In the previous articles, it may be remarked, enough has been said
to extricate women doom the centuries old dehumaninsing process of her human statues. But
I am afraid enough had not been said yet. With reference to certain verses in the Quran,
doubts are heaped upon people all the time. This mischievous whispering campaign has the
sanctified backing of our forefathers who generation after generation continues to believe
that women are inferior to men, and not fit to be included in the category o f human
species. However much on argues is against such irrational and inhuman beliefs there is
always something their sleeves to demoralize anyone who stands up in defense of women.
Some of the
fundamental and major issues have already been elucidated, but other have remained
untouched because they did not come under the preview of the two previous articles in the
interest of relevancy. I intent to take them up here on by one and attempt to remove the
doubts in the light of those very Quranic verses which are distorted to create the doubts.
1. From surah 2, verse 228, a sentence
is often quoted to prove that men are “Superior” to women. The word “Superior”
is not only the wrong world for its Arabic equivalent, but pulled out of its context.
The context is the issue of divorce.
The Quran discuses it in detail and in several verses. While explaining its procedure, it
emphasis that the right and duties of husbands and wives are equal. Then it refers to the
different roles of men and women regarding he biological factor of procreation. Here men
are in an “advantageous position”, so much so, that while
women, after divorce, have to wait for about for moths to remarry, men do not have to
wait. The reason is simple enough. In four moths time, it will be confirmed as to whether
the woman is on the family way or not. If she is pregnant, the fatherhood of the unborn
child will be established and as such the child will be entitled to all those rights which
are legally his. His father will have to be responsible for his maintenance, and the child
will have the right to inherit his share of what the father leaves behind. In other words
the rights and duties of the father and son towards watch other are recognized.
The question
that I would like to ask is “ Can this “Advantageous position” of the main
marrying immediately after divorce, while the woman has to wait for four moths, be the
proof of mans “superiority” over women? Let the readers decide for themselves.
2. in surah 4, verse 34, another Quranic
concept has been tampered with. It is quoted to prove that men are master and guardians of
women, and that they can punish and beat them according to their own discretion. On the
contrary, the first part of the verse deals with the duties and obligation of a man as
man, duties and obligations of which women are absolved. Actually is a study in the
division of labor. Women, because of their unique roles in the biological function o f
reproduction, aware incapacitated for a considerable period hence the Quran states that it
is man duty to maintain the family. He has to be the guarantee for the provisions of the
basic needs of every individual in the family. An woman has no such obligation. And this
is as t should be considering the roles assigned to her by the Nature’s Law of
Procreation. This explanation is indeed a dark cry from the conventional understanding of
the above mentioned verse. Far from being the ”master” the man is bound down but a heavy responsibility of a
bread-winner. This is to enable he woman to perform her responsibility of bringing up a
new generation.
It must be made
clear, however, that this does not imply that women are absolutely debarred from doing
anything beyond being used as a mechanism for the reproduction of human babies. She is
capable and eligible to work in other fields, according to her talents and aptitudes, if
she can and is she wants to. In surah 4, verse 32, the Quran takes it for granted that as
individuals, “to men belong what they have earned, and to women belong what they have
earned”.
This issue of
women earning has not even been disputed, it has been referred to in the verse, just
quoted, as something inevitable. The innate talents and interests of both men and women
cannot be ignored, their creative urges must seek expression and manifestation. This is
the characteristic of the SELF which men and women equally possess as human beings, and
which no other object in this universe possesses.
But—while
the man supports the family, the woman has no such responsibility. This is the meaning of
surah 4, verse 34, so horribly mutilated in its conventional sense.
As for
punishment and beating, no individual has the right to inflict punishment on another. This
is the jurisdiction of the Court. The Quran has suggested corporal punishment for several
crimes as a last resort, that is, if no other method has its effect. Sometimes, corporal
punishment is included in the realm of psychological treatment itself. If women go wrong
in spite of everything, it is for the court to decide. Husbands do not have the right to
take the law into their own hands. And in any case, this verse deals with right and duties
of men and women in general, and not husband and wife relationship.
3. another excuse to declare their
superiority over women Verse 11 in Surah 4 is referred to. This verse while dealing with
the subject of inheritance of property, states ; “ to the male equivalent of the
portion of two females”. In the context of the above discussion on the maintenance of
the family, this sentence shows the privileged position of the woman rather than her
inferiority. She has absolutely no responsibility as regards the fulfillment of the basic
needs of the family. She is freed of all such financial involvements. Yet, she is entitled
to inherit and share her fathers property. This is indeed a unique status that aw woman
enjoys “ she has a right without its corresponding duty.
However, if the daughter is helpless
and in deed of money for some reason or the other, then it is the duty of the father to write his will and, may be,
bequeath all or major share of his property to her as circumstances demand. The son may
not inherit anything if his circumstances are happier. This is the reason why the Quran
lays such stress on the wiring of the will in good time. Of course, in normal state of
affairs, the ordinary law of inheritance prevails.
4. in matters of business transactions,
the Quran discusses the necessity of putting everything in writing in the presence of
witnesses. Now, it is the issue of “witnesses” in surah 2, verse 282, that has
poisoned the atmosphere
against the woman’s claim to stand at par with men. The relevant sentence is as
follows:
“And call to witness, from among
your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not at hand then a man and two women as such as
ye approve as witnesses, so that if one hearreth through forgetfulness the other will
remember”.
How can a
woman be equal to man, it is argues, if one woman cannot be as trustworthy as one man? She
must be mentally inferior or else why should one mans ability be equivalent to two women?
Apparently, this
argument sounds logical, but this is not what the Quran is aiming at. The significant
phrase in this sentence is “erreth through forgetfulness”. It points its finger
to a very unhappy state of affairs for which the society should hang down its head in
shame. It indicated a particular the of mind-nervous, lack of confidence, inexperienced,
alien to public duties and activated of a free alert citizen. It laments that the women
are bred in such a way that they cannot live and thin beyond outward show of glamorous
ornaments and empty and meaningless finery and actualize their genuine latent
potentialities as human beings, so they vainly try to fill in the vacuum with objects that
have no real worth. The serious things of life, if ever they are confronted with one,
makes them nervous and loose their balance, so much so, they “they cannot even plead
their own cause”, leave alone helping and defending other. Even if her cause is just,
she has been made incapable of putting forward her arguments, and instead she gets
confused and bursts into tears. This is what the man-dominated society has done it its
women folk.
Thos was true
not only of the Arab women at the advent of Islam but is true even today in Pakistan in
majority of the cases—a state of affairs that is well summarized in the phrase ,
“ the bungled women”. Ornaments are today a symbol of weak, helpless and empty
life. Men are described as “ bungled women” if they manifest such feminine
traits.
The Quran was
referring to such women bred in the unnatural way of life, when it said that two women
should represent one man as witness. If they are two, the can help and support each other
in case they get confused and forget. In other words the second woman is present only to
assist the first. Nowhere does it say that in intelligence two women are equal to one man.
In fact if women are inherently unintelligent then even hundred women will not be equal to
one man.
But this shall
not be the case when the Quranic Social Order is established. It will change the whole
outlook of men and women, and a new generation of women will emerge. Women will then me
‘created as a new creation’. They will have intellectual and emotional harmony
with men ; they will be eloquent and expressive in speech, capable of speaking for
themselves and others ‘ the y will be self-confident and independent. Then as witness
they will be equal to men. The original injunction there fore fails to apply to this
“new creation”.
5. another necessary controversy over
the statues of women ahs been let loose by perverting an innocent slier of tithe and
cultivation. Quran has used this simile on many and varied themes to get its point across.
For example, to explain the time-gap between a human action and it s results it is
comparing with the time-gap between seed and sowing and harvesting. This simile, in
another form, is used the Quran to distinguish sec instinct of a human being from that of
a the animal. An animal and no choice. Its sexy instinct is determined by the mating
season. A human being, on the other hand, has to use his free will, “sowing the see”.
He is not instinctively determined or controlled. He can plan it, while and woman cannot.
This profound difference is explained in surah 2, verse 223. it is a thousand pity that
the profundity of this verse is so distorted as to reduce woman hood to a passive object
to mans ugly lust and no more.
Such
are the elevating concepts of the Quran. people who have been sincerely and objectively
thinking over these doubts and uncertainties created by man himself will soon realize that
is it they themselves who have been cheated of future happiness in life.
In the end I can
do no better than reproduce Surah 33, Verse 35, in which the Quran addresses men and women
on equal basis
“if men have the potentiality to
develop their personality by harmonizing themselves with the Laws of Allah, then women
also have a similar potentiality : if men can be members of a movement that aims at world
peace according to the inviolable Laws of Allah, then women also can participate in it by
becoming its member: if men can restrain their capabilities so as to develop them within
the Laws of Allah, so can women ; if men have the in exhaustive capacity; if men can
sacrifice loser values for higher values, so can women ; if men can exercise control and
do not violate the limitations set on them, so can women; if men can keep their sexual
urges within the desired mimes, so can women ; if men can understand the Laws of Allah and
focus their activities in life on them, so can women. Now then, if both men and women have
equal capacities and potentialities, their results should also be the same for both of
them. Hence the Quranic Social Order both will enjoy protection and security, and all such
other benefits and joy that shall accrue from this order”.
So Do my readers
still have any doubts?