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Women in islam Part10: Economics


Economics

Of the great faiths, Islam has been foremost in assigning to woman
a position of economic independence. It is well known that in the
United Kingdom till as late as 1882, when the first Married Women's
Property Act was passed by Parliament, a married woman could hold no
property of her own, independently of her husband. Any property that a femme
sole (unmarried woman) held in her own right vested automatically
in her husband on her marriage. A hundred years later traces still
linger in certain aspects of British Law which illustrate a married
woman's position of dependence upon her husband.

In Islam the independent economic position of woman has been
established since the very beginning. Mention has been made of the
obligation of the husband to make a settlement on the wife, in
proportion to his means, at the time of marriage. This settlement
is called dower (mehr). If at the time of the death of the husband the
wife's dower should be still unpaid, it ranks as a debt to be
discharged out of his estate, in priority to all his other debts.
In addition, the widow is entitled to her share in the husband's
estate, which is determined by law.

Any property that a woman might acquire by her own effort, or might
inherit as an heir or receive as a legacy or gift, belongs to her
independently of her husband. She may ask her husband to manage it,
but if she chooses to manage or administer it herself, he cannot
interfere in her management or administration of it.

A married woman who possesses means of her own may, and in most
cases does, contribute a portion or the whole of her independent
means towards the upkeep of the household, but is under no obligation to
do so. The upkeep of the household is the entire responsibility of the
husband, even when the wife is in her own right better off than her
husband.

This is well illustrated by the following incident. The Holy
Prophet, peace be on him, on one occasion admonished women to spend in
charity out of their own means also. Thereafter two women, both bearing the
name of Zainab, one of them the wife of the well known companion
Abdullah bin Masood, came to him and told him that their respective
husbands were men of straitened means, but that they in their own
rights were comparatively better off. Would it be an act of
spiritual merit if they were to assist their husbands out of their own means?

The Holy Prophet assured them their spending on their husbands
would be doubly meritorious, as it would rank both as charity and as
graciousness towards kindred.
The Holy Quran admonishes:

Covet not that whereby Allah has made some of you
excel others. Men shall have a portion of that which they earn and women
shall have a portion of that which they earn. Ask Allah alone of
His bounty. Surely, Allah has perfect knowledge of all things.
(4:33)

For everyone leaving an inheritance We have appointed heirs,
parents and near relations, and also husbands and wives to whom you are
bound by solemn covenants. So give all of them their appointed
shares. Surely, Allah watches over all things.
(4:34)

The Islamic system of succession and inheritance, set out in
4:12-13 and 177, aims at a wide distribution of property. If a person
should die leaving his or her surviving parents, wife or husband, sons and
daughters, they all share in the inheritance; the general rule
being that the share of a male is double that of a female in the same
degree of relationship. In this there is no discrimination against female
heirs in view of the obligation of the male to provide for his
family, while the female has no such obligation. In practice the rule works
out favorably for female heirs.

A Muslim may not dispose of more than one-third of his assets by
testamentary directions. Legacies, whether for charity or in favor
of non-heirs, must not exceed one-third of net assets; nor may the
share of an heir be augmented or diminished by testamentary direction.
There is no room for discrimination between the heirs under the Islamic
system of inheritance, like, for instance, primogeniture, or
exclusion of females.

A direction designed to secure the preservation of testimony
relating to civil transactions, which requires that they must be reduced to
writing, is sometime mistakenly seized upon as evidence of
discrimination against females. The direction is as follows:

Procure two witnesses from among your men; and if
two men be not available, then one man and two women, of such as you like as
witnesses, so that if either of the two women should be in danger
of forgetting, the other may refresh her memory.
(2:283)

There is here not the slightest trace of discrimination. The normal
rule is that women should be safeguarded against the contingency of
having to appear as witnesses in judicial proceedings. Therefore,
normally a woman should not be called upon to attest a document
recording a transaction. This rule may be relaxed in an emergency.
But then another difficulty would arise. In the case of male witnesses
their memory of a transaction that they attest as witnesses would
be refreshed when they met socially and the transaction was recalled
for one reason or another. In the case of a document recording a
transaction, which is attested by one male and one female witness,
the female witness, under the Islamic social system, as will presently
be appreciated, would not normally have frequent occasion to meet the
male witness and talk to him, so that there would be little chance
of her memory of the transaction being refreshed. To overcome this
lack of opportunity of refreshing the memory, it is wisely provided that
where only one male witness is available two female witnesses may
be called upon so that, in the very words of the text, one may refresh
the memory of the other.

This provision is concerned only with the preservation of evidence,
and does not deal with the weight to be attached to the testimony
of a male or female witness. An illustration may help to clear up any
doubt on the matter. Assume that a transaction recorded in a document
attested by one male and two female witnesses becomes the subject
of a dispute which comes up for judicial determination. It is then
discovered that one of the two female witnesses has in the meantime
died. The male witness and the surviving female witness are
examined in court and the judge finds that their respective accounts of the
terms of the transaction are not entirely in harmony; but he feels
very strongly that taking every relevant factor into consideration
the testimony of the female witness is more reliable than that of the
male witness. In such a case it would be his plain duty to rely on the
testimony of the female witness in preference to that of the male
witness. There could be no question of discrimination in favor of
or against a woman.


Thank you.
Shakeel Virk
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