A Final Comparison and Contrast - I
01/01/2012| IslamWeb
Compare all the honor given to the woman in Islam to the statements of the Bible and the opinions of the Christian popes and philosophers about her.
The angel of the Lord insults the woman and calls her evil: "Then a round lead cover was raised up, revealing a woman sitting inside the basket. He then said, “This woman represents wickedness,” and he pushed her down into the basket and placed the lead cover on top." [Zechariah 5:7-8]
"Now large crowds were accompanying Jesus, and turning to them he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.""[Luke 14:25-26]
"And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, because she was fully deceived, fell into transgression. But she will be delivered through childbearing, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with self-control." [Timothy 2:14-15]
Thomas Aquinas said, "The woman is more wicked than the slave because the slavery of the slave is not innate, whereas the woman is naturally disposed to be under the command of the father, the son and the husband."
In the 1484 CE Aquittal, Pope Innocent VIII announced that the woman and the human being were seemingly conflicting opposites.
According to the philosopher Niche, “If the woman was to develop, she would become a cow.” The woman's heart in his sight is the source of evil, and she is a difficult puzzle. The man is powerfully recommended not to forget (to take with him) the lash whenever he goes to women.
Alkani, in the 12th century CE, wrote that embracing a woman meant embracing garbage.
According to Saint Tertullian, the woman is the door of Satan to the human soul. She always contradicts the laws of God and distorts man. She is rejected like Satan for it is she who misled Aadam (Adam), may Allah exalt his mention, and caused him and his offspring to be driven out of the Garden; and this is why she was more dangerous to mankind than Satan, for although Satan himself failed to mislead Aadam, Eve, the ally of Satan, was able to deceive Aadam:
"And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”" [Genesis 3:11-13]
But, what is that tree from which Aadam and Eve ate? It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: "Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”" [Genesis 2:16-17]
But has the Lord told the truth? Nay! Satan was more truthful than him:
"Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’”’The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” [Genesis 3:1-5]
This is what the Lord himself confessed later, which forced him to put under guard the eastern side of the orchard in Eden to safeguard the way to the tree of life: "And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life." [Genesis 3:22-25]
In fact, anyone endowed with a sound mind would wonder about the Lord's wisdom in keeping Aadam and Hawwaa’, may Allah exalt their mention, (Eve) in the darkness of ignorance, not knowing the good from evil; and if Aadam did not know good from evil before eating from the tree, then, under which claim should he be accounted for his mistake of eating from the tree? Should the reward of his becoming knowledgeable of good and evil be that the Lord exacted retribution from and drove him out of the Garden? Was this God to expect from people who did not know good and evil to inhabit the land? What are the principles the Lord expected from Aadam to teach his offspring were he not to know good and evil?
In his comment on the previous Biblical paragraph, Voltaire said, "We think that it was incumbent upon this Lord to tell man, His creature, to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as much as he could, for since the God endowed him with a thinking mind, it was necessary to instruct him, and more necessary to force him to perceive good and evil, so that he would be able to fulfill his obligations to the best. For this reason, this prohibition was unwise and harsh. Indeed, it was one thousand times worse than to give man a stomach that cannot digest food."
The Lord took the side of the man and did not investigate the matter, but rather believed his justification, and he was innocent in His sight: "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, because she was fully deceived, fell into transgression." [Timothy 2:14]
“Just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery.” [Corinthians II 11:3]
However, if Aadam did not err, then, to sentence him to be driven out of the Garden was out of injustice, caused only by Eve. In this way, His revenge on the woman by driving her out of the Garden was supposed to encourage the believers and lovers of God to persecute, beat, burn and kill her.
She was also regarded as impure during the time of her menstruation, and when she had such bleeding, neither a man nor an animal should approach her, otherwise he would become impure until the evening, and it would be incumbent upon him to take a bath to be cleansed: “‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until the evening. Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening. Anyone who touches any furniture she sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening. If there is something on the bed or on the furniture she sits on, when he touches it he will be unclean until the evening." [Leviticus 15:19-23]
They considered the woman a curse for she misled Aadam, may Allah exalt his mention; and whenever she was afflicted with menstruation, people would neither sit with her, nor eat with her, nor make her touch a utensil so as not to get unclean. Some of them would pitch a tent for the menstruating woman and put food and water in front of it and detain the woman inside that tent until she was clean, as if she were cast away, or as if she had mange or was a leper. Being in such a state, she becomes unqualified to live in the community, and it is not permissible for her to work, for to go on with that way of thinking means she would either leave work during the period of her menstruation, announcing publicly that she is menstruating, or mix with the people in the community and cause such as whom she deals with to become unclean, whether in work or in transportation.
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