Islam and equality between men and women

[فداء الرسول]

In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Equality between male and female:


Dear brothers, women in Islam are equal to men in so many aspects:
1- Equality in humanity:
Women have feelings, personal status, and special characters, Allah says:
(O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam))
[Al Nisaa, 1]
“O mankind” means men and women.
As men feel, women feel too, as men level up to values, women also do, and as men can achieve heroism, women can, too. Hence, men and women are created from one soul.
(and from him (Adam) He created his wife [Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship) . Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you.)
[Al Nisaa, 1]
Women are human exactly like men, and the Prophet PBUH said in this respect:
Women are twin halves of men
And He said also:
Every new-born child is born in a state of fitrah (innate). Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just as an animal is born intact. Do you observe any among them that are maimed (at birth)?
[Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmizi, Nasaee, Abu Dawood, Ahmad, and Malek]
This new-born indicates male and female.
Any inferior look at the woman as less human than man is a Jahilyya (pre-Islamic) consideration that is not admitted in Islam. Better yet, Islam came to fight such consideration as a form of discrimination.
2- Equality in subliming:
Dear brothers, women can be righteous exactly like men, and they can be deviated like men as well. A man can be a believer or a disbeliever, and so can woman be, man can be obedient or disobedient to Allah, and so can woman be, man can sublime and ascend and woman can sublime and ascend too. Allah says:
(And by Nafs (Adam or a person or a soul, etc.), and Him Who perfected him in proportion Then He showed him what is wrong for him and what is right for him)
[As-hams, 7-8]
“Nafs” here is refers to both male and female.
(Then He showed him what is wrong for him and what is right for him)
[As-shams, 8]
Man and woman are created so as to know by innate nature what is wrong and what is right, and to know when they do wrong and when they do right.
This is the real Islam according to its origins and resources. It is not what Muslims do nowadays; it is rather the great principles established by the noble prophet (PBUH). Allah says:
(Indeed he succeeds who purifies his ownself (i.e. obeys and performs all that Allah ordered, by following the true Faith of Islamic Monotheism and by doing righteous good deeds). And indeed he fails who corrupts his ownself (i.e. disobeys what Allah has ordered by rejecting the true Faith of Islamic Monotheism or by following polytheism, etc. or by doing every kind of evil wicked deeds))
[As-shams, 9-10]
This Ayah addresses both men and women. Saving one’s life is like saving all mankind, and killing one person is like killing all mankind.
Dear brothers, woman is equal to man as a human being, and as a person who has the ability to transcend, sublime, excel, and to be looked up to.
3-Equality in dignity and honor:
One other thing, woman is equal to man in dignity and honor.
In Hamorabi’s law that is taught in law schools, if someone killed another person’s daughter, he ought to deliver his own daughter to be killed by that person… well, what is her fault? What is the fault committed by the killer’s daughter to be killed in revenge for the victim? The Prophet PBUH was asked once:
What is the worst sin in the sight of Allah? He said: “To join a partner with Allah Who created you”. The man said said: then what? He said: “And to kill your children for fear of poverty”. He asked: then what? He said: “and to commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife”
[Agreed upon]
And Allah says in the noble Quran:
(And when the female (infant) buried alive (as the pagan Arabs used to do) shall be questioned. For what sin she was killed?.)
[Al Takweer, 8-9]
And He says as well:
(And there is (a saving of) life for you in Al-Qisas (the Law of Equality in punishment), O men of understanding, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).)
[Al Baqara, 179]
Islamic law scholars legislated that a man is killed for killing a woman, because they both share the same dignity and honor.
Therefore, women are equal to men in humanity, transcendence, dignity, and honor. Moreover, great Islam imposed a penalty of eighty whips and an eternal declined testimony on those who accuse the chaste women without bringing to testimony four witnesses on that act, unless they repent, but still, after repenting, the penalty should be carried out in this life, as it won’t be canceled by repentance, hence, it was mentioned in the tradition:
Slandering a chaste woman perishes the deeds of a year