The book opens by clearing away a misconception that troubles a great many people, Muslim and otherwise.
Men have duties that are not binding upon women — praying in congregation, providing for the family, fighting in the way of Allah. Women have duties that are not binding upon men — wearing hijab, raising children while the men are out working. This is a distribution of duties, and nothing more than that. It is not a ranking, and reading it as one produces resentment on one side and arrogance on the other, both misplaced.
The Choice in the Title
Having established that, the author puts the question. Will a woman follow the ideas and morals formulated by human beings, whose understanding is inherently limited and whose standards change with the decade? Or will she follow what her Lord commanded, from the One who made her and knows what she is for?
The book is candid that this is a choice, made repeatedly, in circumstances where the first option is easier and better rewarded socially.
What the Book Covers
The chapters address the two things that most often decide the outcome:
The soul and the Shaitan. The Qur'an's repeated warnings about him, his persistence in misguiding people, and his particular attention to belief and to prayer. The book traces where he waits — as a person leaves the house and as they enter it, during sleep, in the marketplace and wherever transactions take place, and whenever a man and a woman who are not married or related are alone together. It closes with how he is repelled.
The tongue. Lying, slander (namimah), backbiting, bearing false witness, and the specific matter of one woman describing another woman to her husband. This section is unusually direct, and it is the one readers report finding hardest.
Who It Is For
Muslim women weighing competing standards honestly. Sisters' study circles. Young women forming their own positions rather than inheriting them. Anyone who has noticed how much damage a conversation can do and wants the subject treated seriously.
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