Leaving aside the question of female education...

Leaving aside the question of female education, they are in a mess in respect of all other questions. Their family life is far less happy than ours. COMPULSION OF HISTORY Some people think that the deterioration and corruption of the family system is due to women's liberation which, in turn, is the unavoidable result of industrial life and the progress of science and civilisation. It is a question of compulsion of history.

We have no alternative but to submit to this corruption and chaos, and to forget all about the domestic happiness which we enjoyed before. This way of thinking is very superficial and childish. We admit that industrial life has affected family relations and is still affecting it, but the main factors, which have disrupted family life in Europe, are two: One of them consists of the foolish and cruel customs, usages and laws which were prevalent in Europe till a century ago.

It was only at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that women in Europe secured the right of ownership of property. The other factor is that those who undertook to improve the position of women chose a wrong path: They intended to beautify her eyebrows, but deprived her of her eyesight! More than the industrial life, the old laws of Europe and the reforms of the modernists are responsible for the present chaos and confusion.

Hence, there is no compelling reason for us, the Muslims of the East, to go the way they have gone and fall into the morass into which they have fallen. We should be cautious about western life. We should look at the western life cautiously.

While utilising and acquiring their sciences, industries, techniques and some commendable and imitable social regulations we should refrain from imitating their customs, usages and laws which have brought so much miseries to them - for example amending civil laws and family relations and conforming them to the western laws. Previous…