Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
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a loan from us?” When the Prophet replied in the
affirmative, Abu ad-Dahdah took him by the hand,
and said, “I hereby lend my orchard to God.”
Abu ad-Dahdah’s orchard was a sizeable one with
six hundred date palms and, at the time he donated
it to the cause of Islam, his wife, Umm ad-Dahdah,
was staying in it with her children. Nevertheless,
having made his pledge to the Prophet, Abu ad-
Dahdah came to the orchard, called his wife and
told her that she would have to leave, as it had been
loaned to God. Umm ad-Dahdah’s reaction was that
he had made a good bargain. That is, that God
would reward him many times over in the
hereafter. So saying, she left the orchard with her
children, taking with her all her bags and baggage.
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From this incident we can gather that Umm ad-
Dahdah worked on the date orchard. There are
many such incidents in the early phase of Islam (the
exemplary phase) which show that certainly
women were not confined indoors. They certainly
went out in order to attend to many necessary
outdoor duties. However, one point should be
made clear: these outdoor activities of women were
