Islam and Women

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Umm Umara — Nusayba bint Kaʿb — came to the Prophet ﷺ with a complaint. “I do not see but that everything is for the men, and I do not see anything being mentioned for the women.” She would later defend him with her own body at the Battle of Uhud, when the Muslim line broke and the fighting reached the Prophet ﷺ himself. Her complaint was answered by a passage of the Qur’an that names men and women separately in ten consecutive pairs and promises them the same reward.¹

The exchange introduces the central question directly. A woman said that women were being left out, and her objection was answered. This page examines what Islam gave women, what it required of men, and how the verses and reports most often cited against it read in full.

The difficult cases are addressed directly. Five have separate pages — the verse about striking, plural marriage, the marriage to Aisha, apostasy, and the general question of severe punishments — while the others are discussed below.

A note on terms. A hadith is a report about what the Prophet ﷺ said or did. Each report is transmitted through a named chain of narrators and graded for reliability. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are the most rigorously screened collections, while a report graded da’if is weak. Mahr is the marriage gift a husband pays directly to his wife. Khulʿ is divorce initiated by the wife. The Companions are the generation who knew the Prophet ﷺ personally.

The objection

The criticism is strongest when its separate claims are presented together:

A woman’s testimony counts as half a man’s.
She inherits half what her brother inherits.
Her husband may take three more wives; she may not take another husband.
A verse permits him to strike her.
She must cover herself, and he need not.
The Prophet ﷺ called women deficient in intellect and religion, and said a people who put a woman in charge will not succeed.
Muslim-majority societies today are, on most measures, among the worst places in the world to be a woman.

Points 1 through 6 refer to genuine texts, and each is considered below. Point 7 concerns the conduct of Muslims rather than the teachings of Islam. That distinction is central to the discussion.

What Islam replaced

An assessment of these teachings should begin with the practices they changed. The historical setting does not excuse injustice, but it shows what the new rules altered.

Infant daughters were buried alive. The Qur’an condemns the practice by presenting the murdered child as the one questioned on the Day of Judgment:

“and when baby girls, buried alive, are asked for what crime they were put to death” (Sūrat al-Takwīr 81:8–9), Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

﴿وَإِذَا ٱلْمَوْءُۥدَةُ سُئِلَتْ ۝٨ بِأَىِّ ذَنۢبٍۢ قُتِلَتْ ۝٩﴾ سُورَةُ التَّكۡوِيرِ

The verse does not question the father who killed her. It questions the child: “for what crime” was she put to death? The answer is none. By giving the murdered daughter a voice, the Qur’an turns her death into an accusation against the society that accepted it.
Widows were inherited along with the property. A dead man’s wife could pass to his heirs as part of his estate. The Qur’an prohibits this in the same verse that commands good treatment in marriage: “it is not lawful for you to inherit women by compulsion” (4:19).
A wife’s property was often treated as her husband’s. The Qur’an recognizes her earnings and possessions as her own.

Standing before God

The Qur’an states the moral standing of women repeatedly and in several different contexts.

One origin. Men and women share the same human origin, and the Qur’an does not present a woman as the cause of the fall:

“Who created you from a single soul” (Sūrat al-Nisāʾ 4:1), Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

﴿خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍۢ وَٰحِدَةٍۢ﴾ [سُورَةُ النِّسَاءِ: ١]
One measure of worth, based on righteousness rather than sex, lineage, or tribe:

“Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you” (Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt 49:13), Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

﴿إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ﴾ [سُورَةُ الحُجُرَاتِ: ١٣]
The same reward for the same work, stated explicitly for both men and women:

“Whoever does good, whether male or female, and is a believer, We will surely bless them with a good life, and We will certainly reward them according to the best of their deeds” (Sūrat al-Naḥl 16:97), Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

﴿مَنْ عَمِلَ صَٰلِحًۭا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌۭ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُۥ حَيَوٰةًۭ طَيِّبَةًۭ ۖ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ ۝٩٧﴾ سُورَةُ النَّحۡلِ
The passage revealed after Umm Umara’s question lists ten qualities, naming each one separately for men and women:

“Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so — for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.” (Sūrat al-Aḥzāb 33:35), Saheeh International

﴿إِنَّ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ وَٱلْمُسْلِمَٰتِ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَٰتِ وَٱلْقَٰنِتِينَ وَٱلْقَٰنِتَٰتِ وَٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ وَٱلصَّٰدِقَٰتِ وَٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ وَٱلصَّٰبِرَٰتِ وَٱلْخَٰشِعِينَ وَٱلْخَٰشِعَٰتِ وَٱلْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَٱلْمُتَصَدِّقَٰتِ وَٱلصَّٰٓئِمِينَ وَٱلصَّٰٓئِمَٰتِ وَٱلْحَٰفِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَٱلْحَٰفِظَٰتِ وَٱلذَّٰكِرِينَ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًۭا وَٱلذَّٰكِرَٰتِ أَعَدَّ ٱللَّهُ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةًۭ وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًۭا ۝٣٥﴾ سُورَةُ الأَحۡزَابِ

The passage could have answered in general terms that women were included. Instead, it repeats all ten qualities in both masculine and feminine forms. Umm Umara complained that women were not being named, and the answer named them category by category.
Mutual responsibility, expressed in the same term. Believing men and women are each other’s awliyaʾ — protectors, allies, and people responsible for one another’s affairs. Both are also charged with commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong:

“The believing men and believing women are allies of one another” (Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:71), Saheeh International

﴿وَٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَٰتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَآءُ بَعْضٍۢ﴾ [سُورَةُ التَّوۡبَةِ: ٧١]

Standing before the law

The Qur’an also gives women enforceable legal and financial rights. These are not only statements about spiritual standing.

Her earnings and property are her own. The verse assigns each sex a share of what it acquires:

“For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned” (Sūrat al-Nisāʾ 4:32), Saheeh International

﴿لِّلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌۭ مِّمَّا ٱكْتَسَبُوا۟ ۖ وَلِلنِّسَآءِ نَصِيبٌۭ مِّمَّا ٱكْتَسَبْنَ﴾ [سُورَةُ النِّسَاءِ: ٣٢]
The marriage gift is paid to her, not to her father. The mahr belongs to the wife, and the verse presents it as a freely given gift rather than a purchase price:

“Give women ˹you wed˺ their due dowries graciously” (Sūrat al-Nisāʾ 4:4), Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

﴿وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلنِّسَآءَ صَدُقَٰتِهِنَّ نِحْلَةًۭ﴾ [سُورَةُ النِّسَاءِ: ٤]
She keeps it, and she keeps her own income, whether or not she is married. Her husband’s duty to support the household does not give him a claim to her wealth. The financial obligation runs from him to the household, not from her property to him.
These rights were reflected in practice. The Prophet’s ﷺ first wife, Khadija bint Khuwaylid, operated a trading business, employed him before their marriage, and initiated the marriage proposal. She supported his mission, was the first person to believe him, and remained his only wife until her death.

Khadija’s life shows the legal capacity these rules protected. She owned a trading business, employed the man she later married, and took the initiative in arranging the marriage. The Qur’anic property rules recognized and secured her ability to act in her own right.
She inherits by fixed entitlement. Many women had previously received no inheritance. The Qur’an assigns them defined shares (4:7, 4:11–12) that cannot be removed by a will.

Khansa bint Khidham’s father arranged a marriage that she did not want. She brought the matter to the Prophet ﷺ.

“Her father gave her in marriage when she was a matron and she disliked that marriage. So she went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he declared that marriage invalid.” — Sahih al-Bukhari 5138 and 6945; Sunan Abi Dawud 2101 and Sunan an-Nasa’i 3268, both graded sahih²

The ruling was not limited to Khansa’s case. It became a precedent that other women invoked. A woman from Jaʿfar’s family feared that her guardian would marry her against her will. She sent for two elders of the Ansar, who told her: “Don’t be afraid — Khansa bint Khidham was given by her father in marriage against her will, and the Prophet ﷺ declared it invalid.”³

The ruling did not remain an abstract principle. Another woman facing the same danger was reassured by people who knew Khansa’s case and could invoke it as precedent. The annulment had become an operative legal right.

Getting out of a marriage

A wife could end her marriage without alleging fault. The wife of Thabit ibn Qays told the Prophet ﷺ that she had no complaint about her husband’s character or religion, but could not continue living with him. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether she would return the garden Thabit had given her as mahr. She agreed, and he ordered Thabit to divorce her.⁴

This is khulʿ. A wife does not need to accuse her husband of misconduct, produce witnesses, or prove that he harmed her. Her statement that she cannot continue is sufficient. She returns the marriage gift, and the marriage ends.
Where there was harm, she did not have to return anything. Thabit ibn Qays struck another wife, Jamila bint Abdullah ibn Ubayy, and broke her arm. Her brother brought the complaint to the Prophet ﷺ, who summoned Thabit and said: “Take what she owes you and let her go.”⁵

The mosque, and knowledge

Women could not be prevented from attending the mosque, and the Companions applied this instruction within their own families. When Ibn Umar reported the Prophet’s ﷺ words, his son replied that the women of his household would still be prevented:

“Do not prevent the maid-servants of Allah from going to the mosque.” … Bilal ibn Abdullah said: “By Allah, we shall certainly prevent them.” Ibn Umar turned on him and rebuked him so harshly that the narrator had never heard the like from him. — Sahih Muslim 989, 990 and 992; Sunan Ibn Majah 16, graded sahih⁶
Aisha became a primary legal authority. She narrated a large body of hadith and corrected senior Companions often enough for al-Zarkashi to compile an entire book on her corrections.⁷ Her scholarship is discussed in The Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ Marriage to Aisha.
Women requested their own teaching sessions and received them. Women continued to transmit religious knowledge for centuries. Muhammad Akram Nadwi’s biographical dictionary of women hadith scholars extends to dozens of volumes and records thousands of women.⁸

A woman argued with the Prophet ﷺ and the Qur’an took her side

Khawla bint Thaʿlaba’s husband repudiated her using a pre-Islamic formula that left her neither fully married nor free to remarry. She brought her case to the Prophet ﷺ and continued to press it when he had no ruling to give. The chapter revealed afterward opens by stating that God heard her:

“Indeed, Allah has heard the argument of the woman who pleaded with you ˹O Prophet˺ concerning her husband, and appealed to Allah. Allah has heard your exchange.” (Sūrat al-Mujādilah 58:1), Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

﴿قَدْ سَمِعَ ٱللَّهُ قَوْلَ ٱلَّتِى تُجَٰدِلُكَ فِى زَوْجِهَا وَتَشْتَكِىٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ﴾ [سُورَةُ المُجَادلَةِ: ١]

The surah is named al-Mujadila — “the woman who argues.”

Mothers

A man asked: “Who among the people is most deserving of good treatment from me?” He said: “Your mother.” He said: “Then who?” He said: “Your mother.” He said: “Then who?” He said: “Your mother.” He said: “Then who?” He said: “Then your father.” — Sahih Muslim 6500 and 6501⁹

The measure the Prophet ﷺ set

He made a man’s treatment of his wife a measure of his character and applied the same standard to himself:

“The best of you is the best to his wives, and I am the best of you to my wives.” — Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3895, graded sahih¹⁰
In the Farewell Sermon, delivered before the largest audience he addressed, he stated that marriage carries obligations in both directions: “There are rights for you upon your women, and rights for your women upon you,” and instructed men to provide women with good clothing and food.¹¹

The sentence about striking appears in this same sermon, qualified as “a beating that is not painful.” It is not being passed over here. Its wording, the term behind it, and the limits Muslim jurists placed on it are examined in The Misreading of Qur’an 4:34.

The hard cases

The verse about striking (4:34)

This is the verse most often cited against Islam. Its verb ḍaraba has many meanings in Arabic; the Prophet ﷺ never struck a woman; and jurists who understood it physically imposed restrictions that reduced the act to something symbolic. The full discussion appears at The Misreading of Qur’an 4:34.

Four wives

The rule limits an unrestricted pre-Islamic practice, appears in a passage about orphans, and makes plural marriage conditional on justice that the same chapter says cannot be fully achieved. The issue is discussed at Four Wives.

The marriage to Aisha

This is discussed at The Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ Marriage to Aisha.

“Her testimony is half”

Verse 2:282 concerns written commercial debt contracts. It asks for two men, or one man and two women, so that one woman can remind the other if she errs. The rule governs documentation for a particular transaction; it is not a general rule for all testimony.
Classical law did not apply this ratio to every kind of evidence. In matters primarily known by women — including birth, nursing, and women’s physical conditions — one woman’s testimony could be accepted by itself. In liʿan, the mutual-oath procedure used when a husband accuses his wife of adultery, her oath answers his on equal terms.
The Qur’an’s general rule for accusations imposes a severe burden on the accuser. A man who accuses a woman of adultery without producing four witnesses is flogged eighty lashes and his testimony is rejected for life (24:4). The rule protects a woman’s reputation rather than treating her word as inherently unreliable.

“She inherits half”

The half-share applies in specific family arrangements, most commonly when a son and daughter inherit together. It is not a universal ratio. In other cases, a woman may inherit an equal share, a larger share, or inherit when a male relative does not.
The rule belongs to a financial system in which a man’s share carries obligations that a woman’s share does not. He owes mahr, must maintain his wife and children, and may also be responsible for other relatives. He has no corresponding claim to her property or earnings, and she may keep her entire share.
Muslim jurists have debated whether this arrangement remains fair when men no longer meet those financial duties. The narrower point here is that the ratio is not a statement about worth; it is part of a wider allocation of rights and obligations.

“Deficient in intellect and religion”

The phrase appears in a report in which the Prophet ﷺ addresses women at the Eid prayer (Sahih al-Bukhari 304, 1462). The English wording is harsh, and that should not be disguised.
The report explains both deficiencies by reference to particular legal circumstances rather than innate qualities. The “deficiency in religion” is a menstruating woman’s exemption from prayer and fasting, not a moral fault. The “deficiency” in testimony refers to the documentation rule in 2:282 discussed above.
The word naqṣ denotes a measurable shortfall, such as a debt or quantity that is incomplete. It does not describe an essential defect in a person’s nature.
The Prophet’s ﷺ conduct also limits how the report can be read. He left Aisha as an authority on some of the community’s most intimate legal questions. The Companions sought her rulings and accepted her corrections. That practice is inconsistent with treating women’s minds as generally unreliable.

“A people who put a woman in charge will not succeed”

The Prophet ﷺ made this statement after hearing that the Persians had placed Khosrau’s daughter on the throne after his death (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2262, graded sahih). The immediate context was a particular dynastic succession in an empire already in decline.
The reading adopted on this site understands the sentence as addressed to the men, not as a judgment about women. In this reading, leadership is a burden for which men were made responsible before God. A society in which men transfer that responsibility to women has failed to meet an obligation placed on them.
This is one interpretation, and it is presented as such. Scholars have disagreed over whether the report establishes a general legal rule or comments on a particular succession, whether it applies only to supreme leadership, and how it relates to modern states. Muslim jurists have supported women serving in judicial and ministerial positions.
The same tradition also records the Prophet ﷺ accepting political advice from his wife Umm Salama at Hudaybiyya, the 628 truce with the Quraysh of Mecca and the worst crisis of his leadership. After the treaty, he ordered the Companions three times to slaughter their sacrifices and shave their heads, but not one of them moved. He told Umm Salama what had happened. She advised him to go out, say nothing, and perform the rites himself. He followed her advice, and the entire camp then followed him.¹²

This is not a marginal report. It appears in the tradition’s most rigorously screened collection and describes a serious crisis of leadership. The Prophet ﷺ resolved it by accepting and acting on his wife’s political advice.

Covering

The Qur’an addresses men first. Verse 24:30 tells believing men to lower their gaze and guard their modesty; 24:31 then addresses women. Men are therefore instructed to restrain their gaze before women are given their own dress and modesty requirements.
The stated purpose is dignity and recognition, not removal from public life. Women in the Prophet’s ﷺ community traded, farmed, questioned him publicly, prayed in the mosque, transmitted law, and fought at Uhud.
A religious dress obligation is distinct from a rule imposed by state force or a man’s violence. The Qur’anic principle that there is no compulsion in religion (2:256) is directly relevant to that distinction.

Why these particular verses

The Qur’an distinguishes between two kinds of verse and warns about the misuse of those that require interpretation:

“in it are verses that are precise — they are the foundation of the Book — and others unspecific. As for those in whose hearts is deviation, they will follow that of it which is unspecific, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation suitable to them.” (Sūrat Āl ʿImrān 3:7), Saheeh International

﴿مِنْهُ ءَايَٰتٌۭ مُّحْكَمَٰتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَٰبِهَٰتٌۭ﴾ [سُورَةُ آلِ عِمۡرَانَ: ٧]

The muḥkamāt are clear verses, including statements that God is one, justice is obligatory, and there is no compulsion in religion. Their basic meaning does not depend on specialist interpretation.
The mutashābihāt require interpretation. That work depends on knowledge of the language, the occasions of revelation, the related texts, and the reports showing how the Prophet ﷺ applied them.
The warning concerns interpretive method. A person trying to prove a predetermined case may isolate verses that require interpretation and assign them a meaning that conflicts with the clear verses. Critics do this when they quote 4:34 without the Prophet’s ﷺ practice. Muslim men do the same when they quote it without the restrictions imposed by jurists. In both cases, an ambiguous text is isolated from the sources that govern its interpretation.

Where the criticism does land

The seventh objection cannot be answered only by citing religious sources, because it concerns the conduct of Muslim societies.

The treatment of women in many Muslim societies is poor and is not improving quickly. Forced marriage, denial of legally assigned inheritance, so-called honour violence, restrictions on education, and silence about domestic abuse are real and widespread. They are also defended in religious language by people who should know the relevant rulings.
Most of these practices violate the rules described above. Forced marriage was annulled; inheritance shares were fixed; khulʿ did not require proof of fault; and a husband who broke his wife’s arm was ordered to release her. Custom (ʿurf) is often presented as religion, especially when doing so serves the interests of those with power.
Islamic law provides grounds for condemning these practices. The Prophetic maxim la darar wa la dirar — “there should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm” — became a foundational legal principle from which jurists developed remedies.¹³ Harm within marriage is not merely discouraged. It is unlawful and can give a wife grounds to dissolve the marriage.
Communities often fail to enforce the rules they teach. The remedies may exist in law while the woman bears the social cost of using them.

Islam should be assessed by its authoritative teachings rather than by every practice carried out in its name. This distinction does not excuse Muslims. It means that a community that mistreats women is violating its own religion, and that the strongest internal criticism can be made from the tradition’s own sources.

Conclusion

The Prophet ﷺ said “I was sent to perfect good character,”¹⁴ and made a man’s treatment of his wife a measure of his character. The tradition should be judged by that standard, as should the conduct of Muslims.

The sources give women specific rights and forms of legal standing: the buried daughter is allowed to testify against the wrong done to her; a woman’s earnings belong to her; her marriage gift is paid to her rather than her father; her consent is required for marriage; the annulment of a forced marriage became a precedent another woman could invoke; she may leave a marriage through khulʿ; her access to the mosque is protected; her complaint about being omitted is answered by revelation; and a surah is named after a woman who argued her case.

The difficult verses remain difficult, and they are addressed here and on the linked pages rather than omitted. They do not, however, establish that Islam regards women as lesser. When Umm Umara complained that women had not been mentioned, the Qur’an answered by naming men and women separately across ten pairs and promising both the same reward.

< Back to The Qur’an and the Messenger ﷺ

Notes

Qur’an verses cited

2:256 — no compulsion in religion
2:282 — the two-women clause, in written commercial debt contracts
3:7 — the clear verses and those requiring interpretation, and what is done with the second kind
4:1 — creation from a single soul
4:4 — the marriage gift paid to the wife herself
4:7, 4:11–12 — fixed inheritance entitlements
4:19 — women not to be inherited by compulsion, and marriage in kindness
4:32 — each sex keeps what it earns
4:34 — treated at The Misreading of Qur’an 4:34
9:71 — believing men and women as allies of one another
16:97 — the same reward for the same deeds
24:4 — eighty lashes for false accusation, and permanent rejection of the accuser’s testimony
24:30–31 — modesty enjoined on men first, then on women
33:35 — ten qualities, each named for both sexes
49:13 — righteousness as the only measure of nobility
58:1 — the woman who argued, and the surah named after her
81:8–9 — the buried daughter asked for what crime she was killed

Islam and Women

The objection

What Islam replaced

Standing before God

Standing before the law

Getting out of a marriage

The mosque, and knowledge

A woman argued with the Prophet ﷺ and the Qur’an took her side

Mothers

The measure the Prophet ﷺ set

The hard cases

The verse about striking (4:34)

Four wives

The marriage to Aisha

“Her testimony is half”

“She inherits half”

“Deficient in intellect and religion”

“A people who put a woman in charge will not succeed”

Covering

Why these particular verses

Where the criticism does land

Conclusion

Notes

Qur’an verses cited

Further reading

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The objection

What Islam replaced

Standing before God

Standing before the law

Consent, and what happened when it was ignored

Getting out of a marriage

The mosque, and knowledge

A woman argued with the Prophet ﷺ and the Qur’an took her side

Mothers

The measure the Prophet ﷺ set

The hard cases

The verse about striking (4:34)

Four wives

The marriage to Aisha

“Her testimony is half”

“She inherits half”

“Deficient in intellect and religion”

“A people who put a woman in charge will not succeed”

Covering

Why these particular verses

Where the criticism does land

Conclusion

Notes

Qur’an verses cited

Further reading

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