WOMEN’S POSITION

5. Muslim women ~ 106 ~ behest, long before there was any such city as Mecca. (God’s aim in leading Abraham and his wife and child to this barren, inhospitable land was to bring into being a live community which, free of all superstitions and all other corruptions of civilization, would play a revolutionary role led by the last Prophet.) The performance of this rite is a lesson in struggling for the cause of God. It is of the utmost significance that, this was an act first performed by a woman. Perhaps there could be no better demonstration of a woman’s greatness than God’s command to men, literally to follow in her footsteps. IN THE LIGHT OF EXPERIENCE The position of women in Islam, as expounded so far in the pages of this book, is a matter neither of conjecture, abstract theory nor of ancient history. Nor is it purely a concept gleaned from readings of the Qur’an, the Hadith and the history of Islam. It is a matter of actual fact, to which I myself am a witness. I give the example of the women of my own family who, in times of dire distress, were totally Islamic in