Why Women?

*I was reading through my google doc journals and found something I wrote ten

years ago when I was 30 and 7-months pregnant with twin girls:

November 3, 2015

The Source of Life

I've heard the quote, “Behind every strong man is a strong woman;” if there is truth to that statement, then could we also say, "Behind a weak man is a weak(end) woman?”

When reading about wars of the past and wars of today, I instantly wonder why women are harassed and then ruled with iron hands. Is it because they are more delicate? Because they have less muscle power, making them easier to dominate? Why is it that anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic governments in the Middle East, or when human-devils like ISIS are in control, they immediately place severe restrictions on women's movements, dress code, education, and sometimes exploit them sexually?

After eight years of being a mother of three sons and pregnant with twin girls, I think I now understand why.

Women are the target not because they are the weaker gender but the opposite. I once heard that if you educate a boy, you educate an individual; but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation. ISIS or corrupt legal authorities want to terminate educated, free-thinking, and positive minds – they want to poison the beautiful message of Islam by brainwashing humankind through twisting and staining the nucleus of Islam – they traumatize children by making them witness or commit atrocious crimes and target the heart of society: the female. The woman. The mother.

In Arabic there is a powerful quote: “A mother is a school, preparing her is like preparing a good nation.” But how can a mother prepare her pupils when a cloud of rain rests above her? How can she nurture the children or take care of her husband when she feels defeated? Neglected. Alone. How can she elevate her family when she feels restricted and is denied simple human rights such as hearing a good word or feeling safe and protected? Not just by legal authorities, but sometimes by the very people within her inner circle.

Because I am Muslim and right now we are in the center of ISIS-crisis, I am writing from that lens. However, this is not limited to my faith or to government authorities. This is a human problem everywhere from the inner spaces of homes to the outer spaces of societies.

Just as the flu is contagious so is depression, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, and fear. It spreads like cancer in the home, interchanging between the husband and children, who then spread it to others, continuing into newer generations. Then we are left with a nation of bored, empty, needy, and corrupt individuals who live without questioning their purpose in life, their authority, or the brutal orders given to them that go against the natural compassionate and innocent nature of humans.

When God created Adam (peace be upon him) He gave him everything he could possibly desire and allowed him to live in heaven where life was perfect. But something was missing; life was incomplete; Adam was lonely. Thus, God created for him a living being that was already inside him, his inner strength: Hawaa (Eve). She was a female, a woman, created to live with Adam in peace and in harmony.  She was created with more tenderness and patience to care for him and her home to build him up from the inside out; while he in return protected and cared for her from the outside in.

Is it a coincidence that the first female’s name on earth in Arabic, Hawaa, means the ‘source of life?’

What is Life?

It began with the Spirit of God blown into a lifeless Adam. Then from Adam, the 'source of life' was created from his rib. And from Hawaa began the journey of spirits growing inside wombs. The word womb in Arabic is rahm, which is the root word of 'compassion.' So, the source of life is the carrier of compassion within her womb. The womb of a woman. The compassion of a woman. The most beautiful name and attribute of God is al-Rahman -- The Compassionate.

A woman is the gender with deep-rooted spiritual strength and wisdom. It is her God-given energy that allows her to jump outside of herself so that she may raise, serve, and save humanity in a unique power that only she has.

This is exactly why it is mandatory that a woman be educated so that she may teach her family and those around her how to live purposefully, how to use their mind, how to change the world one letter at a time, and how to anchor to The Compassionate. She does this through her built-in compassionate womb, whether she becomes pregnant or not. It is the same. It is this woman who will heal and revive men, women, and children who have been tortured or have lost hope in humanity. This is the fuel of a woman who has discovered how to ignite the lava that lives within her. She is the woman who knows that she is no different than the moon that lights the night sky with its glowing light; but as soon as she despairs, loses hope, lives in fear, or moves into the morning sky, the luster of the moon will cease to shine.

And when her radiance shatters, society suffers.

The question is: who is shattering the moonlight and why?

It requires a lot of perseverance and an abyss of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual endurance to nurture ‘life’ into each soul, planting the seeds, watering the sprout, pulling the weeds, and God-willing, witnessing the fruitful harvest of a righteous home, a respected community, and of a strong, educated, fair, and powerful nation.

This is why ISIS and dictatorial governments focus on women, turn young boys into soldiers, or force a father to rape his own daughter – as we saw in Bosnia. It is to create a cycle. To destroy the innocence and compassion of humanity and to harvest a land of people who become stale, live in fear, and never dare challenge corrupt authority. This is why the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) emphasized during his last sermon the necessity, no the obligation, to treat women with the greatest care and love and mercy and protection; it is because he understood that to build a pure community, ummah, the men (the gender with the greater physical strength) must be extra caring with the women, for they are the hidden builders of the ummah. The root word of ummah is umm, which means ‘mother’ in Arabic.

A mother. A woman. A female. The gender that holds the recipe to creating a powerful nation -- a nation filled with compassionate and strong men and women. It begins with her then pours over into the home one child at a time.

My heart bleeds for the innocent children, men, and for my sisters in these lands (some of whom are my own blood relatives in Syria and in Iraq).  But to these women I will not say: “Be patient, for God is with the patient.”

No.

I would tell them and to all women whether they are targets of war crimes or carriers of personal wounds to make patience their strength and their beauty. To never let their spirit break, fall into despair, let their minds be controlled, or their tears go dry. A dry eye represents a frozen heart; a frozen heart represents a cold womb; a cold womb lacks compassion; lacking compassion is a life without softness; life without softness is a life disconnected from the-Compassionate; and life disconnected from the-Compassionate is a place where every one falls.

Be that light of the moon that only God can give you. Force that smile on your face...until it is real and shining from inside. Develop yourself so that you can shape the children and empower the men and women around you from the inside out…because you are a woman.

You are the Source of Life.

As the poet William Ross Wallace said:

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.