A believing bondwoman is better than an idolatress
Surah ‘Al-Baqarah (The Cow) – Chapter – 2)
Stage – 1, Verse – 221b of 286, Section – 27 of 40 (Part - 2)
BisMIllaahir-Rahmaanir-Rahiim
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful
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And lo! A believing bondwoman is better than an idolatress
though she please
you;
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Wa la-‘amatum-mu’-minatun
khayrum-mim-mushrikatinw-wa law ‘a’-jabat-kum.
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Lesson
In the first part
of this verse, it has been described that marriage with any idolatress woman is
unlawful. Now Allah Almighty commands that if any idolatress woman has the entire
kinds of beauties and qualities, apparently she has each type of attraction,
but when she has not the light of belief then she would not have any allurement
for a Muslim. Comparatively, if any Muslim woman doesn’t have blessings like
freedom, she is better to be wed a Muslim man.
There may be some
reasons to like any idolatress or non-Muslim woman, for instance; she may be
rich, she may have a lot of wealth and property, she may be beautiful and
elegant, she may be well educated, she may belong to a higher family/dynasty,
she may be unraveled, she may be excellent and worthy, she may have all
qualities which should be in a complete woman, but all these characteristics of
an idolatress woman are valueless before a Believer woman still the basic
principles of the life of this idolatress are wrong.
Conversely to her,
many reasons may be found to dislike a believing bondwoman. For example,
she may be ugly, poor or illiterate and maidservant/female slave. But in spite
of all these things; she is superior to the idolatress in the Court of Allah
Almighty because of her belief. So, it has been commanded that this type of woman
should be preferred for wedding.
The life of husband
becomes difficult automatically if he weds any idolatress woman. Difference of
opinion and dispute in every matter, contention in domestic affairs, difference
of opinion in the matters of children’s education and civilization, this type
of strife effects badly not only upon the husband but there is a risk of affect
also upon the children. The children don’t find the straight path in front of
them. The father teaches them according to his religion whereas the mother
advises them some other thing.
However if any
Muslim bondwoman is wedded then these types of difficulties and entanglements
will not be faced. Because the children will remain anyhow Muslims, and being a
Muslim is better than infidelity and ascribing plurality to Allah Almighty, whether
they are children of a bondwoman. Nowadays, although, the reproach of slavery
has been finished from the world due to remedies of Islam, there is no slave
male or female now. So this verse strengthens only the restriction which has
come in the first part of the verse about marriage with any idolatress and
infidel woman.
When this verse was
revealed, at that time, the slaves and bondwomen were present. At the same time,
it was admonished that there were some social harms also to wed any Muslim
bondwoman. But those are less than the badness and intricacies which grow due
to wedding a non-Muslim life partner (woman). Today also, we can understand
from it that Islamic way of life is the best to produce married relationships
and connections. It should be kept in mind about the matter of bondwomen that
their children will be slaves till the time they are not the children of the
master of bondwoman. The children of free woman will remain independent, whether
their father is from any race, and it is final that nowadays bondwomen and
slaves do not exist.
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