Quran’s Fourth Strategy on Men, Women Rights
This is according to scholar Mohammad Ali Rezaei Esfehani, speaking in a session about Verse 34 of Surah An-Nisa “Men are the protectors of women because of the greater preference that God has given to some of them and because they financially support them.”
Following are excerpts from his remarks at the session:
Man and woman have commonalities. For instance both have a body and a soul and, based on the Quran, both can reach Hayat Tayyiba (pure life), which is the highest level of human perfection.
The Quran rejects any role of gender in one’s achievement of Hayat Tayyiba.
In addition to their commonalities, man and woman have differences. Islam has given the management of affair outside of the house to men and management of home’s affairs to women. This does not mean that men are better than women.
In interpretation of Quranic teachings, especially on the issue of family, we should have a systemic view. Many of the problems we have in terms of family in the West and even in our own society are because we have not looked at the Quran with a systemic view. For example, we cannot view the issue of inheritance without taking into account the issue of dowry, Nafaqah (Islamic legal term for the financial support a husband must provide for his wife), and the status of woman in management of family.
There are several viewpoints about man-woman relation:
1- Patriarchy, 2-Feministic, 3- Equality between man and woman.
The third view considers it necessary to have equality in management of family but it would create many problems among family members.
Islam does not support these three views and offers a fourth alternative in which man and woman are commentary not equal.
In this fourth alternative, neither of the two has any superiority over the other and their rights are not violated. They both manage the family, with one responsible for the management of affairs outside the house and the other for management of home’s affairs. Legally, men are the reason for stability of family and source of reliance and complementary for women. This is against the West’s view of man-woman relation that is based on equality.
A fundamental problem here is that some consider man being “protector of” woman to mean being more valuable than women. However, Quran interpreters like Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi believe that it means being at the service of woman.
As for financial issues, because men are in charge of paying the costs and earning money in family, and they also give the dowry, they have a greater share in inheritance than women.
Many books and article have been written about the virtues of Hazrat Zahra (SA) in the Quran. There are some verses in the Holy Book about the virtues of Hazrat Zahra (SA), including verses of Surah Al-Kawthar.
The Surah has two miracles. First, a man had mocked the Holy Prophet (PBUH) saying he had no children but the man himself became one without posterity. He is said to have had ten sons and daughters but his family was no more after two generations.
The second miracle is that Hazrat Zahra (SA) is Kawthar, which has multiple dimensions. For example, the fact that her descendants are over 50 million today.
She is also Kawthar in spiritual terms because 11 of the Infallible Imams are her sons and descendants.
