In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate

All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all Being, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, the Master of the Day of Judgment.1 May Allah’s mercy and peace be upon all of His Messengers and truthful and pure Prophets; and may His mercy and peace be upon the master of the children of Adam and the seal of the Prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, the trustworthy Messenger; and may His mercy and peace be upon Muhammad’s family, companions and whoever follows his guidance till the Day of Judgment.

To Proceed:

...In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate

All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all Being, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, the Master of the Day of Judgment.1 May Allah’s mercy and peace be upon all of His Messengers and truthful and pure Prophets; and may His mercy and peace be upon the master of the children of Adam and the seal of the Prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, the trustworthy Messenger; and may His mercy and peace be upon Muhammad’s family, companions and whoever follows his guidance till the Day of Judgment.

...To Proceed:

Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) lifted from women the obligation of working to provide and support herself and her family. He made this obligation particular for men alone. Allah commanded men to be responsible for the care of women during all stages of their life.

• While she is a child, she is under the care of her father. This responsibility is not lifted except by her marriage or (his or her) death, nor does it cease after she reaches a certain age as occurs in the laws of the ignorant who rule by their desires and their shallow minds.

• After she marries, the responsibility falls on her husband so long as she is under his care due to the contract of marriage.

• If she has neither father or husband, the responsibility of her care falls on her brother who assumes the role of the father when he is not present; and if she has no brother then whoever is her closest male relative (from whom she would inherit and whom would inherit from her) would assume the role of her father.

• If she has no male relatives, the obligation falls upon the Muslim community. The responsibility of her care is a communal obligation; if none fulfills that, all have sinned.

Furthermore even if she is wealthy, Islam has dropped from her the obligation of assuming care of anyone. With the presence of her husband (or for that matter her parents), it is not required that she spend upon her children unless she seeks to do such as an act of righteousness, kindness and observing ties of the womb. She is not obligated to work in order to take care of herself or her children.

This lifting of the obligation of working for the purpose of providing for herself was in order to preserve her from being degraded, as many jobs that are sought to gain livelihood entail humiliation and hardship. Likewise this responsibility was lifted to preserve her from temptation and mixing with men and because this is from the specialization that Allah has made as a law for His creation.

If women were charged to work in order to provide for their livelihood in addition to their natural duties of pregnancy, child birth, and breast feeding this would be an obligation above what she could bear and would be an injustice to women. Or this work would be at the expense of her natural duties of pregnancy, birth, breast feeding and raising her children. And this is what exactly has occurred with all nations that have deviated from what Allah has made a natural state among His creation. In these ignorant un-Islamic societies, men are pleased with this situation as this gains for them greater gratification with women and drops from them a considerable amount of the responsibility of working and supporting her and her children. This obviously is a selfish attitude on the part of men. Sadly many women are pleased with this situation, I mean gathering between working outside the house to support herself and her natural duties of pregnancy and child birth and breast feeding.

This is because of her desire for amusement and to boast; not because there is any real human or moral value in her working outside the home.

Unlike what is claimed, women’s work has no real value boosting the economy. Rather the truth is that by competing with men for jobs outside the home, women are a cause in the spread of unemployment and an increase in the useless consumption of cosmetics, clothes, and perfumes that have all become necessary items for women working outside the home. Furthermore every woman that works outside the home is in most occasions a cause for denying an opportunity for a man who could work in her place. Again this is one factor in unemployment. Moreover the man who takes the place of a woman in the household cannot substitute her in her natural duties.

We say what is the economic, moral, or social value for women working in factories, armies, cleaning streets and airports, repairing trains, cleaning public restrooms, as a security guard, driving taxis, and all other occupations that humiliate women in those countries that live for this world alone and do not think of the Hereafter.

This is all from the wretched life that Allah has warned whoever distances himself from His way. Allah (Exalted be He) has said:

Although Islam has not obligated women to work to seek a living and has appointed someone to be responsible for her during all her stages of her life; Islamic law has given women the right (so long as she has reached the age of maturity and is competent) to own and dispose of her properties without any guardianship over her (whether that be her father, husband or anyone else).

She has the right to own all forms of property, to buy and sell, give gifts and charity, and all forms of expenditure (without wastefulness) so long as it is her wealth and her acquisition. However if she is incompetent, Islam does not distinguish between men and women in declaring someone legally incompetent. Islam gave women the right to own and dispose of property, so that by this she could be a full legal personality possessing the full right to dispose of her wealth. Islam provides her with specific sources to acquire wealth, like the dower, inheritance, gifts, and all other lawful means for acquired wealth.

As women in Islamic law are not required to maintain themselves or others, she was given half of what men receive in inheritance in observation that she is not responsible for the maintenance of anyone and to replenish men’s wealth who alone are responsible to work and provide maintenance.

In this Islam opposed the ignorant un-Islamic practice that forbade women to inherit under any circumstance because she does not maintain anyone or fight against any enemy. Allah sent down in His Glorious Quran:

Without doubt those who claim that Islam is unjust toward women because it gives her half of what men receive in inheritance are ignorant of the distribution of rights and obligations in the pure, just Islamic law.

Islamic law aims to preserve the six indispensable necessities (i.e., religion, life, mind, progeny, wealth, and character) that a human being’s bliss or a good life upon earth cannot be achieved except with their preservation.

Islam has legislated laws that aim to preserve each of these six necessities.

What concerns us here for our discussion regarding the wisdom of Islam behind its specific legislations pertaining to women are the effects of these specific legislations upon preserving these six necessities and in particular the purity of one’s progeny and the correctness of his lineage to one’s parents thereby preserving the circle of relatives and the circle of the wombs. It is this lineage that distinguishes human beings on earth from all other animals.

The preservation of the purity of one’s progeny and the correctness of lineage to one’s parents is among those six indispensable necessities regarding which there is no bliss for humanity nor will humanity continue to exist without its preservation.

In order to preserve one’s lineage to his parents: 1. Islam forbade that a man under any circumstance marry his mother, daughter, sister, aunt (paternal or maternal), niece (from his brother or sister), wife’s mother, his wife’s daughter (if he had sexual relations with her mother)8 and the equivalents to these women to whom he is related by breast feeding, as Islam’s messenger has said:

The aim in forbidding marriage with these women is to preserve one’s lineage and the circle of wombs; and to allow men to become accustomed to a circle of women around him toward whom he feels no sexual desire, physical pleasure or possessiveness but rather toward whom he has feelings of love, mercy and respect. Hence the feeling a man has toward these women must be different than the feelings he has toward a woman whom he can marry and have sex.

Accordingly, Islam forbade a woman under any circumstance to marry her father, son, brother, uncle (paternal or maternal), nephew (from her brother or sister), her husband’s father or son, and likewise the equivalents to these men to whom she is bound by breast feeding. This is so that a woman may feel toward these men feelings of closeness and love that are free of any sexual desire.

2. In order to preserve the lineage and make the circle of the womb pure and clean, Islam ordered that marriage be announced, certified, and witnessed so that it may be distinguished from illicit sexual relations. To preserve the honor of women, Islam required of her guardian to pursue the marriage contract for his charge (i.e., daughter, sister, etc.). Hence she does not negotiate with a man for herself like a woman engaging in adultery or fornication. In order to preserve a woman’s dignity and guard her modesty and softness, her closest male relative settles the marriage contract for her.

3. Since illicit sexual intercourse is the plague that destroys the pure progeny and correct lineage, pure and good Islam (which is the law of Allah Who is All-Wise, Worthy of all praise) has by all means firmly closed and barred all doors leading to this plague. Islam cured this problem, before its occurrence; and has cured it after its occurrence (when it occurs) rooted it out and terminated all its effects on society. This is because the sexual instinct and natural inclination of men and women toward one another is among the strongest instincts if not the strongest.

Both men and women are weak before this instinct and this desire.

Without doubt that to fall into this plague and its spread means the destruction of the greatest ingredient for human bliss upon earth and that is purity of progeny and correct lineage. This will lead to destruction of the womb and the end of mercy. For with the spread of illicit sex there is a spread of illegitimate children. When there are many illegitimate children: the family comes to an end; the fabric of society is ripped apart; bonds of love are ended between society’s members; selfishness and narcissism becomes wide spread; and hatred and dislike is spread between people. The only feelings that remain are those of possessiveness, power, pleasure, pure self-interest, living for the moment and distancing of oneself from shouldering the responsibilities of marriage and raising children. This is a warning of the impending destruction, collapse, and loss of mercy, happiness and compassion.

4. In order to keep the progeny clean, the pure and good Islamic law ordered men and women to lower one’s glance from one another and commanded that women cover and hide their beauty from all men who are permitted to marry her.9

5. This Islamic law forbade a woman to travel alone without a guardian10.

It forbade that anyone enter her household while her husband or guardians are not present or for men (with the exception of her husband or guardian) to remain in private with them. The intent behind all these regulations is to preserve honor, to keep away from the areas of temptation and doubt, and to preserve trust and peace of mind regarding chastity and uprightness.

6. Without doubt, that the Islamic regulations regarding chastity (such as the women’s dress code and others) were never a barrier for women to reach the highest degree of perfection possible for her in terms in all its branches of knowledge, virtue and righteousness. Indeed the women’s dress code is among the greatest means that free men and women to reach their aims, as they are not preoccupied with the other sex all the time. Practice shows that those students who are in single sex universities are more apt to learn than those in coeducational institutions.

These regulations that Islam has legislated to preserve character and to guard the purity of offspring and correctness of lineage are opposed bythose who follow their desires and are short sighted, those who want tolive for their desires and their self interests even if this results in every evil and sin. The attack of these perverts on Islamic laws that govern chastity and the preservation of lineage was not as they claim out of their desire to protect women, her rights or to show justice to her. Rather their aim was to take women while still in their youth out of their homes so that she can be within their reach whenever and wherever they want, to deceive married women not to preserve the rights of her husband or guard her lineage, and to make a woman in every stage of her life a plaything and an object of pleasure for men that he may fulfill his sexual desire in every way and at the same time leave her to deal with what is in her womb, while he is free to have many as girl friends and passing lovers.

In the end, women are left after pregnancy to shoulder all the responsibilities.

Either she will commit the crime of murdering her child prior to giving birth or after; or either she will give up her child to a foster home where it will raised far away from any family as animals are raised in shelters; or either she will throw her baby away in the trash. If there remains anything of her maternal instincts, she will try to find some means to take care of this child. She might look for another man to replace the first who after fulfilling his desires left her.

This painful reality is what has resulted in the sinful, amoral societies wherein men claim that they want to preserve women’s rights and give her equality with men. This reality is the greatest proof that their claim that they seek equality is only a lie and a means of deception.

Women were the sacrificial ram for this call to “equality.” For her to seek a livelihood has become a necessity of life and it is against her nature and constitution.

A man is able to have sex with a thousand women and will never carry anything in his belly, and still will be able to have sex with a thousand more. While a woman might become pregnant during her first sexual experience with any passing man who seeks only gratification. She alone is held responsible for all the rest. She will either kill what lies in her belly or she will be responsible for all the maintenance and what follows.