“O mankind! Fear your Guardian Lord Who created you from a single soul. Created, out of it, his mate, and from the two scattered (like seeds) countless men and women.”(Quran 4:1)

The starting point for understanding the Islamic concept of woman does not begin with legal discourse–‎much less with the exaggerated practices of patriarchal cultures–‎but with the Quranic description of woman’s creation and spiritual nature.

In Islam, the concept of polarity runs throughout the created world, from human beings, to plant and animal kingdoms, and even to the symbolism of the abiotic natural world: the alternating pairs of day and night, sun and moon, mountains and seas, sky and earth.

These pairs are not uniform, uni-sexual copies of one another, but rather complementary partners, completing, comforting, supporting and bringing each other into wholeness. The Quran proclaims: “Glory to Allah, Who created in pairs all things that the earth produces, as well as their own (human) kind and (other) things of which they have no knowledge.” (36:36)

The Quranic concept of male-female relations includes both polarity and unity. That God has created human beings from a single soul implies that male and female together, united in harmonious union, bear full witness to their God-given natures. Hence any interpretation of Islam that distorts the male-female relationship into an empty hierarchy of authority has missed the essential role of the feminine in this relationship and in creation as a whole.

The nature of the male-female relationship has been designed by God to be infused with love, mercy and tranquility:

“Among His signs is that He has created spouses for you among yourselves so that you may dwell in tranquility with them and He has planted love and mercy between you. In that are signs for people who reflect.” (30:21)

Striving towards this mutual harmony in marriage is a duty so important that marriage has been described by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as “half of faith.”

Yet for marriage to be a form of worship leading to closeness to God, it must be based on individual willingness to submit to God and strive for His pleasure in fulfilling the responsibilities of marriage. Unfortunate tendencies found in both men and women to focus on attaining all rights, privileges and comforts that they feel are due to them by their spouses, without first attempting to earn God’s satisfaction in performing their own responsibilities, undermines the spiritual foundation of marriage and ultimately obstructs the channel through which spiritual blessings flow into the relationship.

 Although both husband and wife have duties incumbent on them, husbands are given extra admonitions in the Quran and Prophetic statements to treat their wives with kindness.  The Prophet warned his followers in his final sermon: “Fear God regarding women; for you have taken them (in marriage) with the trust of God.” In this stern warning, men are reminded that they are accountable to God for the treatment of their wives, and that ultimately women are in God’s protection.  

Yet for the Prophet, proper treatment of women extended beyond protection and provision. Women were an aspect of creation to be cherished: “Made beloved to me from your world are women and perfume, and the coolness of my eyes is in prayer." The Prophet found supreme spiritual satisfaction by humbling himself in prayer, achieving a spiritual state and insight he described as the coolness of his eye. It is through these eyes that woman can be recognized for what she is in essence: something beloved from God’s creation.

 

Barbara (Masumah) Helms