Men and Women:

Equal in the Sight of God

O people, we created you from the same male and female,
and rendered you distinct peoples and tribes, that you may recognize one another.
The best among you in the sight of God is the most righteous.
God is Omniscient, Cognizant (49:13)

Are men and women created equal? The traditional Muslim would answer this question with a “NO” but the Quran teaches otherwise. Let us look at Verse 3:195. It says:

Their Lord responded to them: “I never fail to reward any worker among you for any work you do, be you male or female—you are equal to one another.

The verse goes on to say

Thus, those who immigrate, and get evicted from their homes, and are persecuted because of Me, and fight and get killed, I will surely remit their sins and admit them into gardens with flowing streams.” Such is the reward from God. God possesses the ultimate reward. (3:195)

This verse tells us that men and women are equal. It clearly states that we can all work, fight, die and be persecuted for God, but for the reward of their righteous works, both men and women are in fact equal to each other in the sight of God.

On the traditional side, what does Hadith say? Bukhari wrote: “Women are naturally, morally and religiously defective.”

He did not say a woman, that woman, or that group of women. He said women. Not only is Bukhari wrong, he contradicts what the Quran says. The problem is that some men and women take the words of men (Sunnah and Hadiths) over God’s word (Holy Quran) and some people have gone as far as to accept both as sources

of guidance. God says in Verse 18:27 that

You shall recite what is revealed to you of your Lord’s scripture. Nothing shall abrogate His words, and you shall not find any other source beside it. (18:27)

God has told us not to find any source besides His scripture. And a lot of women have suffered because people tend to follow the words of Bukhari, Ibn Hambali, Ibn Majah, Ibn Kathir and other hadith narrators, instead of the Quran. If God wanted us to follow Sunnah and Hadith, He would have made them part of the Quran. They are not in the Quran, they are not part of the Quran, and they don’t help you understand the Quran. God says in the Quran:

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