Before
Islam era, there were Jahilliyah eras that are known as age of ignorance.
Before Prophet Muhammad pbuh sent to the world and before Islam
began, where women were treated like an animal or less as personal slaves and
have no rights. A son inherited his deceased father’s wives. They have no
social status. Even they were looked upon as a source of shame and humiliation
to the family. Also in that era women were infanticide, the atrocious practice
of female infanticide has become the ultimate symbol of women’s oppression in
pre-Islamic Arabia.
There is
no doubt that Arabs committed infanticide before Islam. It was not a new thing
nor was it limited to one group of tribes. Young girls were usually the victims
of this dreadful practice, however, young boys may have also been killed once
there were no more girls left. It was said proverbially, "The dispatch of
daughters is a kindness" and "The burial of daughters is a noble
deed." (Nicholson, p. 90) In Arabia, as among other primitive people,
child-murder was carried out in such a way that no blood was shed, the infant
was buried alive. Often the grave was ready by the side of the bed on which the
daughter was born. (W. Robertson Smith, Kinship & Marriage in Early Arabia.
London, Adam and Charles Black, 1903, p. 293) although the practice of
infanticide had once been general, it had nearly died out by the time of the
prophet, except among a few tribes, such as the Tamim.
Female infanticide was usually prompted by one of two reasons: fear of poverty or fear of
disgrace. The first reason is associated with the frequent famines caused by
lack of rain and the fear of poverty that would result from providing for girls
who were viewed as less productive than boys. Fathers were afraid that they
would have useless mouths to feed, since daughters were considered mere
"ornament".
In the
age of ignorance days, women were treated like slaves or property. Their
personal consent concerning anything related to their well-being was considered
unimportant and unnecessary to such an extent that they were never even treated
as a party to a marriage contract.
Women
were used for one purpose, and then discarded. They had no independence, could
not own property and were not allowed to inherit. In times of war, women were
treated as part of the loot. Simply put, their plight was unspeakable.
After the
death of the father, the sons used to share his wives among themselves as they
shared their father's property. After the death of the husband, the widow was
kicked out of the house and was forced to live in a small hut, which was
unventilated and dark, for one year. She was not permitted to leave the hut,
nor was she allowed to take bath or change clothes. After one year, she was
allowed to come out of the hut. People threw the camel dung into her lap and
asked her to rub her body against the body of an animal. Then she was forced to
go round the village in the same dirty attire, throwing the camel dung on her
right and her left. This was the indication that she has completed her Iddat
(waiting period).
In India,
the Hindu woman was the most suppressed creature. She was born to serve her men
folk? Her father and brother before
marriage, and husband and father-in-law and husband’s brothers after the
marriage. She was forced to worship her husband. After the death of her husband
she had no right to live and was forced to be burnt alive at the pyre of her
husband. This inhuman custom was called the Sati. If she had no issue from her
husband, she was forced to lie with her husband's brothers to get pregnant.
This practice was called "Niyoga".
Outside
Arabia, conditions for women were no better. In Egypt and all European
countries in the Dark Ages, women were treated worse than slaves. They were not
regarded as human beings but as sort of sub-species between humans and animals.
With
the coming of Islam, the position of women was raised to respectable and
honorable one in society. Islam came as the liberator and benefactor of women. Women
in Islam are not to be regarded as personal slaves and not be inherited and not
treated harshness anymore.
“I often think that women are freer in Islam than
in Christianity. Women are more respected by Islam than by the faith which
preaches monogamy”.
- Dr. Annie Bessant wrote in her book The
Life and Teachings of Muhammad
Prophet
Muhammadpbuh and Quran teaching us that women should be held in
honor and their rights recognized I marriage, property and inheritance.
Quran
said:
“---To men is allotted what they earn, and to women
what they earn---” (4:32)
On the
Quran also mentions that men and women are the same, have the same similar
nature. All the article of faith, all beliefs and all acts of worship are
equally applicable and binding on both men and women.
Islam
respects women in all roles of their lives – as mother, sister, wife and
daughter. But the most respectable and exalted is mother. Prophet Muhammadpbuh
said that:
“Paradise lies beneath the feet of your mothers”
A
woman is the base for man's existence since the development of the children
take place within her arms; hence just as she has been created physically to
handle the tasks of bearing, developing and educating the coming generations,
psychologically too she is in possession of a greater share of feelings and
sentiments.
Here
we observe that Islam, even as it voices support for justice and equality,
grants precedence to man in some of the social tasks which demand asperity or
meticulousness - such as guardianship of the house - and has allowed the woman
to function as an assistant.
Both
a 'house' and a 'society' are in need of an administrator, and the reins of
administration should eventually end up in the hands of one person or else it
would result in contest, chaos and confusion.
Under
these circumstances, who is better suited for the task - a man or a woman? Impartial and unbiased computations reveal
that the structural state of man demands that the administration and management
of the family should be placed upon the man while the woman should act as his
assistant.
There
exists no difference between a man and a woman in this regard; the doors of
success and prosperity lay equally open for both of them, just as we read in
the Qur`an:
{ بَعْضُکُمْ مِنْ بَعْضٍ }
“All are from one species and one society.”
And a links between father and his
daughter is, for a man who bring his daughter to the right path of Islam, let
her grow up, teach them about Islam and let her marry with a good guy, he will
granted Paradise by Allah S.W.T –Qur’an
