Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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this condition. This condition of the pact had not
been put forward by them, but by the Meccans,
and the actual wording had been dictated by the
delegates of the Quraysh. It seems that when one
of them, called Suhayl ibn ‘Amr, was dictating,
he was thinking of both men and women, but
that the actual word he chose in order to convey
“any person” (inclusive of both men and women)
was
rajul,
which in Arabic is actually used only
for men. Most probably this was why the Prophet
could legitimately refuse —
according to Imam
Zuhri —
to hand over Umm Kulthum bint
‘Uqbah to her brothers when they came to him to
demand her return. Razi is another annalist who
records the Prophet on this occasion as having
explained that “the condition applied to men and
not to women.”
97
Thus God, by means of a single word, saved
virtuous Muslim women from the humiliation of
being returned to their oppressors.
WORKING OUTDOORS
According to ‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, when Abu ad-
Dahdah, one of the Prophet’s Companions, heard
