عمل المرأة المسلمة في ضوء السنة النبوية - مشكلات وحلول: دراسة حالة

Abstract

Islam has given women the right to work. Women in the era of the Prophet PBUH did a lot of work inside and outside homes. Throughout history, women in Muslim countries went out to work. In contemporary Muslim societies; women work alongside men in all areas and fields. Since the mid – 20th century, women in Malaysia began to work outside their homes. Since then, women, especially working mothers, played more than one role in the family and the society. Working women in Malaysia play multiple roles simultaneously. At home, they are wives, mothers and homemakers as much as they are employees in their work places. The double responsibilities often led to clashes and conflicts within these working Malaysian women. Therefore, this study looked at the issue of women working outside their homes. It examined this pertinent issue within the perspective of prophetic traditions. It probed into the situations in conflict, work and family, faced by working women in Malaysian. Using the inductive method, ahadith related to women and employment were identified and extracted. The extracted ahadith were analyzed textually by referring to commentary books of ahadith, previous empirical studies conducted on the issue and other available sources and references. A set of interviews were carried out to complete the study and its analysis. Participants were married working Malaysian women from several public institutions who were selected using probability sampling method. Findings from the study concluded that the participants experienced conflicts in adapting between work and family. The conflict is due to lack of time and stress as a consequence of accumulated responsibilities. The study also established that religiousity and spirituality including knowledge of Islamic creed (i.e. ahadith) played a significant role in the stability of family life.