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An essay by Mr. Amr Khaled for Al-mara’a Al-yawm Magazine (The Woman Today), on 3/ 23 /3004

You accomplish it; become independent, refuse to give in, liberate yourself from the restraint of enslavement, rebel against oppression, revolt against arrogance, declare your point of view, speak your opinion, don’t silence your complaints, express your anger, demand your rights, and become confident of yourself; you aren't less than him and he isn't better than you.

I perfectly agree with this short revolutionary message and I call for its being! I see it as a liberating message - Islam frees its women and destroys with it all the restraints that she was forced under, including the undermining of her significance and the diminishing of her honor.

Every part of the revolutionary message was called by Islam and was insisted upon. What's nice, but also unique, is that the revolutionary movement that was led by Islam was a virtuous movement and any hardships or struggles were not included in it. It’s liberation of women evolved in utmost calmness, humanity, and honorable conformity. Therefore, all of the guidelines of the revolutionary call was done verbally and internally. What is astonishing is that the one that was put in charge of enforcing this message was the opponent - man- in which the guidelines came down in the first place to stop him from supreme power in his taking of what he thought was his right. What is even more astonishing than this is that the opponent applied by this enforcement of the message in utmost obedience and good-heartedness, without controversy, misuse; not even procrastination in the execution of a prospect history recorded with its uniqueness. This event couldn’t have happened as described except with attaining faith.

That Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) were believers and they called for what the prophet ordered and prescribed; they allowed what he allowed and they forbade what he forbade. They did this despite the outcome that usually lessened their sovereignty and it decreased the great outlook their women had towards them. It is an action of the true faith when he has control over the people. Allah (SWT) says, reinforcing this fact, what can be translated as, “The answer of the Believers, when summoned to Allah and His Messenger, in order that He may judge between them, is no other than this: they say, ‘We hear and we obey’: it is such as these that will attain felicity. It is such as obey Allah and His Messenger, and fear Allah and do right, that will win (in the end)” (TMQ, 24:51-52)[1].

Similar is what Allah (SWT) says in Surah Al-Ahzab. The verse can be translated as, “It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.” (TMQ, 33:36).

They had understood that true faith requires the establishment of equality and the bringing of justice upon the other, even if it was from the elite. They did this with their wives and they gave them what Allah (SWT) had given them from above seven skies without falsification or changing of words. Omar, the Farooq, may God be pleased with him, has expressed his opinion about this truth in his saying, “We wouldn’t judge for the women a matter until Allah sent down to them what he sent and vowed to them.” Islam has liberated the woman with honor and with what it instituted from respect for the judgment in the souls of its followers.

Thus, Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, “O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves.” (TMQ, 4: 135). Then He sent down after that a ruling that opened up for the women and limited with it the power of men. The believing man didn’t allow except acting upon what Allah sent down even if it was a lessening of himself. This is what holds the way of faith in our history that we are proud of.

With this long introduction, I want to affirm the true Islam, which others have robbed from in broad daylight and overtly. They claim they are its teachers and if only they had had enough with that. Yet they confused the Muslims, especially the Muslim women, of their religion by saying that Islam favored the men over the women, and thus made her a being of the second class.

They want, from behind their calls, the Muslim women to lose her trust in her religion, and take in, instead, their culture. It is the big prank that the Muslim women are exposed to; the trap that weaves its ropes normally and with great liveliness to bring down with it. So what are we doing? I personally am going to hold a pair of sharp scissors and I shall shred the knots of the trap and its ropes. Knot by knot and rope by rope without tiredness or boredom and the first that I shall shred is the calling to that supposed claim that Islam abolished the identity of the women as well as their independency and made them the followers of men. The opposite is what is correct; Islam affirmed a woman’s identity and freedom and banished for her the following of men. The proof to that is that Allah mentioned her next to the man in the Quran. Every person decides the truth of her independent identity from another perspective and a new point of view. In the issue of creation, she is an independent being. Allah says what can be translated as, "By the Night as it conceals (the light); By the Day as it appears in glory; By (the mystery of) the creation of male and female;- Verily, (the ends) ye strive for are diverse.” (TMQ, 92:1-4). Can we not see the creation of the male and female!

In the issue of the jural duty, she is an independent individual, exactly like the man. To clarify the truth about the most risky issues by far, which is the issue of choosing between believing and disbelieving, Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, “Allah sets forth, for an example to the Unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut: they were (respectively) under two of our righteous servants, but they were false to their (husbands), and they profited nothing before Allah on their account, but were told: ‘Enter ye the Fire along with (others) that enter!’ And Allah sets forth, as an example to those who believe the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: ‘O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to Thee, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong’; And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations, and was one of the devout (servants).” (TMQ, 66:10-12).

Nuh and Lut (Noah & Lot) --may God be pleased with them-- didn’t have the authority to force their wives to believe and didn’t have the ability to compel them to follow them though they were two Muslim prophets. The sunnah in its correct text calls to this independence in the identity. The Prophet (PBUH) said, “There is no obedience for a creation in the disobedience of the creator,” and he said in another hadith, “Not one of you is a follower.” They asked him, “who is the follower O Prophet of Allah?” He said, “a man that does good if the people do good; and if they do bad, he does bad. However, make yourselves so that if people do good, you do good and if they do bad, you abstain from their sins.”

The question that I want to throw in is “is this principle specifically for the man only and does not pertain to the woman? This means that it is forbidden for the man to obey a person in disobeying Allah and it is permissible for the woman to obey her husband when he calls for her to disobey Allah on the basis that she a follower of him. Does she not have the right to contradict him?

It is truly unacceptable for her and if she obeys him, she will sin and will be held accountable for following what is wrong. These words, despite their sparseness and extreme briefness, are considered of utmost reasonability. It is the liberating origin in the aspect of internalizing and dignifying when you make your loyalty for Allah alone without partners and not for a person despite how personal the relationship is, even if he was the husband that is the captain and leader of the ship.

A person may say this article has discussed a case that hasn’t been subjected initially. Therefore, the case is particular with not liberating the woman’s identity and her being inferior to the man in their social/ marital relationship. It isn’t in the aspect of faith, morals, or devotion. The article shuffled the cards in this manner; it altered the matter to a completely different aspect. It didn’t set us apart, and it isn’t a dusty causality. I also agree with an aspect of this article, and I disagree with another. I agree with it in that the case made at the start is relative to the social relationship between the man and woman as a couple and I disagree with it in that I changed the topic to another area. Why? Because the basis is Allah honoring women, liberating them from wrongly following men, and confirming their identities as a fundamental that is generally known, permanent, and completely deep-rooted in all that pertains to them and what they do, whether it be in the religious field, morals, or worship. Even in the woman’s relationship with other people or her relationship with a man as a husband; and I meant at the start of discussing the issue, the denying of the accusation of the woman following the man in what is the most dangerous of their marital life, and in the issue of faith itself to get to the conclusion and it is: If Islam hadn’t made the right for a Muslim man to force his wife to follow him in the issue of faith, then this is a fundamental issue and an issue of this warped world and it made her completely independent to take what she sees without being held accountable for her choices- just like in the issue of the wife of Nuh and the wife of the Pharaoh. How is it then accused of getting rid of her identity? And more than this, she is being valued and has an impact on her marital life. This double-sidedness isn’t known to Islam and doesn’t come from its nature.

[1] TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

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