THE IDEAL MUSLIM WIFE pdf download

The Ideal Muslim Wife by B. Aisha Lemu A British Scholar & Writer

THE IDEAL MUSLIM WIFE

 The booklet is now popular as a wedding gift for bridegrooms, and I have received a number of requests to write its companion volume “The Ideal Muslim wife”, as a gift for a bride.

 I must confess that this volume has been more difficult to write, for several reasons.

The first is the problem of conscience. In describing the ideal wife one becomes very aware of one’s own shortcomings and feels embarrassed to offer advice, which one has sometimes failed to follow.

The second reason why this volume has been more difficult than the first is that, while many of the Muslim husbands’ duties have been defined in the Qur’an in clear legal terms, the wife’s duties are much less specific and are seldom in the form of legal restraints or duties.

They consist more of moral exhortations and descriptions of the qualities of good women and warning against some of the attitudes and behaviour of the pagan women of the Jahiliyyah (the time of Ignorance of the Arabs before Islam).

 My approach to this subject has been therefore to read or re-read the various references in the Qur’an and Hadith with regard to the behaviour of a wife and to consider these within the context of the Islamic view of marriage and the family.