Life and Teachings of the Prophet Muhammad
5. The Status of Woman in Islam
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4. There is a hadith, which also explains that “women are the
other half of men.” That is, they are equal halves of one
another.
5. The Quran says that men are in charge of, that is, ‘maintainers’
of women (4:34). This does not mean that men have a
distinctive status over women. Then being maintainers of
women has never been intended as a form of discriminatory
treatment. It rather concerns the practical management of the
home, for which the man is held responsible. However, this
does not mean that a woman will never be allowed to shoulder
these responsibilities. If she finds that she can bear this burden,
no objection will be raised from any quarter. One example of
this can be found in the Quran with reference to the people of
Sheba. They lived in Yemen. The famous dam of Marib made
their country very prosperous and enabled it to attain a high
degree of civilization. The Quran tells us that they were ruled
by a woman (27:23) without disapproving of her rule. Bilqis,
the Queen of Sheba was very wise and sagacious, even more
so than the men in her court. She did not want to embroil
her country in war, while the men advised her to confront
her enemies, namely, Solomon’s army. Abdullah Yusuf Ali
writes:
“In Bilqis we have a picture of womanhood, gentle,
prudent, and able to tame the wilder passions of her
subjects.”
