Right of Muslim Women to Education
Obaid Ullah Hamzah
Knowledge is the most important and noble thing in Islam. With knowledge one can worship Allah and through it life on earth goes forward. The word “ knowledge “ was mentioned in the Quran 779 times . The first word Allah has chosen to begin with for His final revelation is “ Iqra “ which means Read. Allah says : Recite in the Name of your Lord who created. Created man from a clinging substance. Recite and your Lord is the most Generous. Who taught by the pen. Taught man that which he knew not. ( 96 : 1-5 )
There are many authentic sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) which command us to seek knowledge. In one narration he said “ Seeking knowledge is mandatory for every Muslim “ . As for sayings that talk about the virtue and importance of seeking knowledge are numerous.
He said concerning education for Muslim women “ Three kind of people will get a double reward ; A person who believes in his Prophet and believes in Muhammad (pbuh) as the Prophet will get a double reward; He who has a slave –girl and teaches her good manners and improves her education and manumits and marries her will get a double reward ; and any salve who observes God’s right and his master’s right will get a double reward .
The Prophet (pbuh) was very keen on educating women and allotted a day for women to admonish them and teach them their religion. History fairly recorded that the Institute of the Prophet brought about a lot of learned Muslim women in Fiqh ( Islamic Jurisprudence ) and hadith etc. Ayesha , May Allah be pleased with her, says “ How best Ansari women are ! Shyness and modesty did not prevent them to gain deep knowledge in matters of religion.
Inspired by this guidance of Islam many Muslim women scholars made outstanding accomplishment in different fields of knowledge throughout ages .
Woman , like man, created to worship her Lord and that cannot be done without proper Islamic knowledge. She needs knowledge because of the great jobs she carries
out as a responsible and caring mother . They are half the society which give birth to the other half.
Denial to education and depriving them from it is an offense which must be vanished from the society . Education for them is not less important than for men who depend on their mothers for knowledge in the first phase of life. The poet says : Mother is a school; if you prepare it well, you prepare a great nation. A cursory look into the present situation of the Ummah will tell us how badly we need to provide them education and morality. Our future generation ‘s proper upbringing depends on their goodness and righteousness. The opposite is true as well.
It is a false accusation against Islam that It does mot encourages women to seek knowledge or it prefers for them to remain ignorant . No religion on the earth pushes human being ( male and female ) to knowledge as Islam does. Sad to say but true it is that ignorance is more wide spread among Muslim women in some Muslim societies while their very religion tell them to seek knowledge to become Ideal mother abiding by the shariah .