Woman’s Work in the Scales of Islamic Sharee'ah

06/10/2011| IslamWeb

The topic of woman’s work and her participation with man in public life has raised, and is still raising, much controversy. Those who call for woman’s work outside her house and taking part in men’s work put before their eyes the model of the West in this regard and their wish to imitate it. They claim that this is one of the necessities of civilization and urbanization. 

 

The issue of woman’s work and her leaving her home continues to be the main preoccupation of the media that responds to the calls and schemes of the Jews as stated in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion[S. D.1].

 

Allah The Almighty addresses the wives of the Prophet, , and the women of the believers when He Says (what means): {And abide in your houses} [Quran 33:33] On the other hand, the media in the Islamic world call upon women day and night to leave their homes, wander in the streets, labs, factories, offices and stores, compete with men and intermix with them as much as they can.

Some of these people hide their evil motives behind the slogans of progress and freedom; while others declare them explicitly without any shame.

 

Women in the West have achieved this false freedom; so, what was the result? Destruction upon destruction, millions of abortions annually and millions of illegitimate children and divorces. This happened despite the abundance of contraceptives and teaching them how to use them in colleges and schools, from lower to upper grades.

 

Islam does not forbid woman from working; rather, it urges her to work inside her home. Taking care of the home and raising the children is the main function of the woman. Woman’s work outside the home is permitted in case of necessity. If there is no necessity, then, the basic rule to be observed is indicated in the verse in which Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance.} [Quran 33:33]

 

When the woman is obliged to work outside the home and avoids intermixing with non-Mahram (marriageable) men, those who call for the alleged freedom of women get further infuriated and angry with her, for they want her to go out of her home exposing her beauty without a proper Hijab (Islamic covering).

 

The call of Islam to purity and chastity is a far cry from the call to immorality propagated by those who conspire against women.

 

How degrading it is for the woman, when all that they see in her is lust, forgetting her great role as the mistress of a home, a mother and a wife. They forget her great role mentioned in the Quran where Allah The Almighty Says (what means):

 

• {And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination.} [Quran 31:14]
• {And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hard ship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months.} [Quran 46:15]

 

They forget that the woman in the Islamic world works all day and night and that she has no leisure time as they claim. The woman in our Islamic countries works hard cooking, bringing up the children, feeding the young and old, spinning and weaving (especially in the countryside), treating and nursing the sick, and so on.

 

However, those who call for the freedom and work of woman are not satisfied with these great tasks that the woman does. That is because their real target is not work or production; rather, their real target is her chastity and religiousness.

 

The woman’s participation in public life is a grave tragedy and people in the West are starting to wake up to its bitter consequences, while some of the Muslims are following their steps; for even if they enter into the hole of a lizard[SZ2] they would follow them. The Messenger of Allah, , who always spoke the truth, said: “You will follow the (wrong) ways of your predecessors hand span by hand span and cubit by cubit so that if they should go into the hole of a lizard, you will follow them into it." They said, "O Messenger of Allah! Do you mean the Jews and the Christians?" He replied:"Who else?"[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

 

Yes, he spoke the truth: whenever the Jews or the Christians commit a foul act, some Muslims copy and imitate it. So, it is those who are dazzled and deceived by the call for the freedom of women, women’s work and equality between men and women that must be called towards guidance.