Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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education she had permitted her to read only the
Qur’an and a little Urdu: she was a religious
woman in the fullest sense of the word. Never to
my knowledge did she tell a lie, or act in a way
which could be described as unethical. She was
punctual in her prayers and fasting and also had
performed Hajj. Spending her entire life in
hijab,
she
was a woman of fine, upstanding character and
unbending principle.
My father, Fariduddin Khan, died when I was very
young — on December 30, 1929, to be exact. He was
the biggest landlord in that part of the country, with
lands spread over several villages. One day, on a
routine visit to his farm in Newada, he suffered a
paralytic stroke, fell unconscious and had to be
carried home on a bedstead. There could be no
words of final parting, for he passed away the next
day without having regained consciousness. My
mother, quite suddenly, found herself a widow. I
had two brothers and two sisters. My elder brother,
Abdul Aziz Khan, was barely 8 years old, I was 5
and my younger brother was just one year old. My
sisters were older, but not even in their teens. Both
of my sisters died during my mother’s lifetime. By
