Muslim Woman

Before the advent of Islam slavery prevailed all over the world. To men in those days, it seemed perfectly normal for the strong and wealthy to have slaves whom they had captured in war or purchased in the market. The Greeks were the leaders of thought in the ancient world. No Greek thinker had ever raised his voice against the institution of slavery. The Quran proclaimed the equality of all men in the sight of God. It struck at the root of slavery by recognizing the moral worth of man as man. However, there were, at the time of the advent of Islam, numerous slaves, both men and women, in Arabia as elsewhere in the world. The Arab economy was based on slavery. To abolish it at one stroke was impracticable. It could not be done without plunging the whole society into confusion. Yet, in every conceivable way, the Quran discouraged slavery and improved the lot of the slaves. The Muslims were urged to be kind and considerate to their slaves. They were told that to emancipate a slave was a meritorious act. They could atone for some of their offences by setting a slave free. Thus the number of slaves was gradually reduced and society was made less dependent on slave labour. The words "whom your right hand possessed" occurring in the Quran are in the past tense and refer to those who had already been enslaved. When they were emancipated through a gradual process, slavery died a natural death. The main source of slaves-men and women-was prisoners in war. The Quran laid down that they should be set free either for a ransom or as a favour (47 : 4). The door for future slavery was thus closed by the Quran for ever. Whatever happened in subsequent history, was the responsibility of the Muslims and not of the Quran.

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Human characteristics are baffling in their complexity and contradictions. Man’s capacity for ennoblement is equaled only by his capacity for debasement. He can rise to heights of sublimity but also sinks to the lowest depths of degradation. He may adore God with a fervor which is truly angelical; on the other hand, he may take devilish delight in debauchery and sensuality. If he can rise to heights of spiritual grandeur in love and can even die for his beloved, he can also hate like a beast of the jungle. Endowed with an intelligence which can explore interstellar spaces and can weigh the sun and the earth, he may remain ignorant of his own worth and latent powers and foolishly follow a path that will surely lead to the extermination of the human race..War has been with man throughout his existence on this planet. As far as our eye can penetrate the haze of the distant past, we see men fighting each other. Despite the splendid civilization he has created, and despite his glorious achievements in art and science, one wonders whether a being so busy with destroying his kind deserves to be called human. It is true that from time to time great men have appeared who have held aloft the banner of peace, tolerance and fellowship, but equally prominent men have as often preached the opposite gospel and glorified war. To Nietzsche, fighting was a noble occupation. "Men should be educated for war" he counseled, "and women for the production of warriors," and adds, to make his meaning clear, "everything else is folly". Mussolini looked upon war as a moral necessity. Hitler regarded war as the basic principle of life. For him law was only that which a soldier laid down. In his view, only those who help the state to prepare for war really contribute to national culture and social well-being. "We should demolish", says Heinrich Hauser, "all those institutions which safeguard peace and security for man. Life will be stable and simple only in an age we call barbaric.".

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And We have created you all from one breath of life, says the Quran. But the perception of life as an organic unity is a slow achievement which depends for its growth on a people’s entry into the main current of world events. This opportunity was brought to Islam by the rapid development of a vast empire. No doubt Christianity  long before Islam brought the message of equality to mankind but Christian Rome did not rise to the full apprehension of the idea of humanity as a single organism. As Flint rightly says, No Christian writer and still less of course, any other in the Roman Empire can be credited with having had more than a general and abstract conception of human unity. And since the days of Rome the idea does not seem to have gained much in depth and rootage in Europe. On the other hand the growth of territorial nationalism, with its emphasis on what is called national characteristics which has tended rather to kill the broad human element in the art and literature of Europe, it was quite otherwise with Islam. Here the idea was neither a concept of philosophy nor a dream of poetry. As a social movement the aim of Islam was to make the idea a living factor in the Muslim’s daily life and thus silently and imperceptibly to carry it towards fuller fruition.

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Just take a look at the universe and it will appear to be a collection of opposites. For example on one side is the night which covers everything in darkness and on the other side is the day which brightens everything by its light.Likewise among living beings, males are created alongwith females whose physical functions are different.This diversity is for the distribution of functions (labour). (Due to this distribution, the aims of your endeavors in social life are different. This is how the system functions so smoothly. However If you consider that this distribution of labour divides humanity into schisms, one having no connection with the other, then this is a misconception. If you superficially look at day and night, or the distribution between men and women, you will find that each one of them appears to be different from the other. However, if you look more closely, you will notice that both are linked with each other.They are branches of the same origin as well as facets of the same fact.Inspite of this distribution of labour, human beings are an indivisible unit.Therefore remember that whoever, considering all mankind to be one entity, gives out of his hardearned money for the nourishment of others but careful not to create unevenness in society. The only aims is the establishment and strengthening of the universal Order of Rabubiyyah (social & economic system) ordained by Supreme Sustainer (Allah Almighty / God).

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According to psychologists view, personality develops as the result of the reactions of the individual itself. The important thing for personality isn't the social influence to which the individual is exposed but the way, the process in which he reacts to it. Men therefore don?t passively receive but actively acquires personality. The biological factor operating in man is of crucial importance for personality development. However, it will not act to disregard the social factor altogether. Man has to accommodate himself to the demands of the group (family) on which he is dependent and which provides him with security and necessities of life.

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The modus operandi of human intellect consists in the method of trial
and error. It formulates a theory, puts it into practice and takes
decades or even centuries to discover its weaknesses. Then it devises
another theory and repeats the process. It might take hundreds of
years to arrive at the right solution. The solution thus reached is
then welcome, since during the intervening centuries the requisite
mental development has already taken place.

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