Are You Observing Hijab or Merely Wearing a Burkha?
“Haya is from Faith”, declared our beloved Prophet (pbuh). Haya includes bashfulness, shame, self respect and modesty. If a man prefers his women to be modest but he himself mixes up with the other females then he is not modest in a complete sense. Among the companions of the Prophet (pbuh), Umar bin Al Khattab (r.a.) possessed a great amount of gheerah (read ‘Gairat’ in Urdu). It was his ardent desire that the verses of hijab were revealed by Allah. When the Prophet was shown in dream, Umar’s hoor performing wudhoo in Jannah he did not enter the palace as a mark of respect for Umar’s gheerah.
Uthman bin Affan (r.a.) was so bashful and modest, that the Prophet (pbuh)covered his knees upon getting the news of Uthman’s arrival, notes Sahih Al Bukhrai, in ‘The virtues of Uthman bin Affan’. Our prophet himself was more bashful that a newly wedded bride. He did not stare at anybody’s face but always looked down... Testifies Abu Saeed al Khudri in Sahih Bukhari..
Haya is a special characteristic bestowed upon human being. Animals and other creatures do not have the feeling of shame. Hence they perform act of sex in public. No sense of guilt, no sense of shame. After all how can they possess an attribute (shame) which Allah has not given them !
But man has that sense. When Adam and Eve tasted from the forbidden tree, the first thing that embarrassed them was their shame. So they both covered themselves with leaves. But today , if men and women discard this shame and do not mind moving naked or semi naked in public and act romantic with different partners before a camera crew and display it to the world then they are worse than animals . The Qur’an rightly declares : Have you seen him who has taken as his god his own desires?....They are only like cattle- nay, they are even farther astray (worst than cattle)
Surah Furqan , ch 25 verse 43, 44)
The West tempted women with fashion and beauty contests and exploited her in the name of liberation. Islam protected her with modesty and covered her with Hijab.
Hijab is a way to modesty. Hijab liberates women from being exploited. Hijab protects women from being gauged by the lustful eyes of men. Hijab prevents men from grading a woman’s figure or looks. Hijab is a barrier between the evil and the good. But the main question arises : Have we really understood the concept of hijab or just we have picked up some information about hijab? Every Muslimah should answer this question to her self. There will be no surveys or any public announcement.
If a woman is wearing a Burkha or an Abhaya she is fulfilling the condition of covering herself modestly but if she is involved in interacting with opposite sex freely then she is not observing hijab. When she goes out she covers herself with a modest dress but when returns home she sits before the TV set and watches romantic movies and entertains herself with the serials on fornicators and adulterators then she is not observing hijab.
If she wears a Burkha but she jokes and responses to the jokes of her cousin brothers, her neighbors, her class mates, her professors, then she is breaking important codes of Hijab. I fear, many Muslimah would fail if they apply these criteria of hijab in their personal lives. Same is with men. Many young men (on Face Books, on MSN…..) announce that they are looking for a bride who is modest and maintains hijab. But they themselves in the pretext of searching for such a girl break the codes and mix up with the Muslimah. There are some Muslimah who want to learn deen so they interact with Non Mahram and the discussions and arguments gets extreme liberal ending up with more fitnah and no Deen.
My words of caution : Are you observing hijab or merely wearing a Burkha?
Author: Nisaar Nadiadwala, speaks and writes on socio-educational issues from Islamic perspective. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com.
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