Love for Women: Now vs. Then

Love for Women: Now vs. Then

My niece sent me a song. She sent it to me because she found it interesting that the song sings my name "Afreen Afreen", which naturally evoked my curiosity too. Beautiful song. Beautifully sung. But I was more focused on the lyrics which describes the beauty of a woman. The part which I loved the most is when he says "its impossible to praise her enough (as really words can´t ever do justice to her)". But the sad part is... Its ALL about the PHYSICAL beauty of a woman! The 1st stanza is explicitly about the beauty of her BODY, then her face, then her eyes, then her hair... and then the song ends. I found this too shallow. How I wish the beauty of a woman in the eyes of men didn´t confine to just her physical beauty! This physical beauty of his beloved that this man so passionately describes about, will all one day wither away. Once she gives life to another human being, the "smooth sandalwood" will be replaced by stretch marks. And if she lives long enough, this "marble like sculptured body" that he is praising, will be covered with saggy muscles and her "splendidly luminous, dazzlingly radiant, moon like face" will be shrouded by wrinkles. The "lotus flower" will wilt! Will she cease to be beautiful then? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Because a woman is not that shallow that her beauty be described only by that which doesn't last. Her beauty does not have an expiry date!

In one of the beautiful hadiths of my beloved Prophet (peace be upon him), he says that one of the three things beloved to him from this world is women. He said women! He didn't say "beautiful women". He didn't say "young women". He said women! So if you are a woman, you are in! All it takes for you to be loved by the best man to have ever walked on the face of this earth is to be a woman! Period! And when the prophet (peace be upon him) says he loves something, thats an indication for his followers to follow suit.

Why?
Because the very entry of a man into to this world is through a woman, if he does not respect her, he does not respect himself.
The only way he can make sure he continues his progeny on this earth is through a woman, if he does not embrace her, he loses his legacy.
But wait a minute, even if you are a woman who cannot give birth, you are still in. Because those are not the only reasons he loves you. When he said "women", he meant the 'qualities of women'. And through this, you, me and all the women of the world have the scope to be in!

The explanation of the hadith says that women by nature possess qualities that are beloved to Allah. Whereas men usually have to learn those qualities. One of them is 'rahma' (mercy). Most women in their nature have 'rahma'. The very word 'rahma' in arabic is derived from the word 'womb'. And only a woman has a womb!
Another quality of women is that they are less egoistic by nature than men which makes them more forbearing. And also they are more modest by nature than men.

Now the most flabbergasting part is, Allah calls Himself by these attributes. He calls Himself Ar-Rahman - The Most Merciful. He calls Himself Al-Haleem - The Most Forbearing. He calls him Himself Al-Hayyee -The Most Modest.
One of the scholars said, "the secret of this hadith is that the greatest contemplation of Allah's attributes is in women. Contemplating on a woman's qualities, there are more divine qualities manifested in a woman than in a man" (and Allah knows best). If this is not celebrating womanhood at its best, then what is?!!