Muslim Woman

Nikah is an agreement, with full consent between a man and
a woman -fully matured and sane- for leading married life.
This aims at a happy family life. When possibility of
maintaining married life does not remain, both the parties
are permitted to cancel their nikah - marital tie; and a
relief from this bond is called talaq generally 
understand as divorce. In the matter of nikah only two
individuals-man and woman are involved, and therefore, it
is confined to these two individuals only. The matter of
talaq is not so confined to two individuals alone;
sometimes besides them, their children’s interest will be
affected, and thus it becomes a common matter of the
society. It is worthy of consideration that at the time of
formulation nikah deed consent of both the parties viz.
man and woman is necessary; when the same agreement is
being terminated, how could only one party namely the
husband is given all the rights to terminate the same
unilaterally, saying in one breath talaq-talaq-talaq, and
driving away the lady from home. At the same time, she is
helpless to face innumerable troubles to settle the
matters of divorce.

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The Quran reminds us that, originally, humankind was one ummah or entity , but this unity was broken by various differences which the human beings created among themselves -Quran Chapter 10 verse 19- It emphasizes the fact that the main purpose of sending God's message through various Messengers is to restore back the balance and unity of  humankind which once existed in the earliest period of human history -Quran chapter 2 verse 213 & Chapter  57 verse 25- The Quran warns us not to differentiate among Prophets -Quran chapter 2 verse 285 & Chapter 4 verse 136- because all of them came from the same source, which is Allah Almighty. But the followers of the Messengers (Peace upon all of them) not only created differences among the messengers but they also created divisions among themselves within the following of a single messenger. As other people, we the followers of Messenger Mohammad peace be upon him have also created divisions among ourselves. We have done this in spite of the very clear order of Allah Almighty to hold on to His rope together in unity and not be divided among ourselves  - Quran chapter 3 verse 101, 102, 103

Every tribe, people or race throughout the world celebrates a festival of one sort or another. Muslims also celebrate some festive occasions on some days of the year. But the festival of Eid is one that we are commanded to celebrate in festivity, joy and happiness by Allah Almighty Himself ! This in itself portrays its importance.

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Adam, as the original human being, or as the archetype human (Rashid: Human Development Theory: Islamic Vs. Western Perspective, P.4) has been bestowed potentialities to acquire knowledge of how everything else in the universe functions (2:33, The Quran). Now it is unto him to utilize these potentialities and conquer/ harness all that lies in the universe.

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As every Muslim knows or should know that Iman is the foremost and essential requirement of Islam. Without proper Iman, one cannot become a Muslim even if one is born in a Muslim family.In fact,Iman is something which has to be self consciously acquired in order to become a Muslim,constantly maintained in order to remain a Muslim,and continually reinforced and fortified in order to begin the next life as a Muslim. Therefore,Iman is something which cannot and should not be taken for granted.Unfortunately,many of us take it for granted. If Iman is so important that it is the gist of life here and a savior in the hereafter, then it becomes necessary for each of us to find out what Iman really is.It is not right to say that I am a Muslim and therefore I have Iman because I was born in a Muslim family.As we will see shortly,the Quran and that means Allah Almighty does not accept this as a valid argument. What is Iman and what is its definition in the context of Islam? This is a fundamental question concerning Muslims and Islam. But one thing is quite clear: A definition of Iman which contradicts any Quranic principle cannot be accepted as Iman in Islam, no matter where and whomsoever it may have come from. After this preamble,let us explore first of all the meaning of the arabic word Iman and its definition given in the Quran by Allah Almighty.

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Islam urges upon establishment of Quranic Order Nizam -e-Salaat, and a plan of action for growth and development of the entire mankind through a system called Nizam-e-Zakat.As a Divine code of life, Islam is very simple to follow and easy to adopt in practical life. It aims at establishment of a social order based on permanent values and sound economic principles and the only system, which is sustainable and beneficial for the entire mankind. It is most unfortunate that Islam as Deen - a system totally based on the Quranic laws were once been established by the Messenger Muhammad peace be upon him and has lasted in its very pure form till further 50 or 60 years, since then it is yet to be established in Muslim countries of today's developed and modern world.

Life cycles for people and plants, for businesses,
industries, economies and entire civilization have four
distinct quarters: gestation, growth, maturity and
decline. How did the human caravan pass through with its
own breakthroughs? Take economies. Like every thing else,
all economies have beginnings and endings. Economies end
not because they cease out but because a challenge
supplants them. First hunting-and-gathering economies
ruled for hundreds of thousands of years before the humans
were over-shadowed by agrarian economies, which ruled for
about 10,000 year. Next came the industrial ones. The
first began in Britain in the 1760’s, and the first to
finish started unwinding in the U. S in the early 1950’s.
Then started the information economies, the Internet. The
last phase of it marked the widespread use of cheap chips
and wireless technology that has partially connected and
is connecting everything to everything else. As life
cycles overlap, this information economy led to Bio
economy for business in 1953 when the double-helix
structure of DNA was identified. Completion and
publication of the decoded human genome marked the end of
its gestation period. Its growth quarter headed to hot new
industries and brought semiconductors and software of the
info economy. During the next two decades, organic biotech
will overlap with inorganic silicon info tech and
inorganic composite materials and nanotechnologies. During
the overlap of infot ech, we are digitizing many
biological processes. Up until now we have digitized four
kinds of information: numbers, words, sounds, and images.
We are trying hard to digitize other forms of information
such as smell, taste, touch, imagination and intuition.
Companies like DigiScents of Oakland, Calif. Ambryx of La
Jolla, Calif Cyrano Sciences of Pasadeno, Calif. are
involved in the various aspects of this process. Infused
by the bioec era are pharmaceuticals, health care,
agriculture and food. Dozens of bioengineered drugs are on
the market. Biotech is leading to transforming the health
care paradigm from treatment to prediction and prevention.
So in the bio economy, health care will work on a
preventive model. It will consequently lead to the farm,
which will be super bioengineered place with multimillion
dollar manufacturing plants and not the fields. Today we
bioengineered milk, neat and produce on our market
shelves. These products are, of course, not without
challenge. The effects and applications of biotech will
spread into sectors seemingly unrelated to biology.

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When human beings developed tools for self-defense and gradually advanced in science,they tended to drift away
from religion. They found security in science rather than prayer because science gave them control over the forces
Of nature. Priesthood considered this attitude as an attack on religion itself. This led to a continuous battle
of religion with science.History bears ample testimony to this continuous struggle. A classic example of this is the
battle of creation versus evolution. Thus we see that there seems to be no single reason as to why people pray.
Everyone can come up with his or her own answer and feel satisfied. In fact, this is what we normally do. The
answer that transcends space,time,circumstance and human emotion can only come from God which means
His book, the Quran.

To establish the rule of justice is a basic responsibility of an Islamic State. The demand for justice prevails in all walks of life, but here we shall talk only about the judicial justice that which pertains to the domain of law. The Quran also provides the required guidance for justice dispensing agencies i.e. the courts of law. It is necessary to understand one basic principle about JUSTICE. According to the common concept of justice in the world the duty of a law court is to decide the disputed affairs according to the code of law that is prevalent; therefore a decision made accordingly shall be considered as based on justice. But, if the law itself is not based on justice, then the decision based on it can never be considered just. Thus the principle laid down by the Quran is that the law of the land should also be based on justice. In this respect the Quran does not indulge in a philosophical debate as to what is meant by law on the basis of justice and what is the definition of justice. It addresses the Islamic sovereign state decisively as follows:  If any do fail to judge by what Allah Almighty has revealed, they are the infidels - Quran chapter 5 verse 44

Man is a moral being, free to choose either good or evil,
right or wrong. The basic questions are: what is good?
what is evil? why good is good? why evil is evil?, These
questions are the topic of ETHICS where Laws according to
which OUGHT to happen are discussed. In this way ETHICS
relates more to feelings than to the concrete world and
incorporates instinctive behavior; within the purview of
Mechanistic Theory of Life. The scale of values helps to
determine which of the two goods is the higher and which
the lower. Reason tells only about relative values. Ethics
cannot even give a definite answer to the question as to
whether there are absolute values and if so, how they can
be known. It tends to define values in subjective terms,
only in relation to the particular experiencing
individual. It amounts to a tacit denial of an objective
system of values, valid for all men at all times. Islam
involves belief in objective, absolute values as moral
standard. These values are given in the Holy Quran – the
only source of our knowledge of the highest values on
which the character development is based.

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Now, we come to the most important aspect of Allah’s Will,
that is, Allah’s Will in relation to the world of human
beings. How does Allah’s Will function in the world of
human beings? This is the critical question as far as
human beings are concerned. Without a proper understanding
of this question, it is not possible to find the straight
path, Siraat-al-Mustaqeem, we so earnestly seek and so
eagerly want, that we ask Allah Almighty to help us find
in every raka’a of every prayer. And how does God Almighty
respond to this request?: By sending His guidance as a
free gift to us in the form of Wahi or Revelation which is
more valuable than anything else in the universe. Can
there be any better gift to humanity from the Creator of
all the worlds? Not only has He given this priceless gift
of the Quran but God has also, in this process, raised the
status of human beings in the universe to the level of
Ashraful Makhlooqat.But this elevated status is not
free,we have to earn it.Thus human beings occupy a unique
place in the universe.By virtue of possessing a human
body, man is part of the material world.Thus,he is as much
subject to natural laws as is any other object in the
universe. Birth, growth, decay, and death of the human
body are natural processes and so are governed by the laws
of nature. But man is also endowed with a self or ego which
expresses itself as free will, and freedom of choice is
inherent in the self.

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