المقالات الإسلامية المتنوعة

Islam gave women a variety of rights 1,400 years ago that were not acknowledged in Western countries until the 17th century.

According to the Encyclopedia Americana in English Common Law: all the real property held by a woman at the time of her marriage became the property of her husband — he was entitled to the rent from the land and any profit that might be made from managing it.

In Islamic law, women have an unqualified right to own property, a right that does not change on marriage. A woman is also free to dispose of her property, — bequeath it, rent it, sell it, invest it — in any way she likes, without consulting any one else.

Incidentally, a Muslim woman is not required to change her maiden name on marriage, she retains her own name, a symbolic demonstration of the fact that even on marriage, Islam recognizes her independent legal personality.

It was not until the late 1870s onwards in England (and even later elsewhere in Europe) that married women achieved the right to enter contracts and own property. In France, these same rights were not recognized until 1938.

What is the women share in inheritance?At the time of Prophet Muhammad, women themselves were an object of inheritance because they were considered to be part of the possessions of a man. Pre-Islamic Arabs were not the only community to have such views.
The Qur’an, however, established the right of women to a share in inheritance and indeed determined the shares that male and female heirs of the deceased should have. This “determined” share is calculated by Allah Himself in His wisdom and cannot be changed, and any will that recommends the exclusion of a particular heir renders it null and void.
There is a verse in the Qur’an detailing the Islamic position on inheritance that was revealed in response to a complaint made by a Muslim woman to the Prophet: her brother-in-law had taken the whole of her recently deceased husband’s property, even though she had two daughters.