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Minds Can Be Lost, Wealth Can Be Spent, And Beauty Shall Change! (A lecture by Aafia
Below from a net Link, i am not sure about authenticity, but its sounds genuine.
Minds Can Be Lost, Wealth Can Be Spent, And Beauty Shall Change! (A lecture by Aafia Siddiqui)
[Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 31/07/2012 - 1:35am]
Following is the transcript of a lecture delivered by Sister Afia Siddiqui in Huston, 1991 with Hakim Olajuan (famous basketball player) and Jamal Badawi in audience.
Moderator: This time I would like to call upon Sister Afia Siddiqui, Sister Afia is going to be a sophomore at MIT, inshAllah, she is doing her majors in genetics and she would be leaving day after tomorrow. Sister Afia is going to be involved in MSA at MIT, and she is already Dawah Coordinator and she has already started working, alhamdolillah, please welcome Sister Afia !
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Brothers and sisters in Islam ! Assalamu ‘Alaikum
Thank You!
It is my challenge not to not only to every single person on the face of this planet earth but also if there is any civilization on any other planet, it’s my challenge to them as well, that Islam is the best savior and protector for women and I am saying this will all this confidence no out of arrogance but because believe that Islam was revealed by Allah SWT the Most Just and Merciful God. The God biased neither in favor of men or women, the Creator and Sustainer of both men and women. Islam elevates women to a level that has no parallel.
Let’s just take one example of western philosophers and saints; they say that woman is the seat of the devil but the Qur’an calls her ‘Muhsina- Fortress against the devil, they say that she is the one responsible for our downfall from paradise but Prophet Muhammad SAW said Paradise, Paradise is under feet of a woman, a mother. And that’s not all, she has been given rights and protections in every sphere of life, she has all the basic human rights including the right of inheritance, of owning property, of choosing her husband, of getting dowry, of divorce, of not only earning money but even keeping every single cent she earns and what not! You name it and its there.
But let me make it clear that this earning money thing in Islam it is not the responsibility of a woman, her responsibility, her duty is with Allah and with her family. And if she takes care of that alhamdolillah she is in good shape according to Prophet Muhammad SAW that’s enough for her salvation. But! This does not mean that her duty is to slave away at home like a unpaid slave this was at least not the practice or the teaching of our Prophet Muhammad SAW or his companions.
Once a man came to Caliph Umar bin Khattab RA, he wanted to complain about his wife. He was standing outside the caliph’s house and from inside he could hear Caliph Umar’s wife giving him a hard time but Umar’s voice was nowhere to be heard! He thought well it looks like poor caliph is in the same torment as I am (so) he started going back. Umar saw him (and) called him back and heard his story, and you know what he replied?
He said do you not see that my wife cooks my food, washes my cloths and suckles my children, thus relieving me of necessity of employing a cook, a washing man and a nurse, even though she is not in the slightest degree responsible for this and more than that I have peace of mind on account of her and I am protected from adultery. In view of all this I put up with her excesses and I would advise you to do the same.
And Prophet Muhammad SAW said the more civil and kind a person is to his wife the more perfect in his faith he is. The Qur’an says:
وَعَاشِرُوهُنَّ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ فَإِن كَرِهْتُمُوهُنَّ فَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَيَجْعَلَ ٱللَّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًۭا كَثِيرًۭا
(4:19)
Live with them (your wives) on a footing of kindness and equity. If you dislike them it may be that you dislike something in which Allah has placed a great deal of good.
The Quran further says:
وَلَا تُمْسِكُوهُنَّ ضِرَارًۭا لِّتَعْتَدُوا۟ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ فَقَدْ ظَلَمَ نَفْسَهُۥ ۚ وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوٓا۟ ءَايَتِ ٱللَّهِ هُزُوًۭا ۚ
(2:231)
Do not keep your wives by force so that you may injure them or hurt them and whoever does wrongs his own soul do not treat the words of Allah as a joke.
My dear brothers! Allah means business here! And my sisters! This does not mean that we take advantage of all these examples and start taking advantage of men. No! What I am saying is simply that a woman is not unpaid slave.
According to Prophet Muhammad SAW she is the queen of her house and not only that she is also given permission to go out, and not only that, she is given respect, protection and dignity. Things which no other society, especially what the west has not given her.
The hijab is not a restriction; it allows a woman to be judged by her content not by her packaging. But what is written on the pages not by the pretty art work on the cover. We are judged by who we are, but what we have to say, not by how we happen to be look while we saying it! Islam does not see the woman as a prized cow to be paraded before the whole world.
Prophet Muhammad SAW summed it up beautifully. He said the best object of benefit of the entire world is the pious woman. This is so profound, not the rich woman or the successful woman, because these qualities would not benefit her in the long run.
Minds can be lost, wealth can be spent, and beauty shall change!
These aforementioned qualities are for the pleasure of this world, whereas piety is for the pleasure of Allah! His (Prophet Muhammad SAW) advice to (a) man seeking wife was (to) get one who is religious, not the one in the 51% tax bracket! The one with the jaguar! The one with her own corporation! The one with the great looks or the one who brings more dowry.
No! In Islam a woman is seen first and foremost as a servant of Allah SWT not as a slave of a human being! And in the eyes of Allah she is no less than a man. It is true:
وَلَيْسَ ٱلذَّكَرُ كَٱلْأُنثَىٰ ۖ
(3:36)
The man is different from woman; psychologically, biologically, physiologically different. The man is physically stronger we can see that! It doesn’t need any explanation. So Allah has given him the charge, the responsibility for providing for the family, for earning for the family. He has been given the daraja, the position of leadership in the family. But this does not make a woman inferior. No! Where rights are concerned her rights are equal ‘mithal’ to those of man, even though man has been given the ‘daraja’ the degree of over her. The degree, the responsibility and accountability for providing and sustaining the family. What does this got to do with inferiority or superiority? Nothing, Allah has made it very clear:
أَنِّى لَآ أُضِيعُ عَمَلَ عَمِلٍۢ مِّنكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ ۖ بَعْضُكُم
(3:195)
I shall not waste the efforts of any of you, man or woman, you are members one of another. And,
إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ
(49:13)
The person who is more revered, who is more ‘superior’, or who is more respected in the eyes of Allah is the one who is more pious, who has more taqwa, regardless it’s a man or a woman.
History is filled with woman who exemplified this fact, who taught men as well as women, who gave religious verdicts, fought and died all for the sake of Allah. Not to prove the world that they were capable! My dear Muslim sisters! We unlike non-Muslim women, we do not have to prove anything to this world. All we have to prove is to Allah SWT that we are capable. Yes! We are capable of becoming true and ideal Muslim women, women like the sahabiaat, not ‘5 feet – 10 inches’ or something like that.
No, women like the sahabiaat out of hundreds of examples and I can go on forever, but I am sure you must be hungry; I will just quote one example. Asma bint Yazeed; she embraced Islam when she was teenager at the time of Hijrah and she was only in her twenties in the Battle of Yarmouk (and) she killed 9 soldiers, with what? With a pole of a tent, let alone women, I don’t know how many men can do it today or whenever? And not only that she was also a great scholar. She opened a school and from her school many of our respected ‘ulama of the tabaoon period, they graduated from her school. ‘Aisha, Khadeeja, Fatima, Zaynab, Asma, Umm ‘Ammara, Umm Salamah, Umm Kulsoom, Umm Hakeem! There are so many names!
Who are all these? These were the scholars, the teachers, the doctors, the nurses, the social workers, the warriors AND the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives of times of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. These were the people about whom Allah had said:
رَضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ ۚ أُو۟لَٓئِكَ حِزْبُ ٱللَّهِ ۚ أَلَآ إِنَّ حِزْبَ ٱللَّهِ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
(58:22)
Allah is pleased with them and they with Allah, this group of Allah and indeed it is the group of Allah that will succeed.
And we did succeed in this world and in the Hereafter. 30 years after the Prophet Muhammad SAW and the Muslim Empire spread from all the way from Africa to India and Spain, 3 continents! Why is it I will ask you that today we are the third world? We have lost the respect and dignity we enjoyed. We are apologetic and submissive and to whom the disbelievers, the Kuffar, Astaghfirullah! Why is today that sons of the caliber of Muhammad bin Qasim, Tariq bin Ziyad and Khalid bin Waleed are not born? Because we don’t have mothers of the caliber of Fatima and Zaynab in this Ummah.
And why don’t we have those mothers? Let us think about this …
يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًۭا وَقُودُهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَٱلْحِجَارَةُ عَلَيْهَا مَلَٓئِكَةٌ غِلَاظٌۭ شِدَادٌۭ لَّا يَعْصُونَ ٱللَّهَ مَآ أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ
(66:6)
O you who believe save yourself and your families from Hell fire.
…
Allah does not like any transgression; any extreme … There are people who are guilty of burying their women alive. Yes! Today mentally burying them by telling them that they are inferior third class slaves of men, and may Allah forgive us, (they do it) in the name of Sunnah! May I ask whose Sunnah are they following!?
This is not the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad SAW. What is his Sunnah? He if his shoe would break he would mend it himself. And then he would run a race with his wife, ‘Aisha RA and let her win the race so that she would also enjoy herself.
These extremes brothers and sisters have driven more people away from Islam than we would even like to believe. Not only women; men as well. Not only non-Muslims; Muslims as well.
I man once came to Ismail al Farooqi and said that Islam seems to be such biased religion. Whenever I go to the mosque or religious institutions to learn about Islam I see so many men but where are the women? Good question! And I repeat where are the women?
It is so easy today for anyone and everyone to come up to a woman and say hey! This is Islam and what would the poor woman say آمنا و صدقنا ! I believe, because she does not know any better. Her basic right, I should say her duty of education, religious and secular, has been taken away from her. What is the result? Brothers and Sisters! This right of education by taking it away from woman, what do we see?
If a woman has messed up ideas, non-Muslim ideas or if she is totally ignorant of what is going on around her in either case can she be expected to raise a child – ‘the model of a perfect Muslim’?
Of course not! The first five years of the child are not as trivial as we think they are. According to scientific fact the brain of the child develops not only before he is born but it takes first five years for brain to fully develop. And in these years whatever he sees around him, whatever he sees his mother, his parents doing will have impact on her future character. If the mother is a model of an Islamic woman and the father for that matter too, the child would more likely than not become an Islamic model himself.
But if the mother is herself locked up in dark corner, of a dark room, of a dark home, secluded from the entire world what can you expect? What is this generation gap that we see? And why are all these un-Islamic cultural traditional practices so prevalent in the Muslim world? There are many of them, let me just take on, ‘jaheez’/dowry as you saw in the skit earlier on. It is a ‘big thing’ in India and Pakistan, and what is this? Well at the time of marriage the girl has to bring cash, furniture and God knows what. This is totally un-Islamic, then why is it that so many good girls cannot get married because of this.
And if they are getting married a lot of times their parents don’t even ask them if they want to get married or not? The Qur’an is very clear on this:
يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَن تَرِثُوا۟ ٱلنِّسَآءَ كَرْهًۭا ۖ وَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ لِتَذْهَبُوا۟ بِبَعْضِ مَآ ءَاتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ إِلَّآ أَن يَأْتِينَ بِفَحِشَةٍۢ مُّبَيِّنَةٍۢ ۚ وَعَاشِرُوهُنَّ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ فَإِن كَرِهْتُمُوهُنَّ فَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَيَجْعَلَ ٱللَّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًۭا كَثِيرًۭا
(4:19)
O you who believe it is not lawful for you to take a woman by force against her will.
No! And if they do get married, may God forbid, but if they do get married to cruel (and) unkind person, they bear his excesses for whole life, because they don’t even know that according to Islam if the woman wants at the time of the marriage, in the marriage contract, she can put the stipulation and keep the right of divorce in her hands and if I am wrong, brother Jamal Badawi please correct me I request you, right now (Dr Jamal Badawi sitting in the audience concurs with Sister Afia). Ok you are saying I am right. (There is more even – Dr Jamal Badawi). Oh there is more even! I don’t have time that is the problem, anyway, so this is one thing.
The other thing in some very ‘traditional families’ if a girl even wants to ask what is in her marriage contract or what the contract is period! They label her as ‘shameless’! And it’s such a naïve ground if girl does get divorces why does the whole society looks down upon her? Islam does not, Allah does not! In the Qur’an in fact where Allah is reproaching wives of the Prophet Muhammad SAW for giving him hard time, He says that if you don’t repent I will replace you with women who are better than you, طيباتٍ ابكاراً , who will be married previously and who would be virgins.
Brothers and Sisters! When I was in Pakistan I had worked very closely with the President of United Islamic Organization for two years. And in fact she would be coming to America later on this week, ask her and she will tell you, day in and day out, how many cases of women there are suffering have serious problems because of these and many other un-Islamic practices. And when I say un-Islamic practices I am including all these western forms of dating and what not, I am including all these.
Brothers and Sister! This is got to stop now! This is got to change, we as Muslims, what is our goal? Are goal is to serve Allah. Why are all these un-Islamic practices so prevalent? We have to change them now.
أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ
(57:16)
Has not the time come for the Muslims that their heart turns towards Allah? Remembrance of Allah and what Allah has revealed which is the truth.
Yes the time has come! The time is now! For us to get together and come up with solutions for these problems. Let none of us think that we cannot make any difference, yes we can if our intention is pure. If we strive in the path of Allah. Allah has said:
وَٱلَّذِينَ جَهَدُوا۟ فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
(29:69)
Whoever will strive to reach Allah, Allah will guide him to the way that leads to Allah and indeed Allah is with the people who are righteous, who do good deeds, who are the ‘muhsineen’.
So let us do away with our cultural, traditional whatever biases, shun everything un-Islamic and turn towards Islam و ما علینا الا البلاغ
Minds Can Be Lost, Wealth Can Be Spent, And Beauty Shall Change! (A lecture by Aafia Siddiqui)
[Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 31/07/2012 - 1:35am]
Following is the transcript of a lecture delivered by Sister Afia Siddiqui in Huston, 1991 with Hakim Olajuan (famous basketball player) and Jamal Badawi in audience.
Moderator: This time I would like to call upon Sister Afia Siddiqui, Sister Afia is going to be a sophomore at MIT, inshAllah, she is doing her majors in genetics and she would be leaving day after tomorrow. Sister Afia is going to be involved in MSA at MIT, and she is already Dawah Coordinator and she has already started working, alhamdolillah, please welcome Sister Afia !
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Brothers and sisters in Islam ! Assalamu ‘Alaikum
Thank You!
It is my challenge not to not only to every single person on the face of this planet earth but also if there is any civilization on any other planet, it’s my challenge to them as well, that Islam is the best savior and protector for women and I am saying this will all this confidence no out of arrogance but because believe that Islam was revealed by Allah SWT the Most Just and Merciful God. The God biased neither in favor of men or women, the Creator and Sustainer of both men and women. Islam elevates women to a level that has no parallel.
Let’s just take one example of western philosophers and saints; they say that woman is the seat of the devil but the Qur’an calls her ‘Muhsina- Fortress against the devil, they say that she is the one responsible for our downfall from paradise but Prophet Muhammad SAW said Paradise, Paradise is under feet of a woman, a mother. And that’s not all, she has been given rights and protections in every sphere of life, she has all the basic human rights including the right of inheritance, of owning property, of choosing her husband, of getting dowry, of divorce, of not only earning money but even keeping every single cent she earns and what not! You name it and its there.
But let me make it clear that this earning money thing in Islam it is not the responsibility of a woman, her responsibility, her duty is with Allah and with her family. And if she takes care of that alhamdolillah she is in good shape according to Prophet Muhammad SAW that’s enough for her salvation. But! This does not mean that her duty is to slave away at home like a unpaid slave this was at least not the practice or the teaching of our Prophet Muhammad SAW or his companions.
Once a man came to Caliph Umar bin Khattab RA, he wanted to complain about his wife. He was standing outside the caliph’s house and from inside he could hear Caliph Umar’s wife giving him a hard time but Umar’s voice was nowhere to be heard! He thought well it looks like poor caliph is in the same torment as I am (so) he started going back. Umar saw him (and) called him back and heard his story, and you know what he replied?
He said do you not see that my wife cooks my food, washes my cloths and suckles my children, thus relieving me of necessity of employing a cook, a washing man and a nurse, even though she is not in the slightest degree responsible for this and more than that I have peace of mind on account of her and I am protected from adultery. In view of all this I put up with her excesses and I would advise you to do the same.
And Prophet Muhammad SAW said the more civil and kind a person is to his wife the more perfect in his faith he is. The Qur’an says:
وَعَاشِرُوهُنَّ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ فَإِن كَرِهْتُمُوهُنَّ فَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَيَجْعَلَ ٱللَّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًۭا كَثِيرًۭا
(4:19)
Live with them (your wives) on a footing of kindness and equity. If you dislike them it may be that you dislike something in which Allah has placed a great deal of good.
The Quran further says:
وَلَا تُمْسِكُوهُنَّ ضِرَارًۭا لِّتَعْتَدُوا۟ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ فَقَدْ ظَلَمَ نَفْسَهُۥ ۚ وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوٓا۟ ءَايَتِ ٱللَّهِ هُزُوًۭا ۚ
(2:231)
Do not keep your wives by force so that you may injure them or hurt them and whoever does wrongs his own soul do not treat the words of Allah as a joke.
My dear brothers! Allah means business here! And my sisters! This does not mean that we take advantage of all these examples and start taking advantage of men. No! What I am saying is simply that a woman is not unpaid slave.
According to Prophet Muhammad SAW she is the queen of her house and not only that she is also given permission to go out, and not only that, she is given respect, protection and dignity. Things which no other society, especially what the west has not given her.
The hijab is not a restriction; it allows a woman to be judged by her content not by her packaging. But what is written on the pages not by the pretty art work on the cover. We are judged by who we are, but what we have to say, not by how we happen to be look while we saying it! Islam does not see the woman as a prized cow to be paraded before the whole world.
Prophet Muhammad SAW summed it up beautifully. He said the best object of benefit of the entire world is the pious woman. This is so profound, not the rich woman or the successful woman, because these qualities would not benefit her in the long run.
Minds can be lost, wealth can be spent, and beauty shall change!
These aforementioned qualities are for the pleasure of this world, whereas piety is for the pleasure of Allah! His (Prophet Muhammad SAW) advice to (a) man seeking wife was (to) get one who is religious, not the one in the 51% tax bracket! The one with the jaguar! The one with her own corporation! The one with the great looks or the one who brings more dowry.
No! In Islam a woman is seen first and foremost as a servant of Allah SWT not as a slave of a human being! And in the eyes of Allah she is no less than a man. It is true:
وَلَيْسَ ٱلذَّكَرُ كَٱلْأُنثَىٰ ۖ
(3:36)
The man is different from woman; psychologically, biologically, physiologically different. The man is physically stronger we can see that! It doesn’t need any explanation. So Allah has given him the charge, the responsibility for providing for the family, for earning for the family. He has been given the daraja, the position of leadership in the family. But this does not make a woman inferior. No! Where rights are concerned her rights are equal ‘mithal’ to those of man, even though man has been given the ‘daraja’ the degree of over her. The degree, the responsibility and accountability for providing and sustaining the family. What does this got to do with inferiority or superiority? Nothing, Allah has made it very clear:
أَنِّى لَآ أُضِيعُ عَمَلَ عَمِلٍۢ مِّنكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ ۖ بَعْضُكُم
(3:195)
I shall not waste the efforts of any of you, man or woman, you are members one of another. And,
إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ
(49:13)
The person who is more revered, who is more ‘superior’, or who is more respected in the eyes of Allah is the one who is more pious, who has more taqwa, regardless it’s a man or a woman.
History is filled with woman who exemplified this fact, who taught men as well as women, who gave religious verdicts, fought and died all for the sake of Allah. Not to prove the world that they were capable! My dear Muslim sisters! We unlike non-Muslim women, we do not have to prove anything to this world. All we have to prove is to Allah SWT that we are capable. Yes! We are capable of becoming true and ideal Muslim women, women like the sahabiaat, not ‘5 feet – 10 inches’ or something like that.
No, women like the sahabiaat out of hundreds of examples and I can go on forever, but I am sure you must be hungry; I will just quote one example. Asma bint Yazeed; she embraced Islam when she was teenager at the time of Hijrah and she was only in her twenties in the Battle of Yarmouk (and) she killed 9 soldiers, with what? With a pole of a tent, let alone women, I don’t know how many men can do it today or whenever? And not only that she was also a great scholar. She opened a school and from her school many of our respected ‘ulama of the tabaoon period, they graduated from her school. ‘Aisha, Khadeeja, Fatima, Zaynab, Asma, Umm ‘Ammara, Umm Salamah, Umm Kulsoom, Umm Hakeem! There are so many names!
Who are all these? These were the scholars, the teachers, the doctors, the nurses, the social workers, the warriors AND the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives of times of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. These were the people about whom Allah had said:
رَضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ ۚ أُو۟لَٓئِكَ حِزْبُ ٱللَّهِ ۚ أَلَآ إِنَّ حِزْبَ ٱللَّهِ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
(58:22)
Allah is pleased with them and they with Allah, this group of Allah and indeed it is the group of Allah that will succeed.
And we did succeed in this world and in the Hereafter. 30 years after the Prophet Muhammad SAW and the Muslim Empire spread from all the way from Africa to India and Spain, 3 continents! Why is it I will ask you that today we are the third world? We have lost the respect and dignity we enjoyed. We are apologetic and submissive and to whom the disbelievers, the Kuffar, Astaghfirullah! Why is today that sons of the caliber of Muhammad bin Qasim, Tariq bin Ziyad and Khalid bin Waleed are not born? Because we don’t have mothers of the caliber of Fatima and Zaynab in this Ummah.
And why don’t we have those mothers? Let us think about this …
يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًۭا وَقُودُهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَٱلْحِجَارَةُ عَلَيْهَا مَلَٓئِكَةٌ غِلَاظٌۭ شِدَادٌۭ لَّا يَعْصُونَ ٱللَّهَ مَآ أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ
(66:6)
O you who believe save yourself and your families from Hell fire.
…
Allah does not like any transgression; any extreme … There are people who are guilty of burying their women alive. Yes! Today mentally burying them by telling them that they are inferior third class slaves of men, and may Allah forgive us, (they do it) in the name of Sunnah! May I ask whose Sunnah are they following!?
This is not the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad SAW. What is his Sunnah? He if his shoe would break he would mend it himself. And then he would run a race with his wife, ‘Aisha RA and let her win the race so that she would also enjoy herself.
These extremes brothers and sisters have driven more people away from Islam than we would even like to believe. Not only women; men as well. Not only non-Muslims; Muslims as well.
I man once came to Ismail al Farooqi and said that Islam seems to be such biased religion. Whenever I go to the mosque or religious institutions to learn about Islam I see so many men but where are the women? Good question! And I repeat where are the women?
It is so easy today for anyone and everyone to come up to a woman and say hey! This is Islam and what would the poor woman say آمنا و صدقنا ! I believe, because she does not know any better. Her basic right, I should say her duty of education, religious and secular, has been taken away from her. What is the result? Brothers and Sisters! This right of education by taking it away from woman, what do we see?
If a woman has messed up ideas, non-Muslim ideas or if she is totally ignorant of what is going on around her in either case can she be expected to raise a child – ‘the model of a perfect Muslim’?
Of course not! The first five years of the child are not as trivial as we think they are. According to scientific fact the brain of the child develops not only before he is born but it takes first five years for brain to fully develop. And in these years whatever he sees around him, whatever he sees his mother, his parents doing will have impact on her future character. If the mother is a model of an Islamic woman and the father for that matter too, the child would more likely than not become an Islamic model himself.
But if the mother is herself locked up in dark corner, of a dark room, of a dark home, secluded from the entire world what can you expect? What is this generation gap that we see? And why are all these un-Islamic cultural traditional practices so prevalent in the Muslim world? There are many of them, let me just take on, ‘jaheez’/dowry as you saw in the skit earlier on. It is a ‘big thing’ in India and Pakistan, and what is this? Well at the time of marriage the girl has to bring cash, furniture and God knows what. This is totally un-Islamic, then why is it that so many good girls cannot get married because of this.
And if they are getting married a lot of times their parents don’t even ask them if they want to get married or not? The Qur’an is very clear on this:
يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَن تَرِثُوا۟ ٱلنِّسَآءَ كَرْهًۭا ۖ وَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ لِتَذْهَبُوا۟ بِبَعْضِ مَآ ءَاتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ إِلَّآ أَن يَأْتِينَ بِفَحِشَةٍۢ مُّبَيِّنَةٍۢ ۚ وَعَاشِرُوهُنَّ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ فَإِن كَرِهْتُمُوهُنَّ فَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَيَجْعَلَ ٱللَّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًۭا كَثِيرًۭا
(4:19)
O you who believe it is not lawful for you to take a woman by force against her will.
No! And if they do get married, may God forbid, but if they do get married to cruel (and) unkind person, they bear his excesses for whole life, because they don’t even know that according to Islam if the woman wants at the time of the marriage, in the marriage contract, she can put the stipulation and keep the right of divorce in her hands and if I am wrong, brother Jamal Badawi please correct me I request you, right now (Dr Jamal Badawi sitting in the audience concurs with Sister Afia). Ok you are saying I am right. (There is more even – Dr Jamal Badawi). Oh there is more even! I don’t have time that is the problem, anyway, so this is one thing.
The other thing in some very ‘traditional families’ if a girl even wants to ask what is in her marriage contract or what the contract is period! They label her as ‘shameless’! And it’s such a naïve ground if girl does get divorces why does the whole society looks down upon her? Islam does not, Allah does not! In the Qur’an in fact where Allah is reproaching wives of the Prophet Muhammad SAW for giving him hard time, He says that if you don’t repent I will replace you with women who are better than you, طيباتٍ ابكاراً , who will be married previously and who would be virgins.
Brothers and Sisters! When I was in Pakistan I had worked very closely with the President of United Islamic Organization for two years. And in fact she would be coming to America later on this week, ask her and she will tell you, day in and day out, how many cases of women there are suffering have serious problems because of these and many other un-Islamic practices. And when I say un-Islamic practices I am including all these western forms of dating and what not, I am including all these.
Brothers and Sister! This is got to stop now! This is got to change, we as Muslims, what is our goal? Are goal is to serve Allah. Why are all these un-Islamic practices so prevalent? We have to change them now.
أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ
(57:16)
Has not the time come for the Muslims that their heart turns towards Allah? Remembrance of Allah and what Allah has revealed which is the truth.
Yes the time has come! The time is now! For us to get together and come up with solutions for these problems. Let none of us think that we cannot make any difference, yes we can if our intention is pure. If we strive in the path of Allah. Allah has said:
وَٱلَّذِينَ جَهَدُوا۟ فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
(29:69)
Whoever will strive to reach Allah, Allah will guide him to the way that leads to Allah and indeed Allah is with the people who are righteous, who do good deeds, who are the ‘muhsineen’.
So let us do away with our cultural, traditional whatever biases, shun everything un-Islamic and turn towards Islam و ما علینا الا البلاغ
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