Woman Between Islam and Western Society
1. A Survey
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correct, and, in his letter, he enclosed a note which
he said should be thrown into the River Nile.
On receiving this letter, ‘Amr ibn al-’As opened the
note and found these words written therein: “To the
Nile, river of the Egyptians, from ‘Umar ibn al-
Khattab, Chief of the Faithful and humble servant of
God. If the flow of your waters is under your
control then let your waters not flow. But if it was
Almighty God who made your waters flow, then
we pray to Him to make your water flow again.”
‘Amr ibn al-’As duly complied with the Caliph’s
injunction and cast the note into the river. The very
next morning, the people saw with their own eyes
that the waters had started to flow — by the will of
God. In the course of a single night its level rose by
12 feet. Thus God put an end to this inhuman
custom of the Egyptians, and never again to this
day has there been a repetition of it.
5
A PRACTICAL NECESSITY
The myths and superstitions of ancient times had
affected people’s thinking to the point where their
approach to most things had become unrealistic.
