Muatasim Jan
This attractive creation of Allah, the angel on the globe makes our life a wonderful experience altogether. Picturing life without a woman is quite hard. This angel jiggles the cradle with one hand the earth with the other hand. The fact that all the great people of the world are born from the womb of a woman and it is a woman from whom those great people have taken their primary teachings. And that is the cause we have always highlighted upon giving the due respect to women in their life.
The world has made extraordinary improvements but no country has attained gender equality. Gender equality is not only an essential human right but an essential foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and justifiable world. Women make half of society and they are accountable for nurturing, guidance and renovation of subsequent generations. It’s female who impregnates principles and faith into the souls of the nation. We need to respect women not because of gender but for their own individuality. Women are as important as men, without them the world would not exist, and there would be no permanency to the creation.
Prior to Islam, a woman was viewed by her parents as a threat to family respect and hence was being buried alive at infancy. As an adult, she was a mere sex object that could be bought, sold and inherited. From this position of dependency and legal incapacity, Islam raised women to a position of encouragement and prestige in the family as well as in society. We Muslims have a divine document that truly prides woman and treats her with justice. It’s a document that saved her from the low-spirited injustice of pre-Islamic darkness. This document of noble Quran honours woman as a human being, as a womanly being, as a daughter, wife, mother and no less as a full member of her own society.
Religion Islam is for all manhood and makes no preference for sex. Men and women have an occupation and a place in nature. Neither has a great value nor is one of greater position. It may be well claimed that women create half of the population, their influence surpasses their number since, women for the good or ill influence their husbands and children. Woman in Islam is not just a property, but a personality endowed with fundamental rights and protections and are honoured with a dignified figure in society.
Religion Islam praises motherhood as a divine privilege and status of honour. Highlighting the importance of mothers, beloved Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said; heaven lies under the feet of your mother.
As a wife, she is permitted to demand of her potential husband a suitable dowry that will be her own.
As a daughter, a woman has a right to just and unbiased treatment from her parents. In Islam, bringing up girls is highly valued. Prophet Mohamad (PBUH) guaranteed the one who brings up their girls properly that he would accompany him in the paradise.
Woman in Islam is given a suitable share in the property either as wife, mother, sister or daughter.
A Muslim woman has the right to choose her partner. Islamic law is very strict regarding the necessity of having the woman’s consent for her marriage. Marriage is not valid in Islam without the proper approval, acceptance and consent of the woman and it is forbidden by shari’ah that she be forced to marry someone she doesn’t like. Islam also elevated the social status of women by safeguarding that they are treated politely by their partners, sons and fathers. The holy Prophet (PBUH) has said;
“The best among you is he who is best in his treatment towards his wife (Abu-Daud)”.
Any form of emotive, physical, psychological misuse of a woman is prohibited in Islam and the improper treatment of woman is not an exception to this rule. Allah produced woman to give all kind of support to man. Almighty Allah gave Adam the gift of Lady Eva. Islam doesn’t accept the view that the formation of a woman was a second thought, it identifies the valid status of woman as man’s equal partner in the breeding of mankind.
Equivalence of man and woman covers all parts of human deeds. The woman is equal to man in pursuit of knowledge, she is permitted to freedom of speech, choice and association. Islam teaches that both men and women are totally equal in front of Allah. It repeatedly highlights this equality by addressing both men and women in its holy verses of the Quran.
The world needs to unite to escalate their courage to cross all the hurdles and make such marvellous improvement in all most all the spheres of life. Besides that, it is the most important thing to be given stress is the work that still needs to be done to fill that gap completely that had existed from ages
It’s the need of an hour to empower and support women universally who are mobilizing for an equal future. Small activities can have big impressions in making this vision a reality. This is what Islam teaches us.
Author is a research scholar of Botany at Jiwaji University, Gwalior and can be reached at muatasimbot@gmail.com.
