Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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compose just two or three couplets at a time, but
now, after her bereavement, the verses simply
flowed from her heart as the tears flowed from her
eyes. The elegies she wrote in memory of her
brothers, particularly Sakhr, were heart-rending:
she continued to write and lament until she
became blind in both eyes.
After the fall of Mecca, she came to the Prophet
with her tribe and accepted Islam. It is related that
when she read out some of her verses to the
Prophet, he was very moved, and asked her to
continue reading.
In her youth, she had been unable to bear the
tragedy of her brothers’ deaths, but she derived
such strength from Islam that, in her old age, she
sacrificed her own sons in the path of God. She had
four sons, all of whom she persuaded to fight in the
battle of Qadsiya. They all fought bravely and were
finally martyred. When she received the news of the
deaths of all of her sons, she neither wrote elegies,
nor did she bewail their passing. Instead, she heard
the news with great calm and fortitude, and said:
“Thank: God who has awarded me the honor of
