Saturday 15/November/2025 – 07:20 AM
Dr. Abbas Shoman, Secretary-General of the Council of Senior Scholars at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, President of the International Organization of Al-Azhar Graduates, said that no nation, no matter how much wealth it possesses, can advance except with knowledge in the various branches of knowledge. With knowledge, people emerge from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge and guidance, which is an essential mission for our Messenger – may God bless him and grant him peace – to whom his Lord said: {A Book which We have revealed to you. To bring people out of darkness into light,” indicating that knowledge protects people from being deceived by those who are tempted and have desires.
He stressed during the lecture he delivered at An-Najah University in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, under the title “Correct knowledge is a bulwark against blinding minds,” that some women’s issues are being exploited by some under the pretext of fairness and empowerment. They promote false claims that they claim are for the sake of enlightenment and correction, including their call to demand equality between men and women in inheritance, claiming that women in our time work and spend like men, and that the Sharia ruling that made their share half His share was appropriate for the era of revelation, stressing that this is a false statement that contradicts the texts of Sharia law and its just wisdom.
Abbas Shoman: Whoever claims that women are treated unfairly in inheritance is ignorant of the provisions of Sharia law
Dr. Shoman explained that a woman takes half of a man’s share in only four cases: a daughter with a son, a son’s daughter with a son’s son, a full sister with a full brother, and a paternal sister with a paternal brother. He explained that these cases do not oppress women; Because Sharia law takes into account the financial burdens that each party bears, the man is responsible for the dowry, alimony, and family expenses, while the woman is provided for and is not responsible for spending, indicating that saying that women in the past did not work, so the man deserved the increase, is a historical fallacy. Since ancient times, women have participated in spinning, trade, serving the community, and participating in jihad by giving water to soldiers and treating the wounded.
He added that saying that a woman is always entitled to half of a man is incorrect, as she is sometimes equal to him, such as in the case of parents if their son dies, as God Almighty says: {And to his parents, to each one of them is a sixth}. She also takes more than it in other cases, such as if she dies and leaves behind a daughter and a husband, so the daughter inherits three-quarters of the estate, while the husband only gets a quarter. In fact, sometimes the woman may inherit but he does not. The man, as in the case of the maternal grandfather and grandmother, where the entire estate goes to the grandmother and not the grandfather.
Dr. Shoman pointed out that the largest inheritance obligation, which is two-thirds of the estate, only women inherit, namely daughters or sisters, stressing that these examples refute the claim of those who claim that Islam oppresses women in inheritance, and without sound knowledge, it would not be possible to uncover and refute these fallacies.
At the conclusion of his lecture, the Secretary-General of the Council of Senior Scholars at Al-Azhar recommended to all students and researchers the need to be careful to seek knowledge from its correct sources, and to verify everything that is raised in legal and intellectual issues, so that they do not fall into the traps of misguided people, and are able to protect people from deviant ideas and false allegations.
