Woman under the ethnic religions

by Mrs. Moses Smith

The years go by and centuries are numbered. We find the fulfilled promise of a “great nation” in a people in whose veins on the one side is filtering the blood of the great Abraham, mingling with the larger proportion of the idolatrous Egyptian, nomadic in habit, with a genius for conquest, with a language distinguished for softness and copiousness, with a literature of great antiquity and high poetical merit, dwelling in the Peninsula of Arabia. Of these people, in the fifth century of the Christian era, Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was born. A youth of great sincerity and purity, his domestic life with his wife, Khadija, is as beautiful as could be found among a non-Christian people. But when at the age of fifty-two he sets himself up as a prophet, and becomes the husband of eleven wives, we find him guilty of the grossest crimes, robbery, murder, and butchery which rival the Emperor Nero.

“Judged by the smallness of the means at his disposal, and the extent and permanence of his work, his name is illustrious. By his will he abolished a cherished idolatry and bowed to himself the hearts of his countrymen, and gave to the world a creed which has been a tremendous force on the destinies of the nations. To the impulse he gave, numberless dynasties owe their existence. Fair cities, stately palaces and temples have arisen. At a thousand shrines the voice of the faithful invokes blessings on him.”[12] “He saw with a correct spiritual vision the elemental truth of all religion. There is only one God.”[13] For twelve centuries the teachings of Mohammed have borne fruit in human lives. Not only in the land of its birth, but in many lands.

[12] Marcus Dodd.

[13] Dean Milman.

Koran.

We turn the pages of the Koran with eager hope that we may find in the writings of this man some teaching that shall lead to the uplifting of woman. The most hopeful word the Koran has for woman is in the second chapter: “Whoso doeth good works and is a believer, whether male or female, shall be admitted to Paradise.” The practical exegesis of a woman’s “good works” is, obedience to the husband. Without that good work she can not enter Paradise. Again in the fourth chapter, entitled “Women,” we read, “Men shall have pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein God hath caused the one to excel the other, and for that which they expend of their substance in maintaining their wives. The honest women are obedient, careful in the absence of their husbands, for that God preserveth them by committing them to the care and protection of the men. But those, whose perverseness ye shall be apprehensive of, rebuke and remove them into separate apartments and chastise them.” The degraded and degrading practice of scourging and beating wives, having the sanction of the Koran, will be, in the words of Dr. Jessup, “indulged in so long as Islam as a faith prevails.”

Polygamy.

Note the polygamous teaching of the Koran. “Every Moslem is allowed four free wives and as many concubines as his right hand possess;” and the faithful are positively promised that in Paradise they shall have seventy-two houris for wives, besides the wives they have here.

Divorce.

According to the Koran, the husband may divorce a wife without warning or assigning a reason. The husband has only to say, “Thou art divorced.” Even life may be taken at the will of the husband. Woman is practically a chattel. A Mohammedan being asked, “What is the price you pay for a good wife,” replied; “About the same as for a mule, twelve or fourteen pounds.”