Bearing domestic responsibilities - Some examples from Islamic history

   Nowadays, Muslims are more impressed by western notions.  Not only have Muslims forgotten the manners and customs of Islam, they have given up the commands of Islam as well.  As long as our women were Muslims in spirit and deed, our society remained a Muslim society, the moment our women started looking to the west for guidance, our society has started careening towards an undeniable abyss.  The situation is such that in line with the western model, our women consider serving one’s husband and taking care of the house as something below them.  They don’t even pause to think that if serving the husband isn’t a wife’s responsibility, then how fulfilling her wishes will be a husband’s responsibility?

 

        Instead of this, if our women had looked at the infinitely admirable lives of the women of the Prophet’s times and the era next to it, they would have realized the truth about the teachings of Islam.  As an example, some Traditions are being related here:

 

There is a Hadith in Sahih Bukhari about Hadhrat Asma bint Abu Bakr (May Allah be well pleased with them), that she would feed and water the horse of her husband, Hadhrat Zubair (May Allah be well pleased with him):

 

Translation: It is narrated on the authority of Hadhrat Asma bint Abu Bakr (May Allah be well pleased with them), she says:  I was married to Hadhrat Zubair (May Allah be well pleased with him).  He had neither any property nor owned anything else, only a camel for drawing water, and a horse.  I would graze his horse and water it.  I would repair the pail of water and knead flour, but I couldn’t make nice chapattis.  My neighboring Madinite women, who were very pious, would make chapattis for me.  I would bring things from Hadhrat Zubair’s (May Allah be well pleased with him) land on my head.  This land was about a Farsakh (about 6 km) far and was granted to him by the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam). (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No. 5224)

 

The aforementioned Hadith shows that the women of the Prophet’s time, apart from their worship and prayers, would do work around the house, knead flour and all such things.  Not only would they do it, but they would also express it before others so that it becomes a shining example for generations to come and they can acquire the Prophetic teachings and save themselves for following others.

 

They would work so hard that their hands would become callused

 

The house of the husband is the wife’s own house.  Safeguarding the house and her husband’s wealth in the absence of the husband is the foremost responsibility of the wife.  It is a mark of deficient intellect to think that the working in the husband’s house lowers the status of the wife.  When the man and the woman are bound in marriage, their lives become one.  As long as they consider each other as strangers, they cannot live with each other.

 

When the women of the Prophet’s time would consider it an honor to serve their husbands and take responsibility of the house, then how can one consider this as something lowly after 14 centuries?  Is this not a direct result of abandoning Islam?

 

The beloved daughter of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), the princess of the universe, Hadhrat Syeda Fatima (May Allah be well pleased with her) would serve her husband Hadhrat ‘Ali (May Allah be well pleased with him) with all sincerity and she would work in the house to the extent that her hands would become callused.  As mentioned in this Hadith of Sahih Bukhari:

 

Translation: It is narrated on the authority of Hadhrat Ibn Abi Layla, It is narrated on the authority of Hadhrat ‘Ali (May Allah be well pleased with him) that Hadhrat Fatima (May Allah be well pleased with her) went to the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) with the intention to tell Him that she had developed calluses on her hands by turning the millstone.  She knew that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) had some slaves.  She couldn’t speak with the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and mentioned this to Hadhrat ‘Aisha (May Allah be well pleased with her).  When the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) came to us, we had retired for the night.  We started to get up, but the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) told:  Don’t get up!  Then He sat between both of us in such a way that I could feel the coolness of His feet on my stomach.  He said:  Shall I not give you something better than what you have asked for?  When you retire for the night, reciteSubhanallah 33 times, Alhamdulillah 33 times and Allahuakbar 34 times.  This is better than servants for both of you.  (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No. 5361)

 

The lives of these great women are a beacon of guidance for women of all times.