Chapter One
General Rulings
1 – The Status of Women before Islam

By “before Islam” the author means the age of jāhiliyyah (pre-Islamic ignorance) that prevailed among the Arabs in particular and humanity at large. People then were living in a time devoid of messengers and in which the paths of guidance had faded. Allah—so the hadith relates—looked upon them and loathed what He saw of both Arabs and non-Arabs, save for a small remnant of the People of the Book. In those days women, for the most part, endured an especially harsh existence, especially within Arab society, which despised the birth of a daughter. Some would bury her alive beneath the ground until she died, while others allowed her to live on in abject humiliation. Concerning this Allah says: “When any one of them is given news of a female infant, his face darkens and he is filled with grief. He hides himself from his people because of the bad news he has received: shall he keep her in disgrace, or bury her in the dust? Evil indeed is the judgment they make.” (Qur’an 16:58-59) (1).