Woman in Islamic Shariah

5. Muslim women ~ 74 ~ 62. At-Tirmidhi, Sahih, Abwab al-Manaqib, 13/257. 63. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984), 1/167. TWO REMARKABLE WOMEN When the Judaic era was drawing to a close, a woman had to be singled out who would in every way be fit to become the mother of one so miraculous in nature as the Prophet Jesus, upon whom be peace. God had ordained that the final prophet of the Jewish people was to be born without a father: the character of his mother had, therefore, to be one of irreproachable innocence and chastity. Mary, who subsequently became known as the Virgin Mary, was found to have lived her life according to this exacting standard, and, by her extraordinary chastity, had proved herself fit to be chosen as the mother of Jesus. In one of the most authentic collections of the hadith by Bukhari, the Prophet is recorded as saying, “The best woman out of all of them (the Jewish people) was Mary (mother of Jesus), the daughter of ‘Imran, and the best woman out of all of my own people was Khadijah bint Khuwaylid.”64 (This saying was