Forty Gems of Beauty — Page 84
84 Explanatory Notes While on the one hand, the Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has commanded husbands to treat their wives with kindliness, he has, on the other hand, enjoined on wives to do their duty to their husbands. For the true felicity and bliss of the home lies in the husband meting out the most generous treatment to the wife and, in the latter, respecting the rights of the husband with faithfulness. The Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him) was so particular in regard to this sacred obligation of the wife, that, in another Hadith, he observed that if the husband of a Muslim wife died pleased with her, she would, by the grace of God, enter Paradise. In the same Hadith he had further remarked that if Sajdah (a form of worship which consists of the worshipper putting his forehead and knees on the ground) before anyone other than Allah were permissible in Islam, he would have commanded wives to perform Sajdah before their husbands. The reason underlying the observation of the Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him) that the wife who did not do her duty to her husband, did not do her duty to God is twofold: Firstly, in spite of the difference in degree, the two obligations partake of the same nature. For instance, as God loves His creatures with extreme love so does the husband cherish a special kind of love for his wife and again, as with all His love, Allah is the Ruler and Guardian over His servants, likewise is the husband the superintendent and maintainer of the house with all his love for his wife, and as God is the Lord of Providence for His creatures and provides them with means of livelihood, similarly is the husband obligated to provide sustenance to his wife. There are so many other aspects of similarity, making the resemblance so striking that, in our language, the husband has been termed the temporal god of the wife.