syed writes "For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast (and deny themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise, for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward.(33:35)

The Lord’s own words strike to the very heart of the issue of justice for men and women, equally. Who can deny the truth, that both are equally accountable to the Lord? There are those who decry religion because it supposedly subjugates woman and denies her rights. The truth is that the firm belief in the Lord and His Message uplifts woman and protects her rights. For belief in the Lord, and a desire to please Him, will ensure just treatment of all of humanity, as well as the other creatures of the earth and the planet itself. Only when one abandons right guidance is the status of women endangered.

Throughout history, women have suffered under the heavy hand of patriarchal societies that barely recognized her as a human being. She was stripped of her God-given rights, the right to her person and property, and treated as so much chattel, less valuable in many instances than a man’s horse or cattle. Silenced and subdued, she dwelt in the background of life, unable to fulfill her full potential as a beloved creature of the Lord.

The Lord rescued her from this precarious existence when he revealed His Words to mankind, correcting the injustice and clarifying her place in society:


“O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women. Be careful of your duty toward the Lord, before Who ye claim (your rights) of one another, and toward the wombs (that bore you). Lo! The Lord hath been a Watcher over you.� (4:1)


Thus we see that man and woman are a part of one another, each an indispensable part of the Lord’s plan, and that each has rights and responsibilities in regard to the other.


Stating that men and women are equal before the Lord does not imply that there are no differences between them, or that they share the same role as vice regents on the earth. The Lord wisely assigned complementary roles to men and women that are consonant with their natural tendencies. Thus, the man is required to provide support for the woman, as the Lord commands:


“Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because the Lord has given the one more (strength) than the other and because they support them from their means.� (4:34)


This in no way implies that a woman is the property of the man, but rather it recognizes her softer nature and allows her to fulfill her role as mother and nurturer free from the necessity of providing for herself. Many other words have been revealed that codify her rights; the right to choose her spouse, the right to inherit from her relatives, the right to work and own goods and property and to dispose of them as she sees fit, the right to have children and to enjoy marital relations, the right to learn and teach and simply be, to be a whole person, an individual with her own relationship to the Lord.
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