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yatawārā mina l-qawmi min sūʾi mā bushshira bihī ʾa-yumsikuhū ʿalā hūnin ʾam yadussuhū fī t-turābi ʾa-lā sāʾa mā yaḥkumūna
He hides from the people out of distress at the news he has been brought: shall he retain it in humiliation, or bury it in the ground! Behold! Evil is the judgement that they make.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah An-Nahl – Verse 59
59. “He hides him from the people for the evil of the news which has been given to him, (asking himself): shall he keep her with disgrace or bury her (alive) in the dust? Beware! (How) evil is what they judge!”
It is true that the birth of a child is considered as a good tiding, but superstitions regard such good tidings as disgrace and humiliation. This noble verse declares that all does not end to this and he, in order to save himself from such scandal which, to his incorrect belief, has overtaken him, he escapes from his people, going into hiding for this evil announcement made to him. The verse says:
“He hides him from the people for the evil of the news which has been given to him…”
He goes on immersed in this thought constantly as to whether he should take upon himself the scandal of this disgrace by keeping the daughter or bury her alive under the earth. The verse says:
“…(asking himself): shall he! keep her with disgrace or bury her (alive) in the dust?…”
Condemning this tyrannical and inhumane verdict in an evermore-explicit manner, the Holy Qur’an declares as to what a bad and an evil judgment they pass on such matters. The verse continues saying:
“…Beware! (How) evil is what they judge!”
Certainly, they do pass a bad judgment on the matter, for they used to bury alive girls while they had the right to stay alive just in the same way as the boys had, and perhaps a girl might have been better than a boy. Ibn-i-Abb as has quoted as saying that if Allah wanted to consider the wishes of those people in the process of creation, no girls would be born, because no one desired to have a daughter; and if all children were born as sons, the human generation would be exterminated.
The Role of Islam in the Revival of the Position of Women
The humiliation and the damaging of the personality of women were not confined to the Ignorant Arabs of that time, women had an insignificant position among some other nations, too, any perhaps even among the most civilized nations of that time and, usually, a woman was regarded as a commodity and not as a human being. However, the Arabs of the Age of Ignorance did their utmost in denouncing and in humiliating women in some more heinous and terrible forms.
Nevertheless, since the dawn of Islam, this superstition was fought out hard in all its dimensions. The Prophet of Islam himself (S) showed such a high esteem for his daughter, Fatimah Zahra (as), the Islamic Lady (as), that the people wondered. He used to kiss her hands despite his high position, and he would visit her immediately upon the return from his trips, and the first person to visit was his daughter, Fatimah. In a tradition from the Prophet (S) we read that he says:
“What a nice child a person’s daughter is! She is affectionate and of great help; she is one’s companion and she is clean while cleaning at the same time!”
In fact, such respect shown towards the personality of women has served as a cause for their liberation in the society and has put an end to the era of servitude and slavery of women. However, it is most unfortunate that in some Islamic societies, there are still those forms of ‘ignorant’ thought prevalent, and there are still a good number of families who rejoice in having sons born to them and are disturbed by having daughters. Even in the case of the Western Societies which imagine that they have high regards for the personality of women, we notice in practice that women are so greatly humiliated and are treated as puppets or as a means for extinguishing the fire of passion of men and / or as an instrument for the dissemination of information with regard to a certain merchandise.