The universal and holistic principles of Shari'ah encompass all the basic aspects of human life. They encompass the life of the individual, the family and the society, the relationship of individuals with one another, the foundation in which the state rests, and the principles on which international relations are based. It is set out the laws that govern civil, political, social and economic life, and it has not omitted any respect of human life without setting guidelines. The laws are still ahead of the legislation theories that mankind has produced.
In this regard it is sufficient for us to quote one example to prove how Islam is far head of other systems: the system of inheritance in Islam, which this Shariah brought fifteen hundred years ago, complete, fixed and comprehensive. It is just and fair to all the heirs, sons, and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, and all the relatives. We will appreciate the fact that Islamic Shariah was far ahead of others with regard to this system when we realize that under the legislation system in Britain, as late as the end of the nineteenth century the oldest son still inherited everything and the rest of the heirs were at his mercy; if he wanted he would give them something, and if he wanted he would give them nothing.
Further proof of the way in which Islamic Shariah is ahead of all the legislative systems invented by mankind is to be seen in the ruling that gave women all their rights for the first time in history and allowed them to enjoy full woman rights centuries before the world had heard of human rights organization or charters of human rights.
At that early date, Islam proclaimed that woman are the twin halves of men, as it says in the hadith narrated by Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi, ad-Darimi and Ahmad. At that time Christians societies were uncertain as to whether a woman was even human and were debating the nature of her soul, the Quran proclaimed:
So their Lord accepted of them [their supplication and answered them], 'Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female. You are [members] one of other.' [Quran (3):195]
The Prophet (Peace and Blessing be upon Him) accepted the Bayah (oath of allegiance) from woman on the basis that they would be Muslims and would be Muslims and would hear and obey, just as he used to accept the bayah of men. The women's bayah was given independently of their menfolk and had nothing to do with them. All of that affirms the personal independence of the Muslim woman, and the fact that she is qualified to bear the responsibility of giving bayah, making a pledge and offering her loyalty to Allah and His Messenger. This happened centuries before the modern world gave woman the right to express their opinions independently by means of elections. This is in addition to a great number of other rights such as the right to own wealth and possessions independently, the fact that she is rich and equality with men in terms of human worth, education, discipline and all other duties enjoined by shariah.
What Islam achieved with regard to woman's position fifteen centuries ago in one fell swoop, no one in history has been able to achieve even in the twentieth century.
It is sufficient for us to note that the French Revolution, at the end of the eighteenth century, produced, a document on human rights which was entitled "The Rights of Man". In the first paragraph of this document it says, "Man is born free and cannot be enslaved." There were many attempts to add the words "and woman", but these attempts were rebuffed and the first paragraph of the proclamation of the revolution remained limited to the words, "Man is born free and cannot be enslaved."
A century later, at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, the great French scholar Gustave le Bon stated in his book The Spirit of Society that woman have only been refutation of those who demanded that woman be given equal rights to vote along with men.
This is how things continued until the League of Nations was established after the First World War and the United Nations after the Second World War. The Campaigners for women's rights did not succeed in gaining a statement of woman's equality with men until after a difficulty struggle, because they were up against customs that had their roots in religion which stood as obstacles in their way, and they had no local or international texts of law that they were fair to woman which they could use as a means to overcome those of traditions of traditions that stood in the way of achieving woman's liberation.
In contrast, the texts of Islam in the Quran and Sunnah brought a definitive statement fifteen hundred years ago of equality between a definitive statement fifteen hundred years ago of equality between man and women in terms of reward and punishment, responsibility and reward, worship, human worth and human rights.
The situation of women in ancient laws was very bad, as the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru says in his book The Discovery of India. He said that,
Woman's situation in ancient India was better than ancient Greece, or in ancient Rome, or during the early Christian period. Women had no identity, They had no freedom to dispose of their own affairs, they could not inherit and they enjoyed none of the human rights that men enjoyed. [The Discovery of India]
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