02 - Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Burying their Daughters Alive - Ramadan Reflections 2023

On the second day of Ramadan 2023/1444, we review the theme of "Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Burying their Daughters Alive." The first major theme we review from the Quran is the attitude and way that the pre-Islamic Arabs treated girls – most notably their daughters. The collection of verses which we wish to review today contains multiple discussions with them such as: Irregular beliefs about Allah and Strange ways of understanding their relationship with Allah. We focus on Sūrah al-Nahl (16), Verses 58-60 in which Allah says: "When any of them is given news of the birth of a girl, his face becomes overcast, and he is (as if choking inwardly) with suppressed anger. He hides himself from the people because of the evil (as he wrongly supposes it) of what he has had news of. (So he debates within himself:) Shall he keep her with dishonor or bury her in earth? Look now! how evil is the judgment they make (concerning Allah, and how evil is the decision they debate)!" Although killing another human is a sick act, however what makes it worse is when a person has the audacity to kill their own flesh and blood; that too a child that is defenceless and that too by burying them alive. We will review this and other issues in this episode of Ramadan Reflections for 2023.