Is Islam unjust to women?

Question: Some people started believing in what the media of the enemies try to spread, which is an intellectual planned invasion. Like when they say: “ Islam is unjust to women, Islam has kept women at their homes and thus kept half of the society unemployed”. What is your answer and comment on this lie?.

Praise be to Allaah.

Answer: My comment on this is that these words can only come from one who is ignorant of sharee’ah, ignorant of Islam, ignorant of the rights of women, and is impressed by the attitudes and ways of the enemies of Allah who are far away from the truth. Islam – praise be to Allah – did not take away women’s rights, but Islam is the religion of wisdom which gives everyone his or her rightful status. Women’s work is in the home, and her staying at home is for the purpose of looking after her husband, raising her children, taking care the household affairs, and doing work that is suited to her. The man has his own work to do, which is usually earning a living and benefiting the ummah. When she stays at home to look after him and her children, and the interests of her children, that is the work that is suited to her. It is also a protection for her, as it keeps her far away from immorality which may occur if she goes out and works with men. It is well known that when women work with men that also adversely affects the man’s work, because the man has a natural inclination towards the woman. If he works with her he will be distracted by this woman, especially if she is young and beautiful. He will forget his work and if he does it, he will not do it properly. The one who studies the situation of the Muslims at the beginning of Islam will see how they protected their womenfolk and how they did their work in the best manner. End quote.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Uthaymeen.

Alfaaz wa Mafaaheem fi Meezaan al-Sharee’ah (p. 72-73).

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“I know exactly who you are…”

Abu Bakr said: “Let not any Muslim belittle another Muslim, for the lowest of the Muslims is great in the Sight of Allah.”

Wahb (bin al-Munabbih) said: “When Allah Created the Garden of Eden, He looked to it and said: “You are forbidden for every arrogant person!”“

al-Ahnaf bin Qays used to sit with Mus’ab bin az-Zubayr on his sleeping mat and talk. One day, he came to find Mus’ab extending his feet forward, so, he pushed his legs aside to make room for himself to sit. When he saw the signs of displeasure on Mus’ab’s face from this, he said: “How strange is the son of Adam! He is arrogant while he was originated from an organ that transports urine!”

al-Hasan (al-Basri) said: “I wonder at the son of Adam! He uses his hand to wash himself from his waste once or twice a day, yet he seeks to compete with the All-Mighty?”

Muhammad bin al-Husayn bin ‘Ali said: “The heart of a person is never afflicted with the slightest bit of arrogance except that his intelligence and sanity is decreased because of that in accordance with how much of that arrogance has entered his heart.”

Sulayman was asked about a bad deed that cannot be wiped away with a good dead, so he replied: “Arrogance.”

‘Umar bin ‘Abd al-’Aziz went for Hajj before he became the khalifah, and Tawus saw him walking with a slight swing in his walk that he thought looked boastful. So, he went up to ‘Umar and nudged him in his side, saying to him: “Is this the walk of one whose stomach carries waste?”

 

Muhammad bin Wasi’ saw his son acting boastful, so, he called him over and said: “Do you know who you are? As for your mother, then I purchased her for a mere one hundred dirhams. As for your father, then may Allah not increase his likes amongst the Muslims!”

Mutraf bin ‘Abdullah saw al-Muhallab walking in a new overcoat he had bought, looking pleased with himself. So, he said to him: “O Abu ‘Abdullah! This is a type of walking that is hated by Allah and His Messenger!” So, al-Muhallab said to him: “Do you have any idea who I am?” So, Mutraf replied: “I know exactly who you are: your beginning is in the form of a tiny clot of sperm and egg, and your end is in the form of a rotten corpse!” So, al-Muhallab abandoned that type of walking from then on.

['Ihya' 'Ulum ad-Din'; 3/400-402]

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Donot be proud of your knowledge

By: Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi

 

If you are proud of your knowledge, you should know that it is no credit to you, it is a pure gift that Allah has granted you. Do not receive it in a way that would anger the Almighty because He might wipe it from you by subjecting you to an illness which would make you forget all that you have learned and stored in your memory. I have been told that this happened to ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Tarif [d.400 AH, 1009 CE], who was a scholar, intelligent, moderate, exact in his researches, who had been allotted by fate such a prodigious memory that virtually nothing reached his ears that had to be said to him twice. Now he undertook a journey by ship and experienced such a terrible storm at sea that he lost the memory of most of what he had learnt and suffered considerable upset to his mind. He never recovered his full intelligence. I myself have been struck by illness. When I got up from it I had forgotten all my knowledge except for a few ideas of little value. I did not recover it until several years later.

Source: Al-Akhlâq wa’l-Siyar (Morals and Behaviour) By Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi

A sermon by Uthman "Prepare for death"

It is narrated that ‘Uthmân b. Áffân – Allâh be pleased with him – said in a sermon:

Son of Adam! Know that the angel of death who has been assigned to you has not ceased to pass you and move on to others, ever since you have been in this world. But it is as if he is about to pass someone else and move on to target you, so be careful and prepare for him (by correcting your deeds). And do not forget him, for he does not forget you. And know o son of Adam, if you are heedless about yourself and do not prepare, no one else will prepare for you. You must meet Allah the Mighty and Majestic, so take for yourself and do not leave it to someone else. Peace be on you.

Abû Bakr Al-Daynûrî, Al-Mujâlasah wa Jawâhir Al-Ílm 2: 73, 74.

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Warning to those who loose hope in the Mercy of Allah

Narrated Abu Huraira r.a: I heard Allah's Messenger s.a.w saying: There were two fraternal persons among the Children of Israel. One of them was engrossed in committing sins while the other was devoted to worship. The devotee used to see his fellow committing sin and advise him: Desist from doing so. One day when he found his fellow committing sin. He said to him: Avoid it. His fellow said: Leave me alone. Have you been sent out as a vigilant on me. The devotee said: By Allah, He will neither forgive you nor admit you to Paradise. When they died, they were gathered before the Lord of worlds. Allah asked the devotee: Were you assured of knowing Me or were you having power over what was in My Hands? Then He said to the sinner: Go and enter Paradise by My Mercy; and ordered the angels about the devotee: Lead him to hell.

(This Hadith is sound and reported by Abu Da'ud in his Sunan)

After narrating the Hadith, Abu Huraira commented: By Him in Whose Hand my soul is: One word spoken by the devotee ruined his good deeds in the world as well as in the Hereafter.

The torture of Bilal

Umayyah used to tie a rope around the neck of Bilal and would give this to the children to drag him and pull him around the mountains of Makkah, once he learnt about Bilal’s conversion.

It was often tied very tightly leaving blood stained marks. Umayyah used to put hot oil around the site of bleeding and would tie the rope even tighter to increase the suffering. He would also accompany the children and use a stick to hit Bilal as he worked. Each day he would put Bilal in the middle of the desert at the height of the sun without food or water and he ordered others to place a large rock on Bilal’s chest to prevent him from breathing easily. He carried on like this, remonstrating with Bilal to denounce Muhammad (saw) and would say, “I will never stop torturing you, until either you die or you declare Kufr in Muhammad (saw) and you return back to worshipping the Lat and Uzzah.”

 Bilal could not reply due to the pressure of the weight of rock on his chest. He could only say, “Ahadun Ahad”, “The One! The One!” This carried on until Muhammad (saw) heard about Bilal’s situation and requested Abu Bakr (ra) to release Bilal (ra) from his slavemaster, Umayyah Ibn Khallaf. Perhaps Umayyah would want some money for Bilal and would eventually free him. After eleven days of torture, Abu Bakr (ra) succeeded in convincing Umayyah to sell Bilal (ra) for seven Uwaaq of silver. In their eyes Bilal (ra) was now Abu Bakr’s slave. However, Abu Bakr freed him at once from the shackles of slavery. Bilal, reminding the people of Abu Bakr’s nobility, would say “I was the slave of Abu Bakr for a part of the day when he took me from Umayyah, fed me and washed me. Then he said to me, ‘O Bilal, you are not my slave. You never were my slave. (Go) You are now free.’”

Source:  The Road to Jannah The Struggle of Muhammad (saw) and the Sahabah (as) By Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad

An emotional sermon by Ali ibn Abi Talib

Amir al-Mu'mineen 'Ali (RadiyAllah anhu) paid attention to making use of different occasions to exhort and remind the people; he did not limit it to Friday sermons only. When he walked with the funeral procession and heard the voices of the bereaved family raised in weeping as the body was placed in the niche in the grave, he would say:

"Why are you weeping? By Allah, if they could see what your deceased one is seeing, they would be distracted from their deceased one by what they see. Death will come back again and again, until none of them is left. So fear Allah, 0 slaves of Allah, and strive hard in righteous deeds. Hasten to do good deeds before death, the destroyer of pleasures, comes. The pleasures of this world will not last, and you cannot feel secure against the calamities of this world, for it is fleeting and deceitful and cannot be relied on. Learn the lessons, 0 slaves of Allah, and heed the exhortation, for soon you will die and will be buried. Soon the Trumpet will be blown, and the occupants of the graves will be raised and driven to the arena of gathering for the Reckoning. Everything is under the control of the Almighty. Every person will have an angel to drive him and an angel to bear witness to his deeds.

“And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord [Allah], when He will come to judge among men, and the Book will he placed [open], and the Prophets and the witnesses will be brought forward, and it will be judged between them with truth, and they will not be wronged.) (Qur'an 39: 69) "

Source: Ali ibn Abi Talib by Dr. Ali M. Sallabi / Translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab