An analogy for manifesting Qawwama towards unrelated women

Assalamu alaik. We always group women and children. Women and children first and that kind of thing. Women and children. There's a reason why these two categories of humans are grouped together.

So for example, you have a great level of responsibility over your children, but you also have a level of responsibility for children generally. They're not your children. That doesn't mean that you can just treat them any old way. As an adult, you are greater than a child, so you have a level of responsibility over children in general when they're in your presence. So when you're dealing with anyone of a lower capacity and capability than you, there's a certain level of responsibility in how you deal with them.

It's the same with women. You can't deal with her the way you deal with a man, way you deal with an equal. Brothers have actually gotten in their heads that men and women are actually equal, and that somehow we're supposed to drive women down. That is not the case. We are not equal beings.

We're not equal creations, and that puts the responsibility on you. If a child outside is not your child, you don't expect them to act like an adult just because they're not your child. If a woman outside is not your wife, you still can't expect her to act like a man and have the accountability of a man and the the thought process and the thinking and the decision making and the self control and everything that a man should have. You still treat her according to what she is. And most importantly, you behave according to what you are, which is.