WOMEN IN QURAN CHAPTER #1

This is a complete book about Women in Quran. It consists of 17 Chapters and every chapter has a piece of significant knowledge with referral verses from the Quran about women's rights, the position of women in Islam, the position of women in the Quran, the dark history of women, women's life before Islam, women's life after Islam and many more. I hope you will get excellent knowledge from my work.

Chapter #1 "WOMEN IN HISTORY"

     A study of the history of human civilization reveals that a woman seldom has been given her rightful position in society. Many philosophers, thinkers, and scholars in different periods have given divergent views about women. Sometimes she was regarded as "the root of all evils" and sometimes she was worshiped as the "goddess of fertility." Between these two extreme views, women had actually lost their natural position.

GREEK CIVILIZATION:

     Greek Civilization is regarded as one of the most magnificent civilizations in history. In its early phase woman was regarded as a sub-human creature, inferior to man. Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, and others considered women as fit only to perform household chores.

     Plato brings under one category "children, women, and servants." The woman was confined to her home with her chastity as a jealously guarded treasure. Male and female apartments in the same house were well segregated. Then came the period of perversion and license in Sparta the great Greek City-state. Spartans wanted strong and brave citizens. They, therefore, left their men and women free of all moral bonds for bringing forth healthy children:

     "Since the supreme good of the state was the production of healthy children, there was nothing immoral in free intercourse between people outside the bonds of matrimony, always provided that the men and women who indulged in it, conformed to the necessary high standard of physical excellence. Such free love was, therefore, not discouraged and brought to disgrace, whereas celibacy was a sin and a crime."

     At a later stage indulgence in the pleasures of the body came to be known as arts and aesthetics. This directly affected the position of women in Greece.

ROMAN CIVILIZATION:

     In its earliest phase, we find women totally dependent on men. Before marriage, she was subject to the supervision and authority of the father, and after the wedding of her husband. "As such, she could not, of course, exercise any public or civil office, she could not act as a witness, she could not sign a will, she could not make a contract, she could not inherit property from anyone."

     Gradually, however, women acquired a better position in society. Although man remained the Chief of the family unit his authority over his wife was eroded to a considerable extent. With further advancement in a civilization, the Roman woman became economically independent and attained greater power and legal status. Divorce became easier and marriage could be dissolved on flimsy grounds. Seneca (4 B.C.-65 A.D.), the renowned Roman philosopher and statesman, said:

     "Now divorce is not regarded as something shameful in Rome. Women calculate their age by the number of husbands they have taken." Cato openly held juvenile delinquency as justifiable Cicero pleaded for granting moral laxity to the youth.

     When the restraint on public morality turned loose, a flood of sexual licentiousness and promiscuity burst upon Rome. Theatres became scenes of perversion. Houses were adorned with naked and immoral paintings. Prostitution became common. Men and women bathed together in public baths. Roman literature contained the immodest and most immoral themes. All this led to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

CHRISTIAN EUROPE:

     Christianity began by including moral teachings among the people. It forbade adultery. Wives were praised for their chastity. Early Christianity aimed at the purity and morals of both men and women and considered marriage a necessary social institution. But soon these noble teachings were changed. The clergy looked upon women as evil and responsible for the original sin of man.

     Father Tertullian (A.D. 150) said about women:

     "Do you know, that each of you is an Eve; the sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age; the guilt must of necessity live too, you are the first deserter of the Divine Law; You are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's Image Man."

     One of the Greek Fathers of the Church says:

     "She is an inevitable evil, an eternal mischief, an attractive calamity, a domestic risk, a charming and decorated misfortune."

     Such ideas adversely affected the status of women in Christian society. She became wholly dependent on men. Her freedom was taken away under the pretense of protecting her from sin. She had no right of having property and inheritance.

     Celibacy was considered holy. Marriage meant only a legitimate outlet for lust. Dissolution of marriage was prohibited. It was vicious and sinful for the widow or widower to marry again. Thus the position of women under Christianity was very unenviable.

PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA:

     In Pre-Islamic Arabia, it was regarded as a disgrace to have daughters hence the custom of burying them alive. The woman was considered a mere plaything. It was the privilege and the right of her father, brother, or any other male guardian to give her in marriage to whomsoever he chose. To quote Syed Amir Ali;

     "Among the pagan Arabs, a woman was considered a mere chattel; she formed an integral part of the estate of her husband or her father, and the widows of a man descended to his patrimony."

     Polygamy and polyandry were practiced among ancient Arabs. There was no uniform law for regulating marriage and divorce and this created serious complications in the social life of the Arabs.

It was in this social milieu that the Quran was revealed to the Holy Prophet with the message that all mankind—male and female - has been created by ALLAH and that He does not prefer one over the other on the basis of a person's sex.

                                        Continue.................................................

Chapter #2 will be in the next blog. Thank You!