POSITION OF WOMAN IN ISLAM A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Question: "Dear Maulana Ansari! A Christian lady-friend of mine who happens to be a missionary of the Roman Catholic Church has often preached to me about the beauties of her religion and has also tried to convince me that Islam is defective. She has often told me that Islam has degraded womanhood. Recently, she gave me some Chris­tian literature on the position of woman in Islam, which has actually perturbed me. She has told me that the views contained in that literature are subscribed to by the scholars of other great reli­gions also. Unfortunately, all my education has been western and 1 had very little opportunity of studying Islam. Plainly speaking, I am deeply interested in knowing the exact teachings of Islam concerning womanhood, because I am a woman myself, and I shall be very grateful if you can find time to discuss it in the pages of your esteemed journal, preferably throwing light at the same time on the teachings of other religions. I give below a few extracts from Christian writ­ings for your edification:-

"The Koran degraded early Arabian woman­hood. The one great classic on the subject by Dr. Perron is as convincing as it is exhaustive." (Femmes Arabes avant et depuis l'Islamisme, 2 Vols., Paris).

"..... Any woman would undoubtedly choose to have lived in Pagan Arabia rather than under the system of Islam". (Across the World of Islam by Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, p. 96).

"The not uncommon belief that Moslems hold that women either have no souls, or that their souls perish at the death of the body is no groundless calumny of the Christian." (Moham­med by P. de Lacy Johnstone).

"The laws of marriage (in Islam) seem hope­lessly mediaeval, but they have never been abro­gated."

'The Place given to woman in Mohammedan literature is in accord with that to which she is assigned in the Koran and the Traditions. As far as the unexpurgated Arabian Nights are from King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, so far is the conception of womanhood in Islam from that even of mediaeval womanhood in Western lands." (Across the World of Islam by Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, p. 107,111).

 

POSITION OF WOMAN IN ISLAM

A COMPARATIVE STUDY:

 

We are not at all surprised at the above letter. Blackmailing Islam with a view to advance their own cause has been the practice of Christian priests and missionaries for centuries, and in recent times, the missionaries of other religions also have tried to imitate them and to repeat what they have said. They have perhaps felt that the light of their candles can be appreciated only in the darkness of the mists of misrepresentations of Islam. However, truth must always remain truth and falsehood nothing else but falsehood and falsehood must ultimately vanish with the dawn of true knowledge. Let us, therefore, see what the religions of the adversaries of Islam say and what Islam itself says on the status and position of woman in human society. Taking first Hinduism, the world's oldest religion and the religion of those firebrands among Hindus who consider it the greatest virtue to wipe out Islam by force:

The law of Hinduism is: "By a girl, by a young woman or even by an aged one nothing must be done independently, even in her own house." (Manu, V 147).

"In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent." (Manu, V 140).

"The legislator Manu," says a Hindu scholar, Sir. R.G. Bhandarkar, "is equally hard on women; it must be acknowledged that the estimate of the old Aryan of womanly nature is not flattering to them generally. They are debarred from reading the Vedas; any religious rite in which they alone are concerned is directed to be performed without Vedic Mantras. Even the Bhagvad Gita gives expression to the general belief that it is only a sinful soul that is born as woman, Vaisya, or Sudra." (Collected Works, page 461).

Among ancient cultures, the Greek culture stands next to the Hindu culture. There also the position of woman was in no way satisfactory. It is possible to point out stray instances of decent treatment meted out to her in a few very distinguished families, but it cannot be denied that on the whole her position as a female member of the family was not very flattering to her. The insult to which the average woman of Greece was subjected bears ample testimony to this fact. Throughout her life a Greek woman remained under the subordination of either her parents or her husband or her sons. Marriage, which is the most important and holy social institution, was regarded as only a means of breeding citizens, so much so that it was once ordered in Sparta that the young wives of old or weak men should be delivered to young men for producing hardy soldiers for the state. The great dramatist Euripedes puts into the mouth of Medea the remark: "Women are impotent for good, but clever contrivers of all evils." "For the most part, however," says Professor Lecky, "the names of virtuous women scarcely appear in Greek history." (History of European Morals, Vol. II; p. 307.)

As regards Budhism, the teaching that Nirvana (salvation) cannot be attained in the company of woman is sufficiently eloquent to give us a clue to its attitude towards this sex.

"The idea of wed-lock and its attendant worldly life is opposed to the ultimate end of Budhism —the annihilation of Desire the striving for which must necessarily involve celibacy." (U. May Oung: Budhist Law; Part 1, page 2).

To a follower of Budhism, therefore, according to the celebrated historian Westermarck: "Women are of all the snares, which the tempter has spread for men, the most dangerous; in women are embodied all the powers of infatuation which blind the mind of the world."

Coming now to the verdict of the Hebrew Scriptures and the attitude of the Jews towards woman. The Divine curse: "Thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee" (Genesis, III: 16) reduced her to the position of mere chattel in the house. "Of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die," is a belief which holds poor woman responsible for all the wickedness of man. Hence her degradation in Jewish society, where she was considered not as a creature worthy of honour, but as one who could be deservedly subjected to any amount of insults.

"A woman," observes Professor Lecky (History of European Morals, Vol. II, P. 357) "was regarded as the origin of human ills. She was further represented as the door of hell, as the mother of all human ills." Indeed it seems impossible to interpret the uncharitable remarks of the Old Testament in a way which might be honourable for womanhood.

To come to Christianity:— The whole structure of the Christian creed is based on the doctrine of the Original Sin, for which Christianity holds woman responsible: "The woman whom Thou gayest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." (Genesis, III: 12). Eve first committed the sin and caused the fall of Aiais4, she was responsible for the sins of God had to send His "only Bes: Christ, to be crucified and to was: humanity with his blood. This s the Christian faith.

This Biblical statement on woman could only lead the early Christian to make such "pious" aspersions of respecting woman can ever feel prose Paul, the Premier Saint of proclaims :—

"Let the woman learn in silence jection. But I suffer not a woman to to usurp authority over the man. silence. For Adam was first formed - And Adam was not deceived but the ing deceived was in transgression."

"Do you know," says St. Tertullian to "that each of you is an Eve; the sentence on this sex of yours lives in this age: II' must of necessity live too; you are tie gateway; you are the unsealer of that are the first deserter of the Divine Law; she who persuaded him whom the devil valiant enough to attack. You des easily God's image, man. On account of desert, that is, death, even the Son of God to die." (De Coltu Feminarum).

"Among all men" says St. Gregory Tha turgus, "I sought for chastity proper to them_ I found it among none. And, verily, a person find one man chaste among a thousand, but women never."

According to St. Gregory of Nazianzum:

"Fierce is the dragon, and cunning the but woman has the malice of both."

St. John Chrysostom regards woman as necessary evil, a desirable calamity, a dea fascinator, and a painted ill."

In the eyes of St. Clement of Alexandria :—

"Nothing disgraceful is proper for man, who is endowed with reason; much less for woman.. to whom it brings shame to reflect of what nature she is.' (Paed., II. 2. 83, 186 p.)

In fact, the 'builders of the Christian Church. as the early Fathers might be callet all vied in their denunciation of woman_ She was described as "the organ of the Devil," "the foundations of the arms of the Devil, whose voice is the hissing of the serpents." "a scorpion ever ready to sting, and the lance of ale demon," "an instrument which the Devil uses to gain possession of our souls," "the gate of the Devil, the road of iniquity, the sting of the scor¬pion," "a daughter of falsehood, a sentinel of Hell, the enemy of peace, (and) of the wild beasts the most dangerous," by St. Bernard, St. Anthony, St. Bonaventure, St. Cyprian, St. Jerome, and St. John Damascene respectively.

"It is curious," once said an English Muslim, Dr. Khalid William Sheldrake, "that in the early days of Christianity, when Fathers of the church were hurling anathema at one another, when senators became bishops and political and theolo¬gical jugglery was rampant, it was very hotly debated whether women possessed souls. Some argued that she did not, but was only the vehicle for bringing a soul (i.e., a man) into this world. Some held that she possessed it, but on the day of resurrection would appear as a sexless being. The Orthodox Greek Church denied that woman had a soul, and when numbering the Church including so many souls i.e., men only, ignoring the existence of women."

At the council of Macon, a Bishop vehemently asserted that woman did not belong to the human species.   (Westermark, p. 663).

A council held at Auxerre prohibited women to receive the Eucharist in their naked hands. Various decrees of the Church forbade women from coming near the altar during the celebration of the Mass, because she was an "unclean thing."

The "uncleanness" of woman led the Chris¬tian Church to denounce even the holiness of marriage,—that great social institution of man¬kind. The early ecclesiastical writers of Chris¬tendom were divided on this problem into two parties. One party condemned it absolutely (Per¬rone, De Matrimonio. lib. III. 1) , while the other regarded it as lawful on account of the infirmity of human nature, but nevertheless viewed it with the most emphatic disapproval. (Natalis Alexander, Hist Eccles., Saec. 11. 18). "Blessed," says St. Gregory, "is the one who leads a celibate and soils not the Divine image within him with the filth of concupiscence." "Digamists are are saved," observed St. Origen, "in the name of Christ, but by no means are crowned by him." (Horn., XVII. in Luc.). According to the great scriptural scholar, St. Jerome, marriage was only "good for those who are afraid to sleep alone at night."

St. Augustine in his commentary on Genesis asserts that woman was created only for the purpose of accomplishing the pre-arranged drama of the Fall of Adam and of meeting the need of carrying on the race, but he suggests: "how bet¬ter two men could live and converse together than a man and woman."

"I may define man," says Principal Donald¬son, (Woman, pp. 181-2), to be a male human being, and woman to be a female human being

Now what the early Christians did was to strike the 'male' out of the definition of man and 'human being' out of the definition of woman. Man was the human being made for the highest and the noblest purpose: woman was a female mad ,:3 to serve only one. She was on the earth to influence the heart of man with every evil passion. She was a fire-ship continually striving to get alongside the male man-of-war to blow him tin into pieces."

In pre-Islamic Arabia the position of wonian was in no way better than of her sisters in other countries; nay her misfortunes were even greater in certain respects. She was nothing more than an instrument for the satisfaction of the lust of man and for producing hardy soldiers for defending the honour of the tribe. A false sense of pride was responsible for the most in¬human custom of femal infanticide. Adultery was practised unblushingly and the number of wives was regulated only by the distates of lust.

"A woman had no rights; she could not inherit_property; her person formed part of the inheritance which came to the heir of her husband, and he was entitled to marry her against her will. Hence sprung up the impious marriages of sons with their step-mothers and others of an even worse character which Mohammed so peremptorily forbade. Polygamy was universal and quite unrestricted; equally so was divorce, at least as far as the man was concerned. We read of a certain Omm Charijah, who has distinguished herself, even amongst the Arabs, by having forty husbands." (Mohammed and Mohammedanism: Bosworth Smith; p. 82).

Having seen how cruelly woman had been ex¬ploited by different religious and secular cultures of the world, it would now be possible for us to understand rightly the noble achievements of Islam in this direction.

By a single masterly stroke, Islam removed the stigma of "wickedness" and "impurity" which the religions of the world had placed upon woman. Man and woman, it proclaimed had both come from the same essence, and, therefore, if woman could be said to be wicked, man also should be regarded as such, or if man had a single spark of nobility in him, woman also should have it. "Women" declared the Holy Prophet Muhammad, "are the twinhalves of men."

"O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women. Be careful of your duty towards Allah in Whom you claim (your rights) of one another, and towards the wombs (that bore you). Lo! Allah hath been a Watcher over you." (Quran, IV: 1).

"And Allah hath given you wives or your own kind." ( Quran, XVI: 72).

Islam denounced the assertion of Christian Fathers that woman did not possess a. soul and that she would remain a sexless being in future life. It asserted in the words of the Quran: —

"Enter into Paradise ye and your wives delighted."

"Whoso doth that which is right, whether male or female, him or her will We quicken to happy life."

"Do! men who surrender unto Allah and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and women who guard ( their modesty), and men who remember Allah and women who remember,—Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and an ample reward." (Quran, XXXIII . 35).

Islam refuted the Biblical assertion that woman was first deceived and that she was, therefore, responsible for the Fall of Adam. It declared in most unambiguous terms that Adam and Eve were deceived simultaneously and were, therefore, equally responsible for the deed:—

"And We said: 0 Adam! Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye (both) freely (of the fruits) thereof where ye will but come not nigh this tree lest ye become wrong-doers.

"But Satan caused them (both) to deflect therefrom and expelled them from the (happy) state in which they were." (Quran, II: 35, 36).

In contrast to the view of Christianity: "Neither was Man created for the Woman but the Woman for the Man," Islam proclaimed: "They (women) are raiment for you (men) and ye are raiment for them." (Quran, II: 187).

"The Shariah," says the late Muhamme Marmaduke Pickthall (The Cultural Side Islam; p. 146), "has nothing but benevolence f: women; it favours their instruction and develo ment. But it does not wish or expect then: assimilate themselves to men. Dr. Harry Camp,: lecturing before the Institute of Hygiene in Lor don lately, said: 'Women have smaller lungs at fewer blood cells than men. In women the vita fire does not burn so qicukly. It is thus obviou¬that women are not adapted like men for a stree uous muscular life. Mentally men and wome differ in the realm of feeling rather than intellect. Intellectually men and women stan somewhat upon the same footing. While genius is more common in the male sex, so also is idiocy." There is therefore spiritual and intellectual equality, and physical difference, precisely as the Islamic law recognises."

Islam regards woman spiritually equal to man as has been shown before. It also regards her intellectually equal as will be shown shortly. The only difference it makes is in the realm of physical conditions, and this difference is based on hard facts. It believes in the principle of the division of labour. It allots the strenuous work and the rough outdoor life to man and makes him responsible for the maintenance of the family. It regards home as the first concern of woman. It allots the work of managing the home and of up¬bringing and training children to woman,—a work which forms the most important item in the task of nation-building. It exhorts her to engage her¬self in the cultivation of learning and allows her to participate, in her own way, in home-industries and in all schemes of national good. The life of the office and the factory, it considers as uncongenial and unnatural for her, and is emphatic in its demand that woman should in no case step into the shoes of man, nor should man encroach upon her sphere of activity. Both should work in a spirit of harmony, sympathy and love.

Further, there is the problem of vesting the ultimate authority in the administration of the affairs of a family. It is a fact that sound administration is impossible without a unitary policy. In a Muslim family, so far as honour is concerned, Islam has ordered to honour the mother more than the father, the sister more than the brother and the daughter more than the son. But. as regards administration, that is, in the case of the husband and the wife, the final authority is vested in the husband who is also held responsible for looking to every comfort of the wife, and who    a can not use his power for doing even slight injury to her, except at the risk of losing the favours of Allah, 'because the wife is not his subordinate but, in the words of the Holy Prophet, "the queen of her house." The Quran says: "They (women) have rights like those of men against them; though men are a degree above them. Allah is Almighty, All-knowing." (Quran, II: 228).

To Muhammad woman was not "an organ of the Devil" but Mohsana,—a rocky fortress against Satan. He gave the most honourable position to mothers when he said: "Paradise lies under the feet of the mother." (Nasai).

Muhammad enjoined the acquisition of knowledge equally on woman and man by his order:—

"The acquisition of knowledge is incumbent upon every Muslim man and every Muslim wo¬man." (1bn Majah).

The matrimonial union of man and woman had been viewect with disapproval and had been regarded as derogatory to man in certain religions. ButMuhammad laid it down once for all: "Marriage is of my ways and whoever disin¬clines from my ways is not from me (i.e., is not my follower)."       (Bukhari; Muslim).

"When man has married, he has completed one half of his religion." (Baihaqi).

He raised the ideal of wifehood:

"And of His (God's) signs is this: He created for you helpmates from (among) yourselves that ye might find solace in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy." (Quran, XXX : 21).

He inculcated respect for women in these words: "God commands us to treat women nobly, for they are our mothers, daughters and aunts."

"The wgrld and all things in the world are precious but the most precious thing in the world is a virtuous woman." (Muslim).

He bade his followers to behave most humanely towards their wives: consort with them (i.e., the wives) in kindness, for if ye hate them it may happen that ye hate a thing wherein Allah hath placed much good." (Quran, IV: 19).

"The best of you are they who behave best to their wives." (Tirmizi).

"Give your wife good counsel, and do not beat your noble wife like a slave." (Abu Daud).

"The best of you before God and His creation are those who are best to their own families and I am the best to my family." (Tirmizi).

"Give her to eat when ye eat yourself, and clothe her when ye clothe yourself; and do not slap her on the face nor abuse her nor separate yourself from her in displeasure." ilbn Maj4/0.

"Admonish your wives with kindness."

"A Muslim must not hate his wife, and if he be displeased with one bad quality in her, then let him be pleased with one that is good."

"The more civil and kind a Muslim is to his wife the more perfect of faith he is." (Tirmizi).

"Fear God in respect of women." (Muslim).

"Woman," said he, "is the queen of her house."

Before the advent of Muhammad, woman did not enjoy a position independent of man. This She received from him. Firstly, she was given liberty to choose her husband: "It is not lawful for a guardian to force an adult virgin into marriage. None, not even the father nor the sovereign, can lawfully contract woman in marriage who is an adult and of sound mind without her permission, whether she be a virgin or not."

Secondly, she was given an independent posi¬tion as regards the right of owning wealth: "Unto men a fortune from that 'which they have earned, and unto women a fortune from that which they have earned. (Envy not one another) : but ask Allah of His bounty. Lo! Allah is ever Knower of all things." (Quran, IV: 32).

Islam gave the right of inheritance to the daughter, the wife and the mother, and even to the sister and other female relatives if a legal necessity arose, and fixed their shares which are inviolable:—

"Unto the men (of a family) belongeth a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, and unto the women a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, whether it be little or much,—a legal share." (Quran, IV: 7).

Mr. Pierre Crabites, who was appointed by President Taft in the year 1911,—namely, much before modernism could create any feminist move¬ment in any Muslim land—to represent the U.S.A. on the Mixed Tribunals of Cairo, wrote in his article: "Things Mahomet did for Women," (The Asia, Jan. 1927, New York, U.S.A.) :—

"When all is said and done, however, nothing astonished me more than to have proof driven home to me that before 632 of the Christian era, the Prophet of Islam had accomplished more to safeguard the property rights of the wives of       his land than the legislature of Louisiana has yet done for her who bears my name        Mahomet's out standing contribution to the cause of woman resides in the property rights that he conferred on the wives of his people. The juridical status of the wife is exactly the same as that of a husband. The Moslim spouse in so far as her property is concerned, is as free as a bird. The Law permits her to do with her financial assets whatever she

please-; without consulting her consort    It is therefore useless to tell me that the Moslim woman is nothing but a human lacteal machine, that her soul is not her own, and that man is her lord and master. I am not dealing with social conditions; I am drawing the picture of the work of a great legislator, and of the legal edifice constructed by him. But if I were pressed too hard, I should not fear to face the issue on this score of woman's effective power. I should begin by challenging the right of any man or woman to cast the first stone, unless he or she could demons¬trate that the wives of his or her state enjoy prero¬gatives which measure up to those of the hidden flowers of Islam. I think that I should be per¬fectly justified in applying such a rule. I am afraid that it would some-what seriously restrict the quota of eligibles, but that is not my fault. I should then invite those who thus passed Ellis island, to come to my court. There I should probably be able to show them veiled sisters with tattooed arms, rings in their noses and fly-covered children on their shoulders, without lawyer or friend, Standing before a judge or counsel and defending their rights with an assurance, a volu¬bility and a mastery that should be sure to arouse admiration. If this spectacle should still leave my inquirers unconvinced, I should ask them to find out, from somebody or through someone in whom they had confidence, just who first kindled in Egypt the spark that is now threatening Eng¬land, who has kept the flame aglow, and who are the blindest, the most fearless and the most intractable foes to any kind of compromise. To such a query there could be but one answer. It is that, for good or for evil, the Moslim woman is a driving force which was fashioned by a master¬mind. In a word, rights beget responsibility, res¬ponsibility engenders leadership and leadership always asserts itself. It was Mohamet who fixed with unerring discerment the property rights of the married women of his land. It was he who gave them a legal personality of their own. He thus put the sceptre within their grasp."

Muhammad regarded chastity as the most precious thing—as the bedrock upon which alone can be built the edifice of true character. He therefore deprecated the immodest and promiscuous intermingling of the sexes, and enjoined on both men and women to make modesty their watch-word: "Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is Aware of what they do.

"And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their orna¬ment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn to Allah together, 0 believers, in order that ye may suc¬ceed." (Quran, XXIV: 30, 31).

These ordinances promulgated by Islam gave rise to what is known as the harem the reserved ouarter of the house for females. Many of the anti-Islamic propagandists have painted it in the blackest colours. But they may well know that:

"The harem," according to Von Hammer, "is a sanctuary; it is prohibited to the stranger, not because women are considered unworthy of confidence, but on account of the sacredness with which custom and manners invest them."

"So far from the harem being a prison to the woman," says Davenport, "it is a place of liberty where the husband himself is treated as an inter¬poler. The moment his foot passes the threshold, everything reminds him that he is no longer Lord' and Master; children, servants and all look to till principal lady; in short she is paramount; when she is in good humour, everything goes on well, and when she is in a bad humour, nothing goes right."

"I wish," once observed Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal in the English press, "to clear up a few points regarding the position of our women in the East and how they compare with the women of the West. In London streets I see a lot which Londoners do not notice. They are too familiar with the sights to notice subtleties. But those who see a country after long absence come with a fresh vision.

"What strikes me most is that the courtesy towards the female sex, for which Europeans were one time famous is becoming atavistic. In the underground, men do not surrender their seats to ladies, or do so very seldom. In getting out of the cars they have no thought of letting the ladies out first. I do not blame them.    The women themselves have brought it about. They wanted emancipation, equal rights with the male sex. The change that has come was inevitable.

"Perhaps I may here try to eradicate the totally erroneous notions which are held in Europe about the Eastern, and first of all, Muslim women, their life and treatment they receive from men. European woman, according to her own wish, has descended from the pedestal on which she stood, but the Eastern, the Muslim, woman has remained the recipient of the same honours as before.

"In Europe they misunderstand many of our customs, especially the psychology of the veil (Purdah). The origin of the veil is not men's jealousy, but the feeling that woman is sacred, so much so that a stranger's eyes should not fall on her. The meaning of the word 'harem' in Arabic is sacred ground into which no stranger can enter.

"There are other reasons for the practice of the veil (Purdah). These are biological in nature; it is not possible to discuss them here. I can only indicate what lies at the back of this instituti on. The woman is predominently the creative element in life, and all creative forces in nature are hidden   

"The source and symbol of the greater res¬pect which Eastern women enjoy is in that veil. Nothing has happened to diminish the respect in which they were held for centuries, and the principle of protecting them from approaches of strangers and from all humiliations has been safely maintained. According to the Holy Book of Islam there are several rules relating to the segregation of women. The veil is only of them."

Now about polygamy, which was, however. not invented by Islam, but was only regulated and subjected to severe restrictions. Before the advent of Muhammad this institution had been in vogue among various nations like the Hindus. Jews, Medes, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians. ThraPians, Lydians, Pelasgian races. Athenians. Spartans, Romans, Germans, etc., etc.* Even in his (*The following remarks relating to the conditions obtaining in the modern world are pregnant with deer; truth:—

"We perceive that, in the present day, in countries reputed to be the most civilized, and even in the classes reputed to be the most distinguished, the majority of individuals have polygamic instincts which they find difficult to resist." (Ch. Letourneau, The Evolution of Marriage, p¬136. The Contemporary Science Series, London).

"Man lives in a state of polygamy in the civilized counties in spite of the monogamy enforced by law; out of a hundred thousand men there would barely be one who could swear upon his death-bed that he had never known but one single woman during his whole life." (Max Nordau, Conventional Lies of Our Civilization, p. 301).

own days it was universally prevalent in Arabia and its adjoining countries. No legislator of the world had regulated it. It was practised with impunity as the record of the Jews and other nations shows.

Muhammad was a practical reformer and the Message-bearer of the All-Wise God. There are certain occasions in our life when polygamy becomes a necessity. For instance, if the wife is incurably suffering from sterility and the husband cannot overcome his fondness for having children, he can either cast off the wife and marry another or he may have recourse to polygamy, in which case the first wife will not suffer at all. Or, if the health of the wife is in such a condition as to render her unfit for acting as wife, except by risking her delicate health, and the husband finds it impossible to control his passions (which is, however, the case with most men), he can either throw her away, which will mean a total ruin to her, or he may keep her for the sake of formality and indulge in prostitution, which will mean a great injury to the health of the society, or he may keep her with him, bestow upon her the love of a true Muslim, and marry another. Again, when there is a surplus of women, as it happens after the wars, human society can be saved from corruption only by the permission of marrying more than one wife.

Muhammad was conscious of this and was not prepared to allow the Muslim society to become like the post-war society of Europe where "street girls", "other women", "mistresses" and "war babies" have become common place things. He, therefore, under Divine Instruction, made monogamy the ideal of Islam and permitted a very restricted form of polygamy under exceptional circumstances.

"Marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one." (Quran, IV : 3.).

"There is," says the late Dr. Mrs. Annie Besant, the renowned English leader of the Theosophical Movement, "pretended monogamy in the West, but there is really polygamy without responsibility; the 'mistress' is cast off when the man is weary of her, and sinks gradually to be the 'woman of the street', for the first lover has no responsibility for her future and she is a hundred times worse off than the sheltered wife and mother in the polygamous home. When we see thousands of miserable women who crowd the streets of western towns during the night, we must surely feel that it does not lie within western mouth to reproach Islam for polygamy. It is better for woman, happier for woman, more respectable for woman, to live in poylgamy, united to one man only, with the legitimate child in her arms, and surrounded with respect, than to be seduced, cast out into the streets—perhaps with an illegiti¬mate child outside the pale of law—unsheltered and uncared for, to become the victim of any passerby, night after night, rendered incapable of motherhood, despised of all."

"The Law of the State", remarks J.E. Clare McFarlane, in his able treatise: The Case for Polygamy, "based upon the dogma of the church, which makes it criminal offence for a man to marry more than one wife, by that same provision makes it illegal for millions of women to have husbands, or to bear children     it is untrue that monogamy was advocated by Jesus Christ

    Whether the question is considered socially, or religiously, it can be demonstrated that polygamy is not contrary to the highest standards of civilization   The suggestion offers a practical remedy for the western problem of the destitute and unwanted female: the alternative is continued and increased prostitution, concubinage and distressing spinsterhood."

The problem of divorce also was solved by Islam in the best manner. It is not necessary to elaborate upon it, as to-day it has become a recog¬nised necessity with every people. Marriage has been made a social contract by Islam, and it can be dissolved therefore if it proves in any way in¬jurious to the wife or to the husband. And in fairness of principle, the wife has been given as much right to obtain the divorce as the husband. But Islam does not recognise the Russian theory of divorce at will as much as it refuses to coun¬tenance the Church point of view. The divorce in Islam is possible but not easy, because the restrictions imposed and the conditions prescribed by Islam are of a serious rature. In fact, it is unfair to call the Islamic law of divorce as lax, for a Muslim has to remember the words of the Holy Prophet which are recorded in Abu Daud: "Of all the permissible things divorce is the most disliked by God."

On the evolution of the institution of divorce, Ch. Le tourneau observes in his "Evolution of Marriage," p. 247:—

"Our remarks on the subject of divorce have led us to nearly uniform conclusions. They all show us that, however dissimilar may be the countries or the epochs, the union of man and woman begins with rare exceptions, by the complete slavery of the latter.     Then as the ages move on their course we see societies which become by degrees -civilized, and in proportion to this advance the condition of the woman improves. At first the man could kill her if she displeased him: then, the case of adultery apart, he contented himself with repudiating her, and some rights were even granted to the repudiated woman. At length her right to seek divorce was recognized."

And this right of the wife to seek divorce was recognized for the first time in the history of mankind by Islam!

411Mila0101*

MUHAMMAD'S CHARACTER:

"There is something so tender and womanly, and withal so heroic, about the man, that one is in peril of finding the judgment unconsciously blinded by the feeling of reverence and well-nigh love that such a nature inspires. He who, standing alone, braved for years the hatred of his people, is the same who was never the first to withdraw his hand from another's clasp; the beloved of children, who never passed a group of little ones without a smile from his wonderful eyes and kind word for them, sounding all the kinder in that sweet-toned voice. The frank friendship, the noble generosity, the dauntless courage and hope of the man, all tend to melt criticism into admiration.

"He was an enthusiast in that noblest sense when enthusiasm becomes the salt of the earth, the one thing that keeps men from rotting whilst they live. Enthusiasm is often used despitefully, because it is joined to an unworthy cause, or falls upon barren ground and bears no fruit. So was it not with Mohammad. He was an enthusiast when enthusiasm was the one thing needed to set the world aflame, and his enthusiasm was noble for a noble cause. He was one of those happy few who have attained the supreme joy of making one great truth their very life-spring. He was the messenger of the one God, and never to his life's end did he forget who he was or the message which was the marrow of his being. He brought his tidings to his people with a grand dignity sprung from the consciousness of his high office together with a most sweet humility."

—Lane Poole.