notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
On page 74 of the book University of Marriage, a hadith is quoted saying that most goodness is found in women. My question is: does this goodness mean a benefit to others, or goodness for the woman herself? And doesn’t this hadith contradict the hadiths that say believing women are rare, and so on?
روی عن ابن فضال عن یونس بن یعقوب عمن سمع أبا عبد الله علیه السلام یقول: «أکثر الخیر فی النساء» .
The hadith “Most goodness is found in women” refers to the good a woman brings to herself, like a flower that bears nectar: the first benefit is hers. A believing woman possesses every kind of goodness, and through her others, too, attain goodness and virtue. Other women may also have the potential for goodness, but may be unable to bring it to fruition.
Without doubt, woman as such is one of God’s beautiful signs. This applies to believing women; all others possess a particular share of this good, in proportion to their innate integrity.
Woman is a realm of goodness in which man finds repose and well-being. We should bear in mind, however, that goodness and well-being come fully to fruition only in a believing woman. Other women, though they bear goodness potentially, are unable to bring it into actuality.
A woman who bears goodness receives from it something greater than goodness itself—as with a flower that holds nectar: the first and greatest benefit belongs to the woman herself.
عن یونس بن یعقوب عمن سمع أبا عبد الله ع یقول أکثر الخیر فی النساء.
محمد بن إدریس فی آخر السرائر نقلا من کتاب روایه ابن قولویه عن أبی عبد الله ع قال: کل من اشتد لنا حبا اشتد للنساء حبا و للحلواء.
وسائل الشیعه، ج20، ص: 24