Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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a cloth and then placed her grandfather’s hand on
it. Having gone blind in his old age, he was easily
taken in by this trick, and thought that the niche
was full of
dirhams.
“It is a good thing that Abu Bakr
has done. This will suffice for your necessities.”
Asma’ then confessed that her father had not left
them a single
dirham
and that it was only to comfort
her grandfather that she had conceived of this
idea.
83
Before the advent of Islam, Asma’s father had been
one of the richest merchants of Mecca, but when
Asma’ emigrated to Medina with her husband,
Zubayr, they had to live in the harshest of
conditions. Bukhari has recorded Asma’s account of
how her own existence was eked out from day to
day:
When I married Zubayr, he had neither
wealth nor property, nor anything else. He
had no servant, and there was only one camel
to bring water and only one horse. I myself
brought the grass for the camel and crushed
date stones for it to eat instead of grain. I had
to fetch the water myself, and when the water
