Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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comparison are extremely hard. That does not mean
that the nails are superior to the eyes.
Just as two different kinds of fruit will differ in
color, taste, shape and texture, without one being
superior or inferior to the other, so also do men and
women have their different qualities which
distinguish the male from the female without there
being any question of superiority or inferiority. If
men and women have been endowed with different
capacities, it is so that they will play their respective
divinely predetermined roles in life with greater
ease and effectiveness. Certain feminine abilities
will be superior to certain masculine abilities, and
vice versa simply because their natural spheres of
application are different. Success in life for both
men and women can be attained only if they devote
themselves to the particular set of activities which
has been preordained for them in God’s scheme of
things.
MUSLIM WOMEN
Women, throughout the history of Islam, have
played significant roles and, by their feats, have
demonstrated not only the vast arena which Islam
