How to Muslim
Islam gave women the right to own property, choose their husband, inherit, and keep their own earnings more than a thousand years before English law did the same. A woman’s wealth stays hers after marriage. She can refuse a marriage, and one made without her consent can be annulled. This page sets out what the sources say.
Women’s rights
You have heard the stereotype: Muslim women are oppressed, silenced, controlled. It is worth checking that against what Islam actually teaches rather than against what any particular country does, because those are not the same thing. This page is about the first one.
“Women have rights similar to those of men equitably, although men have a degree of responsibility above them.”
Islam gave women the right to own property in the 600s. England did not do the same until the Married Women’s Property Acts of the 1870s and 80s. Annie Besant, writing in the 1930s, noticed:
“It is only in the last twenty years that Christian England has recognized the right of women to property, while Islam has allowed this right from all times.” Annie Besant
Before Islam, newborn girls were buried alive in Arabia. Women had no say in who they married, no property, and no inheritance. Islam ended all of that, and it did so fourteen centuries ago.
Plenty of Muslim-majority countries still treat women badly. That is culture, and that is people. It is not the religion, and the two get confused constantly. Judge Islam by its texts, the way you would want your own beliefs judged.
And if it were as oppressive as the stereotype has it, the obvious question is why women keep converting to it, in every country, every year.
“Surely for Muslim men and women, believing men and women, devout men and women, truthful men and women… for all of them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.”
Including someone you can put your questions to directly.
New to all of this? Start from the beginning.
Where to take this further.
Research-driven answers to the doubts and questions Muslims actually have.
yaqeeninstitute.org · FreeComprehensive works equipping readers with knowledge and insight about Islam.
sapienceinstitute.org · FreeShort, shareable answers to common questions about Islam.
islamicguidance.co · FreeA curated hub of Sunni videos, books, and dawah resources.
islamic-library.org · Free