It is not that I want to talk about it; rather I was forced to do so when an anonymous reader of this blog left a very disturbing comment earlier today.
First of all, let us see what this anonymous reader had said. He said, quote:
“Zakir Naik is the biggest joker I have heard of. According to him islam permits polygamy as number of woman > number of men , so all women cannot find husbands if monogamy is allowed. However he conveniently forgets that most muslim countries have greater number of men than women. Also if islamic advice of 4 wives were followed sex ratio would have to be 250 men to 1000 women not 960 men to 1000 women. Also is ignored is the crucial aspect of womens rights in islam which are far inferior to those enjoyed by men.”
SubhanAllah!
Brother Zakir Naik is not a joker, okay. He is intelligent and a very outspoken Muslim who has authority in the field of comparative religion. He is widely respected not only amongst Muslims but also amongst Christians and Hindus too.
I would presume that this anonymous reader is a non-Muslim. A true Muslim would not hide behind anonymity for a true Muslim knows that every little or big things that we do everyday is Known to Allah swt. There is no way in hell that we can hide from Allah swt. We have no other fears that are greater than our fear for Allah swt.
Anonymous, I don’t know which kindergarten gave you that silly statistics of yours but it is entirely wrong! Please take a look at the figures given by United Nations here for an example. Countries with majority Muslims such as Indonesia and Uzbekistan are populated more by women than men. Even Malaysia which happens to be my country more or less has an equal number of women and men. Open you eyes really wide and look at those figures again. All ready we have many counties with minority Muslims that have more women than men! Look at Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Russia and Australia; just to name a few. Please bear in mind that the statistics given by United Nations are quite outdated for they were derived from individual records compiled in 2004.
Only Allah Knows what had happened today! For all we know, the number of women could have surpassed men worldwide!
I really don’t know where you get the impression that Muslim men must have 4 wives. That is absolutely wrong! Muslim men can have 4 wives if they can be fair to all 4 but it is not something that Muslim men must have. You can find out more about this from the videos that I have provided down below.
As for your allegation that Islam oppresses women, it only shows that you knew nothing about Islam. You know how to shoot all right but sadly you clearly lack the ability to use your brain to learn things that you do not know instead. What a waste! Even chimpanzees can learn how to push buttons after being taught by scientists. If you do not know something, learn about it first. What is so difficult about that? :-)
I’m not going to cover much about women’s right in Islam here today. InsyAllah, I would do that in my future posting. SubhanAllah, suffice to say here that there is no other religion in the world that honors women better than Islam. As matter of fact, women have a special place of their own in Islam. Women have special rights and privileges that even men did not have! As I had said earlier, I would have more on that on my future posting. Stay tuned!
Anonymous; feel free to watch the following videos that I had carefully selected just for you today. The videos would give you better understanding on the concept of polygyny (polygamy) in Islam. Please watch every one of them and learn what polygyny (polygamy) is truly about in Islam. :-)
InsyAllah!
| This video maybe offensive and inappropriate for some folks. Viewer discretion is advised |
| This video maybe offensive and inappropriate for some folks. Viewer discretion is advised |
| This video maybe offensive and inappropriate for some folks. Viewer discretion is advised |
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8 comments:
Hi Sharul (hope I got your name correct korek and kolek)
I like to consider myself a life long learner. I will like to learn more about a Muslim women rights and non-Muslim women rights
especially as our country is getting more Islamic by the day. I have daughters and don't know yet if my next grandchild will be male or female. Let's concentrate more on Muslim women for the moment. Tell me more if I am wrong that Muslim men can divorce his wife or wives by just saying "I divorce you" 3 times to her, but a Muslim women cannot do likewise.
Regarding ratio of men to women, China has more Muslims than Malaysia, but China better not become an Islamic state. You will know what I mean if you go check statistics on ratio of men to women in China.
BTW hope you will keep me updated when you publish that post about women rights by commenting in my blog, but knowing you to be a busy Internet Entrepreneur, I doubt you will.
reluctant protest blogger
forgot so set to email follow-up comments
Dear Peter...
Sorry for taking so long to answer your question. I'll make this short and simple.
Muslim women can file for divorce just like the men do. Please refer to this Fatwa for more details.
"The divorce of a Muslimah from her husband is an affair which is loathsome to Allah. This is due to the problems and possible evils. However, if there is a situation in the marriage life taking place between the man and the woman, due to a defect or defects in one or both of them, such as problems of Deen (religion), bad character, sickness, or a defect such as being sterile or similar. Then seeking divorce is permissible. In this case, it is okay and there is nothing prohibited in seeking a divorce.The thing, which is prohibited, is a wife seeking a divorce from her husband for no reason of the shariah. There is a serious threat made for seeking a divorce without a valid reason. It is reported in the hadith of the Prophet (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), "If a woman asks her husband for a divorce, for no reason, then the smell of paradise is forbidden for her". (At-Tirmidhi narrated it. He said this is a hasan hadith. Sunan Al-Tirmidhi. If the inquirer's purpose is to know whether a woman can divorce her husband or not, we inform her that divorce is one of the husband's rights only. But, when a man authorizes his wife to divorce herself whenever she wishes, then she has the right to do so at anytime. Allah knows best."
Hi Saidul,
Minta maaf kerana ejaan nama kamu salah (or is it silap?) and ribuan terima kasih for the education.
I did did not say a Muslim cannot divorce her husband, but "a Muslim women cannot do likewise" meaning to pronounce "I divorce you" 3 times to her Muslim husband and she is divorced. I note in the fatwa "If a woman asks her husband for a divorce,...."
I am still learning about Islam as it is getting more and more important for Malaysia whether we like it or not (that is fine for us as long as that is confined to the ummah? (is that the correct word?), so will welcome more knowledge. I would like to know if the above implies a Muslim woman need to ask her husband permission to divorce him, but a man do not need to ask his wife but can divorce his wife by merely pronouncing "I divorce you" 3 times to her. It seemed, if I remembered correctly, it had even been reported in the papers that doing that via SMS is also accepted.
Please don't take my comments in the negative sense, but in the spirit of someone seeking more knowledge for after all, Prophet Muhammad (spelling taken from Wikipedia) advised that even if one has to go to China (meaning if one has to go very far distance) to seek knowledge, one should do it.
I stand ready to be corrected.
Also, someone responded twice to Waris bukan bumiputera, who are they? but did not follow up and really hope you and your fellow learned and fair-minded Muslim/Malay (in Malaysia, that is by definition one and the same) friends will pick up from him.
Digital Candlelight Vigil
Dear Saidul,
Forgot about this:
"The thing, which is prohibited, is a wife seeking a divorce from her husband for no reason of the shariah."
To an Islam ignorant, it appear that the above means that a Muslim woman must have a valid reason as per the syariah, but I did not see any reference as to whether similar restriction apply to a Muslim man divorcing his wife or wives. Seeking more elaboration.
Pray for Malaysia
Dear Peter...
I think there's a wisdom behind Islam's practice of giving a bit more divorce rights (thalaq in Arabic) to the husbands.
Women have a lot of emotion triggers, hence it is not surprising that they are emotional. Menstruation, menopause and post menopause are some of their emotion triggers. Under such emotional stress, can we depend on them to make decisions that could rock and jeopardize marriages?
Just a little food for thought today. :-)
Cheers!
Dear Saidul,
"I think there's a wisdom behind Islam's practice of giving a bit more divorce rights to the husbands". This simply means Muslim women do not have the same rights as Muslim men and often we hear Muslim telling us that everyone (including Muslim and non-Muslim) have the same rights under Islam. It seem to be getting clearer and clearer, for whatever reasons, that is not true. Am I wrong in saying that? Would not a non-Muslim living in a formerly secular state with Islam as the official religion (enshrined in the Constitution) be apprehensive about the possibility of Malaysia becoming an Islamic state as per what we learn from sources like Wikipedia, etc. despite what is stated in the Constitution?
You have hantam UMNO for messing up Malaysia's Constitution I think, but I think you would probably not object to getting the Constitution amended to make Malaysia a real Islamic state a reality. Now what I would like to know is, if Muslim women do not have the same rights as a Muslim man, what about a non-Muslim woman in an Islamic state?
Blog for Positive Changes
Dear Saidul,
"I did not see any reference as to whether similar restriction apply to a Muslim man divorcing his wife or wives".
Now please tell me if there is no restriction on a Muslim an divorcing his wife is correct or not as I have not read the Koran. If that is correct, I hope you shed some wisdom on that as to me, a scientist, not a religious scholar, men have more male hormone in them that can cause them to be more easily aroused than a woman.
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