Woman Between Islam and Western Society
5. Position of Woman in the Islamic Shari‘ah
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destructive in outlook. We must never
underestimate the role of woman as mother. It is
perhaps her greatest role in human affairs. In
Islamic history, there are numerous examples of
the strong and decisive influence of mothers upon
their families. A notable example is Maryam
Makani, the mother of the Emperor Akbar. When
Akbar was harsh in his treatment of Shaikh
‘Abdun Nabi, a great religious scholar of his time,
she convinced him of the error he was making,
and persuaded him to stop what amounted to
persecution.
I cannot but imagine that if I had been deprived of
my mother in early childhood, or if I had the kind
of mother who kept urging me to fight our
“enemies,” my life would have taken an entirely
different, and downward course. Undeniably it is
the grace of God which has saved me from an ill-
fated existence and caused me to become a medium
of expression of the truth. But in this world of cause
and effect, the human purveyor of God’s will was a
lady, a mother, a housewife — one who was Islamic
to her very fingertips.
