Women in the Heart of Muhammad (Islamic Renaissance Series)

In recent years researchers have studied the subject of the rights of women in Islam. I shall not reiterate their statements here. What is certain is that of all the great reformers and thinkers of history [most of whom viewed women with contempt], Prophet Muhammad is the only one who took the fate of woman seriously and returned human respect and social rights to her. Islam bestows the right of and economic independence on woman. At the same time it obliges the male to provide for her to whatever extent she may demand even to the point of compensating her for nursing her own infant. She is entitled to a gift from her bridegroom, and although today this right is usually relinquished, in the past it represented the independent character of the woman and provided economic security against inauspicious future circumstances. She is also granted civil and religious equality with men, factors which make women powerful within society and independent of men who have always desired dictatorial domination over them.