through Allah. Whoever displeases his family for Allah’s sake, Allah will bring contentment to him and to them.

Let the sensible man beware of obeying women in this matter. In the two Sahīh collections, Usāma ibn Zayd reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“I have left behind me no trial more harmful to men than women.”

Nothing does more to corrupt kingship and states than obedience to women. In Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Abū Bakra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“A people who entrust their affairs to a woman will not prosper.”

It is also reported:

“Men perished when they obeyed women.”

When the Mothers of the Believers questioned his decision to put Abū Bakr forward, he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to them:

“You are like the women in Joseph’s story.”

He meant that it is characteristic of women to argue with a man of sound judgment, as he said in another hadith:

“I have never seen anyone deficient in intellect and religion more capable of overcoming a discerning man’s judgment than one of you.”

When al-A‘shā—al-A‘shā of Bāhila—recited to him his verses containing the line:

“They are the worst conquerors for those they conquer,”

the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, began repeating it, saying:

“They are the worst conquerors for those they conquer.”

For this reason, Allah, glorified is He, mentioned His favor to Zechariah, saying:

“We set his wife right for him.”

Some scholars said that a man should earnestly beseech Allah to set his wife right.