When a person foreign to the religion of Islam looks at Muslims, particularly the practicing women, they will likely see many of them wearing the hijab (clothes covering the entire body, excluding the face and hands). Sadly, many who live in the West will automatically look at that and think of oppression. However, when did wearing more clothes equal oppression? When did that mean that the men living with these women are abusing and harassing them off their human rights? Did one stop and actually ask those women if they are indeed being oppressed? One has to genuinely ask him/herself these and see if there are any hidden biases in one’s thought processes.

We have to be fair and look at the actual teachings of Islam, see what is said about women’s rights, and then decide if there is equality or not. In the Qur’an, we see that God says,

“O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.“

[Qur’an 49:13]

Thus, we can see that to God, nobility is determined by piety. He did not mention anything else. He did not mention gender nor race. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Women are the full siblings of men.”¹

The default in Islam is that men and women are treated the same – they have the same rights and same responsibilities. However and rightfully so, there are some situations where men may have certain rights and responsibilities that women won’t have and the opposite where women will have more. We cannot deny scientifically that men and women are different, whether it’s biologically, hormonally, or psychologically. Thus, treating them exactly the same in every situation would not be just. God acknowledges that in Islam. For example, when women are on their menstrual period, they are excluded from their daily prayers. Men obviously can never have that exception. Men have the financial responsibility of taking care of his wife and children. Women don’t.

An article by Yaqeen Institute explains, “Historically, the Qur’an and Sunnah were viewed as neither oppressive nor regressive, but rather advocates on behalf of women. No narrations can be found from any of the Prophet ﷺ’s female companions ever complaining about the revelation itself nor the manner in which the Prophet ﷺ implemented it.“²

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1. Musnad Aḥmad, no. 5869; Sunan al-Tirmidhī, no. 105; Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 204, authenticated by al-Albānī in al-Silsilah al-Ṣaḥīḥah (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma‘ārif, 1996), 6:860, no. 2862.
2. https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/we-used-to-have-no-regard-for-women-gender-equity-the-advent-of-islam

Ah, iron. our beloved metal. Where do we begin with its benefits? LiveScience has a nice article on it online, which you can find on the footnote¹. However, as you may know, because it is used to make steel, much of our refined metals have iron in it. It is also in us, specifically in hemoglobin, which is a protein in our blood that carries oxygen. It is even important for plants in the production of chlorophyll.

So where are we going with all this? In the Qur’an, God says in Surah Al-Hadid (The Iron),

“Indeed, We sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and with them We sent down the Scripture and the balance ˹of justice˺ so that people may administer justice. And We sent down iron with its great might, benefits for humanity…“

[Qur’an 57:25]

What’s unique is that God usually says He creates something. He mentions in the Qur’an how he created us, the heavens, Earth, life, and death. He could’ve said that here as well, or even said “We dug out” because iron is mined, but He didn’t. So why say “sent”?

Muslims believe that because the Qur’an is God’s speech, He is specific with His word choice and what you may not know is that actually, a lot of iron on the Earth’s crust is not from here! In fact, scientists say they came from supernovas of stars in the form of flying objects, such as meteorites. They’re even given a specific name – iron meteorites. When some massive stars die, they explode, and the iron in them spread throughout space, sometimes colliding with other heavenly bodies, and this planet happened to be one of them. Thus, the word “sent” makes sense!

Now it gets more interesting! When the Qur’an was revealed, Arabic numbers we know of today did not exist. A system was used where the letters of the Arabic alphabets were used as numbers. The number assigned to each letter is its “Gematrical Value” or Abjad value. Other cultures in the past have done this as well.

When you take the Arabic letters of “Hadid”, from the title of the Surah, you get ha which equals 8, da which equals 4, ya which equals 10, and again da which equals 4. The sum is 26. What’s so special about that? Well, what’s the atomic number of iron? That’s right – 26! Now if you add the definitive “Al” (meaning “The”) before the Hadid, alif equals 1 and lam equals 30. That is 31, and 26 + 31 is 57. Al-Hadid is also the 57th Surah in the Qur’an!

But wait, there’s more! Some Islamic scholars suggest that the phrase “Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem”, which appears in the beginning of every Surah, except one (Surah Ar-Rahman), is considered an Ayah when you count the total Ayahs of a Surah. Some say it is not. Regardless, we get some interesting facts both ways. If you count that as the 1st Ayah, iron is mentioned in the 26th Ayah. And if you don’t count it, the word “Allah” is mentioned 26 times from the beginning of the Surah up to the ending of the Ayah that mentions iron! Go ahead and check!

To end it all, iron has four stable isotopes: 54, 56, 58, aaaaaaannnddddd you might have guessed it, 57! In fact, 57 is special too because it is the only one amongst them that has a negative spin.

Yes, sometimes people look too much into numbers. There can be a serious obsession with coincidences. Some people even use numbers in religious texts to attempt to predict the future! But when one sees all the examples given above, can we truly say these are just coincidences? Or is it perhaps that God, the Creator of the worlds and the Author of the Qur’an from 1,400+ years ago, knew that in the future, there will come about the periodic table and numbers given to isotopes and thus, He chose to crafted this Surah in such a way to make us discover all these hidden gems?

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1. https://www.livescience.com/29263-iron.html