strong and merciful: "Go your way, for you are free." What commander acts as Muhammad acted, shows mercy as Muhammad showed mercy, pardons as Muhammad pardoned! No — it is the mercy of heaven and the guidance of God.

And whatever I may forget, I shall not forget that the Messenger's mission was not for prophethood alone, but for the preaching of glad tidings and for doing justice to woman and giving her her rights in full. Islam may boast to the furthest degree that it was the pioneer that strengthened woman's arm and made her one of the blessings of life, saying: "And of His signs is that He created for you, of yourselves, spouses that you might find rest in them, and He set between you affection and mercy; surely in that are signs for a people who reflect. O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and scattered abroad from the two many men and women." Islam went, in its respect for woman's rights, to lengths that have not entered the imagination of any civil legislator to this day, making her the equal of man in all rights and duties by His words: "And theirs are rights like those held over them, according to what is equitable."

It also permitted her, fourteen centuries ago, to be a judge, and to take charge of higher teaching once she had attained a far point of learning. And more than that: to attend the public affairs of the Muslims, at which they gathered at the summons of their emirs to decide the necessary measures in the face of any social emergency, or to take the people's opinion on the laying down of some new rule for society — as happened on the day when the Commander of the Faithful, Umar ibn al-Khattab, saw the people going to excess in women's dowers, their worldly means having widened in his age. Fearing the consequence of this, he forbade the people to exceed four hundred dirhams. When he delivered his opinion to the people from the pulpit, a woman of Quraysh confronted him and said: "Shall God give, and the Commander of the Faithful withhold?" He said to

her: "How so?" She said: God says, "And if you have given one of them a qintar, take nothing back from it." Then Umar said: O God, Thy forgiveness! Everyone has more understanding than you, O son of al-Khattab. A woman was right, and Umar was wrong.

Is this not to be counted a precedent in Islam for giving woman her representative rights in legislative bodies?

Among woman's political rights in Islam is this: if she granted protection or safe-conduct to any of the enemy fighters, it took effect. Umm Hani said to the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) on the day of the conquest of Mecca: I have given protection to two men of my husband's kin. And he said: We have protected whomever you have protected, O Umm Hani... And there were ordained for women social and political matters beyond even this: the wives of the Prophet and of his companions would go out on the campaigns with the men, giving water to drink, preparing food, binding up wounds, and urging on the fighting — this besides the oath

of allegiance, which was for women as it was for men.

Islam abolished all that Arabs and non-Arabs alike had practiced in depriving women of ownership, and the tyranny of husbands over the property of their married wives. It established for women the right of ownership in its kinds, and of lawful disposal in its kinds; it ordained bequest and inheritance for them as for men; and it granted them, over and above, what it imposed on men on their behalf — the marriage dower, and maintenance for the woman and her children even if she is rich — and gave them the right of sale, purchase, gift, charity, and the rest. This, while we see that some of the European nations which have gone to great lengths in honoring and respecting women still have laws forbidding a woman the right to dispose of her own property without her husband's leave.

Such is a sketch of the character of the Messenger, peace be upon him, and of some of his teachings. How fitting it is for us, as we revive his memory, to take on his character and to draw from his guidance.