Islam and Women’s Work

Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) lifted from women the obligation of working to provide and support herself and her family. He made this obligation particular for men alone. Allah commanded men to be responsible for the care of women during all stages of their life.

• While she is a child, she is under the care of her father. This responsibility is not lifted except by her marriage or (his or her) death, nor does it cease after she reaches a certain age as occurs in the laws of the ignorant who rule by their desires and their shallow minds.

• After she marries, the responsibility falls on her husband so long as she is under his care due to the contract of marriage.

• If she has neither father or husband, the responsibility of her care falls on her brother who assumes the role of the father when he is not present; and if she has no brother then whoever is her closest male relative (from whom she would inherit and whom would inherit from her) would assume the role of her father.

• If she has no male relatives, the obligation falls upon the Muslim community. The responsibility of her care is a communal obligation; if none fulfills that, all have sinned.

Furthermore even if she is wealthy, Islam has dropped from her the obligation of assuming care of anyone. With the presence of her husband (or for that matter her parents), it is not required that she spend upon her children unless she seeks to do such as an act of righteousness, kindness and observing ties of the womb. She is not obligated to work in order to take care of herself or her children.

This lifting of the obligation of working for the purpose of providing for herself was in order to preserve her from being degraded, as many jobs that are sought to gain livelihood entail humiliation and hardship. Likewise this responsibility was lifted to preserve her from temptation and mixing with men and because this is from the specialization that Allah has made as a law for His creation.

If women were charged to work in order to provide for their livelihood in addition to their natural duties of pregnancy, child birth, and breast feeding this would be an obligation above what she could bear and would be an injustice to women. Or this work would be at the expense of her natural duties of pregnancy, birth, breast feeding and raising her children. And this is what exactly has occurred with all nations that have deviated from what Allah has made a natural state among His creation.

In these ignorant un-Islamic societies, men are pleased with this situation as this gains for them greater gratification with women and drops from them a considerable amount of the responsibility of working and supporting her and her children. This obviously is a selfish attitude on the part of men. Sadly many women are pleased with this situation, I mean gathering between working outside the house to support herself and her natural duties of pregnancy and child birth and breast feeding. This is because of her desire for amusement and to boast; not because there is any real human or moral value in her working outside the home. Unlike what is claimed, women’s work has no real value boosting the economy. Rather the truth is that by competing with men for jobs outside the home, women are a cause in the spread of unemployment and an increase in the useless consumption of cosmetics, clothes, and perfumes that have all become necessary items for women working outside the home.

Furthermore every woman that works outside the home is in most occasions a cause for denying an opportunity for a man who could work in her place. Again this is one factor in unemployment. Moreover the man who takes the place of a woman in the household cannot substitute her in her natural duties.

We say what is the economic, moral, or social value for women working in factories, armies, cleaning streets and airports, repairing trains, cleaning public restrooms, as a security guard, driving taxis, and all other occupations that humiliate women in those countries that live for this world alone and do not think of the Hereafter.

This is all from the wretched life that Allah has warned whoever distances himself from His way. Allah (Exalted be He) has said:      

 “... but whosoever turns away from My remembrance, his shall be a life of narrowness, and on the Resurrection Day We shall raise him blind.” He shall say, “O my Lord, why hast Thou raised me blind, when I was wont to see?” Allah shall say, “So [it must be]. Our signs came unto thee, and thou didst forget them; and in a like manner today thou art forgotten.”

(The Qur’an Surah Taha, 20:124)

Although Islam has not obligated women to work to seek a living and has appointed someone to be responsible for her during all her stages of her life; Islamic law has given women the right (so long as she has reached the age of maturity and is competent) to own and dispose of her properties without any guardianship over her (whether that be her father, husband or anyone else).

She has the right to own all forms of property, to buy and sell, give gifts and charity, and all forms of expenditure (without wastefulness) so long as it is her wealth and her acquisition. However if she is incompetent, Islam does not distinguish between men and women in declaring someone legally incompetent. Islam gave women the right to own and dispose of property, so that by this she could be a full legal personality possessing the full right to dispose of her wealth. Islam provides her with specific sources to acquire wealth, like the dower, inheritance, gifts, and all other lawful means for acquired wealth.

As women in Islamic law are not required to maintain themselves or others, she was given half of what men receive in inheritance in observation that she is not responsible for the maintenance of anyone and to replenish men’s wealth who alone are responsible to work and provide maintenance.

In this Islam opposed the ignorant un-Islamic practice that forbade women to inherit under any circumstance because she does not maintain anyone or fight against any enemy. Allah sent down in His Glorious Qur’an: 

“To the men [of a family] a share of what parents and near kindred leave, and to the women a share of what parents and near kindred leave, whether it be little or much, a share apportioned... .”

(The Qur’an Surah Al-Nisa’, 4:7)

Without doubt those who claim that Islam is unjust toward women because it gives her half of what men receive in inheritance are ignorant of the distribution of rights and obligations in the pure, just Islamic law: 

“Is the judgment of the pre-Islamic days of ignorance then that they are seeking? Yet who is better in judgment than Allah, for a people having certainty [in their faith]”?