FORTITUDE OF MUSLIM WOMEN

The general conditions for women in the early days of Islam were often difficult. Still, they bore themselves with remarkable fortitude and adapted to whatever conditions they found themselves in. One shining example is that of Abu Bakr’s daughter Asma’ who was born 27 years before the Emigration. When she accepted Islam in Makkah, the Muslims were just 17 in number.

When Abu Bakr emigrated to Madinah, he possessed 6000 dirhams, all of which he took. When his father, Abu Qahafa, heard of this, he came to his family to console them and said, “I think that Abu Bakr has not only given us a shock by leaving you alone, but I suppose he has also taken all the money with him.” Asma then told her grandfather that he had left them well provided for. She collected some small stones and filled up the niche where Abu Bakr had formerly kept his money. She covered the pile of rocks with a cloth and then placed her grandfather’s hand on it. Having gone blind in his old age, he was quickly taken in by this trick and thought the niche was full of dirhams. “It is a good thing that Abu Bakr has done. This will suffice for your necessities.” Asma’ then confessed that her father had not left them a single dirham and that it was only to comfort her grandfather that she conceived this idea. (Ibn Kathir, As-Sirah an-Nabawiyyah, Vol. 2, p. 236)

Before the advent of Islam, Asma’s father had been one of the wealthiest merchants of Makkah, but when Asma’ emigrated to Madinah with her husband, Zubayr, they had to live in the harshest conditions. Bukhari has recorded Asma’s account of how her existence was eked out from day to day:

“When I married Zubayr, he had neither wealth nor property. He had no servant; only one camel brought water and only one horse. I got the grass for the camel and crushed date stones to eat instead of grain. I had to fetch the water myself, and when the water bag burst, I would set it up myself. As well as managing the house, I had also to take care of the horse. This I found the most difficult of all. I did not know how to cook the bread properly, so whenever I had to make it, I would knead the flour and take it to the Ansar women in the neighbourhood. They were very sincere women and would cook my bread on their own. When Zubayr reached Madinah, the Prophet gave him a piece of land two miles from the city. I used to work on this land, and on the way home, I would carry a sack of date stones on my head.

One day, when I returned like this with a sack on my head, I saw the Prophet mounted on a camel going along the road with a group of Madinan Muslims. When he saw me, he reined in his camel and signed to me to sit on it, but I felt shy about travelling with men, and I also thought that Zubayr might take offence at this, as he was compassionate about his honour. The Prophet, realising that I was hesitant, did not insist and went on his way.

When I came home, I told Zubayr the whole story. I said that I had felt shy about sitting with the men on the camel and that I had also remembered his sense of honour. To this, Zubayr replied, ‘By God, your carrying date stones home on your head is harder for me to bear than that.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 5224)

Such instances of how women toiled during their stay in Madinah are numberless. At that time, women worked in their homes and outside. This was because their menfolk were so preoccupied with preaching Islam that there was little time left to discharge their household responsibilities. It was then left to the women to deal with both internal and external duties. They even tended the animals, did the farming, and worked in the orchards.