WOMEN IN ISLAM

complete sincerity. Such actions alone cannot fulfil the guardians’ responsibility without establishing a spiritual environment at home. I want to give an example in this regard. In August 1996, I travelled to America and attended a gathering at Mountain Valley Mosque in New Jersey. The event primarily involved women, and the focus of the speech was on the Islamic upbringing of children in American society. My message to them was that imparting Islamic upbringing to the next generation requires more than merely appointing a religious scholar to teach religious studies every evening or relying on distributing religious messages in the names of one’s children or exposing them to cultural practices. The solution lies in Islamizing your home. If you genuinely want to instil Islamic values in your children, make religion the centre of conversations at home, prioritizing it over worldly matters. Pivotal in this is the role of the mother. HOME-SCHOOLING: A HUB OF INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES “A woman once approached Prophet Muhammad and asked, ‘O Messenger of God, men seem to have more opportunities to earn rewards in the Hereafter, especially through jihad. What about us women?’ The Prophet responded, ‘Convey this to the women you meet: Living with your husband righteously and obediently is equivalent to all the virtuous deeds performed by men, including the one you mentioned.’” (Musnad Al-Bazzar, Hadith No. 5209)