Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
~ 269 ~
In this last line the poet does not mean that the
world is physically tethered to the feet of God by
chains, but merely wishes to indicate the
unbreakable bonds that exist between God and
this world. In referring to the chains as “golden,”
he suggests the very great beauty and value of
these bonds. By referring to the “feet” of God,
rather than any other part of Him, he suggests
the humble position of man in God’s divine
scheme. It is, indeed, a very rich metaphor. To
return to the metaphor of the rib, in saying that if
one tries to straighten a woman one will break
her, the Prophet was referring to her delicate
nature. Physically, women are weaker than men:
psychologically, they are more highly strung,
more prone to emotional upset. This is a fact of
life which everyone realizes, irrespective of
whether he is educated or not. A father, for
instance, will not be as hard on a daughter as he
might be on his son, for he knows that boys are
made of sterner stuff than girls. The latter tend to
break under severe pressure. For this reason
females are more prone to suicide than males.
Sometimes a trivial matter can drive a woman to
suicide, or cause her to have a nervous
