The Status of Women in Islam.

Claim:

“It is a very weak precaution to form separate groups for men and women or to put silk curtains between them in order to protect the honesty of women. In Muslim countries, through our sharp imagination we think a Venus of every woman under her coloured silk dress, and, by deriving meanings from these wonderful statues, we fill the empty parts of our heart with them. Among the western psychologists, there are many who admire the imaginative pleasures in the veiling of the east as well as its sunny, flowery horizons.

“It is for certain that veiling increases the beauty of woman. The reason is that, while we see the subtleties and perspectives of everything close to us, distance makes these subtleties and perspectives seem decorated to us. As our eyes do not clearly see from the distance the things which they are used to seeing closely, our imagination completes the beauty of the things which we suppose to be beautiful. Things that are ours and which we do not esteem today will be valuable when we lose them. Now, when distance and curtains come between something and us, our emotions and sorrows arise proportional to our desire for that thing. When we see a veiled woman outside, our imagination wakes up. We imagine what is in our mind to exist under the veil. In order to arrange our social life, we should give the woman the place she deserves. Islam commands the woman to veil herself. But it does not explain how she will be veiled, nor does it prohibit to give the woman the rights which exist in her nature. If the purpose of veiling is to keep the generation pure and chaste and to protect it from adultery and evils, we could provide for it in some other way. For example, we should control ourselves, by training our minds and intellects, which Allâhu ta’âlâ has endowed on human beings. Thus, we should clean and correct the nafs in such a manner that it should desire goodness instead of running after its bestial desires. A highly learned, educated girl whose reason and thought function can obtain the spiritual strength to protect her honesty through her reason and thought even if she could not find it in the religion. When she gets used to being with boys in her early ages, it will not do her harm when she becomes an adult. It is never harmful for a girl, who has reason and thought enough to understand what chastity and honesty are, to go out unvelied as she wants, to go where she wants. Yet this change has to be made in the process of time. We cannot say to Muslim women, ‘Come on, throw your veils away and act as you wish.’ We should act very shrewdly. We see that we have not been able to establish the constitutional government well. Its consequence has been very dismal. Let the woman dress stylishly and gracefully for the time being to satisfy the sense in her creation. Later on, her unveiling will gradually replace. The government should put the dressing of the woman in an order for the time being. Beautifully dressed as she may be, let her cover the parts tempting sexual desires and accept the headgear and mantle instead of veil. Later on the process will follow its natural course. Moreover, women are rightful to go about, to know the pleasures and life. For example, let it be her right to eat in restaurants, to go about, to go to movies and theatres. Yet, before doing these, men should be prohibited through a law to assault them.”

Answer:

If attention is paid to the religion reformer’s words, it will strike the eye that they are the plans, programs which freemasons prepared centuries ago and have had their men say in every century. These were said and written by the religion reformers in the time of the Union Party. When they brought freemason Reshid Pasha to the fore, they had him say the same things. When they made the ignorant and ignoble members of the Party of Union to seize power by providing weaponry and substantial aid for them, they, on the one hand, had religion reformers say these and, on the other hand, they passed new laws. They began attacking Islam. I say, “the ignoble members of the Party of Union,” because the majority of these cruel people, who declared wars stupidly, caused bloodshed of hundreds of thousands of Muslims and killed innumerable innocent people in dungeons and on gallows, were ignoble. But if Muslims learn their religion well and teach it to youngsters, the plans of the enemies of Islam will fall down on their own heads. Allâhu ta’âlâ declared in the eighth âyat of the sûrat al-Isrâ, “When Islam comes, polytheism and unbelief cannot survive.” This âyat shows that if Muslims work depending on reason and on Islam, unbelievers cannot harm them. Those who attack Islam will die away.

This reformer writes many other important and dismal facts; in fact, it is a masonic tactic to write an entire book of true, sweet and creamy facts among which they cunningly plant a single line of their venomous ideas in order to poison the younger generations and mislead the people. Another technique of these enemies of Islam apply for deceiving Muslims is to coat their poisons with sugar and have Muslims swallow them like pills.

The Muslim woman veils herself not only for protecting her honesty but also to draw the spiritual border distinguishing woman and man from each other. Owing to veiling, man behaves formally and respectfully even towards a woman of his family in the street. Veiling is the curtain of modesty put between man and woman. If a veiled woman is imagined to be more beautiful in a man’s fancy, this will increase, rather than decrease, her honour.

He says that, rather than aesthetic beauty, social use should be looked for in a woman and she should be given a place in social life. This is not right because a woman does not give up adorning herself in the present social place of hers, either.

It is necessary to train the nafs in order not to be taken in by the bestial emotions. Yet it is never correct to leave this job to self-control and to give up veiling. It is often seen in newspapers that, among the people who receive education and training, there are many who cannot control themselves. Self-control is something easy to talk about but difficult to exercise. It is declared in the sûrat Yûsuf that even a great prophet as Yûsuf (’alaihi ’s-salâm) said, “I do not say my nafs does not want evil things.” What is left for others to say? The degree of self-control is different in everybody. One even cannot understand this by himself. Especially according to the person who has received the lesson of honesty and chastity not from the religion but from his own reason only, the value of honesty does not go further than the thought of pretending to be honest. No matter how much the value of honesty is appreciated, no matter how much reasonable his intellect and thought are, reason may be unsuccessful against the nafs that exists in man’s creation and can deceive anybody. For this reason, it is necessary yet at the beginning not to let the nafs move and to close the ways tempting it. The veiling of women is a measure closing these ways most decisively and most easily.

It is not correct, either, to think of co-education to form the familiarity between girls and boys which will in future help them to protect their chastity and honesty. If the youngsters get used to mixed life, it will cause the danger of regarding its evil consequences most normal. Women’s exposing themselves to men is a natural state indicating natural attraction between man and woman. Any man, let alone Muslim, will not believe in the mendacious, silly words denying this reality. In beaches, where women exhibit their arms, shoulders, necks and legs to men and where they divert together, do men no longer look at them? Women, seeing that exposing their arms, necks and legs was being natural, began to expose their breasts, back and shoulders and to use miniskirts. This piecemeal indulgence, with its destination untold, is symptomatic of a forceful instinct innate in women. İn other words, as women feel that exposing certain parts of their body is being something observed with indifference, they begin to expose their other parts as well. In process of time their former immodesty turns into a degree of modesty looked on as unnaturally conventional. This coactive spreading of the gradual slackening in the measures of dressing among women is evidently for reasons other than the professed purposes such as physical convenience and airing. Any degree of unveiling, whether suddenly or slowly, may be a step taken towards moral corruption. Even this immodesty, with which men partly satisfy voyeuristic desires with women, is dissipation itself. The examples showing that women’s exhibiting themselves to men and living in mixed societies give way to fornication, immorality, home ruining, family disasters and deaths, are encountered frequently.

Islam does not say, “Do not talk with women or girls! Do not amuse yourselves with them! Live without women like priests.” Islam says, “Do not seduce your neighbor’s wife or daughter; do not tear their modesty veils; do not ruin homes; marry the girl you like; amuse yourself with her freely, comfortably and as you wish.” In order to make a girl happy, it commands to work, earn and marry early when young.

It is seen with regret that women’s dancing with other men, or being exchanged as partners in balls, does not bring her to ease, nor encourage her to work but ruins her home.

The balls, which have arisen against the man-woman relations’ remaining only between wife and husband and done in order to embody mixed and unlimited relations, began to take the place of the assemblies of nikâh in Islam, with the difference that Muslims’ nikâh announces that a certain man and a certain woman come together, while in the society balls, many men and many women, married or unmarried, are announced to approach one another at random. Islam permits a man and a woman’s coming together only after (the Islamically prescribed marriage contract called) Nikâh.

If the woman, like in society life, is given the freedom of living with other men, her male relatives and husband will be jealous and suffer the pangs of conscience, and it gives way for the husband to amuse himself with innumerable other women. Who on earth does not know or understand this? Though the so-called primitive and reactionary men desire this pleasure very well, the pangs of conscience brake and stop them. Loose-willed men who could not stand against the desires of their nafs have broken this brake of the conscience under the pretext of being civilized and advanced and dived into the so-called social life, which is very sweet to them. Those who run after their sensual desires spread this life quickly. Some people consider this life “advancement”, while others evaluate it as “following nature”. However, Islam points out the way of living which is most suitable with nature. Islam, though the most natural religion, departs from nature on occasions when human nature departs from virtue. It sides with virtue. Whether it is called a civil right or a return to nature, and no matter how much it is praised, the most evident cause of this current and the power which drags it along are lust and pleasure. If society men did not think of their own mutual pleasures but intended to give women rights and freedom instead, they would not want to exchange their wives. It must be for this reason that some male feminists, when they understand that they cannot take advantage of someone’s wife or daughter, do not allow their own wives and daughters not only to talk to him but also to show themselves to him. It can be understood very well that those who offer their wives and daughters to other men at balls and night clubs are the ones who sacrifice them for better posts. If attention is paid to those men who want women to be given rights and freedom more than women want, they are the people who seek for diving into the odorous, soft gatherings of women who swarm in the halls and overflow into the streets and for amusing themselves easily with others’ wives. These wretched people cannot think that other men also will freely attack their wives, daughters and sisters. Or, being in ecstacy with these pleasures and flavours, they forget about this excruciating harm, or they do not hesitate to sacrifice them for their amusements and lusts.

In society life, those men who gain much satisfaction and little loss are the ones who do not have young women among their relatives beautiful enough to be looked at. Among the main reasons why men want women to be given freedom are such deceitful and egoistic reasons. There may be some people to say that we write excessively on this subject. But this is the home truth of the matter; for this idea has not come to women brought up in Muslim countries out of admiring men’s progress in knowledge and science. Such a desire for freedom has not been seen in the women of honest men who have high posts in knowledge and science. If men had not fallen into the life of amusement and dissipation, there would not have been women who want this kind of freedom. Nor would there have been men who would have sided with and advocated such women.

Those men who want women to be given such a freedom say, “We do not ask for something illegitimate.” When they are asked what legitimate things they want, they cannot answer. They dismiss it by saying, “We will rescue women from slavery.” It is declared in the 33rd âyat of the sûrat an-Nisâ, “Men are the educators, employers of women. Allâhu ta’âlâ has created men superior to women.” They will rescue women from their place pointed out in this âyat! What on earth is legitimate in this? There are many reasons and uses why Islam holds men superior to women. This superiority is a must, a necessity for the orderliness of family life. Nor does the word, “Man and woman should have equal rights in the family life. Life is in common,” have any value. It is declared in the 22nd âyat of the sûrat al-Anbiyâ’, “If there were another god besides Allâhu ta’âlâ, the Universe would get out of order and be in utter disorder.”According to those who base their thought on the strong logic in this âyat, every member of the family should have a separate right, value, honour and degree, and a head among the family is necessary. Even in a republican government, in which the people are said to be given all rights, there is a head of the State. Then, as in government administration, the final word has to be ended up by one person in every assembly and in the family, which is also an assembly.

In order to prove that their statements are right and legitimate, some reformers support their words by saying, “We will give women independence in knowledge and science.” Since by independence or liberty they mean, “We will rescue women from men’s control,” they intend to say, “We will change the âyat,” and they call it “slavery” for women to be under men’s control and not to be able to go where they want without men’s permission. While Anatolian women, who are crushed under employment, do not want to escape slavery, the free women of Istanbul do! They say, “Owing to the freedom of knowledge and arts, women should work like men and thus escape depending on men for their living.” Do men twit their women with the bread they bring home that they will rescue women from this parasitic, derogatory life? On the contrary, modern women twit their men with the work they do indoors. They even try to load men with housework. When attentively observed, Muslim men are in a more pitiful situation than their women are, for the burden of earning money, finding and bringing the home’s needs are on men’s shoulders. To attempt to load women also with this burden by saying, “Life is in common,” will mean for men to shake women off their protection by saying, “Look after yourselves,” which is thoroughly against women.

If the statement, “Life is in common,” means, as the religion reformers defend it, for women to help with the burden of earning, with which men are loaded, they might as well render this help inside the house. Many of the society families have servants in their houses. Like men, women also have their dresses made by tailors. What is more surprising is that, in the houses of the society women, cooking, looking after the children and almost all the housework are done by servants. Thus, the woman’s own earnings cannot even afford the expenses of her own ornaments, cosmetics, perfumes and hair-dresser’s and the servant’s wages. The burden of subsistence still remains on the man’s shoulders.

It is seen everywhere in what a miserable and pitiable situation the women who share the burden of subsistence are if they are too ugly to be looked at on the face. The beauty of the girls who rely on their beauty and who try to be pretty decreases as they get older, and especilly the skin of those women who use powder, lip-stick and rouge become uglier being worn away by friction day by day. When they do not use rouge, their faces become wrinkled, ugly like tripe. Therefore, when they get up every morning, they have to make their toilet and make up for hours in front of the mirror. On a winter morning, as I was riding the tramcar in the twilight, I saw a dustwoman sweep the snow on the ground. I was grieved for her. I wished that this Muslim granny had, instead of having attained such a freedom, been lying down in her warm room or reading or preparing her children’s needs. Islam has loaded all the needs of the woman to her husband. If she is without a husband, her closest relative is to supply her needs. If she is without anybody, Bait al-mâl, that is, the government treasury, is to support her. Every need of the woman should come to her. We have heard very often about women’s laments, complaints about their own lives.

POLYGAMY in ISLAM

Religion reformers, who cannot deny the miserable, dismal position of ugly working women, attempt to defend this also and say that if pretty women are put at the sales departments, there may be customers who would more probably buy their beauty instead of the goods for sale, and thus the sales may decrease. Let alone the misery of ugly women who, having attained their freedom, work among men and the exhaustedness of those who strive hard before the mirror to make themselves pretty every morning, the real meaning of this freedom and independence, which the remainder are supposed to have or, rather, are defended to have by those men who are more loyal to the king than the king is to himself, is to depart women from their virtues and natural tendencies, such as forming a family, bringing up children, arranging a home, and to make them join the hard, troublesome life of men, to get rid of the need of marrying and to become like single men or immoral men who are not faithful to their wives. This disorderly life, which has demolished the family life, has first commenced in those men who imitate Europeans, and later women also have been dragged down to this ditch. Where is the helpless young generation being dragged? Showing respect and politeness towards women, which has become a custom in society life, is sheer ostentation and done in order to diminish the miserableness and pitiable condition of women. In Europe today, there is nothing cheaper than women, married or unmarried. Society women who have gone far away from Islam are dragging on to this condition, too. It is obvious how numerous the unmarried couples are. The reason why voluptuous thought is dominant in oriental poetry is because life of fornication and dissipation has been very little in the east. An oriental poet wants to write about the kiss which his sweetheart has promised him, but which is something never seen, in order to make his lyric poem more vivid. On the other hand, in Europe this is done in the street, but no one takes notice. Widows are cheaper. Today, in Europe and in Muslim countries where society life and freedom of women have been spread, men get married easily. As for women, it is difficult for them to find a husband. Men are reluctant and look for beauty and money in marriage. As for the woman, she readily accepts a man’s proposal of matrimony. Contrary to this trouble which women have in setting up a home, they are easily accepted by those youngsters who look for a mate for one or two nights.

In Muslim countries, there cannot be found a girl too old to find a husband. Men and women share one another, and each of the remaining women has become a housewife owing to the blessing of ta’addud al-zawjât in Islam. In contrast, in Europe the remaining girls earn money from men without being married and illegitimately, and they look for a husband to marry.

In Europe, at places where there is society life, there is not the thing called love because women and girls swarm everywhere. Yet in Muslim countries, a man sees a pretty woman once in a blue moon. On this rare occasion he falls in love with her. The curtain which this love has put before his eyes and the curtain of veiling of other Muslim women come together not to show him a prettier one. In fact, because the second curtain does not show him -let alone another- the same woman once more, the flame of love gets fanned. This shows that the woman is so valuable and important in Muslim countries. What value can women have in society life, which takes them away from the state of belovedness?

Let us listen about the pitiable situation of the society women from a great lady poet of France, Madame de Lara Mardirous, as translated by Cenâb Şihâbuddin Beg in his magazine Evrâk-i Eyyâm: “Tell your [Muslim] girls to appreciate the value of their happiness! Let them get used to living veiled. Living veiled will protect them against so many inconveniences that… Oh, if they could only know the number of girls who have sobbed and cried on my shoulder. My ears are full with the very terrifying and heartrending complaints of the beloved girls. Yes, it seems as if it were very sweet to be able to enter a ball full of lights and flowers. But, what a grievous serpent is the jealousy that gnaws at the heart of the woman who has gone there with her husband she loves. Could you imagine it? Each of the balls, theatres and places for meeting is a cell of torment of ‘Saint office’, a hell for a man who is faithful to his wife or for a woman who loves her husband. Inform your wives and sisters well about these facts!”

There is a saying which is chewed like a gum in the mouths: “The advancement of women is necessary for the advancement of men, because a nation, one of whose two wings cannot function, cannot make progress. It can make progress only together with the women.” Such complicated, vague words show that those who cannot explain their purposes clearly attempt to communicate them under helping words. The advancement of women means not to leave them ignorant, not to slight their morals and education. Islam says nothing against having women do fine arts, which are suitable for their delicacy. It is permissible for women to do the fine works which men cannot do both in warfare and during peace and to learn them from other women. But, still they should stay away from men not related to them.

The strongest thing that attaches the Muslim Turks to their country is their religious and traditional pure life in the family. Among them, those who consider this life of women’s and nâ-mahram men’s being away form one another as a duty are attached to their country with a most sensitive vein.

Another powerful weapon which religion reformers use to defend that women should work among men is material and economic advantages. For example, “You open a shop and put a girl at the cashier or counter. The customers will increase with the lustful gifts which the shop presents to the sense of sight,” they say. However, Muslim customers do not go to such shops where immodestly dressed women work and alcoholic drinks are sold. The earnings that come through harâm means are wicked and without Allâhu ta’âlâ’s blessing. Their consequence will be harmful both in this world and in the next.

Why Do  Muslim Women Have To Cover Their Heads?

It is harâm and a grave sin for women and girls to exhibit themselves undressed to nâ-mahram men and for men to look at them. It does not become a Muslim to earn worldly property by means of harâm. Goods earned in such a way are useless and without Allâhu ta’âlâ’s blessing. He who slights the harâm becomes a kâfir.

If a person claims to be a Muslim, his actions have to be in conformity with the Sharî’at. If he does not know how he should behave, he has to learn by asking a scholar in the Madh-hab of Ahl as-sunna, or by reading books written by scholars belonging to this Madh-hab. If what he has done runs counter to the Sharî’at’s prescription, he is by no means free from the state of sinfulness or denial (of Islam). In this case, he has to do true penance daily. Any sin or any act of denial is definitely pardonable, depending on the (trueness of the) penance one has done. If the person concerned does not do true penance, he will be tormented, i.e. punished, both in this world and in Hell. Kinds of these punishments are written at various places in our book.

Parts of the body that men and women have to cover, both during namâz and elsewhere, are called “Awrat Parts.” If a person says that Islam does not contain any concept in the name of awrat parts, he becomes a disbeliever. If a person does not attach importance to the fact that one has to cover those parts of one’s body that are awrat according to the (agreements of the scholars called) ijmâ’, i.e. in all the four Madh-habs, or that one should not look at those parts of other people’s bodies; in other words, if he does not feel any fear as to the torment he would be subjected to (in case he failed to observe this important rule), he becomes a disbeliever. Parts between a man’s knees and loins are not awrat parts according to the Hanbalî Madh-hab. A person who says, “I am a Muslim,” has to learn and respect the credal tenets of Islam and the commandments and prohibitions that are communicated in ijmâ’, i.e. in agreement by all the four Madh-habs. Not to know them does not grant an exemption. It is equal to knowing and disbelieving. A woman’s entire body, with the exception of her face and hands, is awrat according to all the four Madh-habs. The same rule applies to women’s exposing their awrat parts, singing, or reciting aloud the (eulogy that praises our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ and which is called) Mawlid, in the presence of men. If a person floutingly exposes a part of his, or her, body which is not awrat with ijmâ’, i.e. which he, or she, does not have to cover according to (at least) one of the remaining three Madh-habs, he, or she, will not become a disbeliever, although an act of this sort is one of the grave sins. An example of this is men’s exposing their limbs between the knees and the loins, e.g. their thighs. It is farz for every person to learn what he or she does not know. And as soon as he or she learns any new religious tenet, (such as, covering the awrat part), he or she has to do penance and begin to observe it, (e.g. cover the awrat part concerned).

The following hadîths are quoted from the book Zawâjir [Egypt, 1356 A.H. (1937)] by Shafi’î scholar Hadrat Ibn Hajar al-Makkî [889-974 A.H. (1494-1567)].

“Do not show your thigh, and do not look at the thigh of a person dead or alive.”

“Allâhu ta’âlâ will severely punish those who show the private parts of their body to others.”

“The parts between men’s knees and navels are their private parts.”

“It is a grave sin to expose one’s private parts.”

“Three kinds of people will never go to Paradise. The first one is the dayyûth, that is, the person who takes no notice of his wife’s relations with other men. The second one is the woman who makes herself look like men. The third one is the one who continues to have alcoholic drinks.” Women’s making themselves look like men means to dress like them, to wear coats and trousers like them, to cut their hair like theirs, which are grave sins.

 “There are two groups of people who will go to Hell: in the first group are those who carry whips or truncheons and beat people unjustly. The second group are the women who show themselves undressed to men, that is, who go near men in a thin, transparent dress. Such women go near men for evil purposes.”

Abû Dâwûd reported Hadrat ’Âisha (radiy-Allâhu ’anhâ) as having said that her sister “Asmâ’ came near Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam). She had a thin dress on her. The colour of her skin was visible. Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm) did not look at his sister-in-law. He turned his blessed face away and said, ‘O Asmâ’! When a girl arrives the age of performing salât, she should not show men her parts other than her face and hands.’ ” It is understood from this hadîth that it is a grave sin for women to go immodestly dressed near men. Imâm az-Zahabî says that Allâhu ta’âlâ will punish in this world and in the next those women who show men their ornaments, e.g. gold, pearls over their outer dress, who use perfumes or are dressed in multi-coloured, silk tissue, with broad cuffs which expose their arms, and show themselves to men in this manner. Because these evils exist mostly in women, Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm) said, “On the Night of Mi’raj, I saw Hell. I saw that the majority of the people in Hell were women.”

“He who believes in Allâhu ta’âlâ and in the Last Day should enter the public bath wrapping himself with a large bath-towel. He who believes in Allâhu ta’âlâ and in the Last Day should not send his wife to public baths!”

“The country of Iran will come into Muslims’ possession. There are buildings called ‘hammâm’ there. Men shall enter the hammâm covered with a large bath-towel and send their wives there only for a bath-cure or for getting clean from haid and nifâs!”

“A person who believes in Allâhu ta’âlâ and in the Last Day should not stay with a nâ-mahram woman in a room!”

“Towards the end of this world, it will become harâm for the men of my umma to go to hammâms; for there will be people whose private parts are exposed there. May Allâhu ta’âlâ damn him who uncovers his private parts and him who looks at another’s private parts!”

 “The person who commits adultery is like the person who worships idols.”This hadîth points out that adultery is a grave sin.

“When a Muslim who insists on drinking wine dies, Allâhu ta’âlâ punishes him like a disbeliever worshipping idols.” Adultery is certainly a graver sin than drinking wine.

“This umma will go on being auspicious until adultery spreads among them. When adultery spreads among them, Allâhu ta’âlâ punishes all of them.”

“Allâhu ta’âlâ’s punishment becomes halâl for people of a country where adultery and ribâ have spread.”

Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) asked as-Sahâbat al-kirâm (radî-Allâhu ’anhum), “How do you consider adultery?” They said, “O Rasûl-Allah! Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Messenger have forbidden adultery. It will be forbidden until Rising-Day.” He said, “If a person commits adultery with his neighbor’s woman, he will be tortured more than he who has committed it with ten different nâ-mahram women.”

“Paradise is harâm for the dayyûth,” Dayyûth (cuckold) is the person who knows but keeps quiet and does not get angry at his wife’s committing adultery.

“The hand of the person who touches a nâ-mahram woman lustfully will be fastened to his neck on the Day of Resurrection. If he kisses her, his lips will be burned in Hell fire.”

It is a grave sin to commit fornication. It is a graver sin to commit adultery. The sin graver than this is fornication or adultery committed with a mahram relative. It is a graver sin for a widow to commit adultery than it is for a girl to commit fornication. It is a graver sin for an old man to do it than it is for young people. It is a graver sin for a religiously learned man to do it than it is for an ignorant person.

The reason why we have written long about the harm of women’s uncovering themselves is because we do not want our fellow countrymen to get into trouble in this world and the next, and it stems from our feelings of goodness and service for them. In fact, it does not become a Muslim to know himself honest and good and to consider uncovered women and men and society women base and bad. When a Muslim sees those who go about uncovered, drink alcohol and live society life, he should feel pity for them or, if possible, advise them in kind words or writings compatible with the Book and laws or, at least, pray for their desisting from that harmful life. When we see a sinner, we should remember our own sins and think of the punishments that will be given to us in case our faults and sins are not forgiven! It is harâm to find fault with, to slander or backbite (ghîba) anybody, which is a graver sin for us than their sins. Allâhu ta’âlâ loves those who have patience, do goodness, give service to and advise others, and who have soft words and smiling face and do favours. He does not love those who admire themselves. We should do the good things Allâhu ta’âlâ likes! We should be sweet-tempered. Harsh treatments and punishments are the government’s duties. A Muslim does not hurt anybody with his tongue or hand. It is a sin to hurt anybody and arouse fitna. And causing fitna is a graver sin. It does not befit a Muslim to sin. He obeys the State and laws. He does not violate any law. He is an honourable person who wins everybody’s love and regard.

The Hanafî ’âlim Khair ad-dîn ar-Ramlî wrote in the subject of “Nafaqa” in Al-fatâwâ’ al-khairiyya: “It is wâjib for the husband to have the wife live in a house he owns or rents. The husband who does not supply the wife with nafaqa (livelihood, means of subsistence) is to be imprisoned. The house should be among the neighbors who are sâlih. These neighbors help the woman in her religious and worldly affairs and prevent the husband’s oppression. The house should contain a kitchen, a toilet, a bathroom and rooms. Anyone whom the wife does not approve cannot live in this house. If the husband escapes or disappears and does not supply her livelihood, the wife applies to the court for nafaqa. She cannot demand separation from the husband. The judge determines the amount of alimony according to the customs and tells her to borrow that amount of money from her rich relatives, to whom he orders to lend her. He imprisons those who will not lend her. The court finds the husband and has him pay the lender. Because the husband has committed a grave sin, he is also punished with ta’zîr. If the wife, seeing her husband’s escape and fearing that he will not give nafaqa, applies to the court demanding him to appoint a guarantor, the judge orders him to appoint a guarantor. If the husband does not escape and does not bring the nafaqa, the judge determines the nafaqa, that is, the amount of [money for] food, clothes and rent and makes him give it to her every month. A man who owns (the amount of) nisâb and has to pay zakât must give the nafaqa of the (wife even if she is) rich. If the woman proves with two witnesses that her husband has fled and has not left nafaqa, the Shâfi’î judge abolishes the nikâh. After the ’idda (length of time within which a woman may not remarry), she may marry another man according to the Hanafî madhhab. If, later, the husband turns up and proves that he has left nafaqa, it will be overruled. Nafaqa is not given to the woman who is obstinately disobedient or who is told that she has been divorced.” Yet, it is not easy to divorce the wife and to demolish her home and happiness.

He wrote in the subject of “Nikâh”: “If a father has given his adolescent daughter in marriage to a man without taking her permission, and if she does not accept it when she learns it, the nikâh is not sahîh. She is to be believed if she says, ‘I refused when I heard.’ ” The passages above show that the Muslim woman is not a toy in the hands of the man and that women’s rights are under the guarantee of the state.