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Essay Number 3: Status of Women in the Qur’an For women, Islam is a special blessing; and the Prophet of Islam is indeed the greatest single benefactor of womenfolk. In Arabia, before the advent of Islam, the birth of a female child was regarded as a great misfortune and a shame, and cruel fathers buried them alive: "When news is brought to one of them of (the birth) of a female (child), his face darkens, and he is filled with inner grief. With shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news he has had. Shall he retain it on sufferance and contempt, or bury it in the dust? Ah! What an evil choice they decide on." (The Qur'an: 16:58-59). Islam made this primal injustice a case for the highest court when on the Day of Judgment "the female (infant) buried alive, will be asked for what crime she was killed." (The Qur'an: 81:8-9). In a world where woman was no more than an object of sexual gratification for men, and at a time when the religious circles argued over whether woman was human or not, with a soul of her own, Islam proclaimed, "O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female." (The Qur'an 49:13). "O Mankind! Reverence your Guardian-Lord, Who created you from a single person, cr