Women in pre-Islamic Arabia

What was life like for women in Arabia before Islam?

Did Islam improve the status of women as Muslim apologists claim?

Or, were women worse off after Islam! To find out we need to look at historical sources, which describe life during the time of Mohammad.

When Islamists refer to the time before the advent of Islam, they describe that time as the Jahiliya which means time of ignorance. There is not a lot known about pre-Islamic Arabs since most of their lore was oral and they did not put much into writing, except for their poetry which survived Islam. They did however abide by traditional laws, which were enforced by public opinion. Bravery in battle, loyalty and generosity were the most prized qualities amongst pagan Arabs. In some tribes women would accompany their men into battle.

The many tribes that inhabited Arabia had diverse customs and cultures, in some, women had low status and were not much better than livestock, in others women enjoyed much freedom and independence which was curbed by the imposition of Islamic laws. At one time most Arab tribes would have been matrilineal, an incident in the “Sirat” sheds some light: two men questioned about their identity say to the Muslims:  “we do not follow our mother’s line and disown our father.” This indicates that even in the time of Mohammad there would have existed  matrilineal tribes.

Another incident in the “Sirat” (Pg. 59 ) tells us of a woman  by the name of Salma d. ‘Amr. On account of the high position she held among her people she would marry on condition that she should retain control of her own affairs. If she disliked a man, she left him. She had a son with Hashim -Hashim was Mohammad's great-grandfather -  and Hashim left him with Salma while he was a little boy. It seems that at least some women did have control of their own affairs which included the right to divorce.

Amir B. Zarib is asked to preside as a judge in a case involving a hermaphrodite (pgs 51-52).  He is unable to reach a decision and finally he asks his slave girl Sukhayla: “Am I to make him a man or a woman? ”    Sukhayla replies:  “Good God, merely follow the  course of the urinatory process.”  Gender was important because a male received double the share  of  a female. Clearly it was a case involving inheritance. This case was before Mohammad established Islamic laws and it indicates that in some tribes women did receive half the amount of inheritance of males before Islam and not zero inheritance as some Islamists claim, therefore Islam would not have made any improvements in the area of inheritance for women.

A woman proposes marriage to Abdullah (pg.68): “If you will take me you can have as many camels as were sacrificed in your stead”. If pre-Islamic women were mere chattels with no rights they would not have owned camels nor would they have been allowed to propose marriage. In most Islamic countries today, women cannot get married without permission from their male guardian. Khadijah, Mohammad’s first wife, was a wealthy merchant woman who hired men to work for her. Mohammad started out as Khadija’s employee and eventually Khadijah proposed marriage to Mohammad. It’s worth noting that during his marriage to Khadijah, Mohammad did not take other  wives, it is possible that Khadijah stipulated in the marriage contract that Mohammad would not marry other women while married to her. On pg.313 we are told that before revelation, Mohammad never opposed Khadijah. Khadijah doesn’t sound like a downtrodden or worthless woman to me! In fact when Islamists want to impress western feminists they always mention Khadijah– what they keep quiet about is the fact that  she lived most of her life before Islamic laws were imposed.

Islamists like to point out to the custom of some tribes –notably the Tammin tribe – of burying alive unwanted female infants. In cases of severe hardship such as famine, pagan Arabs would practice infanticide regardless of the gender of the infant. When Mohammad conquers the Meccans he exhorts the women not to kill their children, one woman, Hind d. Utba replies:  I brought them up when they were little and you killed them on the day of Badr when they were grown up, so you are the one to know about them.”

Abdul Muttalib knew that death  was at hand and summoned his six daughters  and said to them: “Compose elegies over me so that I may hear what you are going to say before I die” [pg. 73]. If daughters were so despised in those times why would this man allow them all to live and then ask them to compose eulogies for his death? Today most Muslim women are not permitted to attend funerals, let alone give eulogies in public. On pg 446, we have a man with seven daughters. Surely, if daughters had so little value, these men would not have allowed so many of them to live!

Once two men had a dispute [pg 196]…over a hundred camels, and they appointed an Arab woman diviner arbitrator and she gave judgment in his favor,  It sounds that this woman was a judge, yet in the year 2005 Islamists insist that women are not fit to be judges and their testimony is worth half of that of a man’s. Before Islam women were fit to be judges, after Islam a woman’s testimony became half of that of a man’s. See the following article on this Islamic site:   http://www.thetruereligion.org/witnesses.htm  The excuse is a “scientific explanation”  about psychological differences. The Victorians used similar excuses to prevent women from studying medicine, a well known 1848 obstetrical text stated: “She [woman] has a head almost too small for intellect but just big enough for love.”  Victorians  also believed that intellectual activity had harmful effects on the female reproductive system!

Mohammad sends one of his men - Mu'adh - to the Yaman and instructs him to: "Deal gently and not harshly; announce good news and do not repel people, ". Mu'adh arrives to the Yaman and a woman approaches him and asks: "O' companion of God's apostle, what rights has a husband over his wife?"    He said:   "Woe to you a woman can never fulfil her husband's rights, so do your utmost to fulfil his claims as best as you can."  The woman says:  By God, if you are the companion of God's apostle you must know what rights a husband has over his wife!"  Mu'adh replies:  "If you were to go back and find him with his nostrils running with pus and blood and sucked until you got rid of them you would not have fulfilled your obligation." [pg. 644]   

Mohammad sends Zaid with forces to attack the B.Fazara tribe. Zaid kills some of them and captures others as prisoners, amongst them a very old woman by the name of Umm Qurfa, he orders one of his men, Zaid to kill her and he does so in a very cruel manner: he ties her legs to two camels and drives them apart so that the unfortunate woman is rent in two. We are told that this woman held a position o honour among her people and the people used to say: "Had you been more powerful than Umm Qirfa you could have done no more." [pg.665]    Why did Zaid felt so much threatened by an old woman that he had to have her execute her in such a cruel manner? Was is because she was highly regarded by her people and he wanted to make an examble of her, lest Muslim women get the idea of demanding status and respect?

Abu Sufyan surrenders Mecca to Mohammad without a fight - had he resisted his people would have been massacred by Mohammad’s forces - and the men and women of  the Quraysh come to pay homage to Mohammad. Then Mohammad exhorts the women to not commit adultery, one of the women Hind d.Utba, wife of Abu Sufyan, replies: “Does a free woman commit adultery?” (pg.553) It would appear that before Islam the Arabs did not lose much sleep over adultery. It was Mohammad that reinstated the stoning law amongst the Jews which later became enshrined into Islamic law. Stoning does not appear in the Qur’an but it is found in the hadith which are part of Islamic law. Umar, the second caliph proclaimed in his sermon: “The apostle (Mohammad) stoned (adulterers) and we stoned them after him.”  On pg 186, Mohammad tells of what he saw when he ascended to heaven: "Then I saw women hanging from their bosoms. There were those who fathered bastards on their husbands".

even today, many Bedouin tribes of the Hadhramut and Southern Arabia, who have retained some pre-islam customs and are more liberal on religion and do not frown upon adultery.

There were other  women who opposed Mohammad, Fartana  and Asma would compose satiric verses against him and both were killed by Mohammad's men. Asma was killed after condemning the assassination of Abu Afak, an old poet, . After her murder Mohammad said: " Two goats won’t butt their heads about her.

The following is from Mohammad's sermon, the paragraph pertaining to women [pg.651]: "You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have a right that they should not defile your bed and that they should not behave in open unseemliness. If they do, God allows you to put them in separate rooms and to beat them but not with severity. If they refrain from  these things they have a right to their food and clothing with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons."

Today's Muslims do not bury their daughters alive in the physical sense; they bury them alive in the social and intellectual sense. Parents prefer boys, girls receive less education and women are restricted in every aspect of their lives.

[Quote]Today's Muslims do not bury their daughters alive in the physical sense; they bury them alive in the social and intellectual sense. Parents prefer boys, girls receive less education and women are restricted in every aspect of their lives.[/Quote]no daughters have come from my loin yet. it was by Islam that my wife knew of a troubled young christian girl that her 'master' a banker sleeping with her 'pastor' boyfriend while her husband is in america [the boss is mistreating her while the evil pastor wants her virginity] and i as a couple are now trying to adopt her; not changing her family name; Eden. and you know yorubas so not have such a name.

all the neices from my brothers and sisters are college educated. no one 'buried' them in any form. inchaAllah, my wife and i will not bury this soon to be completely adopted young girl. her university education is guaranteed Allah Willing, allowing her to shine and know her people. its all for Allah's Pleasure.

i will not read much from you because my wife retains her father's name. this is command of Allah.

what did your gods command and which one of your gods is the biggest god, which one is the smallest and name the in between gods?


Arab women before Islam under Muhammad [as] used to be properties, like camels were. they used to get gang banged or used for sexual orgies similar to what used to happen in bath houses before hiv/aids curb such sexual wilding or what still happen in sexual parties, where it is free for all. is that a life, mr 9japagan?

ofcourse not all muslims are like that. considering your language, you seem to be educated.

Sweetnecta:

what did your gods command and which one of your gods is the biggest god, which one is the smallest and name the in between gods?

theres nothing like the smallest God or the biggest God. all the Gods are the aspects of the Supreme God. the Supreme God in my case is Sarki Alji , or the great spirit. he is similar to Zeus or Ra or Brahma or Ngai.

my Gods do not command. they only guide. it is upto us to command our lives, wheter in the right path or the wrong path.

Sweetnecta:
Arab women before Islam under Muhammad [as] used to be properties, like camels were. they used to get gang banged or used for intimate SinParties similar to what used to happen in bath houses before hiv/aids curb such intimate wilding or what still happen in intimate parties, where it is free for all. is that a life, mr 9japagan?

that is what your sic.k biased quraan says. in pre-islamic times, in many tribes, the woman used to head the family. infact, it was your muhammad who used to have sex with a 9-year old kid, by the name of Aisha whom he married and the marriage was consumated at this age. how sickening.

@Sweetnecta

Arab women before Islam under Muhammad [as] used to be properties, like camels were. they used to get gang banged or used for intimate SinParties similar to what used to happen in bath houses before hiv/aids curb such intimate wilding or what still happen in intimate parties, where it is free for all. is that a life, mr 9japagan?

Now is even worse.

Arab women today and Muslim women in general are treated as less than camels.


[flash=400,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI8AQ3sGdDg?version=3&hl=en[/flash]

[Quote]
« #2 on: Today at 10:41:27 AM »

ofcourse not all muslims are like that. considering your language, you seem to be educated. Undecided[/Quote]I am a yorubaman. Yorubas are africans. Look at the african family structure; the wife works the farm, takes added responsibility to raise the child, culture him, etc including nurturing him and performs other wifely duties. The husband is just there like the lion while the lioness hunts. it is Islam not anything else that retires a wife from such 9 to 5 jobs and gives her what is best; the care of her children under her love as the mother.



[Quote]Quote from: Sweetnecta on Today at 03:59:49 AM
what did your gods command and which one of your gods is the biggest god, which one is the smallest and name the in between gods?

theres nothing like the smallest God or the biggest God. all the Gods are the aspects of the Supreme God. the Supreme God in my case is Sarki Alji , or the great spirit. he is similar to Zeus or Ra or Brahma or Ngai.[/Quote]a 2 feet tall and 5 pound weight handmade you worship in your house has to be smaller than the 7 feet tall and 35 pound weight handmade of the same material and figure that you pagans worship in your pagan center; temple. thats small god and big god for you. and all your gods are not the same; some you put on your dash board and another is immovable in the temple. this is similar to small cross and big giant cross or small Jesus and big giant Jesus [like the one in Rio de Jeneiro, Brazil].



[Quote]my Gods do not command. they only guide. it is upto us to command our lives, wheter in the right path or the wrong path.[/Quote]you have no God. you only have gods of your own imagination of your own hand. you and the christians are very similar in this concept.



[Quote]Quote from: Sweetnecta on Today at 03:59:49 AM
Arab women before Islam under Muhammad [as] used to be properties, like camels were. they used to get gang banged or used for intimate SinParties similar to what used to happen in bath houses before hiv/aids curb such intimate wilding or what still happen in intimate parties, where it is free for all. is that a life, mr 9japagan?

Angry Angry that is what your sic.k biased quraan says. in pre-islamic times, in many tribes, the woman used to head the family. infact, it was your muhammad who used to Be Intimate with a 9-year old kid, by the name of Aisha whom he married and the marriage was consumated at this age. how sickening. Angry[/Quote]heading the family without morals, as a gender or as a society is useless. where there is no moral standard, they are worse than cattle[s].
finally, can you tell me if Abu Bakr the father of Aisha had her before Islam or after Islam from a wife who refused to enter Islam with Abu Bakr, hence he divorced her? Could you tell me if it is after the divorce that she got pregnant for him, or before Islam that she had her last pregnancy and got divorced after her refusal to enter Islam, leaving behind her daughter for Abu Bakr the father to raise? A daughter that was engaged to a future husband who by the time Abu Bakr was attempting to emigrate to Ethiopia refused to take in the future wife in, hence call of the engagement because of the Islam of Abu Bakr which angered the pagan family? Tell me how long was the Islam in Makka before the hijra to Madina? tell me mr pagan how old was Aisha who was born before Islam would be after 13 years of Islam in Makka and 2 years of Islam in Madina before consummation of her marriage to the Messenger [as]?

who is the 9 years old girl? please provide a name and circumstances. if Muslims copy Muhammad [as], you will never have found any child pride in Northern Nigeria. they would have discarded that part of their culture. Yerima would not have gone to Egypt to marry an underage from a poor family selling their young to a perverted idiot from the north of Nigeria.

Aisha [ra] says of her marriage that she participated in the contract of marriage with the Messenger [as]. What do you think the contract is about except the rights, dos and donts, acceptables and rejectables of the future relationship? Tell me how a pre puberty [someone who is not a 'balagh'] person can participate in this, knowing the right of wife and protecting it in the contract? Note that it is not only woman who must marry if she reaches this threshold. man is as well, as long he or she is ready, willing and able. if you are not ready or willing or able, then fast and no one should force a daughter to enter into a marriage she is not interested in.

as a yoruba man, I saw beauty in my father's marriage. and i disliked then as i dislike now the marriage process of the non muslims. the wife is made to become a mrs by throwing away her family name for her husband's. she has to change all her documents to this new name. and if there is a divorce and she hates this name now [and it happens when it is bitter divorce], she has to change over again. imagine a woman who as they say 'unlucky[i dislike the word luck or unlucky] in love' how many times she need to go through this back and forth? you need mr pagan to speak the truth if you know it. and if you dont, seek the knowledge for truth and find truth which you must speak.

^^


Wives in Islam are property.


Islam sanctions polygamy and prostitution with so called temporary marriages,

It is a known fact that Islam is just a cover-up for the excesses of Muhammad and his followers.

Muhammad was overcome my LUST !!

Sweetnecta:

I am a yorubaman. Yorubas are africans. Look at the african family structure; the wife works the farm, takes added responsibility to raise the child, culture him, etc including nurturing him and performs other wifely duties. The husband is just there like the lion while the lioness hunts. it is Islam not anything else that retires a wife from such 9 to 5 jobs and gives her what is best; the care of her children under her love as the mother.

Please talk about your family and don't try to drag the entire yoruba ethnicity into the slime with you.

Sweetnecta:

I am a yorubaman. Yorubas are africans. Look at the african family structure; the wife works the farm, takes added responsibility to raise the child, culture him, etc including nurturing him and performs other wifely duties. The husband is just there like the lion while the lioness hunts. it is Islam not anything else that retires a wife from such 9 to 5 jobs and gives her what is best; the care of her children under her love as the mother.

If you are so much of a Yorubaman, then learn to behave lyk one and stop acting childish and idolizing foreign cultures just because to you, they seem to sound cool.   
Yoruba women have equal rights as men. In Ilesa, Ondo, and other Yoruba communities, they even had female Ọbas. there job is not just cooking, cleaning or looking after the babies.

Sweetnecta:

a 2 feet tall and 5 pound weight handmade you worship in your house has to be smaller than the 7 feet tall and 35 pound weight handmade of the same material and figure that you pagans worship in your pagan center; temple. thats small god and big god for you. and all your gods are not the same; some you put on your dash board and another is immovable in the temple. this is similar to small cross and big giant cross or small Jesus and big giant Jesus [like the one in Rio de Jeneiro, Brazil].

trust me, i find this a very foolish comparision. so you mean to say that a tall statue, of say, barack obama, is more powerful/greater than that of one of the Gods

the size of the idol doesnt matter. we do not worship the rock-idol itself. the idol just represents the God and helps us to focus our prayers on an image of God. as i have said before, praying to invisible air is false devotion.

Just because something is foreign culture does not mean you throw away the good in it and retain the bad in your own culture. You are hausa; you use computer. you write english. which of the two is a hausa culture? Where is the evil in your adopting both? have you benefited? This is the same with Islamic culture, not arabic culture and me.

come to think of it, i have right to arab culture if OBJ and all the yorubas are correct about their root in Makka.


As to the statue of Obama; if you worship it, and it is taller than that of your other statue you worship, on the physicality alone it is bigger and the other is smaller.
neither can truly hurt or benefit anyone. it is the worshipers that act for them. If you put an ogun statue in front of your house, a dog will urinate on it. the statue will do nothing. it is the ogun worshiper that will severe the dog in his ritual.

you are disappointing me because you are not pondering at all.

adopting good aspects is alright but it must be compatible. in your case, it is not compatible. islam is a false doctrine based on the teachings of a donkey rider from the deserts of arabia. islam is nothing compared to Orisha. you must understand that by adopting this foreign culture, you are seriously neglecting your own identity. Orisha requires time and patience to understand. it is not straightforward as islam. islam is crude material whereas Orisha is composite. you need to concentrate on Orisha if you really wish to seek it. God is not served on a plate.

as i said before, the idol is just a representation. so if the dog pisses on the idol, no harm occcurs. the dog is an innocent animal. he does not understand. the Gods are bound to forive him. but then ofcourse, its our duty to prevent such mishaps from happening. we do not worship the idol itself. if an idol is destroyed, we build a new one. it is just a point to focus our prayers on.

@ 9japagan, we all knw d truth, Islam is founded on sword dats y most things dere is by force.

fitzmayowa:

@ 9japagan, we all knw d truth, Islam is founded on sword dats y most things dere is by force.

You are a disgrace to yourself with such an ignorant comment. I guess Islam is being spread by sword in America and Western Europe at the moment.

I am getting really tired of all this "my god is bigger than your god" debates to be honest!

[Quote]« #9 on: Yesterday at 12:55:39 AM »

adopting good aspects is alright but it must be compatible. in your case, it is not compatible. islam is a false doctrine based on the teachings of a donkey rider from the deserts of arabia. islam is nothing compared to Orisha. you must understand that by adopting this foreign culture, you are seriously neglecting your own identity. Orisha requires time and patience to understand. it is not straightforward as islam. islam is crude material whereas Orisha is composite. you need to concentrate on Orisha if you really wish to seek it. God is not served on a plate.

as i said before, the idol is just a representation. so if the dog pisses on the idol, no harm occcurs. the dog is an innocent animal. he does not understand. the Gods are bound to forive him. but then ofcourse, its our duty to prevent such mishaps from happening. we do not worship the idol itself. if an idol is destroyed, we build a new one. it is just a point to focus our prayers on[/Quote]I wonder why you are not advising the people of your tribe, instead of other tribesman? They say charity begins at home. Is your heart not agreeing with that saying? Now the yorubas say that you can't know the land more than the son of the soil. Orisha and what have you of yoruba paganism, we in Islam have thrown them into the dustbin with the rest of killing twins and other evil deeds.

Go ask Obasanjo who is a church goer, if yorubas who say he is makkan are wrong. Islam under Muhammad was revived in Makka and was completed in Madina. I guess the revival in the city of my ancestors covered me and made me a traditional muslims, though I might have lost the language of Arabia just like Brazilians in Bahia have lost the yoruba language. All muslims have to learn the language of the Quran anyway; both arabs and non arabs.

let me excite the pagan [pastoraio] who parades himself as something other than pagan [ignorance is another word for paganism; Jahal] by saying pagan9ja lost me by his thoughts on his gods and dog, and replaying a "damaged gods". You lost me mr pagan9ja because you are not making any sense. it would have been better if you say that you will prepare a good meal and before eating of it, you throw it in the city dump. then you let it stay there for say 10 minutes after some other people throw dumps on your food. then you pick it up and start to eat it.

as vomiting as that scenario is, it is better than your invitation to me. Advising me to regress is worse than anything in the world that you can do.

Frosbel the ex - zionist will always back his Pagan buddy, showing his ever close ties with Paganism.

In any case, matters like this has been trashed out on numerous occasions, the hatred of Islam seems to unite atheist, Chrisitian, pagans, heathens etc, this affirms the prominence of the Islam. ALhamdulilah

In the pre-Islamic era of Arabia, fathers commonly became extremely angry and disgraced with the birth of a female child into their family. Some considered it an evil omen. Allah, the Exalted, describes the father's reception of the news about the birth of a daughter:

(When the news of (the birth of) a female is brought to any of them, his face becomes dark, and he is filled with inward grief! He hides himself from the people because of the evil (and shame) of that which he has been informed. Shall he keep her with dishonor, or bury her in the dirt? Certainly, evil is their decision, )

[16:59]

Women were not even able to practice some of the most natural of rights. For instance eating certain types of foods was allowed only for males. Allah, the Exalted, records this in the Glorious Qur'an:

(And they say: What is in the bellies of such cattle (whether milk or fetus) is for the male alone, and forbidden from our females, however, if it was born dead, then all have shares therein, )

[6:139]

The hatred of female babies prompted Arabs to bury them alive. Allah, the Exalted, states in the Glorious Qur'an with reference to the Day of Requital:

(And when the female buried alive shall be questioned: for what sin was she killed?)

[81:8-9]

Some fathers used to bury their female children alive if the child was leprous, lame or with birth defect. Allah (The Almighty) states in the Glorious Qur'an:

(And kill not your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and you. Surely, the killing of them is a great sin.)

[17:31]

The one honor afforded to women during the pre-Islamic era was the protection of her person, family and tribe, and the revenge against any who humiliated or dishonored her, but even this was more for male pride, dignity and tribal honor than a concern for the female gender.

This situation of women in the Arab society led Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph of the Muslims (may Allah exalt their mention) to say, as reported by Muslim:

"By Allah, we didn't use to think that women had anything until Allah revealed about them what He revealed in the Qur'an, and distributed to them what He distributed, "

[Bukhari #4629 & Muslim #31]

on marriage,

Volume 7, Book 62, Number 67:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "A matron should not be given in marriage except after consulting her; and a virgin should not be given in marriage except after her permission." The people asked, "O Allah's Apostle! How can we know her permission?" He said, "Her silence (indicates her permission)."

Volume 7, Book 62, Number 69:

Narrated Khansa bint Khidam Al-Ansariya:

that her father gave her in marriage when she was a matron and she disliked that marriage. So she went to Allah's Apostle and he declared that marriage invalid.