Life-of-Muhammad

230Life of Muhammad sacrying: "May I be your sacrifice, O Messenger of Allah sa ."The Prophet's sa foot was still in the stirrup. He releasedit hastily and said to his Companion: "Don't botherabout me, go and help the women." Just before hisdeath one of the injunctions he addressed to Muslimsand laid stress upon was that they should always treatwomen with kindness and consideration. It was an oftrepeatedsaying of his that if a man had daughters andhe arranged to have them educated and took pains withtheir upbringing, God would save him from the tormentof Hell (Tirmidhi).It was a common practice with the Arabs to inflictphysical chastisement upon women for every little fault.The Holy Prophet sa taught that women were equally withmen the creatures of God and were not the slaves ofmen and should not be beaten. When women got toknow of this they went to the other extreme and beganto oppose men in everything, with the result that inmany homes domestic peace was continually disturbed.‘Umar ra complained of this to the Holy Prophet sa andsaid that unless women could on occasion be chastisedthey would become unruly and there would be noholding them in check. As detailed Islamic teachingswith regard to the treatment of women had not yet beenrevealed, the Prophet sa said that if a woman was guiltyof serious transgression she might be chastised. This inits turn led the men in many cases to revert to the oldArab practice. It was now the turn of the women tocomplain and they laid their grievances before theProphet's sa wives. Thereupon, the Prophet sa admonishedmen and told them that those who treated women withunkindness could never win the favour of God.Thereafter the rights of women were established, and forthe first time women began to be treated as freeindividuals in their own right (Abu Dawud, KitabunNikah).Mu‘awiya al-Qushairi ra relates: "I inquired of theHoly Prophet sa what claim my wife had upon me," andhe replied: "Feed her with that which God bestows upon