40 - The reformer says:

"It is a very weak precaution to form separate groups for men and women or to put silk curtains between them in order to protect the honesty of women. In Muslim countries, through our sharp imagination we think a Venus of every woman under her colored silk dress, and, by deriving meanings from these wonderful statues, we fill the empty parts of our heart with them. Among the western psychologists, there are many who admire the imaginative pleasures in the veiling of the east as much as its sunny, flowery horizons.

"It is for certain that veiling increases the beauty of woman. The reason is that, while we see the subtleties and perspectives of everything close to us, distance makes these subtleties and perspectives seem decorated to us. As our eyes do not clearly see from the distance the things which they are used to seeing closely, our imagination completes the beauty of the things which we suppose to be beautiful. Things that are ours and which we do not esteem today will be valuable when we lose them. Now, when distance and curtains come between something and us, our emotions and sorrows arise proportional to our desire for that thing. When we see a veiled woman outside, our imagination wakes up. We imagine what is in our mind to exist under the veil. In order to arrange our social life, we should give the woman the place she deserves. Islam commands the woman to veil herself. But it does not explain how she will be veiled, nor does it prohibit to give the woman the rights which exist her nature. If the purpose of veiling is to keep the generation pure and chaste and to protect it from adultery and evils, we could provide for it in some other way. For example, we should control ourselves, by training the mind and intellects, which Allahu ta'ala has endowed on human beings. Thus, we should clean and correct the nafs in such a manner that it should desire for goodness instead of running after its bestial desires. A highly learned, educated girl whose reason and thought function can obtain the spiritual strength to protect her honesty through her reason and thought even if she could not find it in the religion. When she gets used to being with boys in her early ages, it will not do her harm when she is adult. It is never harmful for a girl, who has reason and thought enough to understand what chastity and honesty are, to go out unvelied as she wants, to go where she wants. Yet this change has to be made in the process of time. We cannot say to Muslim women, 'Come on, throw your veils away and act as you wish.' We should act very shrewdly. We see that we have not been able to establish the legitimacy well. Its consequence has been very dismal. Let the woman dress stylishly and gracefully for the time being to satisfy the sense in her creation. Later on, her unveiling will gradually replace. The government should put the dressing of the woman in an order for the time being. Beautifully dressed as she may be, let her cover the parts tempting sexual desires and accept the headgear and mantle instead of veil. Later on the process will come on slowly. Moreover, women are rightful to go about, to know the pleasures and life. For example, let it be her right to eat in restaurants, to go about, to go to movies and theaters. Yet, before doing these, men should be prohibited through a law to assault them."

If attention is paid to the religion reformer's words, it will strike the eye that they are the plans, programs which freemasons had prepared centuries ago and have had their men say in every epoch. These were said and written by the religion reformers in the time of the Union Party. When they brought freemason Rashid Pasha to the fore, they had him say these. When the ignorant's Party took hold of the administration of the Ottoman State with the help of booties and their aid, they, on the one hand, had religion reformers say these and, on the other, they passed new laws. They began attacking Islam. The Party members were 'ignorant' because the majority of these cruel people, who declared wars stupidly, caused bloodshed of hundred thousands of Muslims and killed innumerable innocent people in dungeons and on gallows, were ignorant. But if Muslim learn their religion well and teach it to youngsters, the plans of the enemies of Islam will fall down on their own heads. Allahu ta'ala declared in the eighth ayat of the surat al-Isra, "When Islam comes, polytheism and unbelief cannot survive." This ayat shows that if Muslims work depending on reason and on Islam, unbelievers cannot harm them. Those who attack Islam will die away.

This reformer writes also many important and dismal facts, but, in order to inoculate the youngsters with his intentional writings, freemasons do not hesitate to write a full book of sweet, creamy true writings in order to deceive people with a single line of poisoned writing. Another plan of these enemies of Islam for deceiving Muslims is their coating their poisons with sugar and have Muslims swallow them like pills.

Muslim woman veils herself not only for protecting her honesty but also to draw the spiritual border distinguishing woman and man from each other. Owing to veiling, man behaves formally and respectfully even towards a woman of his family in the street. Veiling is the curtain of modesty put between man and woman. If a veiled woman is imagined to be more beautiful in a man's fancy, this does not decrease but increase her honor.

He says that, rather than aesthetic beauty, social use should be looked for in woman and she should be given place in social life. This is not right because woman does not give up adorning herself in that social place of hers, either.

It is necessary to train the nafs in order not to be taken in by the bestial emotions. Yet it is never correct to leave this job to self-control and to give up veiling. It is often seen in newspapers that, among the people who receive education and training, there are many who cannot control themselves. Self-control is something easy to talk about but difficult to exercise. It is declared in the surat Yusuf that even a great prophet as Yusuf ('alaihi 's-salam) said, "I do not say my nafs does not want evil things." What is left for others to say? The degree of self-control is different in everybody. One even cannot understand this by himself. Especially according to the person who has received the lesson of honesty and chastity not from the religion but from his own reason only, the value of honesty does not go further than the thought of pretending to be honest. No matter how much the value of honesty is appreciated, no matter how much reasonable his intellect and thought are, reason may be unsuccessful against the nafs that exists in man's creation and can deceive everybody. For this reason, it is necessary yet at the beginning not to let the nafs move and to close the ways tempting it. The veiling of women is a measure closing these ways most decisively and most easily.

It is not correct, either, to think of co-education to form the familiarity between girls and boys which will in future avail in protecting their chastity and honesty. If the youngsters get used to mixed life, it will cause the danger of regarding its evil consequences most normal. The unveiling of women among men is a natural state indicating the feeling or intercourse between man and woman. Any man, let alone Muslim, will not believe in the mendacious, unaware words denying this reality. In beaches, where women exhibit their arms, shoulders, necks and legs to men and where they divert together, do not men look at them any more? Women, seeing that uncovering their arms, necks and legs became familiar, began to reveal their breasts, back and shoulders and to use miniskirts. These uncoverings, whose ends are unknowable where to conclude, points out a strong desire peculiar to women. In other words, the more women think that their uncovering themselves becomes familiar, they uncover the more. Their former immodesty begins to seem unnatural. Such spreading of unveiling among women shows that it is done for purpose other than the reasons put forth such as getting rid of the inconvenience of veiling, or getting an airing. Any degree of unveiling, whether suddenly or slowly, may be a step taken towards moral corruption. Even this immodesty, with which men partly satisfy their amusing themselves with women, is dissipation itself. The examples showing that women's exhibiting themselves to men and leading society life give way to fornication, immorality, home ruining, family disasters and deaths, are encountered frequently.

Islam does not say, "Do not talk to women or girls! Do not amuse yourselves with them! Live without women like priests." Islam says, "Do not pervert your neighbor's wife, daughter; do not tear their modesty veils; do not ruin homes; marry the girl you like; amuse yourself with her freely, comfortably and as you wish." In order to make a girl happy, it orders to work, earn and marry early when young.

It is seen with regret that woman's dancing with other men, or being exchanged as partner in balls, does not bring her to ease, nor encourage her to work but ruin her home.

The balls, which have arisen against the man-woman relations' remaining only between wife and husband and done in order to embody a mixed and unlimited relation, began to take the place of the assemblies of nikah in Islam, with the difference that Muslims' betrothal announces that a certain man and a certain woman come together, while in the society balls, many men and many women, married or unmarried, are announced to approach one another at random. Islam permits a man and a woman's coming together only after (the Islamically prescribed marriage contract called) Nikah.

If the woman, like in society life, is given the freedom of living with other men, her male relatives and husband will be jealous and suffer the pangs of conscience, and it gives way for the husband to amuse himself with innumerable other women. Who on earth does not know or understand this? Though the so-called primitive and reactionary men long for this pleasure very well, the pangs of conscience brake and stop them. Loose-willed men who could not stand against the desires of their nafs have broken this brake of the conscience under the pretext of being civilized and advanced and divided into society life, which is very sweet to them. Those who run after their sensual desires spread this life quickly. Some people consider this life "advancement", while some other evaluate it as "following nature". Whereas, Islam points out the way of living which is most suitable with nature. Islam, though being the most natural religion, departs from nature on occasions when human nature departs from virtue. It sides with virtue. Whether it is called a civil right or a return to nature, and no matter how much it is praised, the most evident cause of this current and the power which drags it along are lust and pleasure. If society men did not think of their own mutual pleasures but intended to give women rights and freedom instead, they would not want to exchange their wives. It must be for this reason that some male feminists, when they understand that they cannot take advantage of someone's wife or daughter, do not let their own wives and daughters not only talk to him but also show themselves to him. It can be understood very well that those who offer their wives and daughters to other men at balls and night clubs are the ones who sacrifice them for better posts. If attention is paid to those men who want women to be given rights and freedom more than women want, they are the people who seek for diving into the odorous, soft gatherings of women who swarm in the halls and overflow into the streets and for amusing themselves easily with others' wives. These poor people cannot think that other men also will freely attack their wives, daughters and sisters. Or, being in ecstasy with these pleasures and flavors, they forget about this disturbing harm, or they do not hesitate to sacrifice them for their amusement and lusts.

In society life, those men who gain much satisfaction and little loss are the ones who do not have young women among their relatives beautiful enough to be looked at. Among the main reasons why men want women to be given freedom are such deceitful and egoistic reasons. There may be some people to say that we write excessively on this subject. But this is the home truth of the matter; for this idea has not come to women brought up in Muslim countries out of admiring men's progress in knowledge and science. Such a desire for freedom has not been seen in the women of honest men who have high posts in knowledge and science. If men had not fallen into the life of amusement and dissipation, there would not have been women who want this kind of freedom. Nor would there have been men who would have sided with and advocated such women.

Those men who want women to be given such a freedom say, "We do not ask for something illegitimate." When they are asked what legitimate things they want, they cannot answer. They dismiss it by saying, "We will rescue women from slavery." It is declared in the 33rd ayat of the surat an-Nisa, "Men are the educators, employers of women. Allahu ta'ala has created men superior to women." They will rescue women from their place pointed out in this ayat! What on earth is legitimate in this? There are many reasons and uses why Islam holds men superior to women. This superiority is a must, a necessity for the orderliness of family life. Nor does the word, "Man and woman should have equal rights in the family life. Life is in common," have any value. It is declared in the 22nd ayat of the surat al-Anbiya', "If there were another god besides Allahu ta'ala, the Universe would get out of order and be in utter disorder." According to those who base their thought on the strong logic in this ayat, every member of the family should have a separate right, value, honor and degree, and a head among the family is necessary. Even in a republican government, in which the people are said to be given all rights, there is a head of the State. Then, as in government administration, the final word has to be ended up by one person in every assembly and in the family, which is also an assembly.

In order to show their words right and legitimate, some reformers support their words by saying, "We will give women independence in knowledge and science." Since by independence or liberty they mean, "We will rescue women from men's control," they intend to say, "We will change the ayat," and they call it "slavery" for women to be under men's control and not to be able to go where they want without men's permission. While Anatolian women, who are crushed under employment, do not want to escape slavery, the free women of Istanbul do! They say, "Owing to the freedom of knowledge and arts, women should work like men and thus escape depending on men for their living." Do men twit their women with the bread they bring home that they will rescue women from this parasitic, derogatory life? Whereas, modern women twit their men with the work they do indoors. They even try to load men with housework. When attentively observed, Muslim men are in a more pitiful situation than their women are, for the burden of earning money, finding and bringing the home's needs are on men's shoulders. To attempt to load women also with this burden by saying, "Life is in common," will mean for men to shake women off their protection by saying, "look after yourselves," which is thoroughly against women.

If saying "Life is in common," is, as the religion reformers defend it, for women to help the burden of earning, with which men are loaded, they might as well render this help inside the house. Many of the society families have servants in their houses. Like men, women also have their dresses made by tailors. A more surprising thing is that, in the houses of the society women, cooking, looking after the children and almost all the housework are done by servants. Thus, the woman's own earnings cannot even afford the expenses of her own ornaments, dyes, perfumes and hair-dresser's and the servant's wages. The burden of subsistence still remains on the man's shoulders.

It is seen everywhere in what a miserable and pitiable situation the women who share the burden of subsistence are if they are too ugly to be looked at on the face. The beauty of the girls who rely on their beauty and who try to be pretty decreases as they get older, and especially the skin of those women who use powder, lip-stick and rouge become uglier being worn away by friction day by day. When they do not use rouge, their faces become wrinkled, ugly like tripe. Therefore, when they get up every morning, they have to have toilet and make up for hours in front of the mirror. On a winter morning, as I was riding the tramway in the twilight, I saw a dustwoman sweep the snow on the ground. I was grieved for her. I wished that this Muslim granny had, instead of having attained such a freedom, been lying down in her warm room or reading or preparing her children's needs. Islam has loaded all the needs of the woman to her husband. If she is without a husband, her closest relative is to supply her needs. If she is without anybody, Bait al-mal, that is, the government treasury, is to support her. Every need of the woman should come to her. We have heard very often about the laments, complaints about their own lives of those women.

Religion reformers who cannot deny the miserable, dismal position of ugly working women attempt to defend this also and say that if pretty women are put at the sales departments, there may be customers who would more probably buy their beauty instead of the goods for sale, and thus the sales may decrease. Let alone the misery of ugly women who, having attained their freedom, work among men and the exhaustedness of those who strive hard in front of the mirror to make themselves pretty every morning, the real meaning of this freedom and independence, which the remainder are supposed to have or, to be more exact, are defended to have by those men who are more loyal to the king than the king is to himself, is to depart women from their virtues and natural tendencies, such as forming a family, bringing up children, arranging a home, and to make them join the hard, troublesome life of men, to get rid of the need of marrying and to become like single men or immoral men who are not faithful to their wives. This disorderly life, which has demolished the family life, has first commenced in those men who are the imitators of Europeans, and later women also have been dragged down to this ditch. Where is the poor youth being dragged? Showing respect and politeness towards women, which has become a custom in society life, is out of sheer ostentation and done in order to decrease the miserableness and pitiable condition of women. In Europe today, three is nothing cheaper than women, married or unmarried. Society women who have gone far away from Islam are dragging on to this condition, too. It is obvious how numerous the unmarried couples are. The reason why voluptuous thought is common in oriental poetry is because life of fornication and dissipation has been very little in the east. An oriental poet wants to write about the kiss which his sweetheart has promised him, but which is something never seen, in order to make his lyric poem more vivid. Whereas, in Europe this is done in the street, but no one takes notice. Widows are cheaper. Today, in Europe and in Muslim countries where society life and freedom of women have been spread, men get married easily. As for women, it is difficult for them to find a husband. Men are reluctant and look for beauty and money of women. As for the woman, she accepts the proposal of matrimony of the man. Contrary to this trouble which women have in setting up home, they are easily accepted by those youngsters who look for a mate for one or two nights.

In Muslim countries, there cannot be found a girl too old to find a husband. Men and women share one another, and each of the remaining women has become a housewife owing to the blessing of ta'addud al-zawjat in Islam. Whereas, in Europe the remaining girls earn money from men without being married and illegitimately, and they look for a husband to marry.

In Europe, at places where there is society life, there is not the thing called love because women and girls swarm everywhere. Whereas, in Muslim countries, a man sees a pretty woman once in a blue moon. On this rare occasion he falls in love with her. The curtain which this love has put in front of his eyes and the curtain of veiling of other Muslim women come together not to show him a prettier one. Even, because the second curtain does not show him -let alone another- the same woman once more, the flame of love gets fanned. This shows that the woman is so valuable and important in Muslim countries. What value can women have in society life, which takes them away from the state of belovedness?

Let us listen about the pitiable situation of the society women from a great lady poet of France, Madame de Lara Mardirous, as translated by Janab Shihabuddin Beg in his magazine Evrak-i Eyyam: "Tell your [Muslim] girls to appreciate the value of their happiness! Let them get used to living veiled. Living veiled will protect them against so many inconveniences that... Oh, if they could only know the number of girls who have sobbed and cried on my shoulder. My ears are full with the very terrible and heartrending complaints of the beloved girls. Yes, it seems as if it were very sweet to be able to enter a ball full of lights and flowers. But, what a grievous serpent is the jealousy that gnaws the heart of the woman who has gone there with her husband she loves. Could you imagine it? Each of the balls, theaters and places for meeting is a cell of torment of 'Saint office', a hell for a man who is faithful to his wife or for a woman who loves her husband. Inform your wives and sisters well about these facts!"

There is a saying which is chewed like a gum in the mouths: "The advancement of women is necessary for the advancement of men, because a nation, one of whose two wings cannot function, cannot make progress. It can make progress only together with the women." Such complicated, vague words show that those who cannot explain their purposes clearly attempt to communicate them under helping words. The advancement of women means not to leave them ignorant, not to slight their morals and education. Islam says nothing against having women do fine arts, which are suitable for their delicacy. It is permissible for women to do the fine works which men cannot do both in war and during peace and to learn them from other women. But, still they should stay away from men stranger to them.

The strongest thing that attaches the Muslim Turks to their country is their religious and traditional pure life in the family. Among them, those who consider this life of women's and stranger men's being away form one another as a duty are attached to the country with a most sensitive vein.

Another pretext religion reformers use in defending that women should work among men is material and economic advantages. For example, "You open a shop and put a girl at the cashier or counter. The customers will increase with lustful presents which the shop distributes," they say. Whereas, Muslim customers do not go to such shops where immodestly dressed women are present and where alcoholic drinks are sold. The earnings that come through haram means are wicked and without Allahu ta'ala's blessing. Their consequence will be harmful both in this and the next worlds.

It is haram and a great sin for women and girls to exhibit themselves undressed to stranger men and for men to look at them. It does not become a Muslim to earn worldly property by means of haram. goods earned in such a way are useless and without Allahu ta'ala's blessing. He who slights he haram becomes a kafir.

If a person claims to be a Muslim, his actions have to be in conformity with the Shariat. If he does not know how he should behave, he has to learn by asking a scholar in the Madhhab of Ahl as-sunnat, or by reading books written by scholars belonging to this Madhhab. If what he has done runs counter to the Shariat's prescription, he is by no means free from the state of sinfulness or denial (of Islam). In this case, he has to do true penance daily. Any sin or any act of denial is definitely pardonable, depending on the (trueness of the) penance one has done. If the person concerned does not do true penance, he will be tormented, i.e. punished, both in this world and in Hell. Kinds of these punishments are written at various places in our book.

Parts of the body that men and women have to cover, both during the namaz and always, are called "Awrat Parts." If a person says that Islam does not contain any concept in the name of awrat parts, he becomes a disbeliever. If a person does not attach importance to the fact that one has to cover those parts of one's body that are awrat according to the (agreements of the scholars called) ijma', i.e. in all the four Madhhabs, or that one should not look at those parts of other people's bodies; in other words, if he does not feel any fear as to the torment he would be subjected to (in case he failed to observe this important rule), he becomes a disbeliever. Parts between a man's knees and loins are not awrat parts according to the Hanbali Madhhab. A person who says, "I am a Muslim," has to learn and respect the credal tenets of Islam and the commandments and prohibitions that are communicated in ijma', i.e. in agreement by all the four Madhhabs. Not to know them does not grant an exemption. It is equal to knowing and disbelieving. A woman's entire body, with the exception of her face and hands, is awrat according to all the four Madhhabs. The same rule applies to women's exposing their awrat parts, singing, or reciting aloud the (eulogy that praises our Prophet 'sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam' and which is called) Mawlid, in the presence of men. If a person floutingly exposes a part of his, or her, body which is not awrat with ijma', i.e. which he, or she, does not have to cover according to (at least) one of the remaining three Madhhabs, he, or she, will not become a disbeliever, although an act of this sort is one of the grave sins. An example of this is men's exposing their limbs between the knees and the loins, e.g. their thighs. It is fard for every person to learn what he or she does not know. And as soon as he or she learns any new religious tenet, (such as, covering the awrat part), he or she has to do penance and begin to observe it, (e.g. cover the awrat part concerned).

The following hadiths are quoted from the book Zawajir [Egypt, 1356 A.H. (1937)] by Shafi'i scholar Hadrat Ibn Hajar al-Makki [889-974 A.H. (1494-1567)].

"Do not show your thigh, nor look at the thigh of a person dead or alive."

"Allahu ta'ala will severely punish the one who shows the private parts of one's body to others."

"The parts between men's knees and navels are their private parts."

"It is a big sin to uncover one's private parts."

"Three kinds of people will never go to Paradise. The first one is the dayyuth, that is, the person who takes no notice of his wife's relations with other men. The second one is the woman who makes herself look like men. The third one is the one who continues to have alcoholic drinks." Women's making themselves look like men means to dress like them, to wear coats and trousers like them, to cut their hair like theirs, which are grave sins.

"There are two kinds of people who will go to Hell: the first ones are those who carry whips or truncheons and beat people unjustly. The second ones are the women who show themselves undressed to men, that is, who go near men in a thin, transparent dress. Such women go near men for evil purposes."

Abu Dawud reported Hadrat 'Aisha (radi-Allahu 'anha) as saying that her sister Asma' came near Rasulullah (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam). She had a thin dress on her. The color of her skin was visible. Rasulullah ('alaihi 's-salam) did not look at his sister-in-law. He turned his blessed face away and said, "O Asma'! When a girl arrives the age of performing salat, she should not show men her parts other than her face and hands." It is understood from this hadith that it is a big sin for women to go immodestly dressed near men. Imam az-Zahabi says that Allahu ta'ala will punish in this and the next worlds those women who show men their ornaments, e.g. gold, pearls over their outer dress, who use perfumes or are dressed in multi-colored, silk tissue, with broad cuffs which show their arms outside and show themselves to men in this manner. Because these evils exist mostly in women, Rasulullah ('alaihi 's-salam) said, "On the Night of Miraj, I saw Hell. I saw that the majority of those in Hell were women."

"He who believes in Allahu ta'ala and in the Last Day should enter the public bath wrapping himself with a large bath-wrapper. He who believes in Allahu ta'ala and in the Last Day should not send his wife to public baths!"

"The country of Iran will come into Muslims' possession. There are buildings called 'hammam' there. Men shall enter the hammam covered with a large bath-wrapper and send their wives there only for a bath-cure or for getting clean from haid and nifas!"

"The person who believes in Allahu ta'ala and in the Last Day should not stay with a stranger woman in a room!"

"Towards the end of this world, it will become haram for the men of my umma to go to hammams; for there will be people whose private parts are uncovered there. May Allahu ta'ala damn him who uncovers his private parts and him who looks at another's private parts!"

"The person who commits adultery is like the person who worships idols." This hadith points out that adultery is a big sin.

"When a Muslim who insists on drinking wine dies, Allahu ta'ala punishes him like a disbeliever worshiping idols." Adultery is certainly a bigger sin than drinking wine.

"This umma will go on being auspicious until adultery spreads among them. When adultery spreads among them, Allahu ta'ala punishes all of them."

"Allahu ta'ala's punishment becomes just to those who are in a country where adultery and riba have spread."

Rasulullah (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) asked as-Sahabat al-kiram (radi-Allahu 'anhum),

"How do you consider adultery?" They said, "O Rasul-Allah! Allahu ta'ala and His Messenger have forbidden adultery. It will be forbidden until the Resurrection." He said, "If a person commits adultery with his neighbor's woman, he will be tortured more than he who has committed it with ten stranger women."

"Paradise is haram for the dayyuth," Dayyuth (cuckold) is the person who knows but keeps quiet and does not get angry at his wife's committing adultery.

"The hand of the person who touches a stranger woman voluptuously will be fastened to his neck on the Day of Resurrection. If he kisses her, his lips will be burned in Hell fire."

It is a big sin to commit fornication. It is a bigger sin to commit adultery. The sin bigger than this is fornication or adultery committed with a mahram relative. It is a bigger sin for a widow to commit adultery than it is for a girl to commit fornication. It is a bigger sin for an old man to do it than it is for young people. It is a bigger sin for a religiously learned man to do it than it is for an ignorant person.

The reason why we have written long about the harm of women's uncovering is because we do not want our fellow countrymen to get into trouble in this and the next worlds, and it stems from our feelings of goodness and service for them. In fact, it does not become a Muslim to know oneself honest and good and to consider uncovered women and men and society women base and bad. When a Muslim sees those who go about uncovered, drink alcohol and live society life, he should feel pity for them or, if possible, advise them in kind words or writing conformable to the Book and laws or, at least, pray for their liberation from that harmful life. When we see a sinner, we should remember our own sins and think of the punishments that will be given to us in case our faults and sins are not forgiven! It is haram to find fault with, to slander or backbite (ghiba) anybody, which is a more grave sin for us than their sins. Allahu ta'ala loves those who have patience, do goodness, give service to and advise others, and who have soft words and smiling face and do favors. He does not love those who admire themselves. We should do the good things Allahu ta'ala likes! We should be sweet-tempered. Harsh treatment and injuriousness are the government's duties. A Muslim does not hurt anybody with his tongue or hand. It is a sin to hurt anybody and arouse fitna. And causing fitna is a more grave sin. It does not befit a Muslim to sin. He obeys the State and laws. He does not break any law. He is an honorable person who wins everybody's love and regard.

The Hanafi alim Khair ad-din ar-Ramli wrote in the subject of "Nafaqa" in Al-fatawa' al-khayriyya: "It is wajib for the husband to have the wife live in a house he owns or rents. The husband who does not supply the wife with nafaqa (livelihood, means of subsistence) is to be imprisoned. The house should be among the neighbors who are salih. These neighbors help in the woman's religious and worldly affairs and prevent the husband's oppression. The house should contain a kitchen, water-closet, bathroom and rooms. Anyone whom the wife does not approve cannot live in this house. If the husband escapes or disappears and does not supply her livelihood, the wife applies to the court for nafaqa (alimony). She cannot demand separation from the husband. The judge determines the amount of alimony according to the customs and tells her to borrow that amount of money from her rich relatives, to whom he orders to lend her. He imprisons those who do not lend. The court finds the husband and has him pay the lender. Because the husband has committed a grave sin, he is also punished with tazir. If the wife, seeing her husband's escape and fearing that he will not give nafaqa, applies to the court demanding him to show a guarantor, the judge orders him to show a guarantor. If the husband does not escape and does not bring the nafaqa, the judge determines the nafaqa, that is, the amount of [money for] food, clothes and rent and makes him give it to her every month. A man who owns nisab and has to give zakat must give the nafaqa of the rich. If the woman proves with two witnesses that her husband has fled and has not left nafaqa, the Shafi'i judge abolishes the nikah. After the 'idda (length of time within which a woman may not remarry), she may marry another man according to the Hanafi madhhab. If, later, the husband comes and proves that he has left nafaqa, it is not acceptable. Nafaqa is not given to the woman who is obstinately disobedient or who is told that she has been divorced." Yet, it is not easy to divorce the wife and to demolish her home and happiness.

He wrote in the subject of "Nikah": "If a father has given his adolescent daughter in marriage to a man without taking her permission, and if she does not accept it when she learns it, the nikah is not sahih. She is to be believed if she says, 'I refused when I heard.' " The above passages show that the Muslim woman is not a toy in the hands of the man and that woman's rights are under the guarantee of the state.