Epigraph
The Qur’an paints one of the most
haunting scenes ever revealed:
وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ بِأَيِّ
ذَنبٍ قُتِلَتْ
“And when the buried girl shall be
asked: for what crime was she killed?” (Qur’an 81:8–9)
This
is not poetry. This is the Qur’an holding a mirror before humanity:
“Explain yourselves.
Why did you crush her?”
The
verse was revealed about certain tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia who buried their
daughters alive — out of shame, fear, societal pressure, and patriarchal honour
constructs. But the verse is not limited to one region or one century.
This verse is a moral X-ray of
every society that kills a woman’s dignity, even if not her body.
From
Arabia to the Middle Ages to today, women have bled under different cultures in
different ways, where they were labelled witches in medieval Europe and
tortured, hunted, and burned, and labelled impure when menstruating, and being isolated,
shamed, and treated as untouchable.
Even
blamed for “the original sin,” where Eve alone is considered to have misled
humanity. There is no theological foundation in Islam that woman is the source
of evil. None. The Qur’an corrects this misconception and states:
Both Adam and Eve faltered
together.
(Qur’an 2:36, 7:20–23)
The
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) gave women legal identity long before Europe even
imagined it. Women were granted inheritance rights (Qur’an 4:7), the right to
own property, the right to keep their wealth separate, the right to consent to
marriage, the right to seek divorce, and the right to an independent economic
identity.
The
Qur’an assigns a woman’s wealth as hers. She is not obliged to spend on the
family. Man, as the husband is. That is why his inheritance share is larger, as
he is obligated to provide for and protect. Hers is untouched security.
The
Qur’an’s Verse (4:34) – A Bone Of Contention For The Feminists
Every
institution in the world has one head. God made the husband head of the
institution of marriage, not because he is “superior” but because every
institution needs a final point of responsibility, and the man is obligated to
earn and maintain the household. This is an administrative role, not a dictatorship.
The
Qur’an demands mutual decision-making, consultation, kindness, and honour - a
headship based on responsibility, not tyranny. Every institution has a head. Not
so that the head may become a dictator, but so that the institution may remain
stable, functional, and disciplined. The head is not the “most privileged.” The
head is the most accountable.
Marriage,
in the Qur’anic worldview, is also an institution. Therefore, God assigns the
husband as ‘qawwam’ (Qur’an 4:34), the one who carries the burden of provision,
protection, and responsibility. This is not a license for domination. It is a
burden of stewardship.
The
Qur’an does not say: “man is superior.” Rather, it says: man is responsible
because he must earn and provide, and maintaining the household is his legal
and moral duty. The husband and wife are to make decisions jointly, with mutual
respect and consultation. This is the context of 4:34.
Those
who read “headship” as power have misunderstood it. It is actually an obligation.
And to keep the marital institution from collapsing under rebelliousness, the
Qur’an outlines graduated steps: talk, counsel, warn - not to harm, but to
restore order. These are procedural safeguards, not tools of violence.
The
role of ‘qawwam’ makes the husband answerable before God. If he abuses his
role, he will stand exposed in the Hereafter. His wife can take him to account
before the Lord of Justice. That is a terrifying prospect. The Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) emphasized this responsibility when he said:
“The best of you are those who are
best to their wives and children.”
And he signaled with two fingers
close together, indicating closeness with him in the Hereafter for the
affectionate and just husband.
So
Qur’an 4:34 is not about male privilege. It is about male accountability. The
husband’s role is to protect, provide, love, care, and uphold the dignity and
well-being of the family. That is leadership in Islam. Not domination but
responsibility with gentleness.
Conclusion
And
yet women are still buried today. Not under sand. But under social pressure in
joint families to carry all household labour, manipulative
inheritance practices, legal or illegal, that push them out, cultural guilt for
wanting their own careers, emotional gaslighting, honour-pressure, religious
distortion, and the quiet suffocation of being told “this is your duty”.
They
are still being quietly buried alive inside their own lives. The Qur’an came to
unbury her.
Islam
did not come to make women lesser. Islam came to lift them after the world had
pushed them down. Islam came to speak for the girl who had no voice. Islam came
to ask the question that shook centuries: “For what sin was she killed?”
Every
time we erase a woman’s right, crush her dreams, take her agency, shame her for
existing, we step into the crime this verse condemns. The Qur’an defended her. Muslims
who claim to be the bearers of the Qur’an today must do the same. A society is
measured by how it treats the girl it once buried.
May
we not be the generation that buries her again, this time with culture instead
of soil.
Aamir
Yazdani
MPhil
Islamic Thought & Civilization (Pakistan)
MSc
Irrigation Engineering (UK)
