THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN ISLAM

An Interview with Ms Fahmida Khan MS FAHMIDA KHAN (b. 1964) is a senior CPS member. She conducts weekly online lectures in Urdu. Her lectures are focussed on the learnings from Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and are broadcast on Facebook Live. She plays an active role in the group comprising of women members of CPS. From a homemaker busy in mundane affairs to a life of a missionary spreading the peaceful message of Islam, her journey has been truly inspiring. She lives in Faizabad.

Dr Safeena Tabassum interviewed her so that we could get the details of this amazing journey in her own words. Dr Safeena Tabassum is an ophthalmologist. She completed MBBS and MS (ophthalmology) from Aligarh Muslim University. She joined CPS International in 2007. Presently, she is moderating the CPS Ladies Group on WhatsApp that was started by Fahmida Aapa.

Let’s start with your childhood. What was the environment in which you were brought up? I mean what role women were expected to play in the family or society?

There was no particular thrust on educating women. Performing the household chores, rearing the children formed the responsibility of a woman. Women could somehow pursue higher studies, but when it came to their participation in the sphere of religion, they were considered unfit.

For centuries, the contribution of women in Muslim societies especially with regard to their participation in the field of religion was almost zero. It was aapa (Dr Farida Khanam) who played an important role in my life. She unveiled the true status of women in Islam. Trained and guided by her father Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, aapa has been playing her part in communicating the message of Islam.

Maulana has written books on this topic such as Woman in Islamic Shariah and Woman between Islam and Western Society. After reading these books, I have come to realize the role women can play in family and society. Countless women have now realized their role in the sphere of religion. They are now associating themselves with the CPS mission.

You are a niece of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. So, how did your association with this mission start? Did it come naturally to you because of the family bond or was there some other reason?

From childhood, I had a special bond with Maulana. I remember that when I was 10 or 12 years old, how happy I would feel when Maulana visited us. He was always engrossed either in reading or in writing. I would observe him stealthily from behind a curtain. Whenever I got the chance, I would sit by his side silently. I liked to do something he asked me to do. I even enjoyed just sitting by his side. This was how I knew him but I knew nothing about the mission he was working on and also I knew nothing about the God-oriented life he had been living. It was yet to dawn on me that Maulana was a different person and that he had dedicated his life to God.

I always felt this special attachment with Maulana that I did not feel for other family members. The Urdu monthly Al-Risala that Maulana wrote would arrive regularly at my home. I never consciously learned any lesson from the magazine. To put it in a nutshell, for me Maulana was always right. I would see the light of truth with him. Then it happened that the travails of life forced me towards his mission. I consider this shift a great blessing of God. Here, I found my soul at rest and peace of mind.

Who played a bigger role in your upbringing, your father or Maulana?

I would say that Maulana played a bigger and integral role in my upbringing. My father was a regular reader of Maulana’s writings. Through his example, I would read Maulana’s books. In this way, father and daughter, we both were trained by Maulana.

What are the lessons that you learned from the company of Maulana?

Some learnings are so thrilling that they cannot be described in words. I would mention some very special life lessons that I have learned from Maulana.

1. Maulana lived a need-based life, whereas people live a desirebased life.

2. He lived quite simply. He ate simple food. His life was far removed from what we may call materialistic.

3. He used to quote: Simple living, high thinking. He lived his life exactly in accordance with this quote.

4. The mentality of the people is shaped by how they see the world. They are affected by what the people would say, what the other people are doing, material comfort and success, etc. People do read the Quran but they plan their lives making this world their goal.

They consider success in this world as a real success. Maulana told us the true meaning of reading the Quran. He told us that reading the Quran means striving to become the person the Quran wants us to become. It means to live one’s life in accordance with God’s plan. It means to realize the true aim of life. It means to accord supreme importance to the Hereafter and doing one’s utmost to achieve success in the Hereafter. Maulana once wrote: People start reading the book of life without first learning the language of life.

How did the idea of getting the women members of CPS International on one platform come to your mind?

After attending Maulana’s Sunday Classes, I realized that I was not able to do justice to the task of communicating the Word of God. I was fired with the zeal to make more effort for this noble task. I kept praying to God. Then came a new idea to my mind. I formed a WhatsApp group consisting of women members of CPS in which we started discussions among ourselves about the ideology of the Al-Risala Mission.

Please tell us more about this group.

This CPS Ladies Group includes more than 100 women from all over the world, who expand their scope of God-realization through it and try to understand how to carry forward the task of communicating the Word of God. They then strive to share it with other women members of their family and office. This WhatsApp group includes not only women from India but also from outside India. They ask each other a question about religion and etiquette of life that they have about everyday life, or they ask a question about religion about which they do not have clarity. Then they discuss it among themselves. This discussion is based either on the Quran and the corpus of Hadith and Al-Risala articles or the personal experience of the members. This removes much of their confusion. Many new aspects of religion open up, and their intellectual development continues.

What is the response you are getting from the members?

It is very inspiring and positive. One member gave the impression:

“Today I have not been able to participate much in the discussion, but it is great to read all the messages. My takeaway today is that I will focus on education and intellectual development in myself and my family, and take this work forward in such a way that it continues for the next generation.”

Ms Arifa Naseer (New Delhi) wrote: “I learn a lot of new things every day, and for the first time it is happening that I am also practising what I learn.”

Ms Razia Khan writes: “God gave me an opportunity to learn from a scholar like Maulana Sahib. Every day I listen or read Maulana Sahib’s teachings through this group. Then there is a discussion on it, which brings out new points. It opens the mind, allows you to recover and improve. Since I joined this group, my tension has decreased.”

How did Maulana respond to the new development involving women members?

Maulana was very pleased with this development. He even wrote an article about it. I would like to reproduce here what he said:

When I heard about the CPS Ladies Group, I remembered a saying of the Prophet Muhammad. He said: “The whole earth has been made a mosque and pure for me and for the people who follow me. (Musnad Ahmad) In an extended way, this saying means that there will come a time when people can freely perform the task of communicating the message of God as they are free to worship in mosques throughout the earth. This task is now possible through the use of the virtual world of the Internet i.e. Facebook and WhatsApp, etc.

This initiative of women members of CPS is undoubtedly commendable. This is an effective way through which women can carry forward the peaceful mission of spreading the Word of God in the present times. I pray to God that this CPS Ladies Group should do a great job of communicating the Word of God at the global level. May God accept their efforts, and protect them!

This mission asks one to learn positive lessons from negative experiences. What is your discovery in this regard?

Greater the shock, greater the discovery. I wanted to study more, but I was not allowed and then I was married. This was my first shock.

Then, the people in my life demanded so much from me that I could not spare time for the mission. Unilaterally, I continued giving my all to my family with the expectation that all will be well in the end. However, this hope never materialized and life went on. My health and wealth, everything was used up for material causes.

When my father died, this came as a great shock to me. Now, I could not gather myself to continue my old way of life. This time around, when I came to Maulana, I was mentally prepared to understand his words. I started reading his books sincerely. I remember reading this:

If you place a seed on a plate made of gold, it will dry and wither away, when the same seed is placed in soil, it sacrifices its existence and it turns into a plant, then a tree which provides flowers and fruits.

These words shook me to the core. I realized as if these words are directly addressing me. A seed after losing its existence is converted into a new life. In the same way, God has trained me and given me new life. I felt I have been divinely trained. I felt that I have left the darkness behind and entered the light. My restless soul was now at peace.

After getting free from the clutches of the material world, I found peace. When I forsook the world, I found God. After wandering for most of my life, I discovered God. For a person, there can be no discovery greater than this. The discovery of God is my greatest discovery.