Restoring Balance: The Quranic Intervention in the Decline of Women’s Status - Correcting A Civilizational Drift Without Privileging One Prophet Over Another

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 25 April 2025 The Quran Speaks Not Just to A Tribe, A People, Or A Region, but to Humanity at Large—Precisely Because the Malaise It Sought to Correct, Including Gender Injustice, Had Become Global in Scale. ------ (From Files) ----- One of the distinctive features of the Quran is the level of attention it devotes to the status, rights, and responsibilities of women. Compared to earlier scriptures like the Bible or the Torah, the Quran introduces a far more detailed and structured approach to women's issues, ranging from inheritance laws and financial independence to marital rights, consent, and the right to testify. This level of legal and moral detail often leads some modern commentators to single out Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a pioneering social reformer, especially in the area of women's rights. However, this line of thinking, while well-meaning, fails to recognise a fundamental Quranic principle: all prophets were faithful conduits of divine guidance, and none should be elevated above the others in terms of moral or spiritual merit. The Quran repeatedly emphasises this principle: "We make no distinction between any of His messengers" (2:285). Therefore, the presence or absence of detailed social reforms in the respective scriptures is not a measure of the prophets’ reformist credentials but reflects the unique historical and societal circumstances into which each revelation was sent. The relative silence of previous scriptures on women’s legal rights should not be viewed as a deficiency or oversight. Those revelations, too, served their purpose in their own time and were complete within their scope. The Quran’s detailed engagement with women’s issues signals not a superior reformism by the final Prophet, but rather a divine intervention at a critical juncture in human development, when the marginalisation of women had become a deeply entrenched and systemic issue across civilisations. Indeed, by the time of the Quran’s revelation, the deterioration in the status of women had become a near-universal phenomenon, transcending regional, ethnic, and religious boundaries. All societies had, to varying degrees, institutionalised the marginalisation of women. It was this global civilizational drift that necessitated a scripture addressed not to a particular tribe or community, as earlier scriptures had been, but to all of humankind. The Quran’s universal address is thus not incidental but a response to the universal nature of the decline. Anthropological and sociological studies suggest that early human societies may have been more egalitarian in gender roles, especially among subsistence-level communities where cooperation between men and women was essential for survival. As societies became more complex, hierarchical, and wealth-oriented, the role of women increasingly diminished. Institutionalised patriarchy, property-based power structures, and limited access to education gradually confined women to domestic spheres and subjected them to male authority. (From Files) ---- In this context, the Quran emerges as a corrective scripture. Its verses sought to halt and reverse the decline in women’s agency. It restored their rights to property, contractual participation, marital consent, and spiritual autonomy. Women were named as direct addressees in matters of law, faith, and community participation, unlike earlier texts where no need was felt to address both groups separately. Importantly, the Quran not only rectified injustices but did so in a way that honoured women without vilifying men or initiating social conflict. It sought balance, not revolution. For example, verse 9:71 proclaims, “The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong...”—establishing a cooperative model rather than a combative one. The decline of women's status after the Prophet's time and the entrenchment of patriarchal norms within classical Islamic jurisprudence represent a civilizational drift that was never sanctioned by the Quran. This regression often disguised itself under the veneer of tradition or culture, not revelation. Indeed, many of the restrictions imposed upon women today in the name of religion have no basis in the Quran, but rather in post-Quranic interpretations shaped by historical, political, and economic contingencies. Interestingly, the gradual reversal of this decline in modern times has correlated not with religious revivalism but with technological and social advancements. As machinery replaced manual labour and household appliances reduced domestic burdens, women gained the freedom to participate more actively in economic and public life. Education and legal reforms followed, enabling women to reclaim rights long affirmed in the Quran but denied in practice for centuries. It is crucial, then, to interpret the Quran not as a period-specific manifesto but as a timeless document that intervenes when and where necessary to restore equilibrium. The prominence of women’s issues in the Quran is not a mark of Islamic exceptionalism, nor of one prophet’s special merit. It is a reflection of divine wisdom responding proportionately to the societal needs of the time. In conclusion, highlighting the Quran’s detailed engagement with women’s issues should not lead us to romanticise historical figures at the expense of theological coherence. Every prophet delivered Allah’s message with integrity. The Quran’s intervention in the matter of women’s rights was a necessary correction in human development, not the result of one prophet’s particular enlightenment, but the unfolding of divine justice across time. ---- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation. 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