ASSALAMUALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAHI TA’ALA WABARAKATUH.
RESPECTED BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ISLAM.
BISMILLAHIRRAHMANIRRAHEEM…
I AM INDEED LAMENTING THAT……IMMODEST DRESSING: THE ROOT OF FITNAH!!!
To women who surrender to the ugly stereotype against the Islamic modesty of Hijab, I say: You don't know what you are missing.
Now,…In your “days of ignorance” [as I now like to call them], haven’t you realized that your friends and you would bitterly discuss about how Muslim boys would look at, talk to and flirt with Muslim girls who dress in skimpy clothes, but yet, when it came to marriage, it was only innocent-looking girls clad in cloaks and scarves, who barely leave their homes unaccompanied by their parents, whom they would consider as wives. With hindsight, you often think more clearly, more fairly and rationally...and today you realise that, yes, while ALLAH Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala commands us all - men and women - to lower our gazes, and while it was indeed sinful and shameful for these Muslim boys to flirt, etc with you, this does not justify the way you dressed. In other words, your dressing, too, was sinful and shameful….do you agree?
I sometimes wonder what your intentions are, in wearing these clothes [if you can really call them “clothes”], for they did not provide any comfort. To the contrary, the tight jeans, the body-suits, the sports coats...they were all uncomfortable, not only in the way they were designed to restrict movement, but also in the sense that wearing them provided no mental ease and comfort, i.e. you would always feel restless and bare wearing them.
If your friends and you were standing at a bus-stop, clad in such clothes, your hair uncovered, there would always be some hooting and honking, or wolf whistling or some sick lines from the men driving past, and while, then you would be very agitated and angry, and yes, even upset, you now have to ask yourself: If you anticipated all this uncivilized attention, if you knew that it was going to happen, then why did you dress in this manner?
Yes respected brothers & sister in Islam, ………please listen to this young sister in Islam, Aminah Rahma Robertsons 17, who has just reverted to Islam 18 months ago, when she said: “Prior to wearing the Hijab, I used to wear those tight-fitting & plunging neck-line clothes which unfortunately attract a lot of attention. How I foolishly have to segregate certain types of attention, for example I despise attention and ogling from old men, or married men, but welcome those from my fellow-students, etc who my friends and I generally found attractive. For those clothes brought me nothing but wild and sexual based attention: no peace, no comfort, I did not feel proud of them, and no, they did not bring me any protection.
This might sound stupid and illogical to some, but whenever I walked down a street, alone, clad in those clothes, I would always be afraid that someone might be following me, or might attack me, but yet, today in my cloak and scarf, I know that if were to venture out anywhere alone, out of some necessity, that fear will not be carried around with me - at least not to the extent that it was carried around in the past.
I know that in my days of ignorance, if I were to read a article like this, written by someone else, I would probably have said something like, “What nonsense! I wear my jeans, tight tops, etc for myself, not to attract the attention of any member of the opposite sex.” But that would have been my nafs speaking...or my own tendency to always try to justify every sinful thing which I was doing.
Because the truth is, the cloak and the scarf and the purdah, yes, these things I wear for myself, for my own protection from unlawful gazes, sexual harassment, for my own desire and need to be modest, but ultimately for my Creator who has Prescribed this dress for me, through His Infinite Wisdom.
But the immodest Western clothes, those I wore so that people would look at me, so that I could feel good about about them noticing me just as they noticed my friends.
I sometimes shudder at my own foolishness, at my own susceptibility to my haraam desires and to Shaitaan.
For how could I deny, question and worst of all ignore the beauty and wisdom behind the laws of my Creator?
I might have not seen it then, but I realise now how stupid it was of me to flaunt myself in front of ghair-mahram family members, friends and even total strangers.
Yes, the ones who took advantage of the way I was dressed by flirting and staring were foolish. But I was even more foolish to give them this opportunity to see me in a way that only a husband has a right to see his wife..."
INDEED ….ISLAM uplifted the status of women and granted them their just rights 1400 years ago. Islam expects women to maintain their status. By the way people usually only discuss ‘hijab’ in the context of women. However, in the Noble Qur’an, ALLAH THE ALMIGHTY first mentions ‘hijab’ for men before ‘hijab’ for the women. The Qur’an mentions in Surah Noor:
“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.” ~[Al-Qur’an 24:30]
The moment a man looks at a woman and if any brazen or unashamed thought comes to his mind, he should lower his gaze. The next verse of Surah Noor, says:
“ And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons...” ~[Al-Qur’an 24:31]
According to Qur’an and Sunnah there are basically six criteria for observing hijab:
1. Extent:
The first criterion is the extent of the body that should be covered. This is different for men and women. The extent of covering obligatory on the male is to cover the body at least from the navel to the knees. For women, the extent of covering obligatory is to cover the complete body except the face and the hands up to the wrist. If they wish to, they can cover even these parts of the body. Some scholars of Islam insist that the face and the hands are part of the obligatory extent of ‘hijab’. All the remaining five criteria are the same for men and women.
2. The clothes worn should be loose and should not reveal the figure.
3. The clothes worn should not be transparent such that one can see through them.
4. The clothes worn should not be so glamorous as to attract the opposite sex.
5. The clothes worn should not resemble that of the opposite sex.
6. The clothes worn should not resemble that of the unbelievers i.e. they should not wear clothes that are specifically identities or symbols of the unbelievers’ religions.
MAY ALLAH THE ALMIGHTY GUIDES US AND STRENGTHEN OUR IMAN…AMEEN, AMEEN, AMEEN YA RABBAL ALAMEEN.
SUBHANALLAH!!! WALHAMDULILLAH! WALA ILAHA ILLALLAHU ALLAHUAKBAR!!!
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