What I Learned from a Supermodel

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all praises due to Allah Who is magnificent in his essence perfect in his attributes undeniable in His presence. All praise is due to Allah Who has the most magnificent names of praise that is forever for him a praise that eternally remains me he sent Peace and blessings in their most perfect fashion May He send greetings and salutations that are complete and everlasting upon the best of his creation. Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a perfect his rank and elevate his station for he taught us what we did not know. And he gave and he gave and he gave because he loved us. So Allah subhanho data says in the Quran, Oh you who believe fear Allah as he deserves to be feared and do

not die except in a state of Islam. And Allah says, All Mankind Fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and produce from that soul it's made and made from their combination many men and women so Fear your Lord whom you ask each other by and by the ties of kinship, verily, Allah is Ever Watchful over you. And Allah says, Oh, you who believe fear Allah and say that which is correct, he will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, then they are indeed victorious. To proceed.

A over a month ago, there was a huge discussion that happened in our community.

Because a supermodel, quit supermodel and

out of the blue, she decided to quit modeling. She wasn't just any supermodel, she was a hijabi supermodel, and she was the first hijabi to do a number of things of them specifically, she was the first to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, which is a very very prestigious honor in that field, in that world, as quizzical as it may make us seem.

And she signed with IMG, which is one of the premier modeling companies in the world. And she was very Islamically grounded, even as she was following her dream. And so she would stipulate in the contract that she would never ever be forced to remove her hijab, even as she's walking down runways all over the world. And they agreed. And over the years, what led her to eventually quit and caused this huge stir was her own incredible self reflection, and the incredible constant reminding that her mother continued to give her because, as I mentioned, she was someone who was Islamically grounded, but she had walked into a fitna, and the way that fitna usually works is that little by

little you find yourself compromising, and so she did. And so her job became smaller and more of an accessory, as opposed to what it was she knew that it represented. But the reason why I'm mentioning this is because my part in this discussion was to learn. And I used it to ask my sisters questions, whether it was the people in my family, or sisters that I interacted with online and I asked them a very specific question that I wanted to share with you all which was how can men how can how can we support our sisters in wearing the hijab?

We can appreciate expecting it from our sisters, and we can even appreciate demanding it from our sisters, some of us but how do we support them in doing so? And as you can imagine, I got a lot of responses.

But I wanted to share with you some of the responses that I received so that we can be better as Allah Subhana Allah

describes the relationship between the believing men and the believing women, ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada says, me No, no, let me not bother him earlier about that the believing men and the believing women, what's our relationship with each other your relationship and my relationship with every sister who is a believer in the world, he says they are only a hobo. They are the allies, the defenders, the protectors of one another Yeah, model and have been model for at home on a monka. They command good and they forbid evil and diverse continues. And so how can we be as believing men?

Only out for our believing sisters. And so the responses were many, as I mentioned, and I'll share with you a few here. The first, which I definitely did not expect was to give set on to them to give set on to them.

That when you see a sister on the street, you see her in heb you see her anywhere that you say I set out my take on why why? And I asked that because it's not what I was culturally socialized to do is that when you see a sister on a bus or something that you give her sit down, and their response was that it makes them feel seen. And we also sometimes as men don't appreciate that right now, when when the people that I'm looking at when you go back out into the world, you're not necessarily identifiable as being Muslim.

But our sisters, they are everywhere that they go. And so when they're on the bus, they are a muslim or sitting on the bus. And when they're grocery shopping, they are Muslim grocery shopping. And so what was responded back to me was that when I simply hear a Salam aleikum from a brother, it makes me feel seen and in the case, as many of them described being on college campuses are feeling isolated or walking around with a target on my head, as one of them said that at the very least, if something were to happen, I feel like there is a brother who I could

complain to or have some sort of support from. Now

what's interesting is that Imam Muhammad Rahim Allah has a chapter in the in his Slavia which is called Babel to slim regional Allah missa. When you say Allah reject the chapter of men, giving salam to women and women giving salam to men, right. And normally we look at this concept through the lens of fitna, well, I don't want to give salam to a sister. I mean, that's fitna or what have you. But I mean, if it's if there's no fitna involved, then there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with that. And especially we can appreciate when it's cross generational, you have an elderly brother giving Saddam to someone younger or a young or a younger brother giving salam to

someone who his mother's age inshallah Tada. It makes our sisters feel seed number two is to not reduce their Iman to hijab

not reduce their Eman to hijab. There are some people who when we look at, and it's not just brothers who do this, but sometimes sisters as well that if the sister is wearing hijab, then she's 100%. Okay, no one's asking her questions about her salon. No one's asking her questions about what she knows about theology, no one knows. No one is asking her questions about her her test gear, no one's asking her questions about any of these things. But if she's wearing hijab, then she's good to go. And if she's not wearing hijab, then all of the alarm bells have been wrong. But before that,

no one is worrying about her to be no one is worrying about any of these things that are the makeup of a person's character, even her character we're not concerned about it becomes the symbol through which we have restricted her faith to and her faith, of course, is much more than a single obligation no matter how great that obligation is. Number three.

Our sisters said to wear their hijab two men wear their hijab, what does that mean? In a world that has become shameless, in a world that has become shameless. The only people in this world who are holding the pillar of modesty and hire are Muslim women.

The only people and that's a burden that's hard to carry. Even when you have, we understand that the power of a man is between the navel and the knee. But that doesn't mean that that's something that should be normalized that men you know, a lot of times even with regards to brothers younger brothers, or what have you, you know, the shirtless pictures at the gym. Or we remember that the most modest person, the person who was the symbol of modesty during the time of this Hobbit or the lion was a man, it was Earth might have not followed the Allah on home. And so sharing that burden of being modest in a world that has become shameless, become something that is an additional support

as well. Number four, is to listen and empathize that when people share with you, whether it's your family members or that day job is not something that is easy.

We empathize with that, again, we don't appreciate sometimes as men just but you know, what I noticed about Houston in particular is that Houston more than many other major cities, you don't really have a culture of, of men wearing, you know, ethnic garb, that could be considered to be a religious affiliation, right, you don't have a lot of shorewall camisa is being worn in Houston, you don't have a lot of folks, as opposed to cities like London and Toronto and New York and the Bay Area where people very much dress like that. Here, it's not to say that it's a bad or a good thing, but this is the culture here, right. And so recognizing, again, the challenge that our sisters have,

as they are walking around everywhere, in guard that is easily identifiable, as being of a religious nature to empathize with that and to recognize that and number five, and I'll end with this Inshallah, to Allah is to choose them, to honor them, to respect them and to choose them meaning that when a sister wears hijab, that she doesn't feel that she has been denigrated by her Muslim brothers and community that she doesn't see. And of course, for us, this is a matter of

it's a matter of perception, right? So it's a perception that has to be fixed, but that they feel honored, respected, when they are wearing hijab, and that they be chosen. I'll read to you what one sister mentioned, specifically because she was very detailed, mashallah, and very eloquent that she said, specifically,

by not passing us over non Muslim women when most of us can run circles around them, but with an Islamic value system already in place. She's speaking about marriage, right? That we recognize as well, that although something has been made halal for Muslim men, that for every sister that could have been married when someone goes and marries a non Muslim simply because he can, that this is going to be something that makes it even more difficult for our sister to hold on. It becomes more difficult when she chooses modesty and her her her Muslim brother chooses in modesty when she chooses righteousness and her Muslim brother chooses something that's not of that case, right. And

at the same time, we are still expecting her to be this incredible anchor in a world with a quartermaster Mr Corolla you were looking for stuff.

At hamdulillah salatu salam ala Rasulillah what it was like to be sending Seaman cathedra. For those of you who are just joining us we just briefly shared or I just briefly shared some comments that I learned from sisters when I had asked them the question about how is it that we can support our sisters in wearing hijab. And briefly, they mentioned a number of things. One of them is to give them Saddam and to see them to recognize them when they see them. Number two is to not reduce their Eman to hijab. Number three is to be modest as well in a way that assists them in their modesty. Number four is to listen and empathize with them in their difficulty and in their challenges. Number

five is to choose them when they have chosen modesty. And number six, I'll add a last one and that is to ask your family members that question and to ask that again and again and again. Every now and again. How can we support you? How can we support you? Because life changes and people change as they go through life? We ask Allah subhana data to guide us to the best of character and to the best of actions and to the best of speech. Aloha My name is Luca general Makabe Hanuman calling Mohammed we know that becoming a narrow Makara Villa and accordion Ahmed Allahu mattina Fuson at UCLA has behind the fireman's aka Antonio hom Hola, Aloha maximum dynamic pressure to come out to Hulu behave

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