Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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mother’s own proclivities. As a Muslim of course, it
is clearly her duty to use her maternal influence to
bring her children up as moral beings. If they have
deviated from the path of moral rectitude, it is her
duty to reform them. Everything that she does, in
fact, should be for their betterment.
Another domestic imperative is that the woman
who is both wife and mother should organize her
own and her family’s lives in such a way that they
are free of problems. She herself should never create
difficulties for her husband and children. In many
cases, knowing “what not to do” is more important
than knowing “what to do.” In such matters,
women are liable to err because they are more
emotional by nature. By creating unnecessary
problems for their husbands and children, they
destroy the peace and quiet of home life. Sometimes
they unwittingly slip into wrong ways of thinking:
they have all the necessities of life, but these things,
perhaps because they have been attained without a
struggle, gradually cease to please them. Then they
begin to feel that there are so many things lacking in
their lives and their own dissatisfaction begins to
vitiate what had formerly been a healthy, familial
