There are many proofs to confirm the fact that Islam is the real emancipator of the woman or the female from her slavery. To make this more evident, we will clarify how Islam protects the rights of the woman from the time she is a fetus in her mother’s womb until she dies and meets her Lord.
1- Islam preserves the woman’s rights before her birth when Allah The Almighty granted her, along with the man, succession to authority on earth, and made Hawwaa’ (Eve) may Allah exalt her mention, share religious obligations with Aadam (Adam) . Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.”} [Quran 2:30]
2- Islam protects her humanity and has made her equal to man. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.} [Quran 49:13] Also, the Messenger of Allah said: “Women are peers of men.”
3- Islam protects her rights as one of the signs of Allah The Almighty that necessitate praising Him. Allah The Almighty says (what means): {And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.} [Quran 30:21]
4- Islam protects her rights by making her a gift to mankind. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {He gives to whom He wills female [children], and He gives to whom He wills males.} [Quran 42:49]
5- Islam protects her entity in society by considering her responsible for the establishment of virtue and the disappearance of vice on earth, through enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil, just like man. In this way, she was made to carry the responsibility of religion and the call to Allah as a trust for which she and man will be held accountable before Allah The Almighty, who says (what means): {The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give Zakah [obligatory charity] and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those – Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.} [Quran 9:71]
6- Islam protects the rights of the woman by deeming it foolish, if not sinful, to commit any transgression against her. Moreover, her arrival is a means of making the Muslim family rejoice. Allah Says (what means):
* {And when one of them is informed of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. He hides himself from the people because of the ill of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably, evil is what they decide.} [Quran 16:58-59]
* {Those will have lost who killed their children in foolishness without knowledge and prohibited what Allah had provided for them, inventing untruth about Allah. They have gone astray and were not [rightly] guided.} [Quran 6:140]
7- Islam protects the rights of the woman when it stated that killing her, or the man, is like killing all of mankind. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.} [Quran 5:32]
8- Islam protects the right of the woman when she is in her mother’s womb. If her mother is divorced while she is still in her womb, it becomes due upon the father, in Islam, to spend on the mother during the period of pregnancy as shown in the following statement of Allah The Almighty (which means): {And if they should be pregnant, then spend on them until they give birth.} [Quran 65:6]
9- Islam protects the right of the woman (when she is still a fetus), that no corporal punishment should be executed on her mother while she is still pregnant lest she should be affected. When Al-Ghaamidiyyah (a woman who committed adultery) came to the Messenger of Allah and said to him, “O Messenger of Allah, purify me (by executing the corporal punishment prescribed for adultery on me).” He said to her: “Not until you deliver what is in your womb.”
10- Islam also protects the right of the woman as an infant. When Al-Ghaamidiyyah gave birth to her child and returned to ask for the corporal punishment (prescribed for adultery) to be executed on her, the Messenger of Allah said to her: “Go and suckle your child until he is weaned.”
11- Islam protects the right of the female as a newborn in terms of spending and clothing as shown in the statement of Allah The Almighty (which means): {Upon the father is the mothers’ provision and their clothing according to what is acceptable.} [Quran 2:233]
12- Islam protects the right of the young female as it deems her as being in the period of rearing that extends for some years (after suckling), and enjoins upon the husband spending her mother during that period given the general evidence in support of spending on children.
13- Islam protects the rights of the woman in inheritance in general, whether she is young or old. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one’s estate. And if there is only one, for her is half.} [Quran 4:11]
14- Islam even protects the lives of polytheistic women by forbidding their being killed in wars. It was narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said, “A woman was found killed during one of the battles led by the Prophet thereupon he forbade killing women and children (in wars).” [Al-Bukhari, Muslim and others]
15- Islam protects the rights of the woman by prohibiting burying her alive and making it obligatory to provide her with a good upbringing and education. Allah, The Almighty, Says (what means): {And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked – for what sin she was killed.} [Quran 81:8-9] The Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever has a female child whom he neither buries alive, nor humiliates, and never favors a male child of his over her, Allah will admit him to Paradise.”
16- Islam protects the rights of the woman by considering her a fundamental component of goodness in the world and the Hereafter. The Messenger of Allah said: “If one is given the following four, he will have the goodness of both this world and the Hereafter: a thankful heart, an ever-remembering tongue (that always remembers and mentions Allah), a persevering body (that is patient) when under ordeal and a wife who maintains his honor and property.”
17- Islam protects the rights of the woman by considering her as the finest thing in this world. The Messenger of Allah said: “The world is but enjoyment, and the finest enjoyment is a righteous woman (wife).”
18- Islam protects the rights of the woman by placing Paradise, the aim of all the believers, under her feet. What a great honor the woman has received in Islam! The Messenger of Allah said: “(The way to) Paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers.” It was narrated that a man came to the Prophet and the latter asked him: “Do you have a mother (alive)?” He answered in the affirmative, thereupon, the Prophet said: “Then, stick to her, as (the way to) Paradise lies beneath her feet.”
19- Islam protects the rights of the woman by removing from her the curse of perpetual sin which the previous religions stained her with; rather; Islam considers Hawwaa’ (Eve) and her husband, Aadam (Adam), may Allah exalt their mention, as having sinned and then been given repentance and forgiveness. Allah The Almighty Says (what means):
* {But Satan caused them to slip out of it and removed them from that [condition] in which they had been.} [Quran 2:36]
* {But Satan whispered to them.} [Quran 7:20]
When Aadam (Adam) may Allah exalt his mention, and eve had sinned, Allah condemned one person only, who was Aadam, as Allah Says (what means): {Then Satan whispered to him; he said, “O Aadam, shall I direct you to the tree of eternity and possession that will not deteriorate?”} [Quran 20:120]
20- Islam protects the rights of the woman by assigning to her a share in inheritance after she herself had been (for long centuries) a part of it. Allah The Almighty Says (what means):
* {For men is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, and for women is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, be it little or much – an obligatory share.} [Quran 4:7]
* {Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females. But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one’s estate. And if there is only one, for her is half. And for one’s parents, to each one of them is a sixth of his estate if he left children. But if he had no children and the parents [alone] inherit from him, then for his mother is one third. And if he had brothers [or sisters], for his mother is a sixth, after any bequest he [may have] made or debt. Your parents or your children – you know not which of them are nearest to you in benefit. [These shares are] an obligation [imposed] by Allah. Indeed, Allah is Ever Knowing and Wise. And for you is half of what your wives leave if they have no child. But if they have a child, for you is one fourth of what they leave, after any bequest they [may have] made or debt. And for the wives is one fourth if you leave no child. But if you leave a child, then for them is an eighth of what you leave, after any bequest you [may have] made or debt. And if a man or woman leaves neither ascendants nor descendants but has a brother or a sister, then for each one of them is a sixth. But if they are more than two, they share a third, after any bequest which was made or debt, as long as there is no detriment [caused]. [This is] an ordinance from Allah, and Allah is Knowing and Forbearing.} [Quran 4:11-12]
21- Islam protects the rights of the woman by granting her all her civil rights. She thus came to have the right to conclude contracts of sale, purchase, authorization, partnership, loan, mortgage, to gift, and so on.
22- Islam protects the rights of the woman by removing from her the permanent state of being minor, as it acknowledged her full legal competence and gave her the right of guardianship over her property and other affairs.
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