WOMEN’S HIGHLY VALUE IN ISLÂM

Housework is a woman’s charity and free gift to her husband. It brings her plenty of thawâb. The wife would not be sinful for declining to do housework, if she did so. The husband could not force his wife to do housework. In fact, he would have to hire a domestic (female) servant. A woman should not grudge this charity to her husband, who in turn would never be too charitable to please her with gifts in addition to providing a living for her. Allâhu ta’âlâ loves charitable people. Since the time of our Master, the Messenger of Allâhu ta’âlâ ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’, the Muslim women have been doing this kindness to their husbands. A (married) woman has two duties: Conjugal duty; and not to go out without her husband’s permission and/or without covering herself in a measure prescribed by Islam. Hence, neither housework nor outdoor work or earning money has been enjoined on the woman. Everything she needs has to be earned and brought to her by her husband if she is married, by her father if she is not married, or by her rich next of kin if she does not have a father or if she is poor. A woman without anyone to support her is to be cared for by the State’s charity coffers termed Beyt-ul-mâl. In Islam the struggle for living, i.e. earning money, is not a duty shared between a married couple. A man can never force his wife to work in the field, in a factory, or elsewhere. If a woman wants to work and her husband allows her, she may work at a job for women without mixing with men. What she earns, however, is her personal property. The man cannot force her to share it with him. Nor can he oppress her to buy her own needs. Islam’s conferring so much latitude on the woman, and saving her from being a slave or a plaything in the hands of men, shows how highly Allâhu ta’âlâ values her.