Yusuf Estes – Beauties Of Islam – EP05

			Salam Alaikum, and welcome to this episode of the beauties of Islam. I'm your host, Yusuf s this.
And for the next little while, I'd like to talk about one of the beauties of Islam that I found
amazing. When I came into Islam, I had this misconception about something called equality, we
constantly hear about people talking about equal rights, and the equality of men and women, the
equality of this and that and so on. But when we look to Islam, we find something amazing, something
better than equality. And I know you're probably thinking, Wait a minute, what is he talking about?
How can you have something better than equal? Well, the first thing to consider is this, a man and a
		

			woman are not really equal. They're different. If they weren't different, why would we have two
separate names for these two groups. So obviously, there's a difference. It doesn't mean one's
better than the other one, it means they're different.
		

			So Islam is providing for something better than equality. And that's what our program is going to be
about. Today, we're going to talk about this beauty of Islam, this, something better than equality.
		

			I want to call your attention to something that is well known and well established. For the most
part, most men are larger, bigger, stronger physically than most women, men, occasionally there be
an exception to the rule. But it's known and established that that's the way it is.
		

			And since the time of Adam, peace be upon him, until now, we find that even the expressions we use
in our language, describe that we call the women the fairer *, meaning what, obviously, we're
showing that the women have something different than men.
		

			And how do we deal with that in Islam, and this is one of the beauties that really got me excited.
And I began to understand something on a much deeper level.
		

			The word we want to use is not equality, it's equity. Equity means ownership in something, or the
value of something for you, and what is the value for you or I when we start to talk about this
subject of men versus women.
		

			If you said, Well, I want everything to be the same for the men as it is for the women, what would
happen,
		

			a lot of people will tell you, this is a good thing. They want the same pay structure for a man as
they do for one. By the way, I don't have a problem with that. I think that's a great idea. Women,
if they do the same job, need to have proper compensation. And there's no doubt, as far as being
treated properly. There's no doubt about that either. This is something Islam guarantees. But there
are other things that you have to look beyond just a few basic needs, or wants, and see what's the
total picture.
		

			The one who created us in the first place, we call him a law, you might call him God. The point is,
he's the creator and Sustainer of the universe, he more than anyone else should know what he
created. And he should be the one responsible to tell us how to deal with his creation.
		

			We find even in the remnants of what still exists from the old scriptures, manuscripts reference to
this subject. Unfortunately, we don't have the originals for those anymore. So occasionally, people
have got their own little hands in there. And you can't exactly say, this is from God. And this is
one man, what's inspired by God, what's inspired by man? And what's the inspired Word of God to man,
etc, etc. So when we look to the Quran, we have something great, what is it? It is the exact words
the exact speech of a law and is less than final revelation to mankind. Now, if you're not Muslim,
or if you're talking to somebody that's not Muslim, they're going to say what I reject that
		

			immediately, I don't want to accept it, but stop and think this is what the Muslims are talking
about. So at least let's understand where they're coming from with this concept that they have.
		

			According to the Muslims, and according to Muhammad peace be upon him. The speech from a law is
exactly today as it was when it first came to him in the beginning.
		

			And in that speech, a lot taught all of us how to deal with each other in many levels in many ways.
And above all, he says in his speech, how much he hates and forbids oppression or zone. So for sure,
we're gonna see right away that whether you call it equity or equality, Ally's saying that he's
against the thing that we're all against, which is what oppression,
		

			aggression and oppression that which puts down or the wrong doing. Okay, now, let's consider the
condition of a woman is a woman really like a man? A woman can have a baby and a man can't. For this
reason alone
		

			We should observe and pay close attention to the needs of the woman. We should pay close attention
to the suffering and the condition that she's in, when she's going to have a baby, while she's
having the baby, and after she has the baby.
		

			Why? Because this is something amazing. A man can never in his wildest imagination, even guesstimate
the amount of pain and suffering that a woman goes through, even through one birth pain.
		

			I recall when my wife was having a child, a little girl many, many years ago, and my wife grabbed my
hand while she was having what they call contraction. This is a big pain that a woman has when she's
delivering the baby. She grabbed my hand.
		

			And she began to squeeze and press until my hand felt like it was going to break and I was like, oh
my god. Later, I asked him, I said, Wait, what was this squeezing? You did on my hand, it hurts so
bad. You know, you almost broke my fingers.
		

			She said, Oh, you can't imagine the pain. I said, well give me some idea. She said a man will never
understand this pain, as well. Any kind of an idea. She said, First, take your lower lip. I said,
Okay, like this. Yeah. She said, Now pull it up over the top of your head. I said what she said, and
even then you wouldn't begin to understand the pain. So we see there's something different here.
Something very different between a man and a woman, I want to take a break and let you reflect on
what I just said. I want you to think about this. Because when we come back with more beauties of
Islam, I want to go into this and show you the difference between what we call equality and equity
		

			sit right there. Don't go away, we're gonna be right back with more beauties of Islam, like you're
watching a program called beauties of Islam. What we were talking about is the difference between
something called equality and something called equity. And we've already discovered that a woman and
a man are different. Now anybody that studied biology knows that. But a funny thing happened one
time I was in India, and a doctor came to me and he said, I'm not a Muslim. And I like a lot of the
things that I've read about Islam, especially when he talks about the miracles found in the Koran,
and the science that's there in Islam. 1400 years ago, people couldn't have known those things, many
		

			things, the idea that God is one, and he's very sold on Islam, he said, except one thing. I said,
What is that? He said, the way that Islam is treating a woman different than a man.
		

			I said, You're a doctor. You said yes, I said PhD or medical. He said, No, no medical doctor.
		

			I said, you don't know the difference between a man and a woman. And he started laughing. And we
were getting around, you know? And I said, No, seriously, there's a difference between men and women
who said, Absolutely. I said, and do you prescribe exactly the same treatment, or medication for a
patient? That's a woman as an A man? He said, Well, in some cases, you can, but not in all cases,
because then he started explaining why I said, Hold on. That's my point. Exactly. In some cases, you
can see easily that the man and the woman are on equal footing. But in other cases they're not. And
this is when you have to go to what we call equity, meaning to give what's properly due for the
		

			individual or the group, which is not the same as for the other individuals or groups. Let me
explain.
		

			And I began to talk to him about the differences that Islam is offering for men and women.
		

			The first thing and foremost in Islam, that every Muslim has to do is to declare what's called
Shahada. We say eyeshadow en la Ilaha, Illallah. eyeshadow, Mohammed Silva, I bear witness in open
testimony, that there's no God or deity to worship, except the real God. And I bear witness that
Mohammed brought this message and Muhammad peace be upon him is the messenger of God, and I'm going
to do my best to follow him. This is the meaning. And this is the same for men and women the same,
there's no difference. Immediately after a person does this thing called Giada. The next thing
they're responsible for is something called silhouette. The humps five times a day to establish
		

			their prayers to stand, bow, prostrate, and sit and do this repetition five times a day. This is a
form of the bar or worship in Islam. Yes, yes. I said, Now, every Muslim has to do this. How many
times a day five. How many days a week? Seven. How many days a month? 30.
		

			Wait a minute, not women. He said Why? I said during her monthly cycle, her ministration cycle,
which could be seven, eight or 10 days, how many days it is she's forbidden to do her salon or
worship at that time. Why? Well because a VA has ordered it so he does not want her to do that. You
imagine that a woman is in pain and suffering. So Allah doesn't want her distracted in the salon
like this. And he allows her just to keep along the mind by doing what's called Vicar
		

			remembering Allah reciting Quran herself, but she doesn't do this a lot. And she doesn't make it up.
He said, Oh, I didn't think of that. So when there's a lot of things you and I won't think about
because we didn't create human beings. He said, You're right. I said, Okay, next. The next thing
after the Salah is called the car, the car is to pay something on your wealth, how much wealth you
hold in a year's time. And then at the end of the year, whatever you didn't use, you pay a tax on
that, like two and a half percent to the poor and the needy. It's the same for the man as it is for
the woman and there's no difference. He said, Okay, that makes sense. I said, but then the next one
		

			is called Ramadan, Psalm Ramadan, this is fasting. Now, again, all 30 days of the month of Ramadan,
a man and a woman are not supposed to eat or drink, or have intimate relations, except for the
woman. In this case, the woman is excused from those same days again. So if she has 678 or 10 days,
whatever it is, that she's in her cycle, she just marks her calendar for those days. And then she
can make up the fast thing, although she doesn't have to do this a lot that she didn't make that up.
But she can make up the fasting at days of the year, which are more convenient and easier. And by
the way, can you imagine in the hottest time of the year, she's getting time off. And then in the
		

			winter months, she could choose I'll take those easy days. Then we come to the one called hash, and
hash again, there's a difference between men and women. A man must make Hajj or pilgrimage once in
his life when Allah makes a way for him to go. But the woman she doesn't have to do this unless she
has a man to go along with her to protect her and help her. Even if she didn't get to do her Jolo
could give her the reward for it. Because why? Because Allah is giving something better than
equality. He's giving equity. The woman and the man are different. And Allah knows what he created.
And he made this way of life Deen of Islam for what he created. And that's one of the beauties of
		

			Islam. Until next time, peace. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.