Sycophantic subordinates portend disaster

Sycophantic subordinates portend disaster

1992 7 July 11 Sycophantic subordinates portend disaster (78) Aishah reports the Prophet as saying: “When God ·desires the good of someone in a position of power, he assigns to him an honest counsellor, one who reminds him of God’s word when he forgets it, and who assists him when he remembers it. And when he desires the opposite for anyone, he gives him an evil counsellor, one who does not remind him when he forgets and does not assist him when he remembers.”

(Abu Da’ud, Sunan)

The Testimony of Women

1992 7 July 11 The Testimony of Women (211) The testimony of two women has been regarded as equal to that of one man. The phrase ‘so that if either of them forgets, the other will remember’, makes it quite obvious that this rule is based on natural ability, rather than on discrimination against the weaker sex. This command sets a value upon memory per se.

This divine injunction has come to be exposed to severe criticism in the last couple of centuries on the basis of the concept that man and women were counterparts rather than complements to one another.

How strange it is then for science to have reached the same conclusions and testify to the truth mentioned in the Qur’an. Women, in general, have poorer memories than men. The law of witness in Islam is no more than a reflection of this biological fact.

We quote here a part of a news-item which appeared in Times of India (18 January 1985).

“Men have a greater ability to memorize and process mathematical information than women, but females are better with words, a Soviet scientist says, reports UPI. “Men dominate mathematical subjects due to the peculiarities of their memory”, Dr. Vladimir Konovalov told the Tass news agency. “The stronger sex shows greater difficulties in processing and adapting language material.”