BOOK REVIEW

break’, he is of the opinion that these should be ‘taken metaphorically, not literally,’ for they refer to ‘the delicacy of women’s nature’ (pp. 31, 33). “The status of woman” is dealt with in the 4th chapter, and Khan stresses, in unequivocal terms, that in Islam ‘a woman enjoys the same status as that of a man”, as is evident from Quran 3: 195, You are members, one of another. ‘There is no difference between man and woman as regards status, rights, and blessings both in this world and in the Hereafter. Both are equal participants as far as the carrying out of the functions of daily living is concerned’ (p. 38). He further mentions that the ‘biological division of human beings into male and female is the result of purposeful planning on the part of the Creator. Man and woman in the eyes of Islam are not duplicates of one another, but the complements’ and the ‘Islamic precepts for men and women are based on their respective, natural constitutions’ (pp. 38–39). Similarly, in the explanation of Quran 4: 34, Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God has made some of them to excel others, Khan states that it is ‘an additional quality, and not a quality of superiority’ (p. 46), because the Arabic word Fadilah is ‘used in the scriptures to indicate the additional, masculine quality of protectiveness. For a household to be properly run, it should, of necessity, have a guardian. Guardianship is rightly entrusted to the family member who is best qualified to undertake this responsibility—namely, the husband, for protectiveness is a virtue which has been granted by nature in greater measure to men than to women. Far from mentioning absolute masculine superiority, the above-quoted verse only implies that man is the master in the home because of the additional attributes with which he has been endowed by nature’ (pp. 46–47). In the 5th chapter, the author highlights the contribution of some “Muslim Women” (pp. 49–78) in Islamic history, who have ‘played significant roles and, by their feats, have demonstrated not only the vast arena which Islam affords them for the performance of noble and heroic deeds but also the exaltedness of the position accorded to women in Islamic society’ (p. 49). Here he refers to Aishah who is presented as a ‘woman of notable intelligence, whose intellectual gifts were fittingly utilized in the service of Islam’; the example of Mary, the mother of Prophet Jesus, and Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, the Prophet’s first wife, who are presented as ‘Two Remarkable Women’ who ‘subordinated their own wills to that of the Almighty’ (pp. 49, 50–51). In this chapter, he also refers to the examples of women of his own family who ‘in