Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
~ 107 ~
their conduct. (I restrict myself to examples taken
from my own family, because Islamic precepts do
not favor a fuller acquaintance with women outside
one’s own family circle). Their nobility of character,
under the severest of strains, is something to which
I can testify, having seen it with my own eyes. The
way in which they have come through certain
ordeals in life is a clear proof that,
within the limits
prescribed by Islam,
women can be positively
constructive not only within their own domestic
sphere, but also much further afield: they can
indeed be a powerful and beneficial influence upon
others.
I intend in my autobiography to give a fuller
account of these experiences, but here I shall record
only such details as are relevant to the role played
by my mother. The daughter of Khuda Bux, she was
born towards the end of the nineteenth century in
the town of Sanjarpur (Azamgarh, U.P., India), and
was given the name of Zaibun Nisa. When she
passed away in Delhi on the 8th of October, 1985,
she was about 100 years of age. The type of
education she had permitted her to read only the
Qur’an and a little Urdu: she was a religious
