When Allah, Praised and Exalted is He, sent the Qur’an to the heart of the Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him, He know that there were many different people who carried different qualities. For that reason He sent Words in His Qur’an for everyone as they needed. You know that at that time there were Bedouin people who had very strong qualities and very strong customs. Most of them did not walk straight at all. One of these customs was that of killing their baby daughters because at that time the men looked upon women as though they were sheep and they sold women as they sold animals. And this was not only in this part of the world, but in many parts of the world. Some of those people said, “The woman is not a human being!”

But when the Prophet came he gave the people the outside and the inside of the Message of Allah. At first the outside of his Message was very strong for those people, for he broke many of their pictures and he prevented them from following many of their customs which concerned women. He said, “The woman is a part of the man. She is equal to him and she is the same as he is. She is your sister and she is from you.”

Then the people began to fight the Prophet when they heard these words and many of them refused what he said to them and they said, “How can the woman be equal to the man?” But the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to them, “This is from Allah! He is the Creator, no you, and He has created you and He has created her. If you think of her as if she is not equal to you, this means that you are not a human being.” This was very strong for those people who called themselves “men.” But truly, if you looked at them in the deep way, you could see that they were not men because they made a big separation between themselves and anyone else. Many of them killed their girl babies. Some of them even waited until the little girl was about seven years old.

But Allah, Exalted is He, said in His Qur’an, “When the female who is buried alive, is questioned for what crime she was killed – Wa’’isa l-ma’udatu su’ilat bi-‘ayyi danbin qutilat” (81:8-9). Allah means , “When you kill her, you kill yourself.” But those people did not listen until Allah destroyed all these things from them. Because of that, He sent the Order for the Prophet and his followers to make the jihad against those people and to stop them from committing these crimes and to learn to give the Mercy to those who were poor, who were slaves.

When Allah, Exalted is He, sent His Message to the Prophet, most of his beloveds were form those poor people. Many of the Prophet’s first beloveds were women. The first one who died for the Word of Allah was called Sumayya, who gave everything to the Message and she was very strong in her belief in the Prophet. She was the first shahida, the first sacrifice, the first martyr. The family of her husband, whose name was Yasir, tortured her because of her faith. Before she died, the Prophet passed by and said to her, “Don’t worry about the family of Yasir. You are from my heart and from my soul. You are a part of me, so do not worry about anything, my beloved.” In that moment she died. Then the Prophet took her into his arms and washed her and buried her himself to show the people about his love for this holy lady and to show them about the place of the woman in his heart.

Allah, Praised and Exalted is He, says in His Qur’an, “And their Lord hath accepted from them and answered them: never will I suffer to be lost the work of anyone of you, be he male or female.” (3:195) “If they do deeds of righteousness be they male and female and have faith, they will enter Paradise and not the least injustice will be done to them.” (4:124)

This means that Allah does not lose anyone, no matter if the person is man or a woman, if he walks straight and gives for Allah and he does what Allah, Exalted is He, wants from him, or her. Therefore if some women give more than some men they are higher then the men are. This was very strong for those who did not believe in God to accept.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Three things I was made to love: women, perfume and prayer.” Why did he mention them together? He said, “If you want to see yourself and if you want to reach the meaning of your true existence, you must go through your beloved who carries all the Love and who contains the complete Existence of Allah. In other words, who contains Me. This is my beloved who is my mother, my sister, my daughter, and myself.” There is a deep meaning in these words. If you want to reach to the knowing of Allah, Exalted is He, you can do so through praying, but the real praying is to be one body, one heart and one soul with your beloved who contains you and through whom you see yourself because she carries the real Image of Allah. There is no difference then between he and she in the Essence of the Reality.

Many ayat in the Qur’an are pictures through which the beloved of Allah, Exalted is He, has to go through, because He puts veils over His Words, but they are holy veils for the reader to walk through. If you do not go through them, then this makes problems for you. For example, He Exalted is He, says, “And get two witnesses, out of your own men and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as you choose for witnesses, so that if one of them errs the other can remind her.” (2:282)

Allah, Exalted is He, has created the woman more subtle (latif) than the man, so that she can be more easily misled by great (khatif) things than a man. This ayah was sent to help her in the dunya (the material world) with the gross matter, such as a court of law or being a witness to contracts, etc. It shows, in fact, that two women have together the same gross potential as one man, alone.

But if you stop with the outside words you can then say that this means that a woman is much lower than a man, but the important thing is for everyone to look with the real Eye and to listen with the real Ear. Then this ayah can feed your heart and you can hear the song of Allah through this ayah. In the real meaning there is no man and no woman, for Allah, Exalted is He, says, “O uman being! Yaayyuha l-insana,” and He does not say, “Ya ayyuha-r-ragula, ya’ayyuha l-imra’ata – O man, O woman.” If you are the real insan (the real human being) I am sure that you know how Allah wants you to be. If you do not know then you are not yet in the complete humanity, but the person then lives in the station of the animals, like a person who lives on the outside and he talks and has a language, but the animals also have a language. Although such a person has the body of a human being, yet he carries completely what the animals carry. Some such people live in the station of the cow or the pig or the lion or tiger or the snake. When you see these people they look like human beings, but what do they do? The, my beloved, are lower than the animals and Allah, Exalted is He, says, about them in the Qur’an, “Or thinkest thou that most of them listen or understand? They are only like cattle; nay they are more astray from the Path.” (25:44)

Allah

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