URDU - Women's Economic Independence and Employment: An Analytical Study in the Light of Islamic Teachings and Jurisprudential Thought

عورت کی معاشی خودمختاری اور ملازمت: اسلامی تعلیمات اور فقہی افکار کی روشنی میں ایک تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Abstract

Women’s employment is still one of the most important contemporary juristic and social issues that continues to generate scholarly debate across the Muslim world. The phenomenon of women participation in economic activities is becoming more and more common with the expansion of modern education, urbanisation, economic development and professional opportunities. This transformation has raised critical questions regarding Islam’s position on women’s work, the legal and ethical boundaries of such work, and how contemporary Muslim jurists have treated this question both from an intellectual and methodological perspective. The present study is an analytical and comparative study of women’s employment in the light of the Qur’an, the Prophetic Sunnah, classical jurisprudence and contemporary scholars’ opinion. For the deeper scholarly dimensions of the issue and to go beyond the simplistic debate of permissibility versus prohibition, a descriptive, analytical and comparative research methodology has been employed.

The results show that Islam considers women as independent legal and economic persons. The Qur’an confirms women’s rights to own property, inherit and earn legally, and the Sunnah provides many examples of women’s involvement in trade, education, health care and social welfare activities. In the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, the principle of women’s financial autonomy is recognised but they stress that the practical application of economic activities should be within the framework of Islamic ethics, modesty, family responsibilities and moral boundaries. The study concludes that the most authoritative and balanced juristic position is neither an absolute prohibition nor an unrestricted freedom, but rather a conditional permissibility. This view is more in line with the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the principles of fiqh, and the objectives of the Shariah (Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah). It also offers a more pragmatic and balanced approach to managing the realities of contemporary Muslim societies.