them, "Did I
             not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy to
             you'" They said: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls: if you do not
             forgive us and do not bestow upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be
             lost." Interestingly, although many aspects of the story are similar,
             including Adam and Eve's realization of the shame of nakedness in both
             stories, in the Qur'anic version, both were equally tempted, and no mention
             of pain of childbirth, toil, or subjugation is mentioned.
             Another aspect of Christianity that may seem surprising to many is
             the Biblical reference to the differentiation between "unclean periods"
             following childbirth dependence on the sex of the child. We see this in
             Leviticus, 12: 2-5, which reads, "...if a woman have conceived seed, and
             born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days...but if she bear a
             maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks..." Interestingly, Islam
             has no such distinction. Instead the Qur'an simply states, in 42: 49, "To
             Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He creates what He
             wills. He bestows female children to whomever He wills and bestows male
             Even the Christian conception of the spirit of womanhood is
             significantly negative in the context of Biblical scripture. Take, for
             instance, the following passage, taken from Ecclesiastes 7:26-28, which
             I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart
             is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape
             her, but the sinner she will ensnare." "Look," says the Teacher, "this
             is what I have discovered: "Adding one thing to another to discover the
             scheme of things- while I was still searching but not finding- I found
             one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them
             The Qur'an, on the other hand casts a different view upon the nature
             of woman, c...