Introduction Woman's status in Islam is one of the most controversial and serious issues of our time, not only among Muslim women and those who represent them in the area of women's rights in the Islamic world, but also among fundamentalist Muslims. The reader may find himself confused owing to the large number of books that treat this subject, for the most part, superficially and partially. Some cover Islam's achievements for the woman,(1) maintaining that it was Islam that gave the woman her rights and honour,(2) while others blame all the disadvantages in the position of Muslim women on Islam.(3) Since in this book we mean by Islam what…

What is religion? This question has puzzled theologians throughout human history. But how did religion start in the first place? Why did it start? In order to understand some of these issues, let us have a look at the etymology of the word “religion” itself, and see that when and where this word was used for the very first time in the human history.

The word religion was used for the very first time in the Latin language. The actual word used in Latin was “religio”, which changed into religion when came into English. The roots of the Arabic word “Mazhab” or “Deen” can also be traced back to “religio”. In the Latin language, the word “religio” had three basic meanings; which are Faith, Trust & Belief.

If you further analyse these three words, faith, trust and belief; then you realize that there are actually three different characteristics