I was in Borders Orchard Rd, Singapore searching for my always wanted Quantitative Interpretation book when I came across this book. The title just moved me. Half the sky; how to change the world. I picked it up, flipped through and immidiately went to the cashier and pay. When i started reading it, I was moved since the first story is about cambodian girl trafficked and sent to brothels in Kuala Lumpur.
I read every word, from page to page, and can't wait to know what's the next story. The internet has talked about it, and Nick has set up a webpage for this book. And it reminds me to one of the main objectives when we conduct all of our daawah programmes or even organise any of the wasail tarbiyyah...
Others might dessiminate knowledge, but we motivate you to change. CHANGE is a big word. Especially when it comes from jahiliah to islam. This book illustrate how powerful women is to be catalyst if not main mechanism of change.
And all these changes were made possible only by AL-FAHMU. Hassan Al Banna outlined al fahmu as the first pillar in his arkanul baiah. In Chapter 1:Iman of Maudidi's famous book "Let us be Muslim" he outlined the essential of knowledge for being a Muslim as the first subtopic of that chapter. In Nick's half the sky, he showed statistics of what happen to the economy, and social well being if we send women to school. To stress more on its importance, Allah the al-rahman reveal IQRA as the first ayah and surah of the Quran.
Khadijah: First to understand and change.
Khadijah was the first women to understand, and she has became the backbone of what islam that we see today, as a saying goes " Islam did not spread without the Ali's sword and Khadijah's wealth". When Islam came under mounting pressure from its enemies, Khadijah sacrificed her comforts, her wealth and her home for it; and now it would appear that she sacrificed her life too, in the way of Islam. Without a doubt, if she had lived in her palatial house in Makkah, surrounded by her maid-servants, she might have lived for many more years.
But she preferred to stand by her husband and his clan, and to share the hardships of life with them. During the siege, she had to endure not only the pangs of hunger and thirst but also the extremes of heat in summer and cold in winter; yet she never complained to her husband about them. Whether times were good or bad, whether she had plenty or she had nothing, she was always cheerful. Austerity and privation never soured her. It was this temperament that was an unfailing source of comfort, courage and strength for her husband during the blackest and trying moments of his life.(islamicoccasions.com)
Half of Malaysian population now is women. Surely we cannot neglect women in their role to mould the society. They are staffs that contribute to half of the country's wealth. They are the GMs and VPs of big organisations that make big decisions and drive the country towards its excellence now. They are the mothers who gave births to a lot more other leaders. They are the teachers that teaches our children every day. They are the students that filled more than half of Malaysian universities. Well now they are something.
Let us women who understands islam, spread the understanding to other women around us. Let us play our role. And let us aspire to be the next Khadijah, and hold up half the sky....
