made a training ground for the development of the feeling of love and service. Here a man finds a real pleasure in suffering for the sake of others, and the sense of service is thus gradually developed and broadened.
Special emphasis has been laid in Islām on the mutual rights and responsibilities of husbands and wives. The position of the wife in the family was, according to the Holy Prophet, that of a ruler (Bu. 67:91), and in a number of ḥadīth the Holy Prophet has emphasized the rights of women. The husband was required to provide for the maintenance of the wife and for her lodging according to his means.11 The wife was bound to keep company with her husband, to preserve the husband’s property from loss or waste and to refrain from doing anything which should disturb the peace of the family.12 Stress was laid on kindly and good treatment of the wife. “Keep them in good fellowship” (2:229), “Treat them kindly” (4:19) is the oft-recurring advice, so much so that kindness was recommended even if a man disliked his wife (4:19). Good treatment towards the wife was a criterion of good morals: “The most excellent of you is he who is best in the treatment of his wife” (MM. 13:11-ii). While imparting advice to his followers at the Farewell Pilgrimage, the Holy Prophet said:
“O my people! you have certain rights over your wives and so have your wives over you.. .They are the trust of Allāh in your hands. So you must treat them with all kindness”.13
Islām places great emphasis on the necessity for hard work and the dignity of labour. The principle was laid down in the earliest revelations in unequivocal terms that no one who does not work shall hope to reap any fruit and that the worker should have his full reward: “That man can have nothing but what he strives for; and that his striving will soon be seen. Then he will be rewarded for it with the fullest reward” (53:39-41); “So whoever does good deeds and is a believer, there is no rejection of his effort, and We surely write it down for him” (21:94). Equal stress is laid in the Holy Qur’ān, on faith and work: “those who believe and do good” is the ever-recurring description of the faithful.
12 Bu. 67:87.
13 MM. 15:19.