The greatest champion of women's rights

Photo: Syed Ashraful Alom Tito/ drik news

Clara Zetkin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anne Nurakin, Margaret Spranger, Kate Millet and Germaine Greer are all universally acknowledged as pioneers in the world of Women's Liberation. People in every nook and corner of the globe remember with deep respect these salt of the earth whenever they discuss women and their emancipation from the clutches of male chauvinism. But very few of us are really aware of the fact that the first person to advocate effectively the cause of women was indeed the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Nobody denies today the fact that in every country women play a significant role in society. Most of us admit today that woman is the builder and moulder of a nation's destiny. Though delicate and tender and soft as lily, she has a heart far stronger and bolder than that of a man. She is the supreme inspiration for man's onward march -- an embodiment of love, pity and compassion. She inspires not only ordinary men, men who are shaky and feeble-hearted, but even the salt of the earth.
Giants with unshakeable conviction and dedication, titans with supreme qualities of head and heart also need inspiration and assistance from the fair sex in the crucial hours. History testifies that even Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), immediately after the first Revelation, received inspiration and advice and consolation from his wife Khadijatu'l-Kubra (RA). That is why even Napoleon Bonaparte claimed unequivocally: "Give me good mothers and I will give you a good France."
It was the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) who for the first time in history had the sagacity, courage and conviction to declare that woman is not "a scorpion ever ready to sting," not "an organ of the Devil," but she is the Mohsena -- an impregnable fortress against the conspiracies of Satan. He was the first to acknowledge that "the wife is the empress of the husband's house," the first to declare that a man or woman's first duty is not to help his/her father first but he or she should attend to her mother's need first.
That is not all. It was the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who was the first to assert that he is the best among human beings who behaves best with his wife. He also declared in unambiguous terms that Heaven lies not at the feet of the father or husband, it lies at the feet of the mother.
There must indeed be something most extraordinary, most chivalrous about this "Child of the Desert" that alone among the great teachers of mankind he conferred the first legal status of honour and responsibility upon women making them Sui Juris, ensuring their economic independence and providing them with opportunities in every sphere of human activity and in every domain of thought, guaranteeing their rights in the properties of the deceased parents, of the husband and the children -- rights and privileges which could not even be conceived of till the enactment of the Married Women's Property Act in England by the middle of the 19th century -- rights which are being conceded by the civilised nations of Europe and America in the twenty-first century.
In the case of marriage also, a Muslim woman enjoys rights and privileges which have never been granted in any other religion. Marriage in Islam, though considered a sacred relation between husband and wife, is not a sacrament but purely a civil contract. No person can marry a woman without her consent. Liberty is allowed a woman, who has reached the age of puberty, to marry or refuse to marry a particular man, independent of her guardian, who has no power to dispose of her in marriage without her consent or against her will; while the objection is reserved for the girl, married by her guardian during her infancy, to ratify or dissolve the contract immediately on reaching her majority.
It is indeed essential to the validity of the marriage in Islam that there would be (i) declaration or offer on the part of the one, (ii) acceptance by the other, and (iii) before sufficient number of witnesses (in Hanafi Law, two). What is more, it is obligatory on the part of the husband that he should promise to pay or deliver a sum of money or other property as dower to his wife. This settlement of money or property on the wife, without which a marriage is not fully legal, is known as Mahr. It is, therefore, evident that in a Muslim marriage it is the bridegroom who has to pay the Mahr.
It is really unfortunate that Muslim bridegrooms in our society nowadays force the brides or their parents to pay the dowry -- an act which is never permitted in Islam. Many among us are not even aware of the fact that Islam also empowers the wife to effectuate a divorce on various grounds including cruelty, insanity and impotence of the husband.
The Holy Quran ordains: "Reverence God, through Whom ye demand your mutual rights, and reverence the wombs that bore you: for God ever watches over you." (Sura Nissaa, Verse 1). It states without the slightest ambiguity that while the decencies of family life should be enforced, women should always be held in honour and their rights recognised, in marriage, property and inheritance.
It is to remove the age-old misconception and superstition that Islam eulogises woman as Mohsena -- the fortress against the evil designs of Satan. What is more, the Holy Quran emphatically warns: "Those who slander chaste women, indiscreet but believing, are cursed in this life and in the hereafter: for them is a grievous penalty." It also declares: "And those who launch a charge against chaste women, and produce not four witnesses (to support their allegation), flog them with eighty stripes; and reject their evidence hereafter; for such men are wicked transgressors." (Sura Nur, Verse 4).
With the advent of Islam a woman was no more considered a mere chattel, she formed an integral part of the estate of her husband or her father. Islam, which as a complete code of life guides every sphere of activity and in every domain of thought clearly ordains: "Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should ye treat them with harshness. ..... On the contrary, live with them on a footing of kindness and equity."(Sura Nisaa, Verse 19). It is stated in the Holy Quran: "They (women) are your (men's) garments and you are their garments." (Sura Al-Baqara, Verse 187).
Women in Islam have never failed to rise to the occasion in the hours of crises. The first person to embrace Islam was a lady -- the Sadiq Dost -- Hazrat Khadijatu'l-Kubra (RA). The first Shahid was a lady -- Bibi Sumaya (RA). The first person to know of the Holy Miraj was a lady -- Bibi Umma Hani (RA). The custodian of the first compiled copy of the Holy Quran (Al-Umm or Sahifa) was also a lady -- "the Mother of the Faithful" Bibi Hafsa bint Omar (RA).
A historic incident during the caliphate of Hazrat Omar bin Khattab (RA) also vividly depicts the high respect commanded by the women in Muslim society. With the expansion of conquests, wealth had begun to pour into the hands of the Muslims. They had naturally started spending lavishly and were conferring big dowries on their wives. Omar (RA), who intensely desired the Muslims to stick to their original simple and abstemious ways, spoke to the congregation in the mosque denouncing indulgence in such luxuries of life. It is recorded that an old woman rose from among the audience to challenge the statement of the great caliph. Addressing him openly in the vast assembly by his mere name, she said: "Who are you to deprive us of our due rights which God has conferred on us?" And then she recited the verse from the Holy Quran in support of her claim: "And if you have given to any one of them (the woman you are divorcing) a heap of gold, take nothing from it." (Sura Nisa, Verse 20).
The unprecedented and revolutionary improvement effected in the position and status of women by Islam under the inimitable and magnificent guidance of Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) has indeed been acknowledged by all unprejudiced writers, both in the East and in the West. Had the holy Prophet of Islam done nothing more, his claim to be a benefactor of mankind would have certainly been indisputable. Justice Pierre Crabite very rightly declares: "Muhammad, thirteen hundred years ago, assured to the mothers, wives and daughters of Islam a rank and dignity not yet generally assured to women by the laws of the West ..... Muhammad was probably the greatest champion of women's rights the world has ever seen."

The writer is a former Director General, Islamic Foundation, Bangladesh