Woman Between Islam and Western Society
6. The Rights of Husband and Wife
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Due to this close relation a woman comes to have
access to all of man’s secrets. She comes to learn the
most private and concealed facts of his life. This is a
delicate state of affairs. Every man has his secrets.
He dislikes their being brought to the knowledge of
others. But a man cannot hide these things from his
wife. So he makes no effort to do so. Such an
attempt would neither be useful nor practically
possible.
The solution offered by the Islamic
shari’ah
is to
make it binding upon the woman to guard the
man’s secrets. In no circumstances may she reveal
them to others. If she shows carelessness in this
regard, she should fear God for revealing her
secrets to others. If God unveils her in the next life,
no one will ever be able to come to her rescue.
It is a fact that when two people live together, it is
inevitable that differences and complaints will arise.
Keeping this fact in mind, the Qur’anic injunction
on the guarding of man’s secrets specifies that, even
if a woman bears her husband a grudge it will still
be unlawful for her to reveal his secrets. Even if she
has differences with her husband she is not at
