Women in Islam and Muslim Society Part 2

by Admin Sat Jan 01, 2011 4:17 pm

In public, however, man and woman can confer privately at a distance from others. Anas reports that a woman who was slightly abnormal said to the Prophet (peace be upon him) "O Messenger of God! I need you for something". The prophet said, "O mother of such and such, look which way you want to go, that I may arrange your need". He went with her along some path till all what she required was over. (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawoud)

The story of Moses (peace be upon him) and the two daughters of Shuaib, as narrated by the Quran, is very instructive: "and when he came onto the water of Madian, he found there a group of people watering, and he found apart of them two women holding back. He said: 'what is the matter?' They said: 'we cannot water until all the shepherds leave, and our father is an old man.' He watered for them and withdrew to the shade... shortly afterwards, one of the two maidens came to him and said: 'my father calls you that he might reward you for watering for us....' One said, 'O my father, hire him, for the best you can hire is one who is strong and trustworthy'". (Al-Qasas, 22-28)

A man should not gaze at a women nor a woman at a man so fixedly that temptation is stimulated. Instead, whenever any such thing strikes the mind, one must desist from looking on. "Tell the believers to lower their looks and guard their private organs. This is purer for them. God is fully aware of what they are doing. And ask believing women to lower their looks and to guard their private organs...." (An Nur, 30-31)

In the traditions, Jabir bin Abduallah is reported to have said, "I asked the Prophet (peace be upon him) about looking at some woman by chance, the Prophet (peace be upon him) told me to divert my looks".

The Prophet (peace be upon him) advised Ali, "O Ali, you must not gaze at a woman. You are allowed the first look but not the subsequent". But Ali's report does not mean that looking at a person of the opposite sex is absolutely forbidden. It is only when one seeks sexual pleasure or finds and relishes it. Indeed, in the model society of Islam, Muslims used to assemble freely and frequently; they were mostly acquainted with each other, men and women; they conversed and interacted intensively. But all those activities, were undertaken in a spirit of innocence and in the context of a virtuous society.

The meaning behind the prohibition of some looks at women is borne out by the correlation between such looks and sexual intercourse: "Allah decreed for every human being his unavoidable share of sexual intercourse. The eye partakes of that by looks, the tongue by speech the soul aspires and craves, and the genital organs fulfil or deny the final act". (Bukhari and Abu Dawooed).

Similarly Abdullah bin Abbas reports that the Prophet was riding a camel with Al-Fadhl, Abdullah's brother, behind him. A beautiful woman came to ask the Prophet about the Haj of her father. Al Fadhl began to stare at her; her beauty impressed him a lot. The Prophet (peace be upon him) having noticed this while Al Fadhl was busy looking, put his hand behind and turned his face away from her hither and thither as she went along with them. Al Abbas said to the Prophet, "you are twisting the neck of your nephew!" The Prophet replied, "I noticed that both the boy and the girl were young; and I feared that Satan may intervene". (At-Tirmithy and Bukhari).

When assembled men and women must not be crammed in such a manner that breaths and bodies are very close to each other. If the practical exigencies demand, they may, however, get closer, as for instance during Haj. And wherever there are men and women in homes, streets, meetings or public occasions, it is advisable that some distance between the two sexes be maintained. It is on the basis of the same principle that men and women occupy conspicuously separate rows in prayers. During the prayer, sitting or standing, people take up their position in a very compact manner; and while praying one should be completely detached from everything that may divert one from attending fully to God. The Prophet (peace be upon him) designated a door exclusively for ladies to enter and leave the mosque. Ibn-Umar reports that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "may we restrict this door for ladies only". (Abu Dawoud).

Similarly, on the highway, men and women must maintain some distance. Hamza bin Sayyed Al Ansari cited his father as saying that he heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) ask the ladies, "you stay apart, for you can not walk in the middle of the road; you bear to the sides of the road". "A Lady", he added, "would walk so close to the walls along the road that her clothes would touch the walls". (Abu Dawoud). The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to defer his departure so that the ladies might leave the mosque first. (Bukhair). Umm-Salama reported that when the Prophet (peace be upon him) finished with his prayer, the women would immediately get up from their places to leave, while he would remain in his place for a short while, and then would rise to go.

The dress of a man or a woman should be modest. By no gesture, word or appearance should man or woman deliberately tempt the other. God says: women shall not show their adornment except what is naturally visible. They should draw their scares on their bosoms. And they must not show their adornment except to their husbands, or their fathers or the fathers of their husbands, or their sons or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers or the sons of their brothers or the sons of their sisters or their women slaves, or male servants uninterested in physical needs, or small children who are not sexually aware. Nor will they kick with their feet, to announce whatever is invisible of their adornment. (An-Nur, 31). "0 Prophet tell your wives and your daughters and wives of the believers to lower their outer garments on their persons. That is likely to make them known, and, as a consequence, not be molested. And God is Most Forgiving and Most Merciful". (Al-Ahaab, 59).

The Prophet (peace be upon him) directed that excepting face and hands no other part of a woman's body should be exhibited. Sayyedah Ayishah is said to have reported that Asma bint Abu Bakr came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) wearing a dress made of thin cloth. The Prophet (peace be upon him) turned his face away and said to her: "when a girl matures it is not appropriate for her to show but such and such", pointing towards his face and hands. Abu Dawoud quoted this tradition, And the majority of Muslims have accepted it in practice.

Thus temptation is the basic criterion on which these rulings rest. "For women of advanced age who do not expect to be married, there is no harm if they set aside their outer garments provided they do not play up their charms. But it is better for them if they abstain from doing so. And God is All-seeing and All-knowing". (An-Nor 60). The Prophet (peace be upon him) prohibited women from passing by men after perfuming themselves. he warned women in these words: "after using scents no lady should attend Isha prayer with us" (Muslim). Abu Musa Al Ashari reports that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "any woman who, after perfuming herself, passes by the people so that they may find her smell, is a fallen woman". (Musnad Imam Ahmed). The Prophet (peace be upon him) warned against women who walk swinging ostentatiously and temptingly: "two categories of the inmates of hell I did not see before: a group of people holding whips resembling cow tails lashing at people, and women, half dressed and half naked, walking swingingly to all allure, with their heads like inclined humps of camels. They shall never enter Heaven nor get the inclined nor get the smell thereof, even though its smell can be felt from such and such distance". (Muslim)

Any relationship or situation which may be instrumental to temptation or illegal sexual contact between men and women, is thus not permissible. God says, "don't approach fornication. It is indeed a vile deed and what an evil practice it is". (Al Isra 32) That is the standard which determines cases which we did not mention. Thus Islam tolerates that one may greet women or talk to them in decent and chaste language and with good intent. The Prophet used to do so. Asma bint-Yazeed reported that one day the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed through the mosque where a group of women were sitting. He greeted them by waving his hand. (At-Tirmithy). In the chapter Kitab ul-adab of his collection of traditions, Abu Dawoud gave the following account on the authority of Asma: "the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed by us and greeted us". Imam Bukhari has given a chapter in his collection of authentic traditions under the title, "Greeting Women by Men". Ibn-Hazim reported that his father cited Sahal, why so? he said, an aged lady used to send me some goods. She would take the roots of salaq (a salad) and put them in a pan, and then prepare some barley bread. After offering Juma prayer we would go and greet her and she would serve us those dishes, which gave us a lot of joy. On Fridays we always took our meal and mid-day nap after offering Juma prayer. (Bukhari)

Asma bint-Yazeed narrated that, "the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed by us, the women, and greeted us". (Al-Tirimizy)

When greeting a lady, shaking hands in a spontaneous manner may be permissible, especially if it is a customary practice in a chaste setting. One may find in Islamic texts strong admonition against touching strange women. But the word "touch" or the like is, in this context, a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

Whenever women came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) for the oath of allegiance, it is reported that he would not shake hands with them. This is obviously a reservation unique to him. It is quoted by Al Bukhari that the Prophet (peace by upon him) said: "I don't shake hands with women". Other reports say that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did shake hands with the ladies covering the hand with a garment. (Abu Dawoud cited that on the authority of Al Shaabi and Abdul Razzaq). Sometimes the Prophet (peace be upon him) would deputise Umar for that function (Al Tabrani).

So long as the conditions already mentioned are observed, family gatherings and joint meals, both at home or elsewhere are permissible. Abu Hurairah (may God be bless him) narrated that a man came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and said, "I am completely exhausted with hunger". The Prophet (peace be upon him) sent a message to one of his wives. She told him, "by God, who sent you with the truth, I don't have anything except water". The Prophet (peace be upon him) then sent the message to another of his wives. She, too, told the same thing. It was the same with all the rest of his wives: "By God, who sent you with the truth, I don't have anything except water". "By God, who sent you with the truth, I don't have anything except water". The Prophet (peace be upon him) then said, "whosoever takes this man as his guest God will grant him mercy". An Ansari of Medina stood up and said, "O Messenger of God, I shall take him as my guest". He, then took him to his dwelling, and said to his wife, "Do you have something?" "Nothing except the meal for my children", she replied. He said to her, "you distract them with something: when our guest arrives, put out the lamp, and show him that we. too, are eating". He narrated how they all sat down and the guest took his meal. Next day when the Ansari went to the Prophet (peace be upon him) the latter said to him, "God appreciated so much the treatment you extended to your guest last night". (Muslim)

More than anybody else, it is permissible for those who are seeking each other's hand in marriage or are divorced, to see or talk to each other. Mughirah bin Shubah stated that he proposed to a woman for marriage. The Prophet (peace be upon him) told him, "Have a look at her. that some affection might develop between you two". Mughirah went to the girl's parents and told them about the Prophet's instruction. It was as if they were reluctant. The lady, who was in her private room. having overheard this, called out, "If the Prophet has ordered you to see me, then do so". Mughirah said: "I saw her and married her". (Ahmed, Ibn-Majah, At-Tirmithy, Ibn-Habban and Al-Darimi).

A case in point is the famous story of Mughith who used to go after his ex-wife Burairah through the streets of Madinah. He would try to appease her with tears flowing from his eyes in order to bring her back; but she would refuse to do so. When Burairah was set free, her husband, a negro, was a slave of Bani al Mughirah. "By God" Ibn Abbas said, "I still recall how he followed her all over the streets of Madinah with his beard bathed in tears trying to please her in vain". The prophet (peace be upon him) himself tried to intercede but the girl declined as long as the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not order her to reconcile (At-Tirmithy).

The application of the standard of temptation depends subjectively on what a person finds in his soul - that is what he experiences by way of feeling in the case. This is naturally a function of his religious education and integrity. Objectively, it would depend on the seriousness of the affair in any association of men and women such as would distract them from thinking of sex, and partly on the innocence of the particular social context.

The juridical principle is sound: that the avenues and approaches of wrong-doing should be closed by barring acts innocent in themselves for fear of what might ensue. But over-caution may inhibit legitimate conduct on the pretext that it exposes to the risk of temptation and vice. This may lead to the distortion of the general social system of Islam which is based on the full participation of men and women in everyday life with piety and chastity. Indeed, segregation and isolation may well protect a woman from temptation, but it essentially denies her the benefits of the communal life of Muslims.

It denies and abrogates her legitimate role in the social process of cooperation in the promotion of knowledge and good work, in the mutual counselling of Muslims to do all that is beneficial and avoid all that is objectionable, in their solidarity for the maintenance of their well-being and the defence of their establishment. God says, "The believing men and women, are associates and helpers of each other. They (collaborate) to promote all that is beneficial and discourage all that is evil; to establish prayers and give alms, and to obey God and his Messenger. Those are the people whom God would grant mercy. Indeed God is Mighty and Wise". (Al-Taubah, 71) The benefits drawn from that communal life of Muslims more than outweigh any preventive considerations in the segregation of sexes in ways not ordained or clearly implied in the formal text of the Sharia.

CHAPTER III : WOMEN IN MUSLIM SOCIETY

The Muslims in history have experienced a significant deisation from the general ideals of life as taught by Islam. It is, therefore, not at all surprising that their loss is equally great in the area of social guidance which Islam offered regarding women. Whenever weakness creeps into the faith of Muslim men they tend to treat women oppressively and seek to exploit them. This is natural and is amply demonstrated by the fact that most of the rulings of the Quran regarding women were sent down as restrictions on at men with a view to preventing them from transgressing against women, as is their natural disposition and their actual practice in many societies. Only a few of the Quranic injunctions impose restrictions on women.

We here quote some of those rulings that guarantee a fair deal for women. "When you divorce women and they fulfil the term of their Iddat, then retain them in kindness or release them in kindness. But do not retain them to prejudice them or to take undue advantage. Do not take the revelations of God as a laughing matter. Remember God's grace upon you and that which he has revealed upon you of the scripture and of wisdom to exhort your. be pious and know that God is aware of all things. When you divorce women and they fulfil their term do not prevent them from marrying their former husbands, if they agree on equitable terms. That is an admonition for him among you who believes in God and the day of judgement and God knows, but you do not know". (Al-Bagarah, 231). "O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will [by maliciously retaining them captive in formal marriage till death], nor to put constraint upon them to take away part of what you have given them unless they be guilty of flagrant lewdness. Consort with them in kindness for if you hate them it may happen that you hate something wherein God has placed much good". (Al-Nisa, 19). "When they have fulfilled their term, there is no blame on you if they [women] dispose of themselves in a decent and reasonable manner. And God is well aware of what you do" (Al-Bagarah, 234)

Most if not all of the verses of the Quran regarding oath (of abstinence from sex), divorce and Iddat (term of transition) were revealed to bring an end to the oppressive traditions and customs according to which a woman was retained in formal marital captivity and for long periods of time while her fate remained in suspense. The same is true of the verses concerning inheritance which restored rights which had been denied to her by guaranteeing her a definite share. Other verses were revealed which criticized the pessimism and dejection that used to attend a female birth and the abominable practices of female infanticide. The Quran says, "When any of them receives the tidings of the birth of a female his face becomes dark and he is filled with sulkiness. He keeps hiding from people because of the unfortunate news, [wondering] whether to hold on to it as a contemptible thing or just bury it in the soil. O! what a foul judgement". (Al-Nahal, 58-59). "When the [female] buried alive will be questioned: for what fault was she murdered?" (Al-Takwir, 8-9).

There are furthermore, many traditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) which warn menfolk against meting out an ill-treatment to women, beating or detaining them. The Prophet said, "None of you will flog his wife like a donkey and later towards the end of the day have intercourse with her". (Bukhari). He once warned: "A large number of women have come to the Muhammads complaining about their husbands. Those husbands are not the best amongst you". (Riad Us-Saliheen). The Prophet's traditions encourage the Muslim to care for the good upbringing and education of women, and for their well-being in general: "The best of you is one who is best towards his family and I am best towards the family". (At-Tirmithy. "None but a noble man treats women in an honourable manner. And none but an ignoble treats women disgracefully". (At-Tirmithy).

Weak commitment to religion tends to cultivate unjust and hostile treatment of women. For unlike man, a woman is created and brought up gentle and delicate. Performance of her natural functions keeps her away from the toughening experience of everyday public life. Man, uncultured by religion, tends to oppress her as is common in many a human society. Men normally purposefully keep women weak, and the jealousy which they entertain in respect of women induces them to multiply the means for restraining and monopolising them. They like to dominate the property and life of the female with a view to assert their vanity and arrogance.

Male jealousy is but one aspect of masculine capricious tendencies which only godly men are immune from and which inculcated the myth that women, by nature, suffer from excessive incapacity. Men use that fantasy as an excuse to ban women from active participation in the broad spectrum of human life and to deprive them of experience and training - thereby devitalizing and debilitating them in fact. and finding reason for further ill-treatment and prejudice. These male tendencies and the appending customs and ways are manifest in many societies where male arbitrariness runs amok with no religious or human limitation.

Take, for instance, the Arab, Persian and Indian Societies. Although the message of Islam has spread in these societies from early times, the teaching and inculcation of Islamic cultural values was not coextensive with the horizontal expansion. Consequently some pre-Islamic values and prejudices have continued to persist, despite the domination of islamic forms. In some cases there was manifest historical religious decline and a relapse to anterior social ethos and mores.

This phenomenon has sometimes occasioned an even more serious development. New or degenerate Muslim societies would sometimes, out of ignorance, attribute their un-Islamic legacy or custom to Islam itself. By attaching an Islamic value to these practices they seek to give them legitimacy and sanctity, the values of Islam being accepted as sacred and supreme. This explains the unabated influence on the minds of many otherwise good Muslims of attitudes abhorrent to Islam, especially in the sensitive area of sex relations where passion is strong and custom is sacrosanct.

Many latterly juristic rules and stratagems have been adopted to qualify the Sharia to suit cherished customs and traditions. For instance, with a view to do this, express provisions of the Sharia are sometimes compared and contrasted, not to give relative effect to all, but to claim the abrogation of provisions purporting to extend rights, immunities or liberties to women; or to restrict their general scope almost to a vanishing point. Another tricky approach is to read liberally and broaden the scope of rules granting authority to men, while reading literally and strictly those imposing limitations on women. This discriminatory attitude of interpretation is very widespread. Yet another aspect of this tendentious jurisprudence is to generalise the provisions of the Quran and the Sunna that were meant to apply exclusively to the Prophet or his wives due to their unique position.

But the most popular anti-feminist argument derives from the abuse of the juristic principle that means and preliminaries assume the value of their ends and results. Thus the maximum precautionary prohibitions have to be observed to bar approaches to sexual temptation and avoid its undesired consequences. But the proper jurisprudential judgement in the absence of an express provision is to balance in consideration the risks of temptation with the positive merits of the integration of men and women in Muslim society, and not to forfeit all freedom for some necessary reserve in social intercourse.

The traditional Muslim Society, which is over-impressed by its historical decline, had developed a general preference for circumspection and cautiousness over the demands of positive pursuits. It has become unduly conservative for fear that freedom of thought would lead astray and divide the community; and that freedom of women would degenerate into licentious promiscuity - so much that the basic religious rights and duties of women have been forsaken and the fundamentals of equality and fairness in the structure of Muslim Society, as enshrined in the Sharia, have been completely overlooked.

Pseudo-religious arguments have been advanced for justifying a complete metamorphosis of the patterns of social life initiated by the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself under the guidance of the Quran. The most popular is the claim that the magnificent Quranic and Sunnic regulations had relevance for the virtuous society which prevailed during the Prophet's own life. Later however, it is argued that people have changed and corruption became the order or succeeding societies and latter days. Hence the necessity to correct this degenerative tendency by adjusting the norms of social conduct in the sense of greater circumspection. This would be a liberal manner of interpretation that underlines the spirit and purpose rather than the letter of the law, in order to allow for a progressive application thereof. But this is not the prevailing manner of thinking among Muslims who advance conservative views on female affairs. They are normally very literal in their understanding of texts; but they tendentiously opt for an understanding that suits their prejudice. Islam is not a matter of a single rule that can be flexibly understood; it is a whole order of norms that establish the entire way of life or social structure of Islam, and is not liable to variation.

Furthermore, the claim is based on a pious but excessive overvaluation of the society of Madinah. In fact not all its members were like the rightly-guided companion of the Prophet; some elements were hypocrites or new converts not yet free of Jewish or pre-Islamic Arabic influences and manners. The very verses of the Quran that prescribe proper dress for ladies refer to the presence of hypocrites and rumour-mongers (Al-Ahzab 59-60). Whatever the comparative character of our present-day society the proper reform policy is to reshape it after the example of the Sunnie society by changing its deviant ways and re-establishing Islamic Social practices and institutions now in disuse. It is not sound social policy to submit to the dominant ways of the de facto historical society and then either to forsake Islamic institutions in an attempt to save some of the ideals in that alien social context.

The thought and practice of Muslims have come lately to misrepresent most of the doctrinal and normative teachings of Islam on female affairs. The female is hardly ever religiously addressed except through the mediation of the male and as an addendum to him. In the fallen society of Muslims, women have little freedom to marry the person she likes, or to separate from a husband she loathes. Nor is she, as wife, entitled to full consultation and gracious companionship by her husband. In many cases she hardly enjoys an equal opportunity to earn and own property, or the full capacity to manage her property or to dispose thereof. All sorts of subterfuges are employed to deny her inheritance. Her role in private life has been reduced to that of a housewife chosen not for her personal merit, for she was denied the education or the opportunity to acquire merit, but for the merit of her menfolk.

In the domain of public life she is not allowed to make any original contribution to the promotion of the religious quality of life. Whenever she was allowed to work towards the material development of life that was likely to be in a context of exploitation or as mundane work with little spiritual satisfaction or significance.

The greatest injustice visited upon women, is their segregation and isolation from the general society. Sometimes the slightest aspect of her public appearance would be considered a form of obscene exhibitionism. Even her voice was bracketed in the same category. Her mere presence at a place where men are also present was considered shameful promiscuity. She was confined to her home in a manner prescribed in Islam only as a penal sanction for an act of adultery. She was so isolated on the pretext that she might devote herself exclusively to the care of her children and the service of her husband. But how could she qualify for attending to domestic family affairs or to the rearing of children in a satisfactory manner without being herself versed through education or experience, in the moral and functional culture of the wider society?

CHAPTER IV : THE RESURGENCE OF WOMEN

The traditional customs and practices of the historical Muslim Society could not have endured long in the face of challenges posed by alien cultures and unconventional patterns of life. The external influences are represented mainly in the ideological inroads of western civilization which have swept the whole of Muslim World. The Cultural domination of Muslims by the West has shattered their confidence in almost the whole legacy of ideas, Islamic and traditional. Furthermore Muslims have imbibed and assimilated cultural attitudes and modes which are very liberal with regard to women. This trend of women's liberation constituted a serious temptation for the downtrodden Muslim women.

The western liberal tendency has itself been a revolt against a sickly religious tradition which maltreated women in ways which closely resembled the aberrant traditional ways of the Muslims. In early European Society women were not equated with men in humanity or religion, in fundamental rights or obligations, nor in legal capacity or social consideration. The revolt of the new European society against religion and convention was universal. It was in particular a complete departure from the absolute homogeneous and monotheist order that once prevailed under the authority of the Church. Society became secular and humanistic in its values and therefore heterogeneous and free, pursuing no single ultimate end in life and tending to nonconformism and libertarianism. Thus, politics, economics, science and arts - all became free and autonomous. Likewise the petrified traditional forms of social life relating to sex relations and conduct broke down towards promiscuity, permissiveness and sexual indulgence. Like power, pleasure, knowledge and beauty, sex almost became an object of total uninhibited devotion. As a consequence the woman, once again, began to lose her primacy and autonomy as a human being, to become an object for physical pleasure and commercial promotion. Her purpose in life became more to realize her femininity than to fulfil her humanity. She would fake her natural physical aspect by all sorts of artificiality and cosmetic treatment or surgery: and waste her energy, wealth and time simply to maximize her seductiveness in the eyes of men. She would dress up, adorn herself and go out simply to attract, charm and excite, by her tempting nudity, beautiful form, sweet scent, delightful colours and sex appeal. This she would do to invite the fixed attention of men, to entice some to seek her privacy. Similarly the man, when overcome by the wanton pursuit of carnal pleasure would relate to women only as male, and would affect looks and conduct simply to attract them. He might waste all energy and wealth in satisfaction of his base desires. The privacy of sex is thereby shattered in society, matrimonial relations are subverted and the institution of family is undermined as the special stable milieu for nursing, rearing, and educating the child.

This way of life has become universal in the West; but some aspects of it have swept over most of the modern sectors of our Islamic societies, just as much as economic materialism and political secularism have spread to break some Muslims loose of their solid religious moorings and thereby to weaken the norms of social control in their life. This was brought about by the dominance of western culture and the debility of the Muslim society that has become prone to adulteration and blind imitation.

On the other hand, economic and social developments in Muslim lands have precipitated the destruction of the old social order. That order, with all its conventions and traditions was rooted in the past and could not withstand the change of circumstances. Neither man nor woman was holding on to the values of the past consciously, it was merely a legacy received from historical custom giving way to practices and developments of new times. Religion was hardly present in people's minds, and then only as a cultural value to sanctify custom. Anyway, religious values were waning as religious institutions which used to promote them date and die away.

As consciousness of the growing economic needs spread in the impoverished society of Muslims, and as they became less resistant to material temptation and more deprived of the close social ties of economic solidarity, the strong pressures for a better life swept away the reservations of the past. Fathers and husbands came to encourage daughters and spouses to go out, not in pursuit of knowledge or good works, but to earn a living and supplement the family income. Women took advantage of this new-found experience and power to assert their freedom from the vanity and authority of men. This was not so much a full choice of a new and better way of life, but a liberation from the old order: a revolt against control and a fancy of the permissive model of the West. Furthermore, increased urbanisation brought more people into a new and impersonal social context with little of the close community ties of acquaintance, kinship and solidarity, that used to cultivate regard for the norms of public decency or for family honour, and that was a deterrent to acts of indecency and ignominy. The crowded urban conditions brought about much more direct contact and, as a result, many occasions for temptation between men and women. The old-time institution of 'harem', the barrier of female privacy, was dismantled for practical considerations, with no compensating development of personal piety or moral barriers. The new urban attitude was one of indifference and emancipation. in lieu of the considerate, reserved attitude of before. Under the impact of cultural change and alien domination, the traditional society of Muslims is falling apart. No lamentations by conservatives over the changing times or tenacious clinging to the past would save much. The fate of the traditional way of Muslims would not be different from that of the European old orders when its theoretical and material foundations collapsed and new social values and structures were ushered in by the revolution. If conservatives hold on to rigid customary forms of the past and fail to direct the process of change according to Islamic guidance, the change will come to pass all the same; and even faster and more tragic than in the case of Europe, if only because the European example has become so compelling.

A revolution against the condition of women in the traditional Muslim societies is inevitable. The Islamists are urged by their own ideals to reform the traditional society and to close the gap between the fallen historical reality and the desired model of ideal Islam. This is even more urgent with respect to the present state of women. Contemporary social trends in an ever closer world require an early initiative to take the direction of change in hand before it takes its free course, when the alien trends take root and are assimilated, and it becomes too late to undertake right-guided Islamic reform. The Islamists should beware of an attitude that seeks refuge from the invading liberating western culture in the indigenous past as a lesser evil that should be preserved with some accommodation. Conservation is a wasted effort. The Islamists are worthy of the leadership of the movement of women's liberation from the traditional quagmire of historical Islam, and that of their resurgence towards the heights of ideal Islam. They should not leave their society at the mercy of the advocates of westernization who exploit the urgency of reform to deform society and lead it astray. The teachings of their own religion call upon Islamists to be the right-guided leaders for the salvation of men and women, emancipating them from the shackles of history and convention, and steering their life clear of the aberrations of mutative change.

SOURCES USED

1) Tafseer Ibn-Katheer

2) Tafseer Al-Tabari

3) Fath Al-Bari, By Ibn-Hajar Al-Asqalani Commentary on Sahih Al-Bukari

4) Al Jami Al Saheeh By Al-Tirmithy

5) Saheeh Muslim

6) Sunan Abu Dawoud

7) Sunan Ibn-Maja

Cool

Al Isabah Fi Tamyeez Al Sahabah By Ibn-Hajar

9) Tabaqat By Ibn-Saad

10) Tareekh By Tabari

11) Sunan By Al Nisai

Dr Hassan al-Turabi, based in Sudan, is one of the leading scholar of Islam. Equipped with traditional Islamic education from Sudan and a Ph.D from Sorbonne, he is among the unique few leaders-scholars of the Muslim world. He has served Sudan as Speaker of the parliament, Attorney General, Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Deputy Prime Minister. Dr Turabi wrote his booklet in Arabic in 1973.