The Muslim Family; redefining progress for the Muslim Woman:

“We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” C. S. Lewis

The Muslim Woman today needs to ask herself what does progress mean to her and how will she define it.

 Will she accept the contemporary definition of progress offered to her or will it be a more natural consequence of her own journey?

The contemporary standards against which female progress is gauged like ‘gender parity’ and ‘gender equality’ are far from becoming a reality any time soon. Given the condition of women all around the world, it would be foolish to claim that getting more jobs, earning more money, getting a degree, climbing mountains or even travelling into space is the sort of human progress we should be pressing for when ‘female objectification’ throughout international media is constantly perpetuating “violence against women’ and is shaping male and female psyche for decades to come.

 Statistics are used to compare and measure the consequent unequal distribution of resources for a given indicator like “Education’, ‘Pay Scales’, ‘Job Opportunities’ by prevalent power structures. The catch is though that the criterion (gender parity) used to measure these inequalities is in itself, limiting and exclusive. Regardless of claims to respecting and accounting for individual differences, It fails to address and resolve the gaping differences underlying the ever evolving social and psychological dynamics of a given culture and society. By marrying progress for women quite incompetently with “gender equality’, all claim to progress by women is inevitably bound and in constant competition with men!

The fact of the matter is that violence against women all around the world has increased and not lessened even after international watchdogs like the UN and CEDAW are constantly introducing and mainstreaming campaigns to curb violence and to provide women with more opportunities every day.

Such statistical measures are often blatant and oversimplified without an immutable essence to them. We need to ask ourselves that why does progress for women need to be looked at through the lens of ‘gender parity’ and ‘gender equality’?

Dr Jamal A Badawi uses the term ‘equity’ rather than ‘equality’ in his research titled ‘Gender Equity in Islam’ for the very same reasons. According to him:

“Equity is used here to mean justice and overall equality of the totality of rights and responsibilities of both genders. It does allow for the possibility of variations in specific items within the overall balance and equality. It is analogous to two persons possessing diverse currencies amounting, for each person, to the equivalence of US$1000. While each of the two persons may possess more of one currency than the other, the total value still comes to US$1000 in each case. It should be added that from an Islamic perspective, the roles of men and women are complementary and cooperative rather than competitive.”

To draw calculations and conclude methodology on the basis of comparisons is but an inevitable necessity. Thus, it should be based in something real, something permanent and holistic. Universal laws point towards the law of equity (not equality) and justice in the universe. A comparison cognizant of the natural and the universal would automatically yield more enduring and attainable goals.

The modern world is now returning to more holistic and unifying criteria which promote complementarity amongst human beings rather than comparisons. The distances between spheres of knowledge and understanding have to be bridged as fast as globalization has bridged material distances.

This is where Islam offers us a most natural and unifying assembly of diversity into one for one. It presents to us the most fundamental unit of all human basis and progress. ‘The family’!

The atrocities, the greed for assumed progress have rendered on this basic unit of human existence are enormous. Today the most basic unit of strength and progress for the Muslim ummah ’the family’ not only stands adrift but also fragmented. Progress for a woman is accounted for only by measuring her individual development while Islam presents to us men and women as teams working together as each other’s helpers under the natural hierarchy of ‘the family’ for the common development and progress of all.

In Quran Allah (subhana wa tallah) calls both men and women to this equitable complementarity by reminding them of their duty towards their lord! He says:

“Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so – for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.”(33:35)

‘The family’ provides the most reliable basis for all human progress. Women becoming the binding force which binds and strengthens the exquisite fabric of human relationships. The Muslim Family and the Muslim woman together become the founding pillars of human civilization.

Some of the most pressing needs of the Muslim Ummah today are:

·         To revisit and reassemble “the Family” from a holistic and universal Islamic perspective.

·         To understand the justice and order in the natural hierarchy of ‘the Islamic family’ in the light of the Quran.

·         To build and strengthen this Nucleus of the Muslim civilization.

·         To make ‘the family’ an empowering foundation for the Muslim woman.

These goals might possibly be achieved by exploring and planning through:

·         Retracing our steps and identifying our mistakes.

·         Renewal of thought with a strong foundation in Tawheed and Akhirah.

·       Revisiting the family life of our beloved Prophet (SAW) in the modern context of the Muslim Family.

·         Research and development in Family education and tarbiyah.

Let us unite to rebuild our families, women, nations and consequently the Muslim Ummah.