to remain in the home, keeping it in good order for her husband and training her children. Woman is not meant for jobs and earning a livelihood—such an idea exists only among the unbelieving West and those who resemble them, people who were beguiled by the West, imitated it, and made women like men in earning, in trade, and in office work, so that men and women have ended up intermingling. Indeed, the more attractive a woman is, the more likely she is to be given a prestigious post by the West and its imitators!

Praise be to Allah, in our own land—may Allah preserve this blessing for us—the government, as we have read in its statements, has barred women from employment in both the public and the private sectors except in fields that pertain specifically to women, such as girls’ schools and the like. We ask Allah to maintain this favor, to grant us steadfastness, to increase it out of His bounty, and to protect us from the harmful intermixing that prevails among other nations today.

Among the lessons drawn from this hadith:

First: One of the homes of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—indeed, one of his most honored dwellings, where the wife he loved most resided—contained nothing but a single date, while in our land today a person is offered four different dishes at a single meal. Why has the world been opened up for us yet closed to them? Is it because we are more beloved to Allah than they were? By no means; they were far more beloved to Allah than we are. Rather, Allah bestows His grace upon whom He wills, and we have been tested with these bounties. For many people today, these very blessings have become a cause of evil, corruption, arrogance, and insolence, to the point that they have fallen into open wickedness—Allah protect us. We fear that Allah, Exalted is He, may punish us, for many of us have shown ingratitude for these