From the beginning of existence until the Promised Day men
retained superiority over women in every respect. It is revealed in the Qur'án:
"Men have superiority over women." But in this wondrous Dispensation,
the supreme outpouring of the Glorious Lord became the cause of manifest
achievements by women. Some handmaidens arose who excelled men in the arena of
knowledge. They arose with such love and spirituality that they became the
cause of the outpouring of the bounty of the Sovereign Lord upon mankind, and
with their sanctity, purity and attributes of the spirit led a great many to
the shore of unity. They became a guiding torch to the wanderers in the wastes
of bewilderment, and enkindled the despondent in the nether world with the
flame of the love of the Lord. This is a bounteous characteristic of this
wondrous Age which hath granted strength to the weaker sex and hath bestowed
masculine might upon womanhood....
- ‘Abdu’l-baha (The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. II, Women)
