Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 33
! ! 33 slaughtering his animal for sacrifice. Upon s eeing this, everyone would follow the Holy Prophet sa. T he Holy Prophet sa did exactly this and the remaining Muslims removed their I hraam. Thus, women have always provided great services and given advice in important affairs. Therefore , it is an erroneous assumption on the part of today’s women that they are incapable because there is much that they can do. I t is just as important for them to teach religion to others as it is for men [to teach religion]. What Women h ave Accomplishe d The wives of the Holy Prophet sa would scold men for making errors in religious quandaries and Haz rat A’isha h ra would give dars [ lectures ] on the Holy Qur’ān , which men also attended. Likewise, there have been times wh en women would teach men from behind a curtain. Ye t nowadays , the problem is that women themselves are uneducated and they think to themselves , ‘What can we do? We cannot do anything. ’ Th is way of thinking is utterly wrong. T he women of earlier times did not think like this , even when they were un educated. The Example of a Woman of Today Even today, it is observed that women who feel love and affection for their religion are most sincere. For instance, I remember during the time of the Promised Messiah as , a woman came to him, weeping and saying, “M y son has converted to Christianity. Please pray that he recite s the K alima Shahada one more time. If he di es afterwards, so be it. ” The boy had been educated by Christians. D espite having a fever, he ran away. His mother went after him and brought him back. The Promised Messiah as reasoned with him and after a few days, he recognized [the truth] and accepted Islam. He passed away two or three days after accepting Islam and his mother did not grieve. Thus, even now there are such women, though they are rare, that their faith means more to them than anything else. Generally , it is seen that if the husband converts to Christianity , the wife also becomes Christian. That which is her husband’s faith , becomes her faith.