WOMEN IN ISLAM

In fact, Islam grants even more respect to women than to men. According to a Hadith, a man once came to the Prophet and asked him who rightfully deserved the best treatment from him. “Your mother” ,said the Prophet. “Who next?”, asked the man. “Your mother.” “Who comes next?”, the man asked again. The Prophet again replied, “your mother.” “Who after that?”, insisted the man. “Your father”, said the Prophet. Another example concerns Hajira, Prophet Abraham’s wife. Hajj, one of the forms of worship in Islam, entails the performance of Saiee, as one of the main rites of the Hajj. This is accomplished by running back and forth seven times between Safa and Marwah, two hillocks near the Kabah. This running, enjoined upon every pilgrim, be they rich or poor, literate or illiterate, king or commoner, is an imitation of the desperate quest of Hajira, Prophet Abraham’s wife, for water to quench the thirst of her crying infant four thousand years ago. The performance of this rite is a lesson in struggling for the cause of God. It is of the utmost significance that this was an act performed by a woman. Perhaps there could be no better demonstration of a woman’s greatness than God’s command to all men, literally to follow in her footsteps. We can see that the principle applied by the expression ‘ladies first’ in modern times had already been established in Islam at the very outset. If nature has decreed that man and woman should have different attributes and functions, it is so that, rather than duplicate each other, they should complement each other. And so long as they interact in life complimentarily, the dictates of both nature and society are satisfactorily fulfilled.