Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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the revelation of this Qur’anic verse: “Who will give
a generous loan to God? He will pay him back two-
fold and he shall receive a rich reward,”
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he asked
the Prophet, “O Messenger of God, does God want
a loan from us?” When the Prophet replied in the
affirmative, Abu ad-Dahdah took him by the hand,
and said, “I hereby lend my orchard to God.”
Abu ad-Dahdah’s orchard was a sizeable one with
six hundred date palms and, at the time he
donated it to the cause of Islam, his wife, Umm
ad-Dahdah, was staying in it with her children.
Nevertheless, having made his pledge to the
Prophet, Abu ad-Dahdah came to the orchard,
called his wife and told her that she would have to
leave, as it had been loaned to God. Umm ad-
Dahdah’s reaction was that he had made a good
bargain. That is, that God would reward him
many times over in the hereafter. So saying, she
left the orchard with her children, taking with her
all her bags and baggage.
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From this incident we can gather that Umm ad-
Dahdah worked on the date orchard. There are
many such incidents in the early phase of Islam (the
