Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim, male and female. What each person must learn varies with their circumstances — and a woman's circumstances generate a particular set of requirements that general books address only in passing.
The Difficulty This Book Addresses
Women need knowledge to carry out their duties according to Islam. They also frequently find it hard to obtain, for reasons of modesty and the conditions in which knowledge is usually transmitted. A woman with a question about purification may have no appropriate person to ask, and the alternative — asking nobody and guessing — is how uncertainty about prayer and fasting persists for years.
A comprehensive written reference solves that. She can look it up, in private, and know.
What Is Covered
- Matters of faith — the creed a Muslim woman must hold, and the beliefs that undermine it
- The acts of worship — prayer, fasting, Zakah and Hajj, with the provisions specific to women
- Purification in detail — wudu, ghusl, and the rulings of menstruation, postpartum bleeding and istihadah, which is the subject most in need of length
- Marriage and divorce — the contract, rights and obligations, the wali, khul', 'iddah and what follows
- Other important issues that arise for women in the ordinary course of life
Its Scale
This is the substantial one. Where a booklet gives a woman the outline, this gives her the reference she keeps — enough depth to settle a question rather than sketch it, arranged so the relevant section can be found without reading the whole.
That makes it particularly suitable as a teaching text. Sisters' classes and study circles can work through it in sequence, and each section holds enough material for a proper session.
Who It Is For
Muslim women who want one authoritative reference rather than several partial ones. Sisters' study circles and Islamic schools. New Muslim women past the introductory stage. Teachers. Also husbands and fathers, who are often the ones asked and rarely the ones who know.
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