Hijab has become a very sensitive issue in the times that we are facing currently. If it could be summarized as to why hijab has become a such a sensitive issue, it is has Allah (SWT) tells us:

 

{If the Truth had been in accord with their desires, Truly the heavens and the earth, And all beings therein Would have been in confusion And corruption! Nay, We Have sent them their admonition, But they turn away From their admonition} (Al Mu`minun 23: 71)

 

The Truth cannot be corrupted, it is and always will be what it is, it is only us who choose to see the Truth or choose not to. Pertaining to hijab, many non-Muslim women turn away from it, because it represents the anti-thesis of what they believe. They believe that they are free, and that Muslim women being the anti-thesis of what they perceive as their reality, and who choose to wear the hijab are therefore not free. But their belief is an illusion, whereby there is a consensus that one can be what they choose to be, without negative impact on anyone including themselves; yet in that same world, women are peceived as objects to be used or consumed, to sell or be sold, to attract and to be made available. That message permeats both men and women who succumb and become enslaved by lower passions, or a deep sense of powerlessness that makes sexual violence against women, and female children an everyday factor.

 

Islam is about surrender to all that He is, and in doing so, a way forward is made easy for us, but instead we do not surrender, because we believe, but do not understand what it is that we see, as we see with our imagination, and one-sided logic.  As Muslim women, we face many challenges in a world that tries to tell us that we are more disempowered than non-Muslims women in their world, but if we dared to study the facts, this is not the case. What is the case is that we live in an insecure world, that is threatening to both men and women, but we women, in general, do not react as men react, and do not necessarily take hold of power in the same way as men.

 

We allow ourselves to believe that we do not need to wear the hijab, because we have begun to see ourselves as women as other women do, i.e. appearances. As a result, we are in a state of shirk, out of a desire to be liked, to be appealing, we worship others, we worship ourselves, and we worship the things that make others find us appealing.   

 

{ One Day shall We gather them all together: We shall say to those who ascribed partners (to Us): "Where are the partners whom you (invented and) talked about?" There will then be (left) no subterfuge for them but to say: "By God our Lord, we were not those who joined gods with God. Behold! How they will lie against their own souls! But the (lie) which they invented will leave them in the lurch} (An Anam 6: 22- 24)

 

In this way we create challenges for ourselves, because of our fear of reproach for wearing the hijab, fear of not getting married, fear of not being attractive, fear of not getting a job, fear of not being perceived as modern or even liberated, thus the sincerity of our faith stands tested

 

( These are they who have bartered Guidance for error|: But they have lost true direction)(Al Baqarah 2: 16)

 

(Their similtude is that of a rain-laden cloud from the sky: in it are zones of darkness, and thunder and lightning: They press their fingers in their ears to keep out the stunning thunder clap…everytime the light helps them, they walk therein, and when the darkness grows on them, they stand still…) (Al Baqarah 2: 19 -20)

 

Because our lower desires become involved in fear of reproach, we lose something that is not easily regained. Others see us differently, and many even have the same expectations of us as they would do of non-Muslims women. Even some Muslim men begin to percieve of their Muslim women in that way. Allah tells us:

 

{And say to the believing women That they should lower Their gaze and guard Their modesty; that they Should not display their Bounty and ornaments except What (must ordinarily) appear Thereof; That they should Draw their veils over Their bosoms and not display Their beauty except To their husbands  their fathers, their…or small children who Have no sense of the shame of sex, and that they Should not strike their feet in order to draw attention… O ye believers, turn ye all together towards God…} (Nur 24: 31)

 

In the above verse, the word used for "veil" in Arabic is `bi khumorihin` – plural feminine of the more familiar word "khumar" as in "Khimar". More and more today, as muhajaba (wearers of hijab), we can find ourselves beautifying the hijab in all manner of fashions. We leave our homes to go to work in these fashions, making w`udhu (ablutions) a more difficult task. When Allah (SWT) wants for us ease, we make the act of prayer and its preparations more difficult. By the time we pray Dhur and `Asr, how much of us is left to focus on our prayers. We go to great lengths to make ourselves attractive with forms of hijab. Hijab is a concept is as follows:

 

- "to lower their gazes"

- "to guard their private parts"

- "not to display their beauty except what is apparent of it"

- "to extend their headcoverings to cover their bosoms"

- "not to display their beauty except to their husbands or their fathers..."

- "not to strike their feet (on the ground) so as to make known what they hide"

- "to draw their outergarments close around themselves"

 

The concept of hijab is taken from two veses of the Qur`an. Surat Al Nur as mentioned above, and Surat Al Azhab verse 59). Yet we can find Muslims wearing the headcarf as hijab with tight (sometimes revealing) clothing over the rest of their bodies. Then we progress from there - what we have in fact made difficult for ourselves we believe we make easy by not wearing the hijab at all! In both cases of making the hijab an adornment, and making oursleves an adornment, we have "drawn attention" to ourselves to those who are not close relatives and have sense of sex.

 

In an explanation about the khimar, Imam Abu`l-Fida ibn Kathir stated:

 

"`Extend their khimars to cover their bosoms` means that they should wear the khimar in such a way that they cover their chests so that they will be different from the women of the jahiliyyah [time of ignorance] who did not do that but would pass in front of men with their chests uncovered and with their necks, forelocks, and earrings uncovered."

 

Lost to modernity, many people equate lack of modernity as being backward, the dark ages when women were treated as second citizens. What is not understood by the use of the word modernity, is that it is in fact a culture, a culture that had a dark age where indeed women were treated (and to some extent still are), as second class citizens. It is a culture that has a system of belief which is far from liberating, and quite close to treating individuals as a national resource without whom, capitalism cannot be maintained. Instead of running away from Islam, we need to understand what it is that we running away from before we run away from it, because only then will we be exercizing the God given gift of choice, which is based upon an informed decision, a decision that knows the implication of what it has chosen to accept.

 

Becoming a slave of fashion is not a choice, but a submission to the lesser god of desire, but we must remember:

 

{And a soul will not die but with the permission of Allah, the term is fixed; and whosoever desires the reward of this world, I shall give him of it, and whoever desires the reward of the hereafter I shall give him of it; and I will reward the grateful } (A`lay Imran 3: 145)

 

Because Allah (SWT), unlike man, gave us the gift of choice. With every choice there is a price, our higher self for our lower self, or our lower self for our higher selves.  When we submit to the lower self, forces gather in reinforcements, making all that is encountered alike.

 

(When it is said to them: "Make not mischief on the earth", they say: "Why we only want to make peace!" Of a surety, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realize not) (Al Baqarah 2: 11-1 2)

 

All of this is so that we will honor the sublime gift that Allah (SWT) gave to us as humans - the gift of choice. Until we honor that gift, the subjective laws of man will whisper in our ears.

Counselor: Hwaa Irfan