The Social System in Islam

Contents: Introduction. 1. The view of man and woman. 2. The impact of this view on the relationship between man and woman. 3. Regulating the relations between man and woman. 4. Private life. 5. It is obligatory to separate man from woman in Islamic life. 6. Looking at women. 7. It is not obligatory for the Muslim woman to cover her face. 8. Man and woman before the Shari’ah commandments. 9. The activities of the woman. 10. The Islamic community. 11. Marriage. 12. Women to whom marriage is prohibited. 13. Polygyny. 14. The prophet’s marriages. 15. Married life. 16. Coitus interruptus (al-‘Azl). 17. Divorce. 18. The lineage (An-Nasab). 19. The imprecation (al-Lian). 20. The guardianship of the father. 21. Custody of the child. 22. Maintaining good relations with Kith and Kin (Silat-ur-Rahm).

"The need to unite the family and to ensure its happiness was felt by all Muslims, and the search for a solution to this serious problem occupied the minds of many people. Different attempts of various sorts appeared to present such solutions. Many books were written demonstrating the societal solution and amendments were made to the laws of the Shari’ah courts and electoral systems. Many tried to apply their views on their families in terms of their wives, sisters and daughters. Changes were made to the school system with regards to the mixing of boys and girls. Thus, these attempts continued to appear in these and similar guises. However, none of them could succeed in finding a solution, or come with a system or find a method to implement what they conceived as reform (Islah). This is because the issue of the relationship between the two sexes became obscure in the minds of many Muslims. They were unable to comprehend the way in which the two genders can co-operate with each other, even though the well being (Salah) of the Ummah stems from this co-operation. A chasm began to exist in society due to which grew a concern for the entity of the Islamic Ummah, in its capacity as an Ummah with distinct characteristics. It was feared that the Muslim household would lose its Islamic character, and the Muslim family would lose the guidance of the thoughts of Islam, and stray from valuing its rules and thoughts.

The social aspect continued in a confused state until the Muslim woman became bewildered. She stood between women who were anxious and confused, talking from western society without understanding it and without being aware of its reality, or knowing the contraction that existed between it and Islamic culture on one side; and the narrow minded women who did not benefit, nor did her presence benefit the Muslim on the other side. All of this was due to a failure in studying Islam intellectually and not understanding the Islamic social system.

What is required is the treatment of this meeting and the resultant relationship and that which branches out from it. It should be understood that this solution is not dictated by the mind but by the Shari’. As for the mind, its purpose is to understand the solution, that the solution is for Muslim men and women to live a specific lifestyle which is the lifestyle which Allah has obliged them to live. They are most definitely obliged to restrict their living solely to this lifestyle as Allah has commanded in the Qur’an and Sunnah irrespective of whether it contradicts with the West or disagrees with the customs and traditions of their own fathers and forefathers." (jacket)