As muslims, we believe every word in the Quran with full certainty and we aim to follow its teachings as well as the teachings in the Sunnah as best we can. Therefore, when the Quran designates marriage as a great sign from Allah and a powerful means of tranquility for His slaves, we accept this as the ultimate truth, thereby banishing any ideology that aims to tarnish and vilify marriage; Feminism.
Feminism has worked to tear down marriage from its mighty status by dubbing it as an oppressive and confining covenant against women.
Read on as we aim to disprove this.
‘Marriage Keeps Women Financially Subordinate'
Islam does not restrain a women’s financial freedom, in fact Islam consolidates such autonomy, as a woman maintains full control over her wealth (in a manner that is compliant with Allah’s laws). Moreover, the fact that her husband has to provide her all the necessities only strengthens herfinancial position further, as by her husband covering expenses, she is allowed to maximise how much of her own wealth is saved.
‘Marriage Prohibits Female Progression’
The wife’s place is the home. However, the home mustn’t be seen as a prison that shuts out the light; forbidding her from happiness and meaning. Rather on the contrary, the married home is an epicentre of growth and blossoming for the female as it’s often her abode where she will go from being a girl to becoming a woman. For it is the place where she fully comes into the role of a mother, an unarguably mighty and honourable duty and the place she fulfils the weighty responsibility of being the maintainer of the household.
‘Marriage Fuels Patriarchal Oppression’
Islam offers a plethora of teachings emphasising the importance of treating women with softness and grace. The evidence for this is strong, clear and plenty:
“The best of you are those who are the best to their wives”. (At-Tirmidhi)
“I urge you to take care of the women.” (Al-bukhari)
"The Messenger of Allah never beat any of his servants, or wives.” (Ibn Majah)
“And live with them in kindness.” (Quran 4:19)
“You should feed her when you feed yourself, clothe her when you clothe yourself, you should not hit her on the face, you should not curse her.” (Graded saheeh by Al-albani)
“your wife has a right over you.” (Al-Bukhari)
Etc etc
‘Marriage Enforces Arbitrary Gender Roles’
Over the past century with a strong continuation into the current century, the wisdom behind gender roles in a marriage have been undermined by Feminism. In Islam, there is no question that men and women each have a different set of strengths so, therefore, it only makes sense that theyhave a different set of responsibilities. Men are more practical and calculative so they have been given the duty of leadership and provision, whereas women are more nurturing and emotionally intelligent thus they have been given the duty of caretaking and motherhood.
Let’s Round Up
- Feminism claims that marriage is financially oppressive towards women whilst Islam totally disproves this through preserving a females monetary autonomy both before and during matrimony.
- Marriage is vilified by Feminism for halting female development whereas Islam grants women a abundance of opportunities through marriage for self-growth and progress such as motherhood and being the caretaker of the house.
- Feminism yet again makes a grave miscalculation by dubbing marriage as harmful and repressive against women. This is disproven by an array of explicitly stated proofs in both the Quran and sunnan
- Finally, Feminism works to undermine traditional gender roles, characterising them as backwards and senseless. On the contrary, Islam (as well as secular scientific and physiological literature) have determined women and men to be significantly different mentally and physically thus their roles in society must similarly be different.