WOMEN IN EVERY FIELD

negative activities, and set their feet on the path of positivism. I thank all those who have been good enough to encourage me; but the real credit for my achievements must go by rights to that devoted Muslim woman called Zaibun Nisa. In this material world of ours, if there is anyone who may be fittingly called the initial founder of this modern, constructive movement, it is certainly my mother. She had never heard of “Women’s Lib,” being very far removed in space, time and culture from such activities, but it is worthy of note that she needed none of the philosophizing of the women’s liberationists to be able to perform what she regarded as her bounden duty in the eyes of God. Whereas my brothers and I set about our tasks in life in a reasoned, conscious manner, for her it was all a matter of instinct, prayer and faith. I know more than one of my own relatives who, having lost his mother at an early age, became destructive in outlook. We must never underestimate the role of woman as mother. It is perhaps her greatest role in human affairs. In Islamic history, there are numerous examples of the strong and decisive influence of mothers upon their families. A notable example is Maryam Makani, the mother of the Emperor Akbar. When Akbar was harsh in his treatment of Shaikh ‘Abdun Nabi, a great religious scholar of his time, she convinced him of the error he was making, and persuaded him to stop what amounted to persecution. I cannot but imagine that if I had been deprived of my mother in early childhood, or if I had the kind of mother who kept urging me to fight our “enemies,” my life would have taken an entirely different, and downward course. Undeniably it is the grace of God which has saved me from an ill-fated existence and caused me to become a medium of expression of the truth. But in this world of cause and effect, the human purveyor of God’s will was a lady, a mother, a housewife — one who was Islamic to her very fingertips. Notes 1. Qur’an, 4:19. 2. Qur’an, 2:228. 3. Qur’an, 4:7. 4. Qur’an, 30:21. 5. Qur’an, 40:40. 6. Qur’an, 4:124. 7. Qur’an, 16:97. 8. Qur’an, 9:71. 9. Qur’an, 3:195. 10. Kanz al-‘Ummal, 16/371. 11. Ibn Majah, Sunan, Kitab an-Nikah, 1/636. 12. Muslim, Sahih, Kitab ar-Rada‘, 2/1091.