THE RIGHTS OF HUSBAND AND WIFE

6. The Rights of Husband and Wife ~ 137 ~ Looking after a home is like looking after a state, even if it is on a much smaller scale. It is certainly as important and respectable a task as that carried out by a head of state: a woman should, therefore, engage herself in domestic affairs with the same zeal and energy as a genuine head of state, devoting her full potential to making her home an ideal one. She should nurture and cherish it as a gardener does his garden. As one of the hadith puts it: ‘The woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and she is accountable for it.’119 Proficiency in domestic matters is woman’s greatest ornament. A woman so equipped is the perfect woman, one deserving of honor and success in the life hereafter. 117. Qur’an, 33:33. 118. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, 3/483. THE BEST WOMAN The Prophet Muhammad was once asked who of all women was the best. He replied, “One who makes her husband happy when he sees her, who obeys