Working mothers in Islam

Prof Omar Hassan Kasule Sr. gave his last official kulliyah maghrib just now. He’s going back to the States. He’ll only come a few times in the future as a visiting lecturer. He’s an absolutely great person. Anyone who meets him or attends any of his talks would definitely be deeply impressed and affected by him. (Even Farhan from NUS who’d just heard his talk once at the Wintercamp, made up her mind after that to come to UIA for her elective posting). His language is simple yet the message gets conveyed. His moderate ways and open mindedness has made him very likable and always referred to in matters of the deen.

The tazkirah was on “Working mothers in Islam”. Of course the title was intriguing enough to get the studious medical students down to the musolla for the talk for obvious reasons.

He started by mentioning why women today want to work. Mostly it was because they felt insecure financially lest anything were to happen to their husbands. Thus it is a preventive action to secure their future.

He said that this concept was unislamic. Islam has already decreed the right of the wife to a sum of mahar before the marriage. The mahar is actually meant to provide this financial security thus it should not be so cheap. It is the right of the wife that she should be able to use when the need arises. He suggested that women ask for a high sum such as RM 100,000 to be paid gradually. Therefore, if the husband dares to ask to marry another, she can agree on the condition that he pays up the balance of what he owes her…hehe good idea Prof!

The fixed amount of mahar nowadays is not according to Islamic teachings (sikit plak tu…what can u do with RM21.50?). Even Umar al-farouq r.a acknowledged his mistake when he suggested that women do not give such high mahars, when he was reminded by an old women that even Allah did not fix the amount.

There are several levels that Islam considers when allowing women to work such as dharuriyyaat (necessity/keperluan), hajiyaat (want/kehendak), tahsiniyyaat (extra), and mukammilaat (pelengkap).

Islam has nothing against women working inside their homes like Khadijah al-kubra. The problem is when they go outside of the house and leave their children.

According to the shariah (mazhab Shafii), cooking is not the job of the wife (hear hear) so is cleaning, sewing and house keeping. That’s the hsuband’s job as the provider for the family. If she does it, its considered sedeqah. The wife’s job is tarbiyatul aulad or educating the children, also transmitting culture and akhlaq.

Women today go out to work leaving their small children in the care of uneducated maids (they wouldn't be maids in the first place would they?). How are these children supposed to acquire the values and akhlaq and religion if not from the home?

The mother is not just a mother but also a teacher. Prof Omar related his story of how his mother put in her passport her occupation as a teacher. Wondering when his 70-year-old mother started working, he asked her. She replied; “who taught you?” Enough said.

And we complain about the high crime rates when actually these delinquents prolly didn’t receive proper education from home.

We come back to why women work in the first place? When there is an urgent need for it for example to support the family, then that’s ok. But many working women today, do it for the prestige, thinking that being housewives is inferior to the professional ones or working ones. Besides that, the pressure on women today is tremendous especially with the propaganda of the modernized women who can do whatever she wants and has her own financial freedom to buy as she wills. There is a whole industry taking up women’s hard-earned money which is another form of exploitation.

Now we come to mums who are doctors and teachers. Islam allows it since there is a need for it that will benefit the society. But she must take into consideration the maslahah, whether she has small children or not. She must try to find a way to balance mothering as well as her profession.

Prof Omar suggested that a policy is made to allow women to marry after high school and take 10-15 years of leave and then she resumes her degree. Women live longer than men anyway, so she’d be at her prime at that time (everyone laughed at this one).

In a nutshell, women can work as long as she understands her priorities.

1.42 am
20th june2005