Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 106
106 that you may cooperate with each other and live with love and affection. If you keep fighting with each other, then you should keep in mind that it is not just the two of you , but watching over you is a third presence too , and that is God. ’ The Holy Prophet Muhammad sa also says , ‘ W here there are two, there is also present a Third presence which is that of God. ’ Thus , do no t assume that it is only you rather We are also [present]. If you w ill not observe Our rules, then We are present here to hold you to account. ’ Difference between the Responsibilities of Men and Women In this verse, as far as strengths are concerned, as far as emotions are concerned, and as far as thoughts are concerned, men and women have been declared equal. And since they are equal and since their strengths are equal, then certainly their duties will also be equal. However, the ir [duties] will be of a different nature. Some people say that if the capa cities of men and women are equal , then they should also do the same type of work , b ut this is wrong. I n our world , students obtain their BA degrees from the same college, but after this some pursue engineering, some become lawyers, and some become good administrators. As far as education is concerned, all of them will be declared ‘educated,’ but there is a difference in their responsibilities. In the same way, men and women have been created with similar feelings, but their responsibilities are different. A woman’s responsibility is that she educates her childre n and makes them good citizens. Similarly, she should also participate in those military duties which she can perform much better [than men], for example nursing. A woman can do this job much better. Once the Holy Prophet sa was about to leave for battle when a Sahabiya ra came and said, “ O Prophet sa of Allah ! I cannot fight; I will look aft er the injured and the ill and will dress their wounds. ” The Holy Prophet sa said, “Fine , come along. ” As it was custom among the Arabs t o consider only men as soldiers, when the time came to distribute the bounty from the war , question s arose regarding that woman. In those days , soldiers did not get pai d and they had to pay for their own food and drink. In fact, t hey even bought their own weapons to use in battle. These days soldiers get paid and are supplied with rations [of food and water] and the weapons are also provided by the government. Since in those days the soldiers had to cover the entire expense of goin g to war, the possessions acquired from the [defeated] enemy were afterwards distributed among