over you. (4:1)
Fear of God and honouring of one’s fellow men—this is the twin foundation of Islam laid down in the Quran in the above verse. According to most of the commentators who have penetrated deep into the meaning of the Quran ‘it’ in the above verse refers to ‘species’. That is Eve was created not from Adam himself—but from the same species as Adam.
In several other verses from the Quran the word ‘soul’ has been used to mean ’species’—for example ‘God has created for you spouses of your own kind”. (16:72)
Another of His signs is that He created for you from among yourselves spouses, so that you might find repose in them, and He created between you affection and kindness.
Thus women and men are from the same species. Biologically speaking, women have not been extracted from the bodies of their male counterparts. God fashioned them according to His Will, just as He fashioned men in accordance with His Will and Power.
Modern research has presented the facts on a purely academic level, that fundamental, inborn differences do exist between men and women. A detailed article on the Status of Women in Encyclopaedia Britannica includes a section on Scientific Studies of Male-Female differences. Here the author points out physical differences in the respective constitutions of male and female forms of the human species. “With respect to personality traits”, he writes, “men are characterized by greater aggressiveness, dominance, achievement and motivation, women by greater dependency, a stronger social orientation and the tendency to be more easily discouraged by failure than men. (Encyclopaedia Britannica vol.19 p.907).
And there are a number of latter-day scientific experiments to back this up. Child specialists say that male-female differences are entirely genetic in nature. The passivity found in women is due to the particular nature of the female hormone. Differences between male and female hormones exist from birth; they are not acquired later, as would be the case if they stemmed from differences in environment.
The tenets of Islam are based wholly on nature. This is because Islam is the religion of nature. The laws Islam requires us to follow are, in fact, our own instinctive human requirements expressed in legal terms.
The tenets of Islam are based wholly on nature. This is because Islam is the religion of nature. The laws Islam requires us to follow are, in fact, our own instinctive human requirements expressed in legal terms. And the teachings of Islam with respect to women are no exception. They too are based on nature. Modern psychological, biological and anatomical research proves women to be more passive than men. This is the way their Maker has fashioned them. The nature of their womanhood and the special part they have to play in society, demand that they should be just as they have been made—that is relatively delicate as compared to men.
It is this fact of nature on which Islamic teachings have been based. Because of women’s delicate constitution, Islam teaches men to be gentle with them. That way they will not lose heart or become too despondent to perform their special duties in life. Women are not like iron and steel, immune to rough treatment. They are like ribs; fragile and delicate. It is best to let them be, in their natural state. If one treats them as though they were tough metal, one will only break them.
Thus, when God says that He created man’s mate from the same soul He means simply that women are of the same species as men. God created them that way so that there should be harmony between the two sexes. If men and women had been derived from different species— then the two would have been unable to get on together. Family life would have lacked peace and harmony; men and women would have been unable to struggle hand in hand to build a better world.
As far as the saying of the Prophet likening women to a rib, it is a parable illustrating the need to treat women gently on the basis of their particular natural constitution. The Prophet of Islam delivered this advice time and again, in various ways and it is something that he himself practised throughout his life.
During the time of the Prophet, women used to attend the night prayer. Sometimes they used to take their small children along with them. The Prophet used to pay special attention to strict and full observance of prayer. Yet so great was his consideration for women that sometimes, when he heard babies crying, he would cut short the prayer. He said that “Sometimes I stand up for prayer, with my intentions being to do a long one. Then I hear a baby cry, so I cut short the prayer, not wanting to make things difficult for the child’s mother. (Bukhari)
Dr. Farida Khanam This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
After the night comes the dawn,
so that in its light individuals may
continue their journey without
a break.