A Woman’s Jihad

By: Zahra Ibrahimi

“Striving for being a good wife (Husnuttabaul) by a (married) woman is rewarded by Allah with the reward given for Jihad (struggle in the way of Allah). This is one of the invaluable pieces of advice given to women by the great lady of paradise Her Holiness Fatimah - the beloved daughter of Prophet Muhammad ((PBUH)). This illuminating statement is obviously in sharp contrast to the mean views expressed by the proponents of secular, irreligious and astray cultures which degrade the sublime role to be played by women in the family environment as wives and mothers, and look down upon housekeeping, trying instead to deceive women into believing that they can achieve happiness just by making themselves as attractive as possible (outside home) through using cosmetics and wearing indecent clothings and trying to look lovely and pleasing to men in the society no matter the consequences which include unimaginable amounts of hurts, frustration and sufferings for the women who for various reasons, willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly get exposed to irreligious secular cultures.

Let us now offer some explanations as to the concept of a being a good wife taught by Islam and advocated by that Divinely–guided Lady, Her Holiness Fatimah (SA) who as repeatedly declared by her exalted father-prophet Muhammad ((PBUH)) leads the women of his ummah towards paradise:  Some might imagine that being a good wife just means cooking well and cleaning well. There is no denying that works (done at home) including preparing meals desired by the husband and keeping the house clean are included among the works for which great rewards have been promised by Allah to the women, there are also Ahadith from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in this connection. Yet, this concept has certainly other dimensions to it, including a wife’s feeling responsible towards her husband’s emotional and spiritual well-being. In this connection, a faithful wife should be careful about what she says to her husband, and should try to avoid telling what is (or might be) offensive, degrading, humiliating and the like. Likewise, a faithful considerate wife tries not to demand anything beyond her husband’s financial ability from him. Really how inconsiderate are those women who demand costly clothings, gems and furniture from their husbands while knowing that to fulfill this demand the (unfortunate) husband will have to trample upon his religious beliefs and, try to acquire haram money.

Truly how fortunate families and consequently human societies would be if every wife tried to follow these illuminating teachings presented by those great teachers of humanity for our happiness and salvation in this world and in the hereafter and how happy would be the children brought up by such women of faith, and self-discipline. No doubt, the break-up of marriages and the resulting miseries suffered by men, women, their children and the societies as a whole can mostly be attributed to the couples’ lack of knowledge of such Divine teachings and guide-lines, and to their having been brain-washed by the propagators of secular, materialistic and anti-God values.

So let’s pray to the Almighty Allah to illuminate our hearts with the light of the teachings of his messenger(S). And Allah’s greetings by upon our Lady of Ladies, Fatimah (SA).