Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

The Rights of Women in Islam

Author(s): Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari

Publisher(s): W.O.F.I.S. World Organization for Islamic Services

www.alhassanain.org/english

Table of Contents

The Author 7

Publishers Foreword 9

Preface 10

Notes 20

Introduction 21

1. Family relation, A world problem 21

Should we be independent or follow the west? 22

Historical determinism 22

2. The constitution and ourselves 23

3. The attachment of the Iranian nation to religion 23

Notes 24

Part One: Proposal and Engagement 25

Does a man’s proposal of marriage insult a woman? 25

It is a man’s instinct to make the approach and ask, and a woman’s, instinct to be a source of attraction and act with self-restraint: 25

Man seeks union with woman, not to enslave her: 26

The custom of asking the hand of woman in marriage is a very safe and wise way of safeguarding the honour and prestige of a woman: 27

Errors by the writer of the forty articles in the Civil Law:] 27

Notes 29

Part Two: Fixed-Term Marriage 30

Contemporary life and fixed-term marriage 32

Modern youth, the time of puberty, and the onset of textual activity: 32

Monasticism for a fixed period, sexual communism, or fixed-term marriage: 32

Experimental marriage 33

Russell’s views on fixed-term marriage: 33

Fixed-Term marriage 35

Objections and difficulties 36

Criticism: 39

Fixed-Term marriage and the problem of the harem 41

Social causes for harems: 41

Is the provision of fixed-term marriage a license for promiscuity? 42

Harems in the present world: 43

Prohibition by the Caliph of fixed-term marriage: 44

A tradition from ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib: 46

Notes 47

Part Three: Woman and Her Social Independence 48

Freedom in determining one’s future 48

Marrying a woman before she is born 48

Exchange of daughters 49

The Holy Prophet gave az- Zahra, his daughter full freedom in choosing a husband: 49

The Islamic movement in favour of women was entirely independence: 49

Permission of fathers: 50

A man is a slave of his passions and a woman is a captive of her lovingness: 51

Our author writes: 53

Notes 55

Part Four: Islam and Modernity 56

The exigencies of the age: 56

Islam and the demands of the age: 57

Bernard Shaw, the great English liberal writer said: 57

Confused thinking: 58

What does time itself conform to? 59

Adaptation or abrogation? 59

Islam and Modernity 62

Rigid people and ignorant people: 63

The story in the Qur’an 64

Islam and modernity 67

At present, it will be enough to clarify two points: 67

The secret of the dynamism and flexibility of Islamic law 68

Attention to essence and meaning as opposed to shape and form: 68

The question of change of script: 71

Laws with the right of ‘veto’: 73

The governing authority: 73

The fundamental of ijtihad: 73

Notes 74

Part Five: The Human Status of Woman in the Quran 75

The particular philosophy of Islam concerning family rights 75

Equality or identicalness 76

The status of woman in the world-view of Islam 77

Equality, but not Uniformity 81

The Declaration of Human Rights is philosophy and not law: 84

Philosophy cannot be proved by questionnaires 85

A glance at the history of women’s rights in Europe 86

The dignity and the rights of human beings 87

Important points in the preamble to the Declaration of Human Rights 88

The dignity and respect of man 89

The decline and fall of the human being in western philosophy 90

The west is involved in a basic contradiction about man: 91

The west has forgotten both itself and its God: 92

Notes 93

Part Six: The Natural Basis of Family Rights 95

The connection between natural rights and the direction in which nature moves 95

Social rights 96

Family rights 97

The natural basis of family rights 98

Is family life conditioned by nature or regulated by convention: 99

The theory of the four eras 99

Woman in nature 101

Part Seven: The Differences Between Woman and Man 104

Is it a question of symmetry or one of imperfection and perfection? 104

Plato’s theory: 105

Aristotle against Plato: 106

The opinion of the modern world: 107

Reciprocal differences: 107

Feeling towards each other: 108

The differences between woman and man 109

The masterpiece of creation: 109

A union stronger than passion: 110

Reciprocal differences in the feelings of men and women towards each other: 111

The view of a female psychologist 112

A hasty movement: 113

The view of Will Durant: 113

Part Eight: Dowry and Maintenance 117

A short history of the dower: 117

The dower in the Islamic system of rights: 118

A look at history: 119

The real philosophy of the dower: 120

Dower as in the Qur’an: 122

Two kinds of sentiments in animals: 123

Presents and gifts in illicit relations: 123

European love-affairs are more natural than their marriages: 123

Dower and Maintenance 124

The customs of the pre-Islamic period that that were abolished by Islam: 124

Islam has its own system of dower 126

Rule of nature 127

Criticisms: 128

Dower and Maintenance 131

The repression of European women up to the second half of the nineteenth century: 132

Why did Europe suddenly grant financial independence? 132

The Qur’an and the financial independence of woman: 133

A comparison 133

Criticism and reply 134

Three kinds of maintenance 135

In Islam there are three kinds of maintenance: 135

Does modern woman not want a dower or maintenance? 136

An advantage to women in financial matters: 136

The purpose of propaganda against maintenance 139

Wealth in place of husband 140

Is the Declaration of Human Rights an insult to woman? 142

Notes 143

Part Nine: The Question of Inheritance 144

The cause of woman’s being deprived of inheritance 144

Inheritance of an adopted son: 145

Inheritance by a confederation: 145

Woman as a part of the share of inheritance: 146

Woman’s inheritance in the Sassanid period in Iran: 146

The share of women in inheritance according to Islam: 147

An objection by the worshippers of the west: 148

The objection of atheists at the beginning of Islam about inheritance: 148

Notes 149

Part Ten: Right of Divorce 150

The increase of divorce in modern life 150

Divorce in Iran 151

The environment in divorce-infected America 151

Assumptions 152

Divorce 155

Dishonourable divorces 156

A malicious tale without any truth 158

Why did Islam not make divorce Illegal? 160

Divorce 160

Natural laws in the case of marriage and divorce: 161

The natural status of man in family life: 162

The view of a female psychologist: 164

The structure which is built on affections and feelings: 165

It is something more than equality which strengthens the foundation of the family: 166

Equality in corruption: 167

Divorce 167

The nature of peace in the family is different from all other forms of peace: 169

1. Islam welcomes any factor that will do away with divorce: 170

2. The wife’s past services to the household: 174

Such women should take care from the beginning: 175

Divorce is a release in the same way as the inherent nature of marriage is dominance: 177

Penalty for divorce: 178

Wife having the right of divorce as an entrusted right 179

Judicial Divorce 179

Whether some marriages are a cancer which the wife must suffer and put up with: 180

Deadlocks: 182

The deadlock of divorce: 183

View of Ayatu’llah Hilli: 183

Other arguments and citation: 185

The view of Shaykh at-Tai’ifah: 186

Notes 187

Part Eleven: Polygyny 189

Sexual communism 189

Plato’s view: 189

Several husbands: 189

The difficulty with polyandry: 191

Polygyny: 191

Islam and polygyny: 192

Polygyny in Iran: 193

(1) The historical causes of polygyny 194

The cause of the disappearance of polyandry: 196

The failure of sexual communism: 197

(2) The historical causes of polygyny 200

Geographical factors: 201

The form of polygyny in western countries: 202

Menstruation: 204

The child-bearing period of woman is limited: 204

Economic factors: 204

Factor of number and tribe: 205

There are more women than men: 205

An analysis: 205

The right of woman in Polygyny 206

Women have more resistance to disease: 211

Right of woman in polygyny: 212

Russell’s view: 213

One in every ten English children: 214

Is it the nature of man to be polygynous? 215

Polygyny is a source of protection for monogamy: 217

The real point at issue: 218

Twentieth-century man’s fraudulence: 218

The crises arising from the frustration of unmarried women 220

Various results following from the phenomenon of the excess in the number of women: 221

Disadvantages and shortcomings in Polygyny 221

A correct analysis: 222

From the psychological point of view: 223

The point of view of up-bringing: 224

From the moral point of view: 225

From the point of view of rights: 226

From the philosophical point of view: 228

The Role of Islam in Polygyny 229

Limitations 229

Justice: 229

The danger of injustice: 232

Harems 232

Other conditions and possibilities: 233

Modern Man and Polygyny 233

Notes 234

The Author

Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari, born 1920, was one of the most versatile Islamic scholars and prolific writers of recent times. He was deeply rooted in traditional learning and enamoured of its exponents.

He was a thinker who had fully absorbed a rigorous philosophical training. His work is marked by a philosophical clarity that particularly qualified him to deal with the fundamental problem of religious thought that forms the subject-matter of this book.

Ayatullah Mutahhari received his elementary education in theology from his father, Shaykh Muhammad Husayn in his home town, Fariman. When the Ayatullah was twelve years of age he joined the Educational Centre at Mashad and pursued his studies there for five years. Then he proceeded to Qum, the great centre of Islamic education.

He stayed there for fifteen years and completed his education in Islamic Beliefs and Jurisprudence under the supervision of the renowned philosopher Allama Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, Imam Khomayni and many other distinguished scholars. Then he migrated to Tehran.

During the period of his education the Ayatullah felt that the communists wanted to change the sacred religion of Islam and destroy its very spirit by mixing their atheistic views with the Islamic philosophy and interpreting the verses of the Qur'an in a materialistic manner. Of course, communism was not the only thing which received Ayatullah's attention.

He also wrote on exegesis of the Qur'an, philosophy, ethics, sociology, history and many other subjects. In all his writings the real object he had in view was to give replies to the objections raised by others against Islam, to point out the shortcomings of other schools of thought and to manifest the greatness of Islam.

He believed that in order to prove the falsity of Marxism and other ideologies like it, it was necessary not only to comment on them in a scholarly manner but also to present the real image of Islam.

Ayatullah Mutahhari wrote assiduously and continuously from his student days right up to 1979, the year of his assassination. Much of his work has been published in and outside Iran. He has written a number of books not in accordance with his personal interest or predilection but with his perception of its need. Wherever a book was lacking in some vital topic of contemporary Islamic interest Mutahhari sought to supply it.

The activities of the Ayatullah were intolerable for the followers of the atheistic schools and they, therefore, decided to remove him from the scene by terroristic methods. Eventually they succeeded on the 1st of May, 1979. His martyrdom was a great tragedy.

When the sad news was conveyed to Imam Khomayni he could not control his tears. In his condolence message he said: "I have been deprived of a dear son of mine. I am lamenting upon the death of one who was the fruit of my life."

Thousands of Muslims escorted his funeral. He was laid to rest in Qum in the precincts of the Holy shrine of Lady Fatimah Ma'sumah.

Ayatullah Mutahhari was a popular figure in the religious and literary circles of Iran. He served in the Tehran University as the Head of the Department of Theology and Islamic Learnings.

At the time of his martyrdom he was the president of the Constitutional Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran and was performing his duties in a very befitting manner.

His works have been translated and published in French, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu and English. The Islamic Seminary has had the honour of publishing some of them.

Publishers Foreword

In the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful

The famous Islamic writer, the great scholar, the late Shaikh Murtadha Mutahhari, may Allah bestow His mercy on him, was one of the most celebrated authors in Iran, who had the ability to put forward in the clearest way Islamic ideas pertaining to principles and law. Allah gave him both the power to think originally and the ability to explain his thoughts in an immediately understandable way in every subject he tackled, he was able to cover it comprehensively from all aspects; and those powers enabled him to reach his great position among Islamic writers in Iran. The extent of the loss to Muslims on his death is to the same degree as the benefit to them of his writings, all of which are at a high level of originality.

It is a great pity that readers who are not acquainted with the Persian language are prevented from a direct contact with the works of Allamah Mutahhari, so our Organization has decided to endeavor to the best of their ability to translate and publish them. There is no strength and power except with Allah. We have previously published the translation of Wilayah, The Station Of The Master and now we are presenting the second of his books to be translated Nidam-e-huquq-e- zan dar Islam (The rights of Women in Islam), praise be to Allah.

For the information of our reader this book was first of all given to a translator abroad and then this translation was examined by someone who has a first- hand knowledge of both the English language and literature and who was fortunately acquainted with Persiàn, who went through every page correcting it and making necessary addition and footnotes. In some places where the first translator had not understood the text, the translation was done again from the original.

We can thus say with praise to Allah, that we have spared no effort in the translation of this work. We can only pray to Allah that He make this translation as beneficial to the readers as He has made the original. We beseech Allah to inspire us with goodness and guidance to keep us away from error and fault. For He is the best guide, the best helper.

World Organization For Islamic Services

(Board of writing, Translation and Publication)

29/8/1400 AH

12/7/1980 AD

Tehran - Iran