Working For The Ideal: The True Invaluable Nature of Women’s Work in Islam
By: Umm Ziyaad (ummziyaad@hotmail.com)

Picture this scenario. A mother of five children holds an important position in a multi-million-dollar company.  As the manager of the human resource department, one of her tasks includes motivating the company’s employees to become the best at what they do.  She is the epitome of a successful career woman and as she rises up the management ladder, her responsibilities at the office multiply as she is forced to neglect her responsibilities towards her family.  Then one day she decides to quit her job. 

She realizes with all the money and promotions she acquired from her career, something was not right with the way she lived her life in the past.  Something was missing from those ‘successes’ and a sense of craving only identifiable by the female gender was left unsatisfied.  But when she finally has the chance to spend enough time with her husband and children, her efforts encounter a fair amount of condemnation even from those closest to her.  Now she faces the dilemma of explaining to her relatives, colleagues and friends around her about her well-thought decision that she intends to execute with full conviction.  It’s not that easy.  She knows what the vast majority of society wants from women like her and what she has been taught about the meaning of a successful woman were not really true.  It is time for her, this Muslim woman, to step up for what she believes to be true, as what her religion, Islam tells her to be true.  It is high time for her to strive for what is best for her self in this life as well as the everlasting next.

	Only by going back to the true teachings of Islam will women be truly recognized as invaluable assets to society equally to men. Surely, women’s perfectly designed roles and the contributions in the natural work that they do in society go beyond any form of monetary compensation.

The Muslim woman from the scenario above found out that for society to encourage women to stay in their homes to focus more on caring for their families is practically to recognize the overriding benefits of being a homemaker to the woman herself, her family and the society around her.  In contrast, to subtly or openly ‘deny’ the Muslim woman this right based on society’s prejudicial view of the ‘jobless’ woman or mother is detrimental to the woman herself, her family, and the society on which families such as hers are built upon.

Often times the importance of the usually unpaid work that women do in their homes goes underestimated.  One major factor which contributes to this misconception is the surge of materialism that has plagued our lives in society today and has influenced the way we value the work of our mothers, wives and sisters as nurturers and care-givers.  Only by going back to the true teachings of Islam will women be truly recognized as invaluable assets to society equally to men.  Surely, women’s perfectly designed roles and the contributions in the natural work that they do in society go beyond any form of monetary compensation.

By having the obligation to financially provide and support themselves and their families lifted from off of their shoulders, women as homemakers have the freedom to concentrate on activities inside the house.  Compared to a ‘juggling’ lifestyle between paid and unpaid work, these women have the opportunity to play a most important part in benefiting the society at large. It is a known fact that a healthy environment at home is a cause for humans to develop into physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy individuals and as a result, the amount of social problems that occur in ‘modern’ societies today could be significantly reduced.  For that reason, undoubtedly, having a system of families that are each run by skilled ‘managers’ will result to a better society in its every aspect. 

But when women are pushed into the workforce as countries move towards industrialization, they are compelled to leave their traditional position as caregivers in the family.  This ‘evolution’ gradually tears down the ideal family structure.  Consequently, the family structure, which is securely based on the close and firm relationship between the husband and the wife and between parents and their children become twisted as the roles of parents are reduced and become unclear.  Instead, day-care institutions rise in great numbers replacing the essential role of the mother in the early and crucial development of her child’s life.  The bond between husbands and wives is hence weakened when the gift of children and the responsibility to raise them that binds parents together, is taken away bit by bit.  A prime example is in the U.S. today, where it’s government surpasses the power of parents over their children simply because parents are becoming increasingly incompetent.

Apart from the immeasurable goodness that a woman presents to others by specializing in the art of caring, she also benefits her own self, whether in this worldly life, or in the hereafter.  As the woman is created with innate characteristics that endow her with better nurturing abilities, her true and highest potential would be realized in this specialized field.  These born characteristics enable her to take pleasure in the work that she does.  Accordingly, homemaking provides the woman with the platform to obtain the ultimate satisfaction for being able to dedicate daily activities towards a mission that is pleasurable to her as well as appreciated and beneficial to others.

For the Muslim woman, to excellently perform homely duties is an opportunity to earn the highest rewards from Allah SubhanahuWa Ta`ala, equivalent to even that of Jihad in His Path.  As was related by Muslim bin Asad from Asma’ Bint Yazid radiyAllahu `anha that she went to the Prophet shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam while he was seated with his companions.  She said:

“… I came as an emissary to you from a group of women.  Indeed Allah has sent you to both men and women, and we believe in you and in your Lord.  Indeed, we women are limited and constrained, though we are the pillars of your houses, from us do you fulfill your desires and lusts, and we also bear your children.  Indeed, you men have been favored over us by the congregational prayers, by visiting the sick, by attending funeral prayers, by performing pilgrimage after pilgrimage, and better than all of that – Jihad in the way of Allah.  When men go out to perform Hajj, `Umrah, or Jihad, we protect for them their wealth, spin for them their garments, and raise for them their children.  Shall we not then share with you in this recompense and reward?”

The Prophet shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam then turned to his companions and said, “Have you ever heard of any speech of a woman that is more beautiful than this woman’s questioning regarding the affair of her religion?”  They said, “O Messenger of Allah, we never thought that a woman should be guided to something similar to this.”  The Prophet shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam turned to her and said,

“Understand this, O woman, and teach this to those women whom you left behind: For a woman to be a good spouse to her husband, for her to seek his pleasure, for her to follow and cooperate with him, is equal to all of that (i.e. all of the rewards that men get for their toils or for the deeds mentioned above).” 42

Therefore ‘housework’ should not be something looked down upon by any Muslim because evidently from the words spoken by the Messenger shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam himself, women’s work as homemakers is no trivial job.  The act of staying inside the home, unless it is required for her to go out, is most praiseworthy and promoted for women in Islam. 

	As Muslims, the overall benefit for everyone supersedes the individual benefit, or in this case the benefit for women alone. The Laws of Allah are Most Just and True for all His creations, be they male or female.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta`ala tells us in the Qur’an that it is better for women to stay inside their homes as He instructed the wives of the Prophet in Surah al-Ahzab, verse 33, and to not display themselves like that of the times of pre-Islamic ignorance (Jahiliyyah).  As Muslims, the words of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta`ala and His Messenger (peace be upon him)  should be enough for us and doing what Islam has prescribed in full obedience and knowledge of its true benefits is a great reward in and of itself.

As shown in the above related hadith, notice how the question asked by Asma’ Bint Yazid radiyAllahu `anha was in the context of clarifying what her beloved religion of Islam entails for women, and not only for the interest for solely women but for the best interest of the ummah as a whole.  As Muslims, the overall benefit for everyone supersedes the individual benefit, or in this case the benefit for women alone.  The Laws of Allah are Most Just and True for all His creations, be they male or female.  Despite the efforts of some parties who argue and promote that women should be encouraged to leave their homes just as men do for work, the Truth is: it is better for them to stay at home.  This is the ideal that should be strived for in a Muslim society.

This fact is further strengthened when we reflect upon the following hadith of the Prophet shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam.  It was narrated that Umm Humayd the wife of Abu Humayd al-Saa’idi came to the Prophet and said, “O Messenger of Allaah, I like to pray with you.” He said,

“I know that you like to pray with me, but your prayer in your room is better for you than your prayer in your courtyard and your prayer in your courtyard is better for you than your praying in your house, and your prayer in your house is better for you than your prayer in the mosque of your people, and your prayer in the mosque of your people is better for you than your prayer in my mosque.”

Hearing the words of the Prophet shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam, Umm Humayd radiyAllahu `anha issued orders that a prayer-place be prepared for her in the furthest and darkest part of her house, and she used to pray there until she died.43

Naturally, a person would choose to do an action that is not only easier but would grant him or her the most amount of benefits.  To the Muslim woman in the early times of Islam, it made perfect sense to obey Allah’s commandments as they knew in complete faith that Allah’s religion of Islam that He sent to humankind is easy and precisely designed to produce the best kind of life upon this world and the everlasting Akhirah. The comprehensive and absolute understanding of Islam possessed by the early Muslims, which was upheld by the sheer strength of their Iman is what we, Muslims in this day and age should be striving for. The encouragement to stay inside their homes for Muslim women today is applicable and suitable inasmuch as Islam is applicable and will always remain suitable for all time.

In defining the nature of women’s and men’s work, sexual differentiation in labor is a reality in society and this reality depicts the natural fitrah that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta`ala has instilled in them.  As the Creator of all that exists, Allah has differentiated women from men in their creation and the roles that they play in the life of this world.  Allah says in the Qur’an, “And the male is not like the female..” [Surah Ali Imran 3:36].  Because there exist differences between men and women, the nature of the work that they do is naturally different.  By accepting these differences as promoted by even western scholars particularly in the book “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”, can society do justice towards each of its members.  Radical feminist groups say that men and women are the same and their differences apart from their biologically determined sex; their gender is socially constructed or in other words learned from the process of growing up.  Although this theory contains some amount of truth in which some aspects of gender are learned or taught to members of society, gender is indeed for the most part innate.  Individuals are born with instinctive traits that in following the course of their creation, these traits form each individual into becoming either a man or a woman.  Therefore believing that the instinct to want to become stay-at-home mothers that women have because they were merely conditioned as such in their upbringing in reality defies women to accept themselves as who they are and prevents society from accepting women as how they should be accepted, unlike men.

	Allah is Just in the truest sense of the word to all of His creations. He instruc-ted that the deeds of women and men to be measured differently but suitable and thus fair to their nature. In other words, different yardsticks are to be used to deter-mine which jobs or work is best for each sex.

Because of this unclear image of women, society tends to oppress women into taking part in the roles of men, taking them away from the opportunity to fulfill their potential to the fullest. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta`ala is Just in the truest sense of the word to all of His creations.  He instructed that the deeds of women and men to be measured differently but suitable and thus fair to their nature. In other words, different yardsticks are to be used to determine which jobs or work is best for each sex.  What follows from this understanding is the realization that the importance of a work being done by each sex is invaluable and priceless in its own virtue and the pointlessness of determining the superiority of one sex over the other based on the jobs that they do.  For example, the amount of salary paid in the different jobs that women and men have should not be used to measure the importance of those jobs.  Naturally, men are recognized as breadwinners of the family and because of this, the work that they do are paid more in order for them to sustain the living expenses of those under their responsibilities.  Nevertheless, women’s work is in a league of its own and is not measurable to the amount of money being paid to them because women are not accountable for providing income to the family.

	A society which is far from the guidance of Allah is ruled by materialism, and from it stems the unhealthy habit of assigning monetary value to anything of worth, including women’s natural work in their homes.

A society which is far from the guidance of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta`ala is ruled by materialism, and from it stems the unhealthy habit of assigning monetary value to anything of worth, including women’s natural work in their homes.  Doing this diminishes the importance of the wifely and motherly duties performed in the family, which then contributes to society’s lack of appreciation towards women.  In other words, the domestic work that women do is not only looked down upon (due to gender discrimination) because women do the work – they are looked down upon because it is usually low or unpaid work.

The idea of “comparable worth” as termed by most feminists to refer to a theory that every job, by its nature, has a worth to the employer or to society that can be measured and assigned a numerical value, is seemingly rooted in materialism.  This theory is used to advocate equal pay for men and women in jobs of comparable value.  This is another issue in and of itself.  But in relation to quantifying the value of women’s work in society, comparable worth is problematic as it implies that importance is attributed to monetary compensation as a standard of personal worth in society.  If this is the case, then it is a wonder that mothers are not compensated for their utmost importance in society, where motherhood is supposedly revered.  “Worth” is determined by the values that are held by a particular society and if the values of a society is materialistic, worth will take on a rather “worthless” superficial meaning driven by desire and would eventually lose its true sense.

Thus if we go back to Islam and study the fundamental values that our religion is based upon, we will undoubtedly arrive to the agreement that women should be encouraged to fulfill the Islamic ideal of working in their homes. In particular, they should focus their activities on performing wifely and motherly duties towards their families as such a job is realistically deemed to be most significant and of incomparable value.  At the same time, women would be revered for the work that they do and society would be educated about the true value of women that has always existed but sadly has remained implicit.

In Islam, women are not obligated to work and earn income for the family.  Instead, men are obligated to provide for women in every stage of their lives.  It is in fact a communal obligation upon the society to care for single mothers and unmarried women who do not have male relatives to provide for them.  In Shahih Muslim, Abu Hurairah radiyaAllahu `anhu reported that Allah's Messenger shallallahu 'alaihi wasallam said,

“One who makes efforts (for earning to be spent) on a widow and the destitute is like a striver in the cause of Allah”, and I think he also said, “He is like one who constantly stands for prayer and observes fast without breaking it.”

	However, women are not forbidden to work. Never-theless conditions apply to these women so that the boundaries as prescribed in the shari`ah of Allah are not transgressed in which doing so causes harm towards the Muslim women in this world as well as in the next.

However, women are not forbidden to work. Undoubtedly in today’s economics it has become a necessity for women to have to work to earn a living, especially when men are unable to meet the demands of high living costs.  Nevertheless conditions apply to these women so that the boundaries as prescribed in the shari`ah of Allah are not transgressed in which doing so causes harm towards the Muslim women in this world as well as in the next.  They should be given the choice to work from home and such facilities are even supported by the Sisters in Islam.44  This does not contradict the need for us to try to reach the ideal where women do not have to work for their living expenses so that they could be free to perform their duties at home.  Ultimately, in Islam, men are responsible of providing financial support for their families as stated before and so they are given the means to acquire more wealth than women.  On the other hand, women are also allowed to acquire wealth in any legal form such as inheriting wealth and owning businesses.

Encouraging women to stay home instead of having to go to work and share the burden of earning money for the family is a step towards ending the psychological crisis that women have to endure when choosing to be stay-at-home mothers.  Today’s women are more educated and statistically, it is shown that more and more educated women choose to become full-time mothers.  Statistics also show that there are still more than half of Malaysian women who are not part of the labor force.  This goes to show that women do not have to work in most families in Malaysia and that the greater part of society sees fit to it.  Financial independence is not the main agenda.  Women should be praised for choosing to maintain the inner workings of the family.

Encouraging women to stay in their homes to focus more on caring for their families will help them realize the overriding benefits to herself, her family and the society around her, as well as increase her status in the sight of God.  Islam seeks to protect women from the harm and hardship that could result from being out of the safety of the home.  Forcing women or in more subtle ways, creating the need for women to work in harsh environments that go against her feminine built, physically as well as emotionally is none other than a form of female oppression. But the aim of Islam to defend women in every aspect of their well-being is not always easily understood by Muslims themselves, much less those who purposely misconstrue the message of Islam.  And Allah’s help is sought.

	Forcing women or in more subtle ways, creating the need for women to work in harsh environments that go against her feminine built, physically as well as emotionally is none other than a form of female oppression. But the aim of Islam to defend women in every aspect of their well-being is not always easily understood by Muslims themselves, much less those who purposely misconstrue the message of Islam.