Women and Career: What to consider when making a choice

[mmb786]

Asalaamualykum,

Sister, I understand where you are coming from, Jazak'Allah for your response Thank you. I would like to mention two things;
1) I really wanted to go to umm-ul-qura university (makkah), and as I have mentioned I dont have a practicing family (apart from my mother), therefore, I have no mehram that is willing to go with me not even for a two year course. I have enrolled on a arabic language course which i will be starting very soon insha'Allah.

2) I believe that its not only haraam for a muslimah but also for a muslim male to go to a mixed education institute or university, I dont feel that this should only apply to the female; what is wrong is wrong in Allah eyes whether male or female. However, being settled in London for a long time, hijrah or moving to an arab/islamic country is also very expensive and difficult to do and making such decisions requires time and finance. I do want to educate and get a degree at least. I do have to earn and be a little independent for certain reasons. I mean to say that if one is married and somthing nauthubillah goes wrong i.e. husband passes away and one has children, in order to work one requires an education; so where would one stand then.

sis you right it is definitely, absolutely, profoundly haraam for a muslim male to intermingle with women, i did'nt mean its fine... but just because you a female and i was replying to your question i used the word "muslimah". i do understand that you want to be educated, but i dont understand why cant you be educated from home? theres unisa, demelin etc etc that can give you proper, complete education and degrees. coz once you go into medicine you gotta mix with non-mahrams sum time or the other like at seminars and also when you complete you have to treat male patients. anyway its your decision in the end so i guess you just do what you feel is right.

[Fatima Noor]

I myself am going to university in September.

Are you doing dentistry at university? Its just a general question, just out of curiosity hope you dont mind.

[gabriel]

Go seek the competencies of a Scholars on varies rulings and then the guidance of a Sheikh throughout the lifetime of your working life including University, work, etc.

The problem as your have been made aware is not just University or working but the culture they surrounds regards to being anti - sunni. I use the word Sunni specifically because it provides more clarity on the culture you are faced with.

The example you give about long hours of work is not against Islam however it is not the Sunnah, does this make sense?

Many non-muslim if they apply methods and lessons from the Sunni would have a more fulfilling life. So it is the culture that is infectious and suffocating.

It is designed to squeeze the life out of you and then you have to answer to Allah for acts and crimes committed against his will.

[Fatima Noor]

I also think that their are many doctors, and dentists but not many people who teach the Qur'an which is the ultimate cure. On the death bed with no medicine is working its Allah's word that will really help at that point .

[Fatima Noor]

Jazak'Allah Khair may Allah SWT reward everybody who posted Ameen, Ameen, Ameen.

[gabriel]

I also think that their are many doctors, and dentists but not many people who teach the Qur'an which is the ultimate cure. On the death bed with no medicine is working its Allah's word that will really help at that point .

i think you are stating the obvious here but that should not be a reasoning to undermine the profound contribution of medicine and the practice as a whole.

No doubt the Quran has a cure to many illnesses but it is not its purpose. The sunnah however is the key to a prosperous and healthy living a life free of diseases and illnesses.

Just thought I would add this clarity since many Great Scholars, pious kings, Kaliphs had many physicians around them

[Fatima Noor]

So it is the culture that is infectious and suffocating.

It is designed to squeeze the life out of you and then you have to answer to Allah for acts and crimes committed against his will.

I 100% agree with you, I really like the way you explained this, masha'Allah. Doing medicine is a very noble profession, when I say I dont want to do it people say well Hazarat Aisha held knowledge of medicine. But the thing is look at medicine now a days, I think it just honestly defeats the purpose. My intention was already getting corrupted; I was seeking to do voluntary work with poor, needy children and in old homes not because I wanted to help them so that I please my Rabb, rather to satisfy the entry requirements of med school. The competition, the way the degree is set out is really ... incorrect (if I were to use a mild term)!

Unfortunately I find that in modern times although slogans of moderation are screamed from every corner, there is no moderation in our lives which are dominated by western culture; and I fond it strange that when it comes to careers be is any we always want the best and we will not let anything stand in the way, but when it comes to the practice of Islam/Deen we judge it it in terms of how moderate it is (in reality how much it allows us to follow our desires). Whatever happen to "I dedicate myself and my children in the way pf Allah SWT and the propagation of HIS deen and HIS Divine rule" a phrase not many tongues have uttered in these dark times, how unfortunate are we.

[Starting_anew]

Are you doing dentistry at university? Its just a general question, just out of curiosity hope you dont mind.

Asalamwalaikum,

No I will be doing Project Management masters. Interestingly enough the local masjid is literally half a mile from my student hall only. Why is it so close? Because it was the students at the university who set it up alhumdullilah. To me that is a great blessing and all those who followed in their footsteps. I'm mentioning it specifically to indicate that they did good in their time there.

[Starting_anew]

Go seek the competencies of a Scholars on varies rulings and then the guidance of a Sheikh throughout the lifetime of your working life including University, work, etc.

The problem as your have been made aware is not just University or working but the culture they surrounds regards to being anti - sunni. I use the word Sunni specifically because it provides more clarity on the culture you are faced with.

The example you give about long hours of work is not against Islam however it is not the Sunnah, does this make sense?

Many non-muslim if they apply methods and lessons from the Sunni would have a more fulfilling life. So it is the culture that is infectious and suffocating.

It is designed to squeeze the life out of you and then you have to answer to Allah for acts and crimes committed against his will.

Asalamwalaikum,

Based on my personal experience working in the NHS i will have to agree with this. We work 12 hour shifts, and I know doctors do similiar things. It makes it impossible for me in my current work environment to do Salat. Not only that I find it tremendously frustrating to not be in a state of wudhu. Having said that, for doctors this is a 'phase'. It is a sizeable chunk of one's youth, but one can progress into doing things which sit much more comfortably with practicing Islam. Again speaking personally, most of the doctors in my family are pillars of their community. They sit on masjid boards, they fundraise, they help construct new masajid, they donate generously, they network. I think we shouldn't underestimate that at all. As a whole in the UK specifically, we are underrepresented in the professional classes and out of the people in the professional classes, it is the doctors who stand out most as helping the Ummah in this country. It is shocking but unfortunately true that considering the economic power of muslim traders, in our masajid their contribution is outweighed by doctors. Anyway that is a side issue. Time for tarawi!

[bintAmirah]

Assalaamu'alaikum,

I have some experiences of this issue. I have just completed my undergraduate studies at a university in the UK and had a place held for clinical medicine there, a place which I have just declined, today.

After studying on the medical route for the past 3 years, I decided that I felt it would be too difficult to balance life as a practicing doctor and priorities with children and my ambitions for studying the deen. However, what everyone on the thread should realise is that the most important thing for us is not to throw around fatawa ourselves about whether going to university or not is haram, as there are differing opinions among scholars on the issue. I have consulted a number of eminent scholars from ahl al-sunnah wa al-jama'ah, both in the UK and abroad, on this topic, and the overarching opinion I heard was that studying medicine and studying the deen are both noble, and medical knowledge is second only to deeny knowledge as Imam al-Shafi'i has told us.

It is possible to go to university and maintain one's deen. MashaAllah I know of a number of very practicing students who are making great contributions to university Islamic societies, gaining a beneficial education and also studying the deen and developing their knowledge and practice of tasawwuf. It is difficult but it is not impossible, so people should not throw around opinions of university being haram in such a sweeping manner.

As for me, different scholars narrated to me different opinions, and although studying medicine would be a noble thing to do, as after all some women do need to work in fields for which there is a fard kifaya, such as in medicine and teaching, I decided that it was not for me. Mufti Kamaluddin Ahmed in particular is of the opinion that there are enough female doctors in the UK, not necessarily muslims but at least female, and with all of the difficulties of medical training here, having to abide by the dress code and having to treat male patients, these disadvantages outweigh the possible benefits of practicing medicine, especially as the ultimate focus for Muslim women should be raising their children. If there was a sister desperately keen to practice medicine, she could of course study medicine in a Muslim country and specialise in gynaecology or paediatrics and practice here, but again the time commitment would mean that to be able to do justice in raising one's kids, she would have to limit the number of children she would have, which for me was the biggest deterring factor in all of this.

secondly, you must wear their uniforms which are not covering

they have a policy of short sleeves because apparently they believe long sleeves spread diseases and they don't compromise on this issue so you will be wearing short sleeves, many muslimahs left their medical career and switched to things like teaching once they enforced this rule upon them

As an aside, Muslim women can make do with the uniform policies, such as getting hold of plastic disposable sleeves and wearing full surgical gowns in theatre, for example. I know a niqabi sister practicing medicine who, although not wearing niqab in hospital, is able to maintain her hijab and practice with haya. As I mentioned above, doing medicine is not impossible, and it is very noble, though in the current climate I wouldn't advise sisters to follow this route, particularly with the state of the ummah as it is, and the huge importance of raising our children to be strong muslims, on the deen who will be able to withstand the evils and fitnah of society here in the west.

InshaAllah I hope this has been of some benefit.

Wassalaam