Religious Problem in India

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophist Office Adyar

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THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM IN INDIA
women of veracity, and the patient men and the patient women, and the humble men and the humble women, and the alms-givers of either sex, and the men who fast, and the women who fast, and the chaste men and the cliaste women, and those of either sex wlio remember God frequently; for them hath God prepared forgiveness and a great reward."* "I will mot snffer the work of him among you who worketh to be lost, whether he be male or female; the one of you is from the other.”+
Moreover, a great respect to women was inculcated by the Prophet: “O men ! fear your Lord, who hath created you ont of one man, and out of him created his wife, and from them two hath multiplied many men and women; and fear God by whom ye beseech one another, and respect women who have borne von, for God is watching over."| "Men's souls are naturally inclined to covetousness; but if ye be kind to women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do.''
Nor were the teachings of Prophet confined to generalities; he lays down the law by which women are to betreated in matters of inheritance, a law far more jnst, far more liberal in the matter of independence, than was the law in Christian England until some twenty years ago. The law of Musulmāns regarding women has been a model. They have been guarded in their own property ; they cannot be deprived of a
* Ibill, Chap. xxxiii. + 1bilChajji. I Ibid, Chap. iv. Ś Ibid, Chap. iv.