Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
6. The Rights of Husband and Wife
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closest to man so a woman is closest to man. A
husband and a wife are the only companions
between whom there is no secret even of hidden
parts.
Due to this close relation a woman comes to have
access to all of man’s secrets. She comes to learn the
most private and concealed facts of his life. This is a
delicate state of affairs. Every man has his secrets. He
dislikes their being brought to the knowledge of
others. But a man cannot hide these things from his
wife. So he makes no effort to do so. Such an attempt
would neither be useful nor practically possible.
The solution offered by the Islamic
shari’ah
is to
make it binding upon the woman to guard the
man’s secrets. In no circumstances may she reveal
them to others. If she shows carelessness in this
regard, she should fear God for revealing her
secrets to others. If God unveils her in the next life,
no one will ever be able to come to her rescue.
It is a fact that when two people live together, it is
inevitable that differences and complaints will arise.
Keeping this fact in mind, the Qur’anic injunction
on the guarding of man’s secrets specifies that, even
