Isu wanita dalam Islam adalah jelas dan tidak pernah diperdebatkan di kalangan umat Islam. Allah (SWT) menciptakan lelaki dan wanita serta menetapkan tanggungjawab umum bagi kedua-duanya, seperti memikul Da'wah dan menuntut pemerintah supaya bertanggungjawab, di samping menentukan tanggungjawab khusus bagi setiap jantina. Umat Islam mengakui bahawa kedaulatan adalah milik Allah, dan hukum-hakam yang berkaitan dengan lelaki dan wanita ialah hukum Islam yang diperoleh melalui ijtihad berdasarkan dalil. Secara tersirat, umat Islam mengakui bahawa proses ijtihad dan konsep dalil tidak bergantung kepada jantina, dan oleh itu, pemahaman Islam yang bersifat "lelaki" atau "wanita" tidak pernah wujud. Satu-satunya pemahaman yang dihasilkan Islam bagi sebarang konsep atau hukum ialah pemahaman syarak yang berdasarkan dalil. Akibatnya, semua umat Islam, sama ada lelaki atau wanita, berpegang kepada hukum-hakam Islam secara menyeluruh, dan umat Islam yang memiliki pemahaman ini terselamat daripada "perang jantina" yang terus menghantui Barat sehingga hari ini.

The issue of woman in Islam was clear and never debated among Muslims. Allah (swt) created men and women and legislated general responsibilities for both, such as carrying the Daw'ah and holding the rulers accountable, in addition to designating specific responsibilities for each gender. Muslims acknowledged that sovereignty belongs to Allah, and the rules related to both men and women are Islamic rules deduced through ijtihad based upon the daleel. It was implicitly recognized among Muslims that the process of ijtihad and the concept of daleel are not sex-dependent, and thus, a "male" or "female" understanding of Islam never emerged. The only understanding that Islam produced for any concept or rule was the legal understanding based upon the daleel. As a result, all Muslims, whether man or woman, adhered to the Islamic rules in their entirety, and the Muslims with this understanding were saved from the "sex wars" that continue to plague the West until today.

Itulah pemahaman yang kurang dimiliki oleh kaum Muslimin dalam menghadapi serangan dari Barat mengenai kedudukan wanita dalam Islam. Serangan ideologi yang dilancarkan oleh Barat menimbulkan persoalan berkaitan Sistem Sosial Islam, seperti mengapa lelaki dibenarkan menikahi empat orang wanita dan mengapa wanita wajib menutup seluruh tubuhnya kecuali muka dan tangan. Lebih merosakkan lagi ialah konsep kedudukan wanita dalam Islam itu sendiri yang dibentuk dan disebarkan oleh Barat, iaitu seorang hamba dalam masyarakat yang didominasi lelaki. Tindak balas yang sewajarnya terhadap semua ini ialah menyedari bahawa pandangan Barat terhadap wanita berpunca daripada sudut pandang yang tertentu. Kaum Muslimin sebenarnya boleh dengan mudah menangani isu ini dengan membentangkan Islam beserta asas intelektualnya, sehingga memaksa Barat mempersoalkan sama ada manusia atau Allah yang layak menentukan kedudukan apa yang diberikan kepada lelaki dan wanita. Namun, kaum Muslimin melakukan kesilapan besar dengan cuba mempertahankan kedudukan wanita dalam Islam supaya sesuai dengan pandangan Barat. Sebahagian Muslim yang bertindak balas terhadap tuduhan yang dilancarkan oleh Barat mula menyeru agar diterima idea Barat seperti pembebasan wanita dan kesamaan antara jantina, dengan anggapan berbuat demikian dapat menghentikan sebahagian serangan. Sebagai reaksi terhadap kumpulan ini, satu lagi golongan Muslim pula pergi ke sebelah ekstrem yang bertentangan dengan mendakwa bahawa wanita tidak boleh keluar dari rumahnya dan dilarang berniaga, belajar, dan berpolitik. Golongan ketiga muncul dalam usaha mendamaikan kedua-dua kelompok tersebut, yang tidak lebih daripada satu usaha untuk mendamaikan pemikiran Barat dengan emosi Islam.

It was this understanding that the Muslims lacked in dealing with the onslaught from the West regarding the status of women in Islam. The ideological invasion initiated by the West raised issues related to the Islamic Social System, such as why the man is allowed to marry four women and why the woman must cover her entire body except the face and hands. Even more damaging was the very concept of the status of women in Islam which the West constructed and propagated - a slave in a male-dominated society. The proper response to all of this would be to realize that the outlook of the West towards women stem from a specific viewpoint. The Muslims could have easily addressed this issue by presenting Islam with its intellectual basis, forcing the West to question whether the human being or Allah was fit to decide what status would be conferred to both men and women. However, the Muslims made a critical mistake by attempting to justify the status of women in Islam to accommodate the Western outlook. Some Muslims reacted to the accusations initiated by the West began by calling for Western ideas such as woman's liberation and equality between the sexes, thinking that doing so would stave off some of the attacks. As a reaction to this group, another section of Muslims went to the opposite extreme and claimed that the woman should not leave her home and are prohibited from trade, education, and politics. A third group emerged in an attempt to reconcile between the two camps, which was no more than an attempt to reconcile between Western thoughts and Islamic emotions.

Hasil daripada percubaan-percubaan untuk menangani isu ini adalah satu bencana besar. Akibat langsung daripada gerakan-gerakan ini, Umat Islam berdepan dengan tiga pilihan mengenai status wanita:

The end result of these attempts to address this issue was a total disaster. As a direct outcome of these movements, the Muslim Ummah was faced with three options regarding the status of women:

Untuk menerima model Barat, yang berasaskan reaksi terhadap pandangan yang tidak tepat; atau untuk menerima apa yang dilabelkan sebagai model "Islam", yang merupakan reaksi terhadap reaksi; atau untuk menerima model yang cuba mencampurkan Islam dengan pandangan dunia Barat, yang merupakan kompromi antara dua reaksi. Yang menambah lagi masalah ialah hakikat bahawa umat Islam mula kehilangan perbezaan antara Islam dan pelbagai budaya serta tradisi tempatan, yang sebenarnya banyak mendiskriminasi wanita. Banyak aspek tradisi dan budaya ini dianggap sebagai Islam, terutamanya dalam isu berkaitan wanita. Percampuran Islam dengan budaya tempatan ini berjaya membesarkan imej di kalangan umat Islam dan bukan Islam bahawa Islam itu menindas wanita.

To adopt the Western model, which was based on a reaction to an incorrect viewpoint; or to adopt what was labeled as the "Islamic" model, which was a reaction to a reaction; or to adopt the model which attempted to mix Islam with the Western outlook, which was a compromise between two reactions. Further compounding the problem was the fact that the Muslims began to lose the distinction between Islam and various local cultures and traditions which did in fact discriminate heavily upon women. Many aspects of these traditions and cultures were deemed Islamic, particularly on the issue of women. This intermixing of Islam with local culture succeeded in magnifying the image among Muslims and non-Muslims that Islam is oppressive to women.

Selain isu-isu ini, banyak perkara lain turut dibahas, seperti Jihad, kedudukan orang bukan Islam dalam Islam, dan hukum jenayah Islam. Bagi memastikan kejayaan proses ini, universiti dan sekolah baharu didirikan di seluruh dunia Islam, dan biasiswa diberikan kepada pelajar Muslim untuk belajar di Barat. Tambahan pula, kelab-kelab kebudayaan dan pendidikan ditubuhkan, malah hospital turut digunakan untuk tujuan mempromosikan idea dan budaya Barat dalam kalangan orang Islam. Semua alat ini digunakan untuk menyebarkan idea-idea Barat seperti Nasionalisme, Sekularisme, dan yang paling utama, pengagungan Barat dalam segala aspeknya, daripada sejarahnya hinggalah kepada tokoh-tokoh Barat yang terkenal dan pencapaiannya dalam seni dan kesusasteraan. Pemikiran-pemikiran ini pada mulanya diterima oleh sebahagian orang Kristian di Lubnan dan kemudiannya tersebar dalam kalangan orang Islam. Apabila Barat akhirnya menjajah rantau ini secara ketenteraan, Syariah ditinggalkan kecuali dalam bidang yang berkaitan dengan urusan peribadi, dan kurikulum pendidikan baharu dikenakan. Kewujudan kurikulum pendidikan ini akan menjamin bahawa, selepas kepergian tentera Barat dari tanah Islam, generasi masa depan yang lulus daripada kurikulum ini akan menjadikan Barat sebagai model ideal mereka dalam setiap aspek kehidupan.

In addition to these issues, many others were addressed, such as Jihad, the status of non-Muslims in Islam, and the Islamic penal code. In order to ensure the success of this process, new universities and schools were erected throughout the Muslim world, and scholarships were granted to Muslim students to study in the West. Furthermore, cultural and educational clubs were established, and even hospitals were utilized for the purpose of promoting Western ideas and culture among Muslims. All of these tools were used to spread Western ideas such as Nationalism, Secularism, and, above all, sanctification of the West in all of its aspects, from its history to noted Western personalities to its achievements in the arts and literature. These thoughts were initially accepted by some Christians in Lebanon and later spread among Muslims. When the West eventually colonized the region militarily, the Shariah was abandoned except in areas dealing with personal issues, and a new educational curriculum was imposed. The existence of this educational curriculum would guarantee that, after the military departure of the West from the Muslim lands, the future generations who would graduate from this curriculum would look up to the West as their ideal model in every facet of life.

Pada zaman sekarang, pemikiran Barat telah menjadi meluas di kalangan umat Islam. Malah, budaya Barat telah menjadi pandangan dominan di kalangan golongan intelektual dan golongan berpelajaran. Kebanyakan penerbitan, seminar, kalangan intelektual dan perbincangan yang wujud di dunia Islam dipengaruhi oleh pandangan ini. Kemunculan cara-cara baharu untuk menyebarkan idea, seperti telekomunikasi dan internet, selanjutnya memperkuat pengaruh ini.

Nowadays, the Western thought has become pervasive among Muslims. In fact, the Western culture became the dominant point of view among the intelligentsia and the educated class. Most of the publications, seminars, intellectual circles, and discussions, which exist in the Muslim World are influenced by this point of view. And the advent of new means of transmitting ideas such as telecommunications and internet further enhanced this influence.

Pengaruh pemikiran Barat merupakan faktor paling berbahaya yang menimpa umat Islam, jauh melampaui pengaruh falsafah Yunani dan falsafah Timur. Walaupun falsafah-falsafah lama mungkin telah mengalihkan pemikiran umat Islam, falsafah Barat moden telah mematikan pemikiran Islam sepenuhnya dan berusaha membentuk semula cara berfikir generasi-generasi Muslim yang akan datang berdasarkan budaya Barat. Hari ini, majoriti umat Islam memiliki perasaan keislaman, tetapi dipengaruhi Barat dalam pemikiran dan gagasan mereka.

The impact of the Western thought is the most dangerous factor which affected Muslims, far surpassing the impact of the Greek and Eastern philosophies. While these old philosophies may have diverted the thinking of the Muslims, the modern Western philosophy killed the Muslim thought altogether and worked to reshape the thinking of future generations of Muslims based on the Western culture. Today, the majority of Muslims have Islamic emotions, but are Westernized in their thoughts and ideas.

Cara berfikir Islam tidak musnah dalam sekelip mata, tetapi dirungkai sedikit demi sedikit akibat banyak faktor yang terkumpul sepanjang sejarah. Faktor-faktor tersebut bermula dengan kemunculan beberapa faktor intelektual selepas zaman Tabi'in. Baru-baru ini, banyak usaha dimulakan untuk memulihkan cara berfikir Islam dengan mengembalikan umat Islam kepada cara hidup tiga generasi pertama. Namun, malah usaha-usaha ini gagal kerana mereka yang menjadi perintis usaha tersebut menghadkan usaha mereka kepada taqlid dalam pendapat fiqh yang dihasilkan oleh generasi awal ini, serta pengulangan berterusan pendapat mereka dalam isu-isu berkaitan akidah tanpa pemikiran intelektual yang mendalam. Tambahan pula, mereka tidak membezakan antara meneliti tiga generasi pertama, bagaimana mereka membina dan mengekalkan pemikiran mereka, dan bagaimana mereka menghadapi isu-isu di sekeliling mereka sebagai contoh teladan untuk diambil pengajaran, dengan sebenarnya meniru alat dan teknologi yang wujud pada masa itu. Akibatnya, perubahan yang mereka serukan sebenarnya adalah seruan agar umat Islam kembali kepada zaman menunggang unta, bukan seruan agar umat Islam meneladani generasi awal. Dengan itu, malah gerakan-gerakan ini tidak mampu menyelesaikan masalah tersebut.

The Islamic way of thinking was not destroyed overnight but was slowly dismembered due to many factors which accumulated throughout history. Those factors started with the emergence of some intellectual factors after the Tabi'een. Recently, many attempts were initiated to restore the Islamic way of thinking by returning the Muslims back to the lifestyle of the first three generations. But even these attempts failed because those who pioneered such attempts confined their efforts to Taqleed in Fiqhi opinions produced by these early generations and continuous repetition of their opinions in issues related to the Aqeedah without any profound intellectual thinking. Furthermore, they did not differentiate between examining the first three generations, how they built and maintained their thinking, and how they faced the issues surrounding them as a role model to take lessons from, and actually copying the tools and technologies that existed at the time. As a result, the change that they called for was in fact a call for Muslims to return to the days of riding camels and not a call for the Muslims to emulate the early generations. Thus, even these movements were unable to solve the problem.