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A MUSLIM RESPONSE TO SWINE FLU EPIDEMIC

In a Caribbean island of Trinidad that is blessed with a plural society, and which celebrates that plurality with the democratic proclamation “here every creed and race finds an equal...
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The Women of Islam in The House of Allah

There is no doubt whatsoever that this essay is going to provoke both positive and negative responses from readers. But our purpose in writing it is to provoke enlightened responses from our...
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The Philosophy of Gender in Islam

If God is a man, that’s bad news for women – because masculinity would then be divine – and hence only the male would have been created in the divine image. This explains why the feminist...
+ Read More

Woman and Paradise in Islam

The secular feminist revolution rose upon the world from the West with an essentially godless agenda to liberate women from the “shackles” of the ages by totally transforming her status, role...
+ Read More

Other Articles

Iqbāl and Pakistan's Moment of Truth - FULL ESSAY PDF Print E-mail
Islam and Politics
Written by Imran Nazar Hosein   

Introductory comment

Time is running out for the republican State of Pakistan. Only those who see with one eye will fail to recognize the evil reality that clients of Israel now control strategic decision-making both in Pakistan’s government as well as in the Armed Forces. The writing appears to be on the wall for Pakistan – unless Pakistani Muslims can rid themselves of those clients of Israel. The best way to do so appears to be through massive peaceful public demonstrations similar to those which brought down the USSR with narry a nuclear risk, rather than civil war which will automatically invite external military intervention that will eventually dismember Pakistan.

Scholars of Islam have a duty to prepare Muslims for destructive attacks that are soon to be launched which will target not only Pakistan but perhaps, Turkey and Iran as well. The situation is not entirely hopeless since at least the Iranian Armed Forces do not appear to be under the control of Israel’s clients. In fact Iran seems to have already succeeded in building a strategic alliance with Russia. It is interesting to note that an authentic Hadīth has prophesied an end-time Muslim alliance with Rūm (i.e., Byzantine Christianity that was based in Constantinople), and Russia is part of Rūm. The Saudi and Pakistani governments and Armed Forces on the other hand, are allied with the Anglo-American-Israeli alliance which does not form part of Rūm.

Those who control power in Britain, USA, and Israel, and who now have a strategic ally in India, are already waging unjust war on Islam and Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, but most of all in the Holy Land (otherwise known as Palestine). Their ruthlessness is such that they would wage war even upon their own people if such were deemed to be necessary for achieving their messianic goal. The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which killed thousands of innocent people was an ominous example of what they are capable of doing. The recent US military occupation of Haiti in consequence of a massive earthquake for which the US Armed Forces seem to have been mysteriously prepared (right down to drills conducted on the very eve of the earthquake), displays for the umpteenth time the extent to which they would commit monstrously evil deeds in dogmatic pursuit of goals such as the overthrow of Venezuela’s courageous government. Earthquakes have now become their mysterious new weapon of war. Will Caracas and Islamabad soon be targeted with massive earthquakes? Or will a nuclear device be exploded in USA or a very prominent American assassinated, and Pakistani or Iranian Muslims be held responsible, so that causus bellum can be created?

Their messianic goal is to deliver to Israel the rule over the whole world so that a false Messiah can rule the world from Jerusalem with a fraudulent claim to be the true Messiah. That goal cannot be achieved so long as Pakistan possesses nuclear military power. Hence the most important attack that must now be anticipated is on Pakistan’s nuclear installations.

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"My words are like stars – they do not set." Chief See-at-hl PDF Print E-mail
Islam and Politics
Written by Imran Nazar Hosein   

The French have a proverb: ‘plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose’, i.e. the more it (appears to) change - the more it is (in fact) the same thing.

Muslims are being slaughtered in Afghanistan, North-West Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere, and we anticipate more of the same “from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates’ as well as in Venezuela, Bolivia, Iran and elsewhere. Yet many still do not recognize the falsehood of the claim that all the intimidation, bloodshed and mass slaughter is being perpetrated in the name of establishing democracy. In fact the substance of the Judeo-Christian European alliance which drives the current barbaric Anglo-American-Israeli world-order does not appear to have changed in the last 150 years. Consider the following words of Chief See-at-hl, delivered in a speech directed at the President of America in 1855. This same address could have been delivered by Malcolm X 100 years later in 1955. And if we had the eloquence of those two men we could speak the same words today, 150 years later, in a world now ruled by the same white slave-master who now hides behind a deceptively innocent black face.

Imran N. Hosein

I would like to acknowledge a dear student of mine, Siti Rabeah Abdul Malek (Umm Ridwan), who very kindly directed my attention to this great speech.

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A MUSLIM RESPONSE TO SWINE FLU EPIDEMIC PDF Print E-mail
Signs of Last Day
Written by Imran Nazar Hosein   
In a Caribbean island of Trinidad that is blessed with a plural society, and which celebrates that plurality with the democratic proclamation “here every creed and race finds an equal place”, we Muslims are grateful that we still have at least that much freedom that we can buy newspaper space to publish a Muslim viewpoint on an issue as critically important as ‘Swine-Flu epidemic’. That appears to be the only way now left for publication of an authentic Muslim viewpoint in the so-called ‘free world’s’ print media.

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the influenza virus popularly known as ‘Swine Flu’. A Phase 6 designation indicates, according to WHO, that a global pandemic is underway. A pandemic occurs when a contagious viral disease infects people (and this may include animals) throughout an entire country or region, or even world-wide.

Prophet Muhammad Epidemics and the Anti-Christ

Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) gave precise instructions how to respond to epidemics and pandemics, and this essay reminds readers of those instructions. The Arabic word (al-Tā’ūn) which he used is more properly translated as epidemic/pestilence, and this would include plague. The essay also directs attention to his prophecy linking epidemics/pandemics with Dajjāl the false Messiah or Anti-Christ. Readers should know that Islam recognizes Dajjāl the False Messiah to be a supremely evil being with a PhD in deception who seeks to impersonate the true Messiah (the son of Mary). As a consequence he is now establishing his evil rule over all of mankind with a universal political, economic and monetary dictatorship. He is also now quite close to achieving his final goal of ruling the world from Holy Jerusalem. It is only at that time when he publicly proclaims himself from Jerusalem to be the Messiah - and not a day before - that Jesus the true Messiah would return to dispatch him, as well as those who support his evil dictatorship, to the garbage bin of history.

 

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Surah Fatiha and Spiritual Quest PDF Print E-mail
Islamic Spirituality
Transcription of a lecture delivered by Maulana Imran N Hosein at Maulana Ansari dhikr group gathering, Abd-al-Aleem House, Cape Town, South Africa.
Lecture transcribed by Irshad Soofie (http://www.sufi.co.za)
We begin with Allah's Blessed name; we praise Him and we glorify Him as He aught to be glorified and we pray for peace and blessings on all His noble messengers and in particular the last of them all, the blessed Prophet Muhammad. Nabi Muhammad warned; he warned of an age that is to come, which would be a terrible age, more terrible than any age that mankind would ever had experienced since Adam came on earth. Very few would survive that age. A terrible, evil, mastermind will attempt to take control of the world. And that terrible, evil, mastermind of whom Allah had hinted when He said:



قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ
{1}

مِن شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ {2}


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The Qur'an, the Family and Crime PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Siddiq A. Nasir   
This is the last of four Ramadan Special essays published by Jama Masjid, San Fernando, and written by Islamic scholars Imran N. Hosein and Siddiq A. Nasir, that turn to the blessed Qur'an in an attempt to respond to rampant crime. Rallies, marches, changing Ministers of Government and Police Commissioners, etc., can never be a substitute for knowledge. The previous three essays focused on: 'Crime and the Secular Society', 'Crime and the Economy' and 'Crime and the Philosophy of Punishment'.

WHAT IS FAMILY? 

The "Family" has been under a devastating, multi-pronged attack for many decades by the secularism-based prevailing culture.  "Family" used to be understood as the social unit based on the union of a male and a female, married to each other, and the offspring they beget or adopt (even if death of one of the partners, or divorce, subsequently, takes place). 
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The Qur'an, Secularism and Crime PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Siddiq A. Nasir   
Who decides what is right and what is wrong?  The society?  Religion?  The Government?  I  myself?
And now we see a shift, in contemporary society, from principles of right and wrong to choices, decisions and risks, and therefore to subjective personal decisions, with little regard for wider consequences.  No longer is "man the measure of all things" - I am the measure of all things.  We need to carefully examine this shift because it constitutes one of the main underlying causes of crime.  One of the obvious solutions to crime would therefore be the concerted effort to reverse this shift. 
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The Qur'an, crime and a philosophy of punishment PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Imran N Hosein   
This is the second of four Ramadan Special essays published by Jama Masjid, San Fernando, and written by Islamic scholars Imran N. Hosein and Siddiq A. Nasir, that turn to the blessed Qur'an in an attempt to respond to rampant crime. Rallies, marches, calls to change Ministers of Government and Police Commissioners, etc., are never a substitute for knowledge. The first essay focused on 'Crime and the Economy', and the next two will focus on 'Crime and the Secular Society' and 'Crime and the Family'.

Those who proclaim 'God's Supremacy' in their Constitution ("Whereas the People of Trinidad and Tobago have affirmed that the Nation of Trinidad and Tobago is founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God .  .  ."), and then proceed to defy Him by rejecting His Law and by substituting in its place their own contrary law as 'supreme law', are a people who knowingly commit blasphemy. That is precisely what this Caribbean State has done in Art. 2 of its Constitution: "This Constitution is the supreme law of Trinidad and Tobago, and any other law (including God's Law) that is inconsistent with this Constitution is void to the extent of the inconsistency."
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The Qur'an, Crime and the Economy PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Imran Nazar Hosein   
  This is the first of four Ramadan Special essays published by Jama Masjid, San Fernando, and written by Islamic scholars Imran N. Hosein and Siddiq A. Nasir, that turn to the blessed Qur'an in an attempt to respond to rampant crime. Rallies, marches, changing Ministers of Government and Police Commissioners, etc., can never be a substitute for knowledge. The next three essays would focus on: 'Crime and the Philosophy of Punishment', 'Crime and the Secular Society' and 'Crime and the Family'.
Economic ghettos now spawn, to a very large extent, the present endless nightmare of gang and drug warfare, armed robbery, kidnapping, and wanton senseless murder. Those ghettos will dramatically increase when the US dollar collapses totally and the TT dollar faithfully follows its monetary Massa in that collapse. Inflation will increase dramatically, and so too will crime! 
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A Bhutto is a Bhutto PDF Print E-mail
Islam and Politics
Written by Imran Nazar Hosein   
 
I slept through the night without any consciousness that it was old year's night, and I went to the Masjid here in Cape Town this morning for Salaat, came back home and made me a nice cup of coffee, and then went back to work on this Bhutto essay without any consciousness that Pope Gregory's New Year had dawned. That represents startling evidence of the anti-systemic character of my being and consciousness.

The Anglo-American-Israeli triple alliance which now rules the world from London, Washington and Jerusalem, and which wages unjust war on Islam and Muslims on behalf of the Euro-Jewish State of Israel, has lost in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto one who proclaimed herself to be their dearest friend and supporter. She walked the extra mile, and talked even more than that, to convince them that she was a sincere friend and ally. She did so because she understood perfectly well that Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia, was different from most other countries in the world in the sense that the ruling Jewish-Christian alliance that had created the world-order would never tolerate the survival of any regime in either country unless it was subservient to them. While this was also true of nearly all of the rest of the world of Islam, it was emphatically so in respect of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
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Islam, Murabaha and Fixed Deposits PDF Print E-mail
Islam and Usury
Written by Imran N. Hosein   
Islam has declared war on the moneylender who demands interest. It did so in the very last divine revelation (al-Baqarah, 2:279) to come down in the Holy Qur’an. Here is that last revelation:

“O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and give up what remains of your demand for usury (i.e., the interest due on a fixed deposit, or on any other loan on interest), if ye are indeed believers.”  If ye do it not (i.e. if you persist in your claim or demand for the interest due to you), then take notice of (a declaration of) war from Allah and His Messenger: but if ye turn away (from such claim or demand), then you are entitled to the return of your capital sum (placed in the fixed deposit or otherwise lent); do not enter into (such) unjust transactions, nor allow yourselves to be subjected to such.

If (you forgo the interest due to you and then find) the debtor in a difficulty (in respect of returning the capital sum that was lent to him on interest), grant him time till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.

And (in this matter in particular, i.e., lending money on interest) fear the Day when ye shall be brought back to Allah. Then shall every soul be paid what it earned, and none shall be dealt with unjustly.’ (Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:278-281)

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A Great Book on Islam! PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   

 

“As matters stand in the Muslim world today, it is the decline of religious leadership from the Islamic standard in a serious measure that constitutes a major cause of its inability with regard to its emergence from the abyss into which it has been descending since some time. The remedy for the situation is obvious.” - Fazlur Rahman Ansari, ‘The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society’.

 

The Quranic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society (in two volumes) was written by the distinguished Islamic scholar and Sufi Shaikh, Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari (1914-1974), and was first published in Pakistan in 1973 just a few months before his death in 1974. It is not only a masterpiece of modern Islamic scholarship, but it also courageously identifies serious deficiencies in contemporary Islamic scholarship as one of the major causes of the decline of the Muslim world. The author of the book, who holds a doctorate in philosophy, was a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, India, where he studied philosophy and religion. He derived his Islamic philosophical and spiritual thought from the outstanding Islamic scholar, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, as well as from his spiritual mentor, Maulana Abdul Aleem Siddiqui, and the great teacher who taught him Islam at the Aligarh Muslim University, Professor Syed Sulaiman Ashraf.

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The Women of Islam in The House of Allah PDF Print E-mail
Women in Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   

There is no doubt whatsoever that this essay is going to provoke both positive and negative responses from readers. But our purpose in writing it is to provoke enlightened responses from our intelligent readers — responses that would dispel complacency over (what this writer perceives as) unfortunate instances of misguided tradition. Let us at the outset remind the Muslim reader of the prophecy of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) concerning the Day of Judgment:


“Narrated Anas ibn Malik:

One day when the Messenger of Allah was sitting amongst us, he dozed off. He then raised his head, smiling. We asked: What makes you smile, Oh Messenger of Allah?
He said: A Surah has just been revealed to me, and then recited: ‘In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Verily We have given thee al-Kawthar (fountain of abundance). Therefore turn to thy Lord for prayer and offer sacrifice, and surely thy enemy is cut off (from the good).’ Then he (the Holy Prophet) asked: Do you know what al-Kawthar is? We said: Allah and His Messenger know best. The Holy Prophet said: It (Kawthar) is a fountain (spring or river) which my Lord, the Exalted and Glorious, has promised me, and there is an abundance of good in it. It is a cistern and my people will come to it on the Day of Resurrection, and cups there (for drinking) would be equal to the number of stars. A servant will be turned away from (among those gathered there). Upon this I shall say: My Lord, he is one of my people. He (the Lord) will say: You do not know that he created new things (in Islam) after you. Ibn Hujr made this addition in the Hadith: “ He (the Holy Prophet) was sitting amongst us in the mosque, and He (Allah) said: (You don’t know) what he innovated after you.”

(Sahih Muslim)

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A Muslim Response to The ‘Trinity Cross’ Problem PDF Print E-mail
Islam and Politics
Written by Imran N. Hosein   
Trinidad and Tobago’s highest national award was designated the ‘Trinity Cross’. This essay was published in 2004 in a full-page of a local newspaper, and it provoked a major Hindu organization to join hands with a Muslim body to take the matter to court. The judge ruled that the national award was discriminatory. The government which had procrastinated on the issue for almost 40 years, was forced to respond and change the award.

Some declare, with their heads buried ‘ostrich-like’ in the sand, that there is no ‘Trinity Cross’ problem facing this country, or that it is a ‘non-issue’. Others recognise the problem but choose to do nothing about it, or to peddle disinformation and scurry around inventing flimsy and irrelevant defences for an unjust and, hence, indefensible status quo. We are saddened by this, but not surprised.

 

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Indian Muslims in The Caribbean PDF Print E-mail
Islam and Politics
Written by Imran N. Hosein   

How should we, Indian Muslims in the Caribbean, commemorate the event of our arrival in the Caribbean almost 200 years ago? If we do not ourselves respond at this time to this subject in a manner consistent with our faith in Allah Most High, and with our mission as Muslims in the world, then our great grandmother’s tears would be shamelessly exploited by those who pursue a sinister agenda on behalf of the slave-master who brought us from distant India to these shores, and who still rules the world.

It was in the quaint town of Ladysmith in South Africa that I met Dr. Adam two years ago. I had just delivered a lecture on Islam in which I lamented that my audience was almost exclusively Indian, despite the fact that they were Muslims and they had ‘arrived’ in black South Africa from their native India generations ago. I mentioned that I had the same depressing experience when I entered the Masjid in Bridgetown in the Caribbean island of Barbados and felt as if I was in downtown Bombay. And even in my own native Trinidad there were so-called Islamic organizations that were not only almost exclusively Indian, but also went out of their way to preserve and promote their ‘Indian’ identity. One of them even banned this writer from lecturing on Islam, and declared that he was “a great security risk”.
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Why do Muslims Pray Five Times a Day? PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   
The Catholic Prime Minister of the Caribbean island of St. T Vincent is reported (Trinidad Guardian, May 8th, 2004) to have entered into the Mt. St. Benedict (Catholic) Monastery in Trinidad for a spiritual retreat during which “ he would join the monks in praying five times a day”. There are many people in the Caribbean who have chosen to become Muslims by proclaiming that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. When they do so they are taught, first of all, to pray ‘five times a day’. What is the origin of ‘five times’ daily prayers? We feel certain that there will be many, apart from the Prime Minister and the monks in the monastery, who will find this subject to be of compelling and abiding interesting.
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The Philosophy of Gender in Islam PDF Print E-mail
Women in Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   

If God is a man, that’s bad news for women – because masculinity would then be divine – and hence only the male would have been created in the divine image. This explains why the feminist revolution has redefined God as being both male and female. Islam declares that Allah Most High created both the male and the female but is neither male nor female. In addition, He never appeared in the person of anyone, male or female. And so neither at point of creation, nor at any time thereafter, has the male ever defined the female in Islam. Islam is thus unique in offering to women the opportunity to pray to a God who is not a man.

Nor has Islam ever discriminated between the male and the female in an unjust way. A woman complained to the Prophet (peace be upon him) that divine revelation in the Qur’an was addressing men only. What about women? she asked. In response, revelation came down in the Qur’an that addressed both men and women in such constant repetition that the matter was conclusively settled that Allah Most High does not discriminate in matters concerning gender in any unjust way. Indeed the blessed Prophet declared that all of mankind (male and female) would stand before Allah on the Last Day “as equal in His sight as are the teeth of a comb.”

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Woman and Paradise in Islam PDF Print E-mail
Women in Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   

The secular feminist revolution rose upon the world from the West with an essentially godless agenda to liberate women from the “shackles” of the ages by totally transforming her status, role and function in society. In so doing it has turned the previous religious and sacred order upside-down in such a way that the sun now appears to be rising from the west.

Secularism led to materialism which in turn denied woman any reality beyond her material reality. Consequently the young beautiful woman became the goddess of the age. But she was a goddess who was shamelessly exploited in advertising to sell everything. She became a thing enjoyed, exploited, abused, degraded and discarded when her physical beauty and sex appeal began to wane. Then a host of schoolgirls would rush in to replace her. Even the national calypsonian gave his view on the subject quite some time ago when he sang of the prostitute, “… and if you catch them broken (i.e., in financial difficulty), you can get them all for nothing.”

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The Eid of Sacrifice PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   
Selfish people cannot sacrifice, and hence cannot truly love. True love always requires sacrifice. The greater and more profound the love – the greater the sacrifice it commands. In this sense it is only the brave and courageous, only those who can ‘give’, and ‘take’ nothing in return, who can truly love, for only they can truly sacrifice. What do they know of love who only ‘take’, and ‘give’ nothing in return? In fact, loving a woman is like loving God, which makes the subject easy to understand. He who can sacrifice can also be faithful, whereas he who cannot sacrifice can surely betray! It is in this context that we can now understand the implications of those memorable words: “If you love me, then keep My commandments”. Sacrifice was thus instituted as an integral part of the religious way of life, for Abraham, the Prophet, truly loved his God, and when Allah Most High tested that love with the supreme sacrifice, it was love that strengthened him and gave him ‘wings with which to fly’ to fulfill the divine commands.
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Ashurah in The Qur’an PDF Print E-mail
Understanding Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   
The Qur’an has described the event when Moses (‘alaihi al-Salam) was ordered to flee by night from the eastern delta of Egypt where the Israelites had all assembled, towards the sea, and beyond that to the Holy Land “which Allah had given to them”. Pharaoh pursued and caught up with them as they approached the sea. They were now trapped, and he was certain that he would succeed, once and for all, in destroying those who resisted his imperial rule, and who bowed to a God other than himself. Allah Most High ordered Moses (‘alaihi al-Salam) to strike the water with his staff, and behold, the waters miraculously parted to make a way for the believers to cross the sea to safety. The same sea drowned Pharaoh - the mighty, arrogant godless oppressor, and his power drunk-army when they attempted to cross. Muslims around the world will fast for two days this week to commemorate that event of Ashurah.
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The Feminist Revolution and The Last Age PDF Print E-mail
Women in Islam
Written by Imran N. Hosein   

The Qur’an likened the creation of the male and the female to that of the ‘night’ and the ‘day’, implying that they complement each other “… like twin-halves of a whole.” But they are also functionally different; hence a successful and harmonious male-female relationship requires that the ‘day’ (i.e. the male) must function as ‘day’ and not try to become ‘night’, and similarly the ‘night’ (i.e., woman) must function as ‘night’ (which covers and conceals) and not try to become ‘day’. Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) ordered, “. . when a girl reaches the age of puberty nothing must be seen of her body except this and this (he pointed to the face and hands).” And so Muslim women have always covered themselves in Hijab—concealing arms, legs, bellies, head, hair, etc., in loose-fitting clothing.

Since women have a basic function of bearing and rearing children it was necessary that they be freed of an obligation to earn their livelihood. Thus the Qur’an obliged men to maintain, as well as to guard and protect them, and, in turn, obliged a woman to be obedient to her husband or guardian. Men and women ought to marry in Allah’s blessed name, and live in accordance with His guidance. Then, says the Qur’an, “… Allah places love and kindness betwix their hearts” in consequence of which they experience Sukun, i.e., peace, contentment and tranquility.

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