WOMAN: THE SILENT BUILDER OF SOCIETY
In the Quran, under the description of the pilgrimage (Hajj), it is stated: “Safa and Marwah are among the symbols set up by God; there is nothing wrong if anyone goes on a pilgrimage to the House, or performs a minor pilgrimage, in walking to and fro between them.” (2:158)
The verse uses the word sha‘irah (plural: sha‘a’ir). The literal meaning of sha‘irah is a reminder or a sign (symbol). According to this verse, Safa and Marwah are two signs of God. They recall a divine event. To preserve and renew the memory of that event, it was prescribed that every man or woman who goes to Makkah for Hajj or Umrah should perform sa‘i, an essential ritual involving seven journeys between the hills of Safa and Marwah.
Safa and Marwah are two small hills in Makkah, located approximately seven furlongs apart. Around four thousand years ago, Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) visited this region. Born in Iraq, he travelled through various regions until he finally reached Makkah. At that time, the location was a barren desert surrounded by rocky hills, with no sign of human settlement.
By divine command, Abraham left his wife Hagar (Hajar) and their infant son Ishmael (Isma‘il) near Makkah and departed. They had only a small skin of water with them. When this supply was exhausted after a few days, Hagar set out in search of water. In her desperate search, she ran seven times between Safa and Marwah. After completing the seventh round, she returned to her child and discovered that a spring had gushed forth beside him.
Hagar’s seven rounds between Safa and Marwah served a meaningful purpose. Its significance was such that God prescribed the same act for all men and women performing Hajj or Umrah, requiring them to carry out sa‘i—the brisk walking between the two hills—just as Hagar had done. To this day, this practice remains an essential component of both Hajj and Umrah and is obligatory for every individual, regardless of age or gender.
The question then arises: why was Hagar’s action so significant that people across the world were instructed to follow her example? Its importance lies in the exceptional responsibility entrusted to her by Abraham—to remain in that isolated place and devote herself to nurturing a new generation.
The uninhabited area of Makkah was deliberately chosen as a desert environment for training and development. The purpose of this divine choice was to raise a new generation in surroundings untouched by civilization—a generation nurtured and shaped directly by nature itself. Such an environment fostered simplicity, realism, and moral integrity. Those who are brought up in accordance with their innate, God-given nature preserve the noble qualities with which they are endowed by birth. It is such people who become worthy bearers of God’s religion. The descendants of Ishmael belonged to such a generation. Among them were born the Prophet of Islam and those precious individuals who came to be known as the Companions of the Prophet.
Through this Abrahamic plan, the true role of women in human history was demonstrated: the role of nurturing future generations. With each generation, women prepare the next by renewing and sustaining human life, ensuring continuity rather than stagnation—much like a flowing river rather than still water.
It is well known that every human being begins life as a child and, within a hundred years, grows old and passes away. This applies to all men and women. According to this divine plan, all human beings spend their early years under their mothers’ care. This initial stage of life serves as a preparatory period—a time of mental and moral conditioning. The way a person is shaped during these formative years influences who they become for the rest of their life.
Within the natural order, this initial stage of life is entrusted to women through motherhood. As mothers and guardians, women serve as the primary custodians of humanity during its earliest phase. They bear the essential responsibility of cultivating in children the disposition, character, and morals that will enable each of them to become a righteous member of society.
The wife of Prophet Abraham, Hagar (Hajar), provides a significant historical example of this divinely assigned role of women. Through her extraordinary sacrifice, she helped lay the foundation for the emergence of a generation that would eventually become the dependable companions of the final Prophet. With their unwavering support, the Prophet was able to bring about a transformation that is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest revolutions in human history.
For this reason, in the universal practice of Hajj and Umrah, the continuous act of walking between Safa and Marwah—reenacting Hagar’s steps—was established. Its purpose is to remind successive generations that this responsibility must be continuously renewed. Throughout Islamic history, this tradition has remained intact.
The practical outcome of this process was that every household, in accordance with the Quran, was turned into a qibla (prayer direction) that is, a place of worship: “Turn your houses into places of worship.” (Quran, 10:87) Following this guidance, each household became an educational and training centre. Every child, under the care and supervision of their mother, received continuous care and guidance. During this formative period, children were shaped, both consciously and unconsciously, into individuals capable of sustaining a healthy society.
This system of moral training continued for nearly a thousand years. As a result, for approximately a millennium after the emergence of Islam, society did not witness the degree of moral decline observed in later periods. During this long period, domestic upbringing ensured that moral values became deeply rooted in social customs and traditions.
Men and women alike, whether consciously or unconsciously, remained committed to certain shared human principles. The influence of family structure and social norms was strong enough that few individuals openly challenged these values.
However, this situation changed with the advent of the modern Industrial Revolution, which fundamentally transformed patterns of life and social organization. Consequently, the household—once the primary institution responsible for moral development and the consistent preparation of disciplined and ethically grounded individuals—gradually lost this role.
For nearly a thousand years after the rise of Islam, the world largely remained within an agrarian order, based on a land-centred economy. In that system, every family was closely connected to its land, and therefore the kind of family breakdown witnessed today was almost non-existent.
The Industrial Revolution shifted the economic base away from agriculture and landownership and diversified it across many different sectors. As a result, the importance of traditional education declined. The needs of modern industry led to the growing spread of scientific and technical education, which completely changed the old concept of learning. Economic progress now depended on acquiring formal education in schools and colleges, and people had to prove that they were educated on the basis of the certificates and degrees they possessed.
This transformation marked the end of the traditional role of the household. Previously, every home—largely supervised by women—functioned as a centre of education. Each household served as a formative space for human development. However, the new era reduced the importance of this domestic educational system. Parents gradually began to enroll their children in nursery or school at a very young age.
This shift significantly altered the structure of human society. A new generation emerged, perceived as lacking moral values and driven primarily by desire, without firm principles or standards. Today, society as a whole resembles a moral wilderness.
Yet there is no need to despair over this situation. What is needed is an understanding of the new conditions, followed by a thoughtful plan to rebuild the broken system of moral training in a new form.
During the time of Hagar (Hajar), the model for human development took the form of a desert-based school. Following the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), this mission shifted to a home-based model of education. Now, it is necessary to revive this method of education within the school-based setting.
The cultivation of human character was initially carried out in the desert environment, a practice that continued for more than two thousand years. Later, this responsibility was fulfilled within the home and remained there for nearly a thousand years. Today, the time has come to restore this essential function within the school system.
With the change of time, what has happened in the modern age is mainly that woman’s sphere of work has changed. The training and upbringing of the human race is woman’s natural responsibility. In this respect, her sphere of work today has become, in a special sense, the school.
The Creator’s plan for women is that they provide essential early training for children, and for this responsibility they have been naturally endowed with qualities such as gentleness, compassion, patience, and emotional warmth, all of which enable them to excel in their nurturing role. However, under the conditions of the modern age, these qualities alone are no longer adequate.
Now, it is essential for women to receive formal, degree-based education. They must become familiar with modern sciences and receive professional training. Women should meet recognized academic standards in order to demonstrate their ability to teach and train school children. By doing so, they can fulfill their divinely assigned role as effectively as they did during the agrarian era.
This is the most effective way to protect the modern generation from moral disorder. Women need to understand that their present workplace is neither the desert nor the home; it is now the school. Therefore, they must equip themselves according to the demands of this new era by pursuing modern education, becoming trained teachers, and proving their competence through both academic learning and practical experience.
In this way, women can once again become the builders of humanity, as they were in early civilizations, and continue to fulfill this role in the new age.
On April 24, 2004, a television programme in Delhi featured a Muslim professor. During an informal conversation over tea, he said, “My mother played the greatest role in shaping my life.”
He continued, “In 1967, I completed my matriculation. Our family was not financially well-off. I wanted to continue my studies, but my father said that he could no longer afford my education and that I should give up further studies and seek employment instead.”
“However,” he added, “I could not bring myself to give up my studies. The difficulty was that I did not even have enough money to pay the admission fee for the next level. Seeing my eagerness to continue, my mother said, ‘All my jewellery has already been sold. I have only one earring left. I give it to you; sell it and pay your admission fee.’”
“I did as she instructed. I took the gold earring to the market and sold it for eighty rupees. With that money, I paid my admission fee and continued my studies. I faced many ups and downs during that period, but my mother consistently encouraged me at every stage until I completed my education. Today, I am a professor at a reputed university.”
This is not merely the story of one individual. Ask any successful person, and he will acknowledge that his mother played the greatest role in shaping his life. If anyone deserves credit for his success, it is his mother.
The truth is that a woman, in her role as a mother, is the greatest helper of every human being. She plays the most powerful and influential role in the progress of humanity. As a mother, her role is so universal that everyone recognizes it through personal experience. It is an undeniable fact that every mother, in every place and every age, has continued to fulfill this noble role.
Islam builds upon this natural reality by nurturing a sense of universal responsibility in women. Its aim is to move them beyond the role of caregivers only to their own children and to enable them to become contributors to humanity as a whole. Women should not confine their God-given nurturing abilities solely to their sons and daughters; rather, they should extend these qualities for the benefit of society at large. God created women with the capacity to shape humanity, and limiting their role to childrearing alone would mean failing to make full use of their potential.
In the modern age, degree-based education has become increasingly important. Across different fields, employment requires formal qualifications. As a result, the importance of schooling has increased significantly, since better schooling leads to better opportunities for higher education.
This change has created, especially for women, a vast new field of employment: teaching. Today, women are working as teachers on a large scale, and it is widely recognized that they often prove to be better school teachers than men.
Thus, in practice, women have entered the workplace traditionally considered most suitable for them. However, many women now regard this work primarily as a profession. What is required is that they approach it as a mission—that they become committed teachers rather than merely professionals. When this happens, the task of nurturing and educating the younger generation, which remains one of the most significant needs of our time, can once again develop effectively.
