How women are treated in Bible and
Qur’aan!
الحمدلله
رب العالمين
والصلوة
والسلام على اشرف
الانبياء
وسيدالمرسلين
نبينا محمد صل
ا لله عليه
وعلى آله
واصحابه
وازواجه
اجمعين -
امابعد
All the praises and thanks be to
Allaah, Sustainer of the Universe, and blessing and salutation to be the
most distinguish of the Messengers and foremost among the Prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allaah be on him and on his wives,
children and Companions.
The anti-Islaam forces always exploits the
teachings of Islaam and especially the treatment of
women in Islaam with their disinformation. But
a careful study tells us that the facts the other way around. It is the Bible
and/or Judeo-Christian teaching that abuses the women
without giving them due status and equal rights. Following facts with shine
some light on the subject in question.
Glorious Qur’aan
4:34 do not command women beating as a general rule. Read the following
with care.
The words, which have three
radical letters, are called ath-thulathi
(triliteral). Readers must know that in Arabic, commonly a noun or a verb
has three radical letters. But some nouns and verbs have four or five
radical letters. However, many additional letters are added to them in usage.
A
radical letter is that which remains intact through all the changes and
derivations of the word. An additional letter is that which is subjected to
changes in different forms and derivations, as is the case below.
(Root/Radical
Letters)ض ر ب
ضَرَبَ
الله
مثلا :
أورده .
اضْرِبُوهُنَّ : وَاهْجُرُوهُنَّ
فِي
الْمَضَاجِعِ
وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ
4:34
الرِّجَالُ
قَوَّامُونَ
عَلَى النِّسَاءِ
بِمَا
فَضَّلَ
اللَّهُ
بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى
بَعْضٍ
وَبِمَا
أَنْفَقُوا
مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ
فَالصَّالِحَاتُ
قَانِتَاتٌ حَافِظَاتٌ
لِلْغَيْبِ
بِمَا حَفِظَ
اللَّهُ
وَاللَّاتِي
تَخَافُونَ
نُشُوزَهُنَّ
فَعِظُوهُنَّ
وَاهْجُرُوهُنَّ
فِي الْمَضَاجِعِ
وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ
فَإِنْ
أَطَعْنَكُمْ
فَلَا
تَبْغُوا
عَلَيْهِنَّ
سَبِيلًا
إِنَّ
اللَّهَ
كَانَ عَلِيًّا
كَبِيرًا
Men are
the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel
the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means. Therefore
the righteous women are devoutly obedient (to Allah and to their husbands), and
guard in the husband's absence what Allah orders them to guard (e.g. their
chastity, their husband's property, etc.). As
to those women on whose part you see
ill conduct, admonish them (first), refuse to share their beds (next), (and last) beat them
(lightly, if it is useful), but if they return
to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance). Surely, Allah is Ever
Most High, Most Great.
[Notice: the commands are for those with ill conduct, and are
not a general rule (also read the verse 4:35).] Actions against women with ill conduct are defined
and/or described in three stages, with specific guidelines in the above verse.
AR- RIJAAL QAWWAAMON cALAA AN- NISAA' BI- MAA
FAD.D.ALA 'ALLAAH BAcD. -HUM cALAA BAcD.
WA- BI- MAA ANFAQO MIN AMWAAL -HIM FA- AS.- S.AALIH.AAT QAANITAAT H.AAFIZ.AAT
LI- AL- GHAYB BI- MAA H.AFIZ.A 'ALLAAH WA- 'ALLAATE TAKHAAFON NUSHOZ -HUNNA FA-
cIZ.O -HUNNA WA- UHJURO -HUNNA FE AL- MAD.AAJIc WA- ID.RIBO
-HUNNA FA- 'IN AT.AcNA
-KUM FA- LAA TABGHO cALAY -HINNA SABEL(AN) 'INNA
'ALLAAH KAANA cALEY(AN) KABER(AN)
Let us further examine the facts:
A “QAWWAAM” is, in Arabic (Plural: QAWWAAMON قَوَّامُونَ as used in Ayah 4:34) in the parlance of modern sociology, a protector or
guardian of the family, and this is a position to which man is by his very nature
and constitution entitled.
Means,
if advice and ignoring her in the bed do not produce the desired results, you
are allowed to discipline the wife, without severe beating. Muslim recorded that
Jabir said that during the Farewell Hajj, the Prophet صلی
الله عليه
وسلم
said,
“Fear
Allaah regarding women, for they are your assistants. You have the right on
them that they do not allow any person whom you dislike to step on your mat.
However, if they do that, you are allowed to discipline them lightly. They have
the right on you that you provide them with provision and clothes, in a
reasonable manner.”
‘A connected result of male
superiority in strength, activity and courage is the element of protection in
male love, and of trust on the side of the female.’ (Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Vol. VIII,
p. 156)
‘That the functions of the
husband and father in the family are not merely of the sexual and procreative
kind, but involve the duties of supporting and protecting the wife and
children, is testified by an array of facts relating to peoples in all quarters
of the world and in all stages of civilization.’ (Westermarck, op cit.,
p. 23)
Islaamic Shariah شريعه provides for the right of a husband to admonish his wife in the
matters wherein Allaah makes obedience of husband obligatory for her; the right
of husband in this respect is based on the following divine injunction:
Surah An-Nisaa 34
الرِّجَالُ
قَوَّامُونَ
عَلَى
النِّسَاءِ بِمَا
فَضَّلَ
اللَّهُ
بَعْضَهُمْ
عَلَى بَعْضٍ
وَبِمَا
أَنْفَقُوا
مِنْ
أَمْوَالِهِمْ
فَالصَّالِحَاتُ
قَانِتَاتٌ
حَافِظَاتٌ
لِلْغَيْبِ
بِمَا حَفِظَ
اللَّهُ وَاللَّاتِي
تَخَافُونَ
نُشُوزَهُنَّ
فَعِظُوهُنَّ
وَاهْجُرُوهُنَّ
فِي
الْمَضَاجِعِ
وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ
فَإِنْ
أَطَعْنَكُمْ
فَلَا
تَبْغُوا
عَلَيْهِنَّ
سَبِيلًا إِنَّ
اللَّهَ
كَانَ
عَلِيًّا
كَبِيرًا
Men
are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allâh has made one of
them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their
means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient (to Allâh and to their husbands), and guard in the husband’s
absence what Allâh orders them to guard (e.g. their
chastity, their husband’s property). As
to those women on whose part you see ill-conduct, admonish them (first),
(next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them (lightly, if it is
useful); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of
annoyance). Surely, Allâh
is Ever Most High, Most Great.
The expression Nashooz نُشُوز occurring in the above Ayaah
آيه means
disobedience of husband. The word is
derived from ‘Nashaz”, which signifies rising.
In other words, if the wife rises above the limit that Allaah has laid down for
the obedience to husband, she will be treated as disobedient.
Matters
in which chastisement is allowed:
The
Jurists are in agreement that a husband has the right to admonish his wife in
forbidden acts that involve no Hudd حد
under the Islaamic Shariah شريعه, the Jurists are also agreed that a
wife is not to be scourged simply for fear of rebellion on her part. This
measure is to be resorted to only when wife actually rebels and/or oversteps
the limits laid down by Allaah (the Law-Giver).
1st Offense does not warrant chastisement
measures:
Imaam Malik and Imaam
Abu Hanifa امام مالك و امام ابو حنيفه رحمته الله عليهم hold that the
chastisement and/or beating of wife on her very first offense committed by her is
not justified. Only repeated commitment of the same forbidden act[s]
warrants corrective remedy. Thus, when a
wife commits an act of disobedience for the first time, she is to be exhorted
in a benign and affectionate manner. But,
if she does it again, she is to be left alone and if she commits it 3rd
time, the husband will be within his right to scourge her.
Limitations on scourging:
A husband cannot scourge his wife as he chooses. This husband’s right is qualified by the injunction that
the blow inflicted should be light, for the Prophet Muhammad صلی الله
عليه وسلم said:
“You have the right to your wives to see that they do
not allow anyone to sit on your beds whom you do not
like. If they violate this right, then scourge them lightly.”
Scourging lightly means to strike in a manner that the
resultant injury is not grievous. Some Jurists interpret the expression as
striking in a fashion that may cause pain but not break the bone or cause
bleeding. Other Jurists maintains that it signifies beating in a manner, which
neither causes bleeding nor leaves any mark on the body. Corrective
scourging is further restricted by the condition that it should not be done on
sensitive parts of the body. The purpose of such punishment is only
correction; therefore, it should not exceed reasonable limits and is generally
regarded as corrective measure. It is being the case a husband will not be
accountable for the measure taken by him.
There is yet another condition attached
to the corrective punishment of a wife by a husband. In case if the act for
which punishment is given is such that competent institution (such as court) has
the power to award punishment for it, and husband takes the matter to such
institution, then his right to correction stands invalidated.
Now let us compare the attitude of the Bible towards woman:
Read
the general rule decreed by the anti-women Biblical god in Genesis 3:16,
because Bible and/or Biblical god blame Eve (woman) [not Adam or both] for
eating the forbidden fruit.
Genesis 3:16! Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Ephesians 5:22-24! (22) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own
husbands, as unto the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even
as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. (24)
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
It is forbidden men to
marry a non-virgin, or for those widowed or divorced to remarry, notice Bible considers a widow and
(especially) divorced woman a WHORE.
Ironically Biblical god didn’t
know then, that virgins among the followers of Bible would be almost impossible
to be found, as is the case.
Leviticus!
|
021:007 |
They shall not take a wife
that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from
her husband: for he is holy unto his God. |
If a girl sleeps around she must be burned at the stake (no due process). Notice no punishment for men and no due process for women in the Bible.
Leviticus!
|
021:009 |
And the daughter of any priest,
if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. |
Notice the Bible double standard and anti-women rhetoric!
Leviticus!
|
015:019 |
And if a
woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be
put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her
shall be unclean until the even. |
|
015:020 |
And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every
thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. |
|
015:021 |
And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. |
|
015:022 |
And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean
until the even. |
|
015:023 |
And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth,
when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the
even. |
|
015:024 |
And if any man lie with her
at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all
the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean. |
|
015:025 |
And if a woman have an issue
of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond
the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness
shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. |
|
015:026 |
Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the
bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth
upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. |
|
015:027 |
And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash
his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be
unclean until the even. |
Read the
entire chapter 12 of Leviticus, making women more impure, if she gives birth to
a female child, who is called a maid in the Bible, it is beyond
absurdity!
Leviticus!
|
012:001 |
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, |
|
012:002 |
Speak unto the children of |
|
012:003 |
And in the eighth day the
flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. |
|
012:004 |
And she shall then continue
in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days;
she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the
days of her purifying be fulfilled. |
|
012:005 |
But if she bear a maid child, then
she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her
separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days. |
Husbands
are allowed to test their wives based on conjecture and/or having a nasty
suspicious mind with the waters of trial by ordeal, [even they die in the
process, which certainly woman will]. We read in
book of Numbers:
|
005:014 |
And the spirit of jealousy
come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be
jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: |
|
005:015 |
Then
shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering
for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal;
he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an
offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to
remembrance. |
|
005:016 |
And the priest shall bring
her near, and set her before the LORD: |
|
005:017 |
And the priest shall take
holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle
the priest shall take, and put it into the water: |
|
005:018 |
And the priest shall set the
woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of
memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall
have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the
curse: |
|
005:019 |
And the priest shall charge
her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if
thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be
thou free from this bitter water that causeth the
curse: |
|
005:020 |
But if thou hast gone aside
to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have
lain with thee beside thine husband: |
|
005:021 |
Then the priest shall charge
the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman,
The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth
make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; |
|
005:022 |
And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy
belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. |
|
005:023 |
And the priest shall write
these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: |
|
005:024 |
And
he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth
the curse: and the water that causeth the curse
shall enter into her, and become bitter. |
|
005:025 |
Then the priest shall take
the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering
before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar: |
|
005:026 |
And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and
burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the
water. |
|
005:027 |
And
when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that,
if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water
that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and
become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the
woman shall be a curse among her people. |
|
005:028 |
And if the woman be not
defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. |
|
005:029 |
This is the law of
jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another
instead of her husband, and is defiled; |
|
005:030 |
Or when the spirit of
jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the
woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. |
|
005:031 |
Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this
woman shall bear her iniquity. |
Now,
I would like the readers to compare the teachings of Glorious Qur’aan with
Bible, keeping in mind that the punishment of false
accusation against a chaste woman in Islaam is EIGHTY
lashes, it is a Hudd
punishment, and even husband is not immune to it, if he falsely
accuses his wife. Contrary to that read the Numbers 5:14 to 5:31 [a husband on a mere suspicion, can put his wife to severe
painful death facing ordeal, without any consequences]. Readers can draw
their own conclusion based on the facts presented from Bible and Qur’aan that Islaam gives just rights to women. Another interesting
point worthy to be mentioned is that in Islaam a
woman can argue with Prophet (to present her case) while in Judeo-Christian
Bible, a women must remain silent in the Church, or her head will be shaved.
Thursday, October 21, 2004