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In an August 11 Friday sermon delivered in Columbia, South Carolina, Egyptian-American cleric Muhammad Sayyed Adly said that the man owns the woman and that women should be "as prisoners in your hands or in your house," adding that the husband should not mistreat his captive, just as one should not mistreat cats or dogs. Sheikh Adly, director of the Islamic Center of Columbia, SC, has made similar statements in the past. In a 2014 sermon, he advised the men in his congregation to marry a virgin, who is like a "clean bottle." This sermon was posted on Sheikh Adly's YouTube channel on October 2, 2014.
Muhammad Sayyed Adly: "The man is in charge of the woman. He is the head of her, the owner of her, and the ruler, and he is the one who corrects her when she goes astray. That is because men are better than women. The Arabic in English: A man is better. The man, in general, is better than a woman. Not every man is better than every woman, but men, in general – Allah exalted them. This is the Sunna of Allah! Some people say that this man is crazy. Now he is getting old. Now he doesn’t know what he is talking about. There is a problem. We need a new imam. You can have a new imam, but I'm going with the old. 'You stick with the original.'
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"Yes, I know that I am in America and that we have freedom of speech. This is what we believe. If you believe different from what Allah is saying, forget about all this kind of foolish stuff. Allah said: '[Men] are exalted.' 'Exalted' – this is the word. You go and look it up in the dictionary – Arabic, English, Spanish, French – 'exalted.' 'Because Allah exalts some over others.' As a result of this, you find that the Prophet told us: 'A nation with a woman ruler will never succeed.' This is part of the guardianship. No nation that makes their governor a woman can ever succeed.
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"The Prophet said that when one of you – if your wife asks for permission to go to the mosque, do not prevent her from going to the mosque. He is saying that a woman could not leave her house without asking for the approval of her husband, even to the best of places and for the best action, which is prayer. What are you going to say when the Prophet said: 'There is no marriage without a guardian.' There is no marriage accepted in Islam without a guardian. He made it clear in another hadith that a woman could not give a woman in marriage, even if it is her own daughter. It has to be the father. If the father is dead – the brother. If the brother is dead – there is... Other people are there, which Allah or His Prophet have named them.
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"A woman is not supposed to welcome anybody or permit anybody in her house without her husband's approval. Brothers and sisters, this is in the religion, in the books of hadith, in the Quran. I am not making it up. Yes, I know that I live in America. Yes, I know. And I know I have the right of free speech, and I'm speaking what I believe, not what I think.
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"A woman cannot travel without a guardian. Not just any male family member – it has to be a guardian. That means a man who could not marry her under any condition – her father, her son, or her brother.
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"Fear Allah in women. Be just, be fair, be kind, be gentle, be all these good things. Because women are as prisoners in your hands or in your house... Captivity! She is in a form of captivity. A captive! She is a prisoner. This is the term. 'Your captive.' This does not mean to mistreat them, because we Muslims do not mistreat the captives. Neither do we mistreat a cat or dog.
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"How can I determine if my wife is righteous or not righteous? It is according to her behavior, the way she is acting, the way she is behaving. This has been summarized in about four or five qualities. Number one, the Prophet Muhammad describes a righteous woman to be: 'If he commands her, she will obey him.' If he commands her... I want to think a little bit about the word that came in the hadith: 'ordered her.' Some wives say: 'Don't talk to me like this.' 'I am not your slave.' 'Who do you think you are?' But it doesn’t matter if he orders you or he says 'excuse me' or 'please.' It does not give you the excuse to be disobedient. Even if he orders you, [you say:] 'Yes, sir.'
"We say it to the infidel. Some of you do this or not? 'Yes, sir,' 'Yes, ma'am.' Right? Why? You know that he or she is an infidel. You know that they hate your guts, right? But everything is: 'Yes, sir,' 'yes, ma'am.' Why? The check. Mr. Green. Okay? Because you know that when you say... You start sucking your teeth, rolling your eyes, looking up and down, to this woman, who is your boss at this job, or this man, who is your boss at the job... 'Excuse me, did you say something?' 'No, sir. I didn’t say anything, sir.' Why? Because you know the value of the dollar, right? Mr. Green. You know the value of the dollar, and as a result, you are going to say: 'Yes, sir,' 'yes, ma'am.' And whatever you have been ordered – you will do it.
"A wise woman, a righteous woman, will think about 'the green' [pastures] of paradise, which Allah has promised and which is much greater than a dollar. For the sake of Paradise she will say: 'Yes, sir,' 'yes, husband,' 'yes, my beloved.' Yes. You don’t like it the way he said it? Well, we are not saying and we are not teaching the brothers to misbehave with their wives. But let's assume the worst scenario – that he ordered her. What is she supposed to do? Obey. As long as your husband is not commanding you something that is haram, and is not asking you to do something beyond your ability as a human being – do it, or at least try to do it.
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"When he looks at her, it will please him. It will... She will please him. A woman should know better than us how she can be pleasing to her husband. She doesn’t need a thousand dollars every other month to look nice for her husband. She doesn’t need a closet full with clothes from wall to wall to please her husband.
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"A woman knows how to please a man. She doesn’t need to go to Harvard University for this, alright? She doesn’t need an encyclopedia, Burda magazine, or a fashion magazine. She doesn’t need anything because she is a female by her own nature. All she needs is that at five o'clock – half an hour before your time to come back home – she will jump into the shower for five minutes, take off this garment, this dress that she has, that smells of onions and garlic and all kinds of stuff, and throw another thing on her. She will take a hairbrush for one minute and do it like this, and that's it. [She will] put a smile on her face when she goes to open the door for her husband, welcoming him, making him feel at home when he comes. Just looking at her will please him.
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"The Prophet advised us to marry a woman who is a virgin.
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"Marry a virgin because her womb is much cleaner. It never carried a baby before. She didn’t have – what do you call it? – a miscarriage. She didn’t have an abortion before. She didn’t have a boyfriend-girlfriend... all this foolishness. She doesn’t know anything like this. It's a clean bottle – nothing has been stored in it before. Okay? Her mouth and her breath are much better, and she doesn’t know too much about tricks and playing games. She will be content with the little bit he gives her, but someone who has been married or has been with a boyfriend, and went through all this high school business – she tried this and that... She's already been around, as they say.
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"Among the qualities of a righteous woman is a woman who can provide you with children. Some people say: How am I going to know if my wife is going to give me children or not? Some of the scholars explain that you can know this by knowing something about the history of the family: if she has sisters who have been married already or her mother – how many children [they have]. You ask her when you interview her. How many brothers do you have? How many sisters do you have? Because it is one of the purposes of marriage – you want to increase the numbers of the nation of the Prophet Muhammad, the number of those people who glorify the name of Allah and offer prayers.
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"A man gave his daughter in marriage, or he wanted his daughter to get married, and she refused so he took her to the Prophet. He said: 'My daughter refuses to get married, and I want her to marry.' [The Prophet] said: 'Obey your father.' She said: 'I swear by the One who sent you with the truth that I am not getting married until you tell me the right of the husband over the wife.' 'I am not getting into something when I don’t know what it takes.' 'Tell me first, oh Prophet of Allah, the right of the husband over his wife.' So he told her the right of a husband over his wife: [Even] if he has a wound and pus and blood are coming out of it, and she cleans it by licking it with her tongue, she is [still] not going to fulfill the right of her husband over her. Has anybody heard this? Scary. I say: Thank God that I am a man, that I am not a wife, not a woman. I would be scared to get married. If his nose is bleeding and mucus and all kinds of stuff is coming out of it, and she licks it with her tongue, she is not going to fulfill his right over her.
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"The Prophet said that when a man invites his wife to his bed and she refuses, and he spends the night angry at her as a result of this, the angels of Allah will be cursing her until the morning. So a righteous woman always makes herself available for her husband, because Allah made her to be a means and protection, to keep him from going to what is haram. One last thing that I want to say is also a righteous woman allows her husband to be the manager, to be in charge, the boss – whatever you want to call it – because Allah said: 'Men are in charge of women.' So a woman has to allow her husband to be the final maker of decisions in the house. She can give her opinion, or say what she thinks, but she has to understand that the guardianship and the leadership, and the one who wears the pants in the house, is the man and not the woman. We don’t live by the American way. We live by the Islamic way, the Sunna way."
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