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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Friday Sermon
HAZRAT KHALIFATULLAH AL-MASSIH AL-MA’OUD
Munir Ahmad Azim
(16 Jamadul Aakhir 1432 Hijri)
(Summary of Friday Sermon)
After having greeted everybody with the Salutations of Peace, the Messiah (Massih’ullah) read the Tashahhud, Taouz and Surah Al Fatiha and then he said:
قُلۡ لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ یَغُضُّوۡا مِنۡ اَبۡصَارِہِمۡ وَ یَحۡفَظُوۡا فُرُوۡجَہُمۡ ؕ قُلۡ لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنٰتِ یَغۡضُضۡنَ مِنۡ اَبۡصَارِہِنَّ وَ یَحۡفَظۡنَ فُرُوۡجَہُنَّ
“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty… And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty.” (24:31-32)
By the grace of Allah, I am continuing my sermon on women and Pardah and I shall talk also about the equality of the sexes and the system which regulates them and their rights.
The modern western women have misjudged the fundamental values. The European women interpret freedom as emancipation from moral obligations. They want to equalise men in all pursuits, political, economic, educational and industrial, and are trying their utmost in adopting everything masculine.
They contend that the worthy function of motherhood is burdensome and an impediment to their progress. She (woman) detests motherhood. Various theories and suggestions have been propounded to prove that motherhood is not essential to the life and happiness of women and that alternative institutions can be evolved which will free the mothers from the burden of rearing and training their children, thus allowing them greater liberty of movement and enabling them to share with men the larger activities of social and political life.
In some countries, there have been some non-Muslim writers who never lost an opportunity to disparage Islam overtly or covertly and kept on reminding women: “Shake off your weatherworn traditions; come out of your houses and mix up with men courageously, by rushing in to take up work in factories and shops, not because there is any genuine need for it but just to get rid of your responsibilities as mothers and nurses of human race.” They also said that the woman walked in the streets with her eyes down because she lacked courage and self-confidence and was overwhelmed by fear of men. But when she through her experience achieves enlightenment she will be able to face men courageously. These writers overlooked the history which tells us that Hazrat Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) who actively took part in the politics of her time and led army in the Battle of Jamal (camel) used to talk to men from behind a curtain.
Thus, Islam permits women to work alongside with men, but only after having firmly instituted the Pardah. We must bear in mind also that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told his Ummah: Go and seek (knowledge of) half of your Deen with this red-headed lady (that is, Aisha). Thus, men and women, both of them are instructed by the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) to question Hazrat Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) concerning their religion, and Hazrat Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) had the duty as an Ummul’-Mumineen (Mother of the faithful) and as a guardian of the teachings of Allah to give such details of how to live one’s life to all the Ummah (be them men and women), and when she taught them, she always observed the Pardah; be it from behind a veil (a curtain), with the men one one side of the veil, and her on the other side, or she dressed herself correctly and veiled herself like Allah instructed in the Quran and addressed the men.
Moreover, these writers also forget to mention that the lowering down the eyes was not something peculiar to women alone, for history tells us that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was more modest that even the virgin maids. Did he also not possess self-confidence, or did he lack of consciousness of being a messenger of Allah? How long will these writers keep on repeating and saying such silly things?
From the above facts, it is evident that the misguided women of the West have not raised their status and prestige but morally degenerated due to over-indulgence and painful craving for more freedom, which has already debased their minds. The effect of wearing the veil and observing Pardah is one of security, safety, honour and contentment. The true Muslim women (not Muslims by name only) lead a chaste, virtuous, exalting and respectable life rather than of dissatisfaction and discontentment. Islam has afforded her the happy home and peaceful life. They are free from worry and competition with men in the field and securing employment in the factories and business centres. Thus they enjoy reverence and genuine domestic peace. The high fever of ever-changing fashion and passion for leading sensuous and luxurious life does not trouble her.
Islam is not only a true religion but also a social order, which enables the individuals to attain the cherished goal of material happiness and welfare in the present world and to prepare them for the next world through righteousness and virtuous deeds. The manifold blessings of Islam are inseparable from beauty of mind and strength of character. Islam is the infallible guide in the moral life and saves its followers from sinking into lower propensities and moral degeneration. On the contrary it enables the individual to attain real greatness of character and heights of spiritual life.
In the western society equality between the sexes was taken to mean that man and the woman were not only equal in moral status and human rights, but that the woman was also free to undertake the same sort of jobs as were done by the man, and that moral restriction on her needed to be slackened as they were for him.
This wrong concept of equality led women astray and made them unmindful of their natural functions on the performance of which depends the very existence of human race and civilisation. She became wholly absorbed in her economic, political and social pursuits. Her electioneering campaigns, service in offices and factories, competition with men for commercial and industrial vocations, sports and physical exercises, social entertainments, and her absorption in the club, stage and musical concerts, besides several other engagements, so overwhelmed her that she became utterly indifferent to the responsibilities of married life. The bringing up of children and the organisation and care of the home ceased to be her special care. But there are exceptions to the rule. Not all women are like this. There are women who are compelled to go out to work outside from their home due to problems such as a drunkard or irresponsible husband, whereby they find themselves in such a situation that they have to strive to be the bread-earner of the family. Here in this Sermon of mine, I am not talking about these kinds of women, but for the majority of women all round the world who has taken this temporal world as a playfield, whereby they think that they can do anything, even compete with men to climb up the ladder of material success.
Besides, she developed abhorrence for her natural duties, affecting ultimately the family system which is the basis of civilisation. The result is that home life, on which depends man’s efficiency is fast disappearing in the west. The sacred bond of marriage which is the practical form of man and woman’s co-operation in the service and development of civilisations is rapidly weakening (especially in such countries in the West – Europe, America etc.). Taking care of her family has ceased to be her priority. In other words, it is women nowadays who are holding the role of men in their homes, and they are commanding their spouses and are choosing for themselves a world of destruction, whereby instead when they would have stayed at home and preserved their chastity, therefore their real progress would have been in seeing to it that their children get a good upbringing, with the right values and manners, instead of them becoming delinquents and immoral people through negligence (of their parents, especially in such cases their mothers). Moreover, the increase in population is being checked by birth control, abortion and destruction of the offspring. There are parents today who do not hesitate to kill their children; there are even mothers who sell their daughters through prostitution. All this is done in the name of moral equality. The wrong concept of moral equality has come to establish immoral equality between the sexes. Those vicious and sinful acts which were once held shameful even for men, now do not bring any shame or disgrace on women.
As a fundamental of its system, Islam holds that the woman is a human being; and she has a soul similar to that of man. The Holy Quran says: “O people! Be careful of (your duty to) your Lord, Who created you from a single being and created its mate of the same (kind) and spread from these two, many men and women; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, by Whom you demand one of another (your rights), and (to) the ties of relationship; surely Allah ever watches over you.” (4:2)
Thus, men and women are quite equal to each other in their origin, their abode as well as in their place of return and are as such entitled to similar and equal rights. Islam gave her the right to life, to honour, and to property like men. She is an honourable being and it is not permissible for anyone to find fault with her or backbite her. No one is permitted to spy on her or hold her in contempt due to her functions as a woman. These are the rights that both men and women enjoy, there being no differentiation against either of them.
So, none can deny the fact that as human beings, man and woman are equal. Both make up the human race together as its equal constituent parts. Both are equal partners in building up community life, creating and bringing about civilisation, and thus serving humanity. Both have been endowed with hearts, brain and reasoning power, and both possess feelings, desires and the other human instincts. Both stand in need of mental and intellectual training and education so that they may duly contribute to the happiness and welfare of society.
Men and women are also equal in their rights to realise their material needs in the world including similar rights to hold property and dispose of it as they should wish. The Holy Quran says: “Men shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave, and women shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave, whether there is little or much of it; a stated portion.” (4:8)
“… men shall have the benefit of what they earn and women shall have the benefit of what they earn; and ask Allah of His grace; surely Allah knows all things.” (4:33)
Islam occupies a unique position in that it recognised an independent economic status of woman and gave her the right to own, use and enjoy it in her own right without any intermediary trustee or mediator. Not only this but in the most important problem of her life, that is, marriage as well as her independent status was established. She could not be given in marriage without her consent; no marriage was valid unless she agreed to it. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said: No widow should be married without consulting her; and no virgin be married without her consent, and her consent is her silence. (Bukhari & Muslim)
What I have said beforehand is sufficient to confute the allegation that Islam accords woman only a secondary status or that she is treated as subservient to man or that her role in life is, in the eyes of Islam, of no importance at all. For if it had been so, Islam would not have attached so great an importance to the acquisition of knowledge for woman. That it did so goes to prove that Islam acknowledges an honourable and noble status for woman in life, in the sight of Allah as well as society.
Islam never favours woman’s seclusion in any extravagant form. Seclusion or the Islamic veil system is defined as throwing a decent wrapper over the body from head to foot, and it is clear, that in this sense, it is not incompatible with a woman’s stepping beyond the threshold of the house, particularly when occasion demands, and when she obtains the consent of her husband or guardian. Certain restrictions have, doubtless, been imposed on the freedom of her movements, as I have shown earlier. But this is due as much to moral considerations as to the fact, which has been so often ignored, that woman’s proper sphere of action and influence is her own house. Man, to go out with a view to earn a living for himself, his wife, and children; and the woman free from such cases, to remain at home, in order to watch over the trust committed to her, and to discharge her own responsibilities, as a mother and a wife – such is the Islamic conception of the relation between the two sexes.
Now the real Pardah of Islam along with the social system for whose protection laws of Pardah have been enjoined is before you. The various pillars of the system in harmony with which the pillar of Pardah has been provided are also before you. Man (and woman) has also been acquainted with the scientific facts on which this social system has been based. All people in different religions may examine these closely and point out any weakness, any immoderation in the system. They may also consider where in the system a reform may possibly be made on purely scientific ground, apart from the trends of a particular section of the people. I assert on the basis of my insight that this system is based on the same principles of justice and equity, balance and proportion which one finds operating in the structure and order of earth and the universe, the atom and the solar system. This system is wholly free from excess and one-sidedness which is the inevitable weakness of human works. Man cannot return and improve it. If he tries to effect even the slightest alteration in it by use of his defective intellectual powers, he will upset its balance instead of reforming it. May Allah (Glory be to Him) bless all of you with understanding of this sermon, which is of high importance. Insha-Allah. Ameen. |
