The Position of Women in Islam 1

The Posi­tion of Women in Islam

West­ern igno­rance of the World of Islam is almost total, but if there is one area above all oth­ers where the vac­u­um of knowl­edge has been most effec­tive­ly filled with mis­in­for­ma­tion, it is that sur­round­ing the role of women in Islam. In con­trast to the com­mon mis­con­cep­tion, the Qur’an does not restrict wom­ens’ rights. Women are giv­en the same rights as men are. The sta­tus of the Mus­lim woman in Islam is a very noble and lofty one, and her effect is very great in the life of every Mus­lim. Indeed the Mus­lim woman is the ini­tial teacher in build­ing a right­eous soci­ety, pro­vid­ing she fol­lows the guid­ance from the Book of Allah and the Sun­nah of the Messenger(P).

The Qur’an states cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly that men and women who prac­tice the prin­ci­ples of Islam will receive equal reward for their efforts. (Qur’an 33:35). In the first verse of the chap­ter enti­tled An-Nis­sa’ (The Women), God says :

O mankind ! Be care­ful of your duty to your Lord Who cre­at­ed you from a sin­gle soul and from it its mate and from them both have spread abroad a mul­ti­tude of men and women. Be care­ful of your duty toward Allah in Whom you claim (your rights) of one anoth­er, and towards the wombs (that bore you). Lo ! Allah has been a Watch­er over you.” (Qur’an 4:1)

Since men and women both came from the same essence, they are equal in their human­i­ty. Women can­not be by nature evil (as some reli­gions believe) or then men would be evil also. Sim­i­lar­ly, nei­ther gen­der can be supe­ri­or because it would be a con­tra­dic­tion of equal­i­ty. Women are encour­aged in Islam to con­tribute their opin­ions and ideas. There are many tra­di­tions of the Prophet (pbuh) which indi­cate women would pose ques­tions direct­ly to him and offer their opin­ions con­cern­ing reli­gion, eco­nom­ics and social matters.

The Qur’an states :

By the cre­ation of the male and female ; Ver­i­ly, (the ends) ye strive for are diverse.” (Qur’an 92:3 – 4)

In these vers­es, God declares that He cre­at­ed men and women to be dif­fer­ent, with unique roles, func­tions and skills. As in soci­ety, where there is a divi­sion of labor, so too in a fam­i­ly ; each mem­ber has dif­fer­ent respon­si­bil­i­ties. Gen­er­al­ly, Islam upholds that women are entrust­ed with the nur­tur­ing role, and men, with the guardian role. There­fore, women are giv­en the right of finan­cial support.

The Qur’an states :

Men are the main­tain­ers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel oth­ers and because they spend of their wealth (for the sup­port of women).” (Qur’an 4:34)

This guardian­ship and greater finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty is giv­en to men, requires that they pro­vide women with not only mon­e­tary sup­port but also phys­i­cal pro­tec­tion and kind and respect­ful treatment.

The Mus­lim woman has the priv­i­lege to earn mon­ey, the right to own prop­er­ty, to enter into legal con­tracts and to man­age all of her assets in any way she pleas­es. She can run her own busi­ness and no one has any claim on her earn­ings includ­ing her husband.

The Qur’an states :

And in no wise cov­et those things in which Allah hath bestowed His gifts more freely on some of you than on oth­ers ; to men is allot­ted what they earn, and to women, what they earn ; but ask All?of His boun­ty, for Allah hath full knowl­edge of all things.” (Qur’an 4:32)

A woman inher­its from her relatives.

The Qur’an states :

For men there is a share in what par­ents and rel­a­tives leave, and for women there is a share of what par­ents and rel­a­tives leave, whether it be lit­tle or much — an ordained share.” (Qur’an 4:7)

The great impor­tance of the Mus­lim wom­an’s role whether as wife, sis­ter, or daugh­ter, and the rights that are due to her and the rights that are due from her have been explained in the noble Qur’an and fur­ther detailed of this have been explained in the Sunnah.

God Almighty says :

And We have enjoined upon man to be good and duti­ful to his par­ents. His moth­er bore him in weak­ness upon weak­ness and hard­ship upon hard­ship, and his wean­ing is in two years. Show grat­i­tude and thanks to Me and to your par­ents. Unto Me is the final des­ti­na­tion.” (Qur’an 31:14)

The secret of her impor­tance lies in the tremen­dous bur­den and respon­si­bil­i­ty that is placed upon her, and the dif­fi­cul­ties she has to shoul­der respon­si­bil­i­ties and dif­fi­cul­ties some of which not even a man bears. This is why from the most impor­tant oblig­a­tions upon a per­son is to show grat­i­tude to the moth­er, and kind­ness and good com­pan­ion­ship with her. And in this mat­ter, she is to be giv­en prece­dence over and above the father. The Position of Women in Islam 2Endmark

Cite this arti­cle as : Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi, The Posi­tion of Women in Islam,” in Bis­mi­ka Allahu­ma, Sep­tem­ber 22, 2005, last accessed March 28, 2024, https://​bis​mikaal​lahu​ma​.org/​i​s​l​a​m​/​w​o​m​e​n​-​i​n​-​i​s​l​a​m​/​t​h​e​-​p​o​s​i​t​i​o​n​-​o​f​-​w​o​m​e​n​-​i​n​-​i​s​l​am/

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3 responses to “The Posi­tion of Women in Islam”

  1. fowwati Avatar
    fowwati

    The greek lan­guage used in this text is very bad. Soeme of the sen­tences and phras­es are mean­ing­less for the greeks. The trans­la­tion of the koran­ic vers­es are also very bad. The text needs revi­sioin so that can be read respect­ed­ly from the greeks.

  2. islamispeace Avatar
    islamispeace

    Unfor­tu­nate­ly, J_​follower is a char­la­tan who pre­tends he knows exact­ly what Islam teach­es, and yet when chal­lenged to bring scrip­tur­al evi­dence, he fails over and over again. The guy needs to get a life.

  3. Jesus_follower Avatar
    Jesus_follower

    [Admin : Delet­ed for offen­sive remarks about Mus­lims. Shut up and get lost, you half-naked man wor­shiper. Under Shari­ah, a woman has more rights than what the Bible attrib­ut­es to a woman.]

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