Page 300 - Christians Must Heed Jesus

Christians Must Heed
Jesus

who fears Him discrimination, the ability to distinguish between right
and wrong. It makes no difference if the person is a man or a woman.
In return for sincerity, purity and faith, God will lead a person onto the
true path in every sphere of his life and give him the intelligence with
which to take accurate decisions and to behave in a proper manner. In-
telligence therefore comes about on the basis of sincere devotion and
proximity to and fear of God, rather than of a person's gender.
The sole measure of superiority among male and female Muslims
who wage an intellectual campaign against irreligious trends in the
name of God is piety. In one verse our Lord says:

Mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you
into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each oth-
er. The noblest among you in God's Sight is the one with the most
piety. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Koran, 49:13)

This verse is the finest answer to the fundamentalists described
above. Those who supposedly point to the Koran as evidence for re-
garding men as superior to women are lying; they are trying to de-
ceive people with invented superstitions. Examination of the verses
of the Koran and the life of our Prophet (pbuh) will suffice to show
that this has nothing to do with the true Islam.
Almighty God speaks of male and female believers in several
verses. Men and women are not kept separate in the Koran. In speak-
ing of believers, God stresses that they must be people of piety, not
whether they are men or women. The distinction in terms of superior-
ity in the Koran is between believers who do good works and hyp-
ocrites and unbelievers, not between men and women. Everyone who
acts in the light of the wisdom bestowed by faith, whether male or fe-
male, can achieve success in all areas of life and move ahead of a great
many other people. This is entirely dependent on a person's ambition,
wishes and enthusiasm. As stipulated by the moral values of Islam, be-

lievers never regard themselves as sufficient on any matter. They al-

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