INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Discovering the Role of Women in Islam
International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. The theme for International Women’s Day, March 8, 2022, is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. Ms Subia Kausar, from Bengaluru has penned her thoughts on how a Muslim woman can discover her role in the family and society.
MY first introduction to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan was through Ms Fathima Sarah’s classes. We would attend her weekend classes as children and borrow books published by Goodword Books. We had heard distorted Islamic stories and the children’s books were the first authentic literature we got.
It was during my first year of Pre-University that I was introduced to Maulana’s books. Sarah Aunty, as we would fondly call her, started a six-month course called ‘VISION’. Each month, we were assigned to read a book of Maulana. After reading the book, we were encouraged to write an essay outlining our understanding of the book. We would submit the essay at the end of the month.
One of the books I read was ‘Women between Islam and Western Society’. I’ve read this book over and over many times since. It has helped me make important life decisions, helped me in being true to the nature bestowed upon me by God. This book has shown women in Islam in its true light. It has described the qualities of a believing woman, the constructive role that she plays in the spheres endowed to her by God. These lessons will stay with me for life.
Maulana’s teachings have helped re-engineer the minds of my family members, particularly me and my mother’s. Maulana would urge women to divert their emotions to God and develop themselves intellectually. His advice for parents to not pamper their children helped us immensely. He would urge us not to become bitter when faced with challenges of life and always, always look at the positive aspect of things. By the grace of God, I am sharing these learnings with many others in my circle of family and friends.
I’m a homemaker, a mother to two little girls. Once a person in the family made a very snide comment that God has created women and given them half the intelligence of a man. This was a very upsetting comment coming from a very educated person. When I told this to Sarah Aunty and expressed my disappointment, she played the audio of that week’s Sunday class where a similar question was asked.
Maulana replied, Hajira nahi hoti to Islam hi nahi hota (There would be no Islam if not for Hagar). Hagar was the wife of the Prophet Abraham who played an instrumental role in bringing about God’s scheme. This statement ignited my mind and made me even more firm in my resolve to educate myself, my family and also help other women my age in their intellectual development.
The women members of CPS are an inspiration to all women who want to tread the path of intellectual development and participate in the activity of communicating the Word of God and doing their bit in the way of God. May God reward them immensely! May God reward Maulana saheb for helping women discover their role! He used to say that men and women were different in role but equal in respect. May God guide us all in doing His work and accept our deeds. Aameen!