WOMEN IN ISLAM

the thick of battle, so you must go down and kill him.’ But Hassan replied, ‘By God, you know I am not fit for such a task.’” “At this, she tied a cloth round her waist, picked up a stick, went down to the outside of the fort, and beat the man to death. “This done, I came back inside the fort and asked Hassan ibn Thabit to bring the things the Jew had on him, as I, a woman, did not want to touch him.” Hassan ibn Thabit replied, ‘Daughter of Abdul Muttalib, I do not need his possessions.’’(Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah wa an-Nihayah, Vol. 4, pp. 108-109) Women and Education A study of the life of the Prophet Muhammad tells us that education, whose actual goal from the Islamic point of view is the awakening of human awareness, is as essential for women as it is for men. There is a famous saying of the Prophet that acquiring knowledge is the duty of all Muslims. (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 229) Indeed, only men and women who acquire knowledge and are aware can conduct the practical matters of life smoothly. In the biographies of the narrators of Hadith literature, mention is made of the academic services of women, which shows that during the first era of Islam, there was a strong tendency among women to acquire knowledge. Imam Bukhari, who compiled the Hadith book Al-Jami