A Com­par­i­son of Women in the Qur’an and the Bible

Chris­tians claim that the cur­rent equal­i­ty of women now enjoyed by Chris­t­ian women came from the Bible, and that Islam is cru­el towards women. Below are the com­par­isons of issues on women between the Bible and the Qur’an I leave it to you to decide which Book is the one which tru­ly gives free­dom to women and ele­vate their sta­tus and which Book is the hyp­o­crit­i­cal one.

1. The Bible con­victs women as the orig­i­nal sin­ners (i.e. Eve pick­ing from the for­bid­den tree) (Gen­e­sis 2:4 – 3:24)

The Qur’an clar­i­fies that it was both Adam and Eve at fault, equal­ly. For exam­ple, in Sura’ al-Baqarah, Allaah says :

“fa aza­l­laHU­MAA ash-shay­Taan..” mean­ing ​“And Satan caused them (DUAL) to err..” 

The same is found in Qur’an 7:19 – 25 where­in it says :

“fa-waswasa laHU­MAA ash-shay­Taan..” mean­ing ​“So Satan whis­pered to them (DUAL)”.

Both the man and woman were equal­ly to blame. Thus, in Islam there is equi­ty in rights as well as blame.

2. The Bible says ​“the birth of a daugh­ter is a loss”. (Eccle­si­as­ti­cus 22:3)
The Qur’an says both are an equal bless­ing (Qur’an 42:49)

3. The Bible for­bids women from speak­ing in church (I Corinthi­ans 14:34 – 35)
The Qur’an says women can argue with the Prophet (Qur’an 58:1)

4. In the Bible, divorced Women are labeled as an adul­ter­ess, not men (Matthew 5:31 – 32)
The Qur’an does not have Bib­li­cal dou­ble stan­dards (Qur’an 30:21)

5. In the Bible, wid­ows and sis­ters do not inher­it any prop­er­ty or wealth, only men do (Num­bers 27:1 – 11)
The Qur’an abol­ished this male greed­i­ness (Qur’an 4:22) and God pro­tects all.

6. The Bible allows mul­ti­ple wives. (I Kings 11:3)
In the Qur’an God lim­its the num­ber to 4 only under cer­tain sit­u­a­tions (with the wife’s per­mis­sion) and prefers that you mar­ry only one wife (Qur’an 4:3). The Qur’an gives the woman the right to choose who to marry.

NOTE : Nowhere in the Bible does it for­bid polygamy, or says that the male must mar­ry one woman. Sin­gle mar­riage is a Gre­co-Roman tra­di­tion — one of the many influ­ences on the true teach­ings of Jesus. Jesus lived for 33 years among a nation that prac­ticed polygamy and he nev­er pro­hib­it­ed, nor even ever talked about it in his teachings.

7. ​“If a man hap­pens to meet a vir­gin who is not pledged to be mar­ried and rapes her and they are dis­cov­ered, he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of sil­ver. He must mar­ry the girl, for he has vio­lat­ed her. He can nev­er divorce her as long as he lives” (Deuteron­o­my 22:28 – 30)

One must ask a sim­ple ques­tion here, who is real­ly pun­ished, the man who raped the woman or the woman who was raped ? Accord­ing to the Bible, you have to spend the rest of your life with the man who raped you, and there­fore had obvi­ous­ly low morals.

How­ev­er, even before the mar­riage women in Islam are giv­en right to choose their hus­band, and they can even reject if they are forced to mar­ry some­body. In a hadith nar­rat­ed by Aisha’, the Prophet said, ​“It is essen­tial to have the con­sent of a vir­gin (for the marriage)”.

Oth­er sim­i­lar hadith are as follows :

Nar­rat­ed Abu Hurairah r.a, that the Prophet said, ​“A divorcee can­not be forced to mar­ry before she agrees, and a vir­gin can­not be forced to mar­ry before her per­mis­sion is obtained. The Saha­ba’ asked ​“How can we obtain her per­mis­sion?” The Prophet said, ​“Her per­mis­sion is when she keeps qui­et.” (Mus­lim)

Ibn Abbas report­ed that a girl came to the Mes­sen­ger of Allah Muham­mad and she report­ed that her father had forced her to mar­ry with­out her con­sent. The Mes­sen­ger of Allah gave her the choice (between accept­ing the mar­riage and inval­i­dat­ing it). (Ibn Hanbal) 

Would the Chris­t­ian men read­ing this pre­fer the women they know to be Chris­t­ian or Muslim ?

8. The Bible also asks women to wear veils as in Islam (I Corinthi­ans 11:3 – 10)

9. Women were giv­en rights to vote less than a 100 years ago in the U.S. while the Qur’an gave women vot­ing rights almost 1400 years ago.

In a hadith nar­rat­ed by Abu Huraira, the Apos­tle of God said, ​“Treat women nice­ly, for a women is cre­at­ed from a rib, and the most curved por­tion of the rib is its upper por­tion, so, if you should try to straight­en it, it will break, but if you leave it as it is, it will remain crooked. So treat women nice­ly.” (Sahih Bukhari)

And only God knows best ! A Comparison of Women in the Qur'an and the Bible 1Endmark

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Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi

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3 responses to “A Com­par­i­son of Women in the Qur’an and the Bible”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    Reply to Jesus_follower :

    » First of all, this arti­cle is a non-fair com­par­i­son because you are real­ly pick­ing and choos­ing here.

    There is noth­ing more trag­ic and fun­ny than a Chris­t­ian com­plain­ing of Mus­lims (or fol­low­ers of anoth­er reli­gion) pick­ing and choos­ing things out of con­text ! Because you guys have been doing the same things against any oth­er reli­gion that you sim­ply do not like to see it existing.

    » first of all, the top­ic is a com­par­i­son between the Quran and the Bible, not bash­ing on the Bible.

    OK, agreed. But shad­owfear did­n’t try to bash your Bible ! He was just quot­ing some vers­es from it. If you think it is unfair or bash­ing the Bible, then your Holy Book itself is to blame – not the one who quote it. Just anoth­er sad sit­u­a­tion where­in Chris­tians are on the horns of a dilemma. :)

    » Sec­ond, every­thing in your post is from the Old Tes­ta­ment. If you have a prob­lem with that, then talk to the Jews about it, and ask them why that hap­pened in their Torah.

    BWA­Ha­ha­ha ! What a nice answer ! First of all, the Bible used by Jews is not Old Tes­ta­ment. The Jew­ish bible and Old Tes­ta­ment are two damn dif­fer­ent books. There­fore, Jews are not to be interrogated.

    » The old tes­ta­ment is not chris­t­ian, it is sim­ply there because it pre­dict­ed the com­ing of Jesus, the Mes­sa­iah, so chris­tians includ­ed it in their book.

    What a stu­pid­i­ty it is ! If the old tes­ta­ment is not Chris­t­ian, why did you accept the pre­dic­tion of it that Jesus will come ? Sup­pose, there was a scrip­ture, which pre­dict­ed like this :

    Oh peo­ple ! There is no one to come to wash your sin espe­cial­ly the one named Jesus !

    Will you accept the prophe­cy of that scrip­ture?!!! Don’t be such a lamer, man!!

    You have to believe in Old Tes­ta­ment to take its prophe­cy as valid and truth.

    » we are called chris­tians because we fol­low Jesus not Moses.

    Agreed ! But who is Jesus ? Accord­ing to the Chris­t­ian belief, Jesus is the God, the same God who gave scrip­ture to Moses ! That means every­thing in the Old Tes­ta­ment are the words of Jesus. How could you escape from this fact ?

    Jesus said,

    “Do not think that I have come to abol­ish the Law (the Old Tes­ta­ment) or the Prophets ; I have not come to abol­ish them but to ful­fill them.” Matthew 5:17 – 18

    “For tru­ly, I say to you, till heav­en and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accom­plished. Who­ev­er then relax­es one of the least of these com­mand­ments and teach­es men so, shall be called least in the king­dom of heav­en ; but he who does them and teach­es them shall be called great in the king­dom of heav­en”- (Luke 16:17 & Matthew 5:18 – 19)

    You see ! Jesus him­self is against Christians !

    » The Bible does not allow Polygmy, and this is the biggest lie in the world. The church nev­er ever prac­ticed polygmy and nev­er allowed it.

    That is why the Bible teach­es the fol­low­ing lesson :

    But king Solomon loved many strange women, togeth­er with the daugh­ter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zido­nians, and Hit­tites ; And he had sev­en hun­dred wives, princess­es, and three hun­dred con­cu­bines. (I Kings 11:1 – 3) 

    » the Quran allows men, not only to have four wives, but to have sex with their cap­tives which is very very shame­ful of a book that claims to be direct­ly from GOD.

    This is what Qur’an says about polygamy :

    If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal just­ly with the orphans, Mar­ry women of your choice, Two or three or four ; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal just­ly (with them), then only one, or (a cap­tive) that your right hands pos­sess, that will be more suit­able, to pre­vent you from doing injus­tice. (Al-Qur’an 4:3)

    Yes, Qur’an allows men to mar­ry cap­tives. See what Qur’an has to say about this subject :

    If any of you have not the means where­with to wed free believ­ing women, they may wed believ­ing girls from among those whom your right hands pos­sess : And Allah hath full knowl­edge about your faith. Ye are one from anoth­er : Wed them with the leave of their own­ers, and give them their dow­ers, accord­ing to what is rea­son­able : They should be chaste, not lust­ful, nor tak­ing para­mours : when they are tak­en in wed­lock, if they fall into shame, their pun­ish­ment is half that for free women. This (per­mis­sion) is for those among you who fear sin ; but it is bet­ter for you that ye prac­tise self-restraint. And Allah is Oft-for­giv­ing, Most Mer­ci­ful. (Al-Nisa’ 4 – 25) 

    » Also women have no secu­ri­ty for their mar­raiges. Divorce is Halal (per­mit­ted by allah)

    And give the women (on mar­riage) their dow­er as a free gift ; but if they, of their own good plea­sure, remit any part of it to you, Take it and enjoy it with right good cheer. (Qur’an 4:4)

    Yes, divorce is Halal. Because, if a cou­ple could not live togeth­er in any cir­cum­stances, it is bet­ter to get them divorced. That is prac­ti­cal. Else, it will be a ter­ri­ble life for both of them. Allah knows it bet­ter ! He cre­at­ed all of us from noth­ing. So who else could know and under­stand us better?!!

    When ye divorce women, and they ful­fil the term of their (‘Iddat), either take them back on equi­table terms or set them free on equi­table terms ; but do not take them back to injure them.(Al-Qur’an 2:231)

    Women have the right to get a fair share of the wealth of their hus­band if they get divorced.

    For divorced women Main­te­nance (should be pro­vid­ed) on a rea­son­able (scale). This is a duty on the right­eous. — 2:241

    O ye who believe ! When ye mar­ry believ­ing women, and then divorce them before ye have touched them, no peri­od of ​‘Iddat have ye to count in respect of them : so give them a present. And set them free in a hand­some man­ner. – 33:49

    » and mus­lims take advan­tage of that all the time. for exam­ple, Osama Bin laden’s father mar­ried 20 wives in his life time!!

    In this whole world, this poor guy know only one ​‘Mus­lim’ that is Osama Bin laden’s father!!

    It is not fair to call some­one Mus­lim who did all things that Islam does not allow, as it is not fair to call some­one Chris­t­ian who allows his wife to gain knowl­edge from some­one oth­er than him. (Chris­tian­i­ty does not allow women to gain knowl­edge from any oth­er source except her hus­band. If her hus­band is a dumb, stu­pid per­son, she has no way before her!!)

    » Next, women in Islam are ​“allowed to choose their hus­band” you said, and that is sim­ply not true. For a very long time and still until now in many Islam­ic coun­tries, the women are sim­ply sold to their hus­band, and still until today. I am sure you have heard of al-maher, which is mon­ey that is giv­en to the father of the bride for the mar­riage to take place. this hap­pens in all islam­ic coutries. Also, the woman, in most cas­es, does not see her hus­band until the day she mar­ries him.

    In many Chris­t­ian major­i­ty coun­tries, Chris­tians kill peo­ple, rape women, loot peo­ple and so on. Many Chris­tians in Africa’s poor strick­en coun­tries steal mon­ey and food. They some­times also kill their chil­dren. In many third world coun­tries, Chris­tians kill their baby girls because they could not afford to bring them up.

    Tit for tat ! :) 

    » In the chris­t­ian coun­tries how­ev­er is where women tru­ely get their rights.

    How many chris­t­ian coun­tries are there ? I think no more than ONE ! – Vat­i­can. So your state­ment should be : ” In the chris­t­ian major­i­ty coun­tries how­ev­er is where women tru­ely get their rights.”

    That is true. Because those Chris­tians do not obey, what their reli­gion impos­es on them. They flushed the Bib­li­cal laws. That is why the women in those coun­tries get their rights. Like­wise, in some Mus­lim major­i­ty coun­tries, Mus­lims are not ready to obey the Islam­ic laws, so their women do not get their rights.

    Islam has his­toric back up in its strug­gle to give equal rights, giv­ing inher­i­tance, edu­ca­tion and all kinds of priv­i­leges to women. Chris­tian­i­ty has its own his­to­ry of deny­ing all of these rights of women.

    Reply
  2. Jesus_follower Avatar
    Jesus_follower

    reply to shadowofears :

    First of all, this arti­cle is a non-fair com­par­i­son because you are real­ly pick­ing and choos­ing here. if you want to see how islam real­ly treats women then click on the THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN ISLAM link (this link is found on this very same page, I am sure you can find it) and you will see my com­ment on the bot­tom of the page on how Islam real­ly treats women.

    To reply to shad­owofears, first of all, the top­ic is a com­par­i­son between the Quran and the Bible, not bash­ing on the Bible. Sec­ond, every­thing in your post is from the old tes­ta­ment. if you have a prob­lem with that, then talk to the Jews about it, and ask them why that hap­pened in their Torah. The old tes­ta­ment is not chris­t­ian, it is sim­ply there because it pre­dict­ed the com­ing of Jesus, the Mes­sa­iah, so chris­tians includ­ed it in their book. I am a born chris­t­ian and went to Bible stud­ies for years when I was a kid and a grown-up, and we nev­er ever stud­ied the old tes­ta­ment because it is not chris­t­ian. we are called chris­tians because we fol­low Jesus not Moses.

    Now, for the arti­cle, I want to ask the author, in what islam­ic coun­try women were vot­ing 1400 years ago ? the free world has just start­ed about 100 years ago, and women were allowed to vote in it (USA, Brit­ian, and oth­ers). How many Islam­ic cout­nries right now do allow women to vote ? or how many islam­ic cout­nries even have vot­ing at all ? not many, and the coun­tries that have vot­ing are basi­cal­ly ruled by dic­ta­tors where the votes are not real­ly count­ed. exam­ples of that is coun­tries like Syr­ia, Egypt. Dic­ta­tors there have been rul­ing for over 30 years, and when vot­ing comes around, nobody dares nom­i­nat­ing them­selves to run for presidency.

    The Bible does not allow Polygmy, and this is the biggest lie in the world. The church nev­er ever prac­ticed polygmy and nev­er allowed it. Plus, where in the Quran does it say that Polygmy is allowed when the ​“wife allows it” as you said. I can read ara­bic very well, and I know that no where in the Quran it says that, so please don’t make stuff up, and please don’t lie to the peo­ple. the Quran does not say that men could prac­tice polygmy if ​“women allowed it”. On the con­trary, the Quran allows men, not only to have four wives, but to have sex with their cap­tives which is very very shame­ful of a book that claims to be direct­ly from GOD. Also women have no secu­ri­ty for their mar­raiges. Divorce is Halal (per­mit­ted by allah), and mus­lims take advan­tage of that all the time. for exam­ple, Osama Bin laden’s father mar­ried 20 wives in his life time!!

    Next, women in Islam are ​“allowed to choose their hus­band” you said, and that is sim­ply not true. For a very long time and still until now in many Islam­ic coun­tries, the women are sim­ply sold to their hus­band, and still until today. I am sure you have heard of al-maher, which is mon­ey that is giv­en to the father of the bride for the mar­riage to take place. this hap­pens in all islam­ic coutries. Also, the woman, in most cas­es, does not see her hus­band until the day she mar­ries him.

    This arit­cle is so far beyond real­i­ty that I should not even attempt to answer it. I can bet you any­thing that I can pro­vide you with strong con­trary exam­ples to every­thing you are try­ing to give women. In the chris­t­ian coun­tries how­ev­er is where women tru­ely get their rights, and like I said, your bash­ing on the Bible is most­ly on the Old Tes­ta­ment which is not chris­t­ian (do you get it that the word chris­t­ian comes from christ -> new testament).

    Reply
  3. shadowofears Avatar
    shadowofears

    Let us look at Song of Solomon 8:10 ​“Dear broth­ers, I’m a walled-in vir­gin still, but my breasts are full— And when my lover sees me, he knows he’ll soon be satisfied.”

    She is a vir­gin with full swelling breasts. When her lover meets her, he will be sat­is­fied from those swelling breasts ! Obvi­ous­ly, she is refer­ring to lick­ing, suck­ing and oth­er porno­graph­ic things that I can’t men­tion here. Believe me this verse is not talk­ing about them wor­ship­ing GOD Almighty togeth­er when they meet!! It is clear­ly and indis­putably refer­ring to graph­ic sex that involves her swelling breasts and oth­er things such as intercourse.

    Let us look at Song of Songs 4:5 ​“Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.”

    Let us look at Song of Songs 1:13 ​“My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh rest­ing between my breasts.”

    Prais­ing the bed that they had sex on : Let us look at Song of Songs 1:16 ​“How hand­some you are, my lover ! Oh, how charm­ing ! And our bed is verdant”

    Let us look at Song of Songs 1:2 – 4 ​“Let him kiss me with the kiss­es of his mouth– for your love is more delight­ful than wine. Pleas­ing is the fra­grance of your per­fumes ; your name is like per­fume poured out. No won­der the maid­ens love you ! Take me away with you – let us hur­ry ! Let the king bring me into his cham­bers. We rejoice and delight in you ; we will praise your love (i.e., semen) more than wine. How right they are to adore you!” I don’t think this would be appro­pri­ate for a kid under 18 to read. Also, I don’t think it is appro­pri­ate to have such open sex­u­al­i­ty in a divine book anyway.

    His right arm sex­u­al­ly feel­ing her body : Let us look at Song of Songs 2:6 ​“His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.”

    Let us look at Song of Songs 3:4 ​“Scarce­ly had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my moth­er’s house, to the room of the one who con­ceived me.” So in oth­er words, she was not mar­ried to him, and when she found him, she took him back to her bed room to have ille­gal sex with him ? If she were mar­ried to him, she would­n’t take him to her ​“moth­er’s house”. She would take him to their house.

    Let us look at Song of Songs 3:10 ​“Its posts he made of sil­ver, its base of gold. Its seat was uphol­stered with pur­ple, its inte­ri­or lov­ing­ly inlaid by the daugh­ters of Jerusalem.” Why does the Bible teach young men to spend all of their time and effort to try to impress all of the girls in their town so they can pos­si­bly end in bed with them ?

    Reply

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