When dealing with the topic of (in)equality between men and women, one first needs to determine by what criterion men and women are to be compared. In Islam, the ultimate judgment rests with Allah. He is the One who on the Last Day will judge all men and women.





If there exists in Islam a fundamental inequality between men and women, this should then translate itself into a bias favourable to men on Judgment Day. There is, however, no question of that. The conditions to be admitted into Paradise are exactly the same for both men and women. This principle is established in verses such as:

"Surely the men who submit and the women who submit, and the believing men and the believing women, and the obeying men and the obeying women, and the truthful men and the truthful women, and the patient men and the patient women and the humble men and the humble women, and the almsgiving men and the almsgiving women, and the fasting men and the fasting women, and the men who guard their private parts and the women who guard, and the men who remember Allah much and the women who remember-- Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a mighty reward. " (Quran 33:35)  

“And whoever does good deeds whether male or female and he (or she) is a believer-- these shall enter the garden, and they shall not be dealt with a jot unjustly." (Quran 4:124)

"So their Lord accepted their prayer: That I will not waste the work of a worker among you, whether male or female, the one of you being from the other. ..." (Quran 3:195)

And since Allah, the Highest Judge in Islam, treats men and women as equals, what right could men then invoke to consider women inferior to themselves?




It is also important to draw attention to the fact that the Arabic word for God (Allah) is neither masculine nor feminine. The Quran was revealed in Arabic and, consequently, linguistically also there is in the Islamic God-concept not one single implied advantage either for men or women.

The unsuspecting reader is led here onto a false trail.
While the premise of the article was the question whether men and women are each other’s equal in society “are men superior to women?”, attention is diverted here to the relationship between Allah, on the one hand, and men/women, on the other. This is a ‘classic’ paradigm and the same story that we have found time and time again in ALL articles that ‘prove’ (!) the equality between men and women in Islam.

When an Imam (without a blink of the eye) proclaims that in Islam men and women are equal, he simply refers to the manner in which the believer must act towards Allah. And then everybody is happy with the proclamation of this ‘moderate’ Imam who says exactly what “people” want to hear to calm their anxieties about Islam.

Bukhari (4.54.464):  has transmitted the following Hadith:
The Prophet has said, “I looked to Paradise and found that poor people constitute the majority of its inhabitants; and I looked to Hell and saw that the majority of the people there were women.”

In other words, all are to be judged equal, but some are less equal than others!

This Hadith does not fit the bill and Linda wisely ignores it. This is just one of the hundreds of Hadiths and Quran verses that Linda, likewise wisely, keeps under wraps.

Linda suggests here that Allah treats men and women as equals and that it is the people that don’t do this. As it is, Allah himself has in hundreds of rules set forth the nature of that reciprocal relationship. And the fact is that in most of those rules the woman winds up holding the short end of the stick.

That Allah would be genderless, neither feminine nor masculine, female nor male, is obviously totally irrelevant as proof of the equality between men and women.

But then follows another trick from the Islamic magic box: taking advantage of the fact that the unsuspecting reader knows no Arabic. Fortunately, the Movement of Ex-Muslims in Belgium counts members that are proficient in the Arab language.

[112.1]Say: He, Allah, is One.
[112.2] Allah is He on Whom all depend.
[112.3] He begets not, nor is He begotten.
[112.4] And none is like Him.

3. The nature of man

According to the Quran, spiritually, men and women are of the same nature. The one is not subordinate to the other. They have both been begotten out of the same Unity.
"O people! be careful of (your duty to) your Lord, Who created you from a single being and created its mate of the same (kind) and spread [across the world] from these two many men and women;  ... ". (Quran 4:1)

"... they are an apparel for you and you are an apparel for them... ". (Quran 2:187)







In the Islamic Story of Genesis, Eve, and by extension all women, is not burdened with Adam’s (man) culpability for the Fall. Nowhere in the entire Quran is there even the slightest suggestion that Eve would as the first have tasted of the forbidden fruit and subsequently dragged Adam with her into her sin. In the Quran version, both Adam and Eve were seduced by Satan. In the Islamic discourse, the woman is not charged with the role of the seductress enticing man to commit a sin (Quran 7:19-27).

It is rather so that the Quran defines men and women as reciprocal guardians. They help each other to keep on the path of righteousness:
"And (as for) the believing men and the believing women, they are guardians of each other; they enjoin good and forbid evil  " (Quran 9:71).

Our  comment ::

Once again, this verse fails to prove that men and women are on the same level. In fact, it actually ... proves nothing.

To prove that men and women enjoy „a common bond and status“, Linda has extrapolated a bit of text from a Quran verse. She has taken a segment of the Quran „out of its context “.

Anyone reading the complete Quran verse will discover that it deals with the fact that, during Ramadan, sexual intercourse between husband and wife is permitted after sunset. That this requires an „essential bonding“ is somewhat obvious. And during the sexual act, man and woman are ‘apparel’ for each other.

And then there is... EVE! And the thickening of the smokescreen.








And that men and women, believers in the faith, must keep each other on the path of righteousness does not exactly point to their reciprocal equality either, which is the topic of the article in casu. The path of righteousness happens to be the path that follows Islam, which contends that men are superior to women.

Men and women believers are guardians to one another and in verse 9:73 (thus 2 verses farther than Linda’s quoted passage) are ordered to combat the non-believers.

According to the Quran, Adam and Eve showed sincere contrition for their trespass, upon which the Merciful God granted them forgiveness (Islam does not have the Original Sin – every child is born pure, e.g., without sin). God offered man and woman another chance: when on earth they obey the Divine Commandments, they will be allowed to return to Paradise after their death. That is precisely the sense of life: a test to find out who can return to Paradise and who will be doomed for all eternity to languish in Hell. God alone is to be the Judge, and He bases His judgment on the manner in which man and woman behaves here on earth and whether or not that behaviour is consistent with the Divine Commandments.

In the process, the Quran throws open the gates of Paradise for all that believe and act according to the Divine Commandments as these have been proclaimed to mankind by His respective Prophets, irrespective of the kind of religion to which they belong :

"Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward from the Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve " (Quran 2:62)

And we are back with Adam and Eve!

This paragraph contributes nothing to our understanding of how Islam interprets the MUTUAL relationship between men and women.









What is the relevance of the sudden appearance of Christians and Jews in the story? The Islamic smokescreen!!

Linda mentions here that everybody who believes in „God’s Commandments as these have been proclaimed by the Prophets“ and conducts himself or herself accordingly will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Also Christians and Jews. At least, that’s how she makes it appear.

The fact is, however, that Christians do not believe in Muhammad as Prophet and the Jews do not believe in Jesus and Muhammad as Prophets. Today’s Jews and Christians are not followers of Muhammad. Does this mean they are headed for Hell??

By her reference to verse 2:62, Linda makes us believe that this is not the case. But this could not be true, as we read in Quran verse 3.85: “And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers.”

Can it be that there are errors or contradictions in the Quran? Hardly. Allah makes no mistakes. Verse 2.62, quoted by Linda, has been mistranslated. Interestingly, this verse is always mistranslated. Instead of the past tense, translators have been using the present tense. Obviously a very misleading diversion but one way to smooth out Islam’s sharp edges.

The correct translation reads as follows:
"They who believed (= amanu in Arabic, not ju’minuna = believe), those that were followers of the Jewish religion, the Christians and the Sabians that believed in God and the Last Judgment Day and who did good, they shall receive their reward from the Lord  and there is no fear for them nor shall they grieve." (Quran 2:62)

The correct interpretation is therefore:
- the Jews who have followed the Prophets all the way to the “Islamic” Prophet Jesus are heaven-bound if they have done good. The Jews that lived after Jesus and did not follow him are bound for hell.
- the Christians who followed all Prophets, thus including Jesus, and who have done good are heaven-bound. The Christians that lived during the times of Mohammed and after him and refused to recognize him as Prophet are bound for hell.
- the Muslims recognize all Prophets and if they lead good lives they’ll go to heaven.

Conclusion: Linda has added to her argumentation about equality between men and women a diversionary and totally irrelevant topic, namely that Jews and Christians who live good lives are also eligible to go to heaven. This is a classic method to create a positive aura around Islam. Her discourse about Jews and Christians gives the impression that this pertains to all Jews and Christians. Of course, this is completely in error; it just deals with Jews and Christians who, respectively, lived before Jesus and Mohammed.

End of Part 2