Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
Foreword
~ 8 ~
FOREWORD
An anthology of the Qur’an, prepared by English
Orientalist Edward William Lane (1801-1876), was
published in 1843. It carried a foreword by way of
introduction to Islamic teaching, which, inter alia,
stated that “the fatal point in Islam is the
degradation of woman.”
1
This ill-considered observation gained such
currency that it was commonly repeated as if it
were an established fact. Almost a century and a
half has elapsed since then, and, with the passage of
time, this conviction has, if anything, deepened. It
has even been quoted as if it were gospel truth in a
judgement passed in the Supreme Court of India by
the Chief Justice of India, Mr. Chandra Chud, in the
now notorious Muhammad Ahmad-Shah Bano
divorce case.
To interpret the Islamic concept of woman as
“degradation” of woman is to distort the actual
issue. Islam has never asserted that woman is
inferior to man: it has only made the point that
woman is differently constituted.
