Faraz Rabbani – Beyond Hijab Modesty Amongst Women In Islam
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the cultural significance of women in shaping culture and the lack of evidence for their success in society. They stress the importance of finding out who is the best of believers and the sadness of " tours of praiss" in Islam. They also discuss the importance of sincerity in activism and the need for everyone to be merciful to others. The importance of finding faith in walking down Yonge Street and dislike things for the " tours of praiss" in Islam, and actively promoting female scholarships and women in their communities.
AI: Summary ©
Being a student of Islamic law, I wanted
to mention something very practical, which is who
are the best of women?
And the scholars like discussing these kinds of
issues.
There were great women in history, who were
the very best of women?
And there's difference of opinion about that of
course, like in most things.
And ultimately it comes down to the five
women.
The scholars, when they looked at the Qur
'an and the Sunnah, and what took place
in life of the Prophet ﷺ, they said
there's five women who are the greatest of
women in history.
Some scholars said that Sayyida Khadija Al-Kubra
radiallahu ta'ala anha, was the very best
of women.
She was the wife of the Prophet ﷺ.
She was a very first believer.
She was a person who first supported the
Prophet ﷺ and stood by him right from
the beginning.
Radiallahu ta'ala anha.
Other scholars said that the best of women
was Sayyida Fatima Zahra radiallahu ta'ala anha,
the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ.
This model of piety and excellence, the one
whom the Prophet ﷺ referred to as being
a part of him, a piece from him,
radiallahu ta'ala anha.
And as Imam Malik radiallahu ta'ala anhu
said, as our dear Shaykh Hamza Yusuf mentioned
a couple of days ago, that Imam Malik
said, laa ufadhilu ala bud'ati rasulillahi ahada,
that I do not deem anyone better than
a piece of the Prophet ﷺ.
Of course then come the scholars, the fuqaha,
the jurists.
The jurists are very dry right?
They deal with fiqh, Islamic law and so
on.
So they said, who is the best of
women?
The Hanafi fuqaha said, the best of women
was Sayyida Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha, al
-Siddiqa, bint al-Siddiq radiallahu ta'ala anha
wa anhu.
The very best of women was Sayyida Aisha.
Why?
Because she was the most learned woman in
history.
She was truly a faqih and they brought
forth their proofs for that.
And of course this outraged other people.
How can you say this when this, this
and that?
And the nature of scholarship is that people
argue.
But of course, in good spirit, others said
no.
You have to look further back.
The very best of women was Sayyida Maryam,
the mother of Sayyidina Aisha alayhi wa alayhi
as-salam.
And some scholars even said that given what
is mentioned about Sayyida Maryam in the Qur
'an, some scholars including Imam al-Qurtubi and
Imam Ibn Hazm and others of the scholars
of tafsir and aqaid and other sciences, they
said that Sayyida Maryam was a prophet.
Though this is not the position of the
majority.
There is insufficient proof for that.
But this is what a great regard they
held her in.
Others said, Sayyida Aisha who Sayyidina Muhammad al
-Sharif referred to, the wife of Fir'aun.
Imagine living in the household of a man
who believed he was God.
Imagine this oppressive man who enslaved an entire
people.
Who was absolutely ruthless.
And who even when he found out that
she was a believer who tortured her in
unimaginable ways.
They said she was the best of believers.
And then they argued.
And actually the chosen position is that each
of these great women have a uniqueness that
the others don't share.
But we have no decisive proof as to
which one is absolutely the best.
Each one has unique characteristics.
One of the sad things though is if
we reflect.
How much do we know about any of
these five women?
Just five women right?
If you ask someone who likes basketball, tell
me about the starting line up of the
Celtics.
They'll tell you so and so and so
and so.
He's averaging this much and this and that
whatever else.
Tell me about the latest fashions and this
and that.
They can give you all these details.
How much do you know about Sayyida Maryam,
Sayyida Aisha, Sayyida Fatima, Sayyida Khadija?
Precious little.
And this is a problem right?
This is a serious problem.
So we should have these examples alive in
our consciousness because it drives us.
Then when we look at the topic of
today's session, it is interesting that if you
read the Qur'an right?
And it's not a bad idea right?
Some people have forgotten that it's not a
bad idea to read the Qur'an every
day.
Now in the Qur'an, none of these
women are praised that Maryam, what a pious
woman.
She wore the hijab and her clothes were
loose and she wore no makeup and this
and that and the other.
Though of course all these things were true.
She wore the hijab and this and that
whatever.
All of this was true.
But is this what she was praised for?
Sayyida Aisha, is she praised for her dress?
No.
Is Sayyida Khadija mentioned anywhere about the way
she dressed as being the significant point that
defined her greatness?
No.
Right?
And so we should think about how we
look and judge righteousness and piety.
Does the hijab make someone a better Muslim?
And if we broaden that further, does wearing
a kufi or having a beard or the
way you dress or the different religious things
that you do, does any of this make
you a better Muslim on its own?
The answer of course is no.
And if we look further, does your worship
itself make you a better Muslim?
Does your activism make you a better Muslim?
Does your knowledge make you a better Muslim?
And again, the answer is no.
It is none of these things that defines
your standing with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Though all of these matters are very important,
none of these define what makes you a
pious believer, what makes you a great believer
before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It is as one of the great scholars
of Islam, Ibn Ata'illah Al-Sakandari said
in his great work Al-Hikam, and when
Ibn Ata'illah authored this work and showed
it to his teacher, Abu Al-Abbas Al
-Mursi, Abu Al-Abbas said that, my son,
you have summarized the ihyaa and added to
it.
You have summarized Imam Ghazali's ihyaa and added
to it.
It's a tremendous work.
He said, الأعمال صور قائمة وروحها وجود سر
الإخلاص فيها.
That actions are like lifeless forms whose soul
is the presence of the secret of sincerity
in them.
Your actions are lifeless forms whose soul is
the presence of the secret of sincerity in
them.
Your prayer is like a shell, an empty
shell, a lifeless body, an empty chest, a
which has no meaning without sincerity in it.
Your activism, and so many people who are
active, and Alhamdulillah we have this amazing convention
that has taken place with the effort of
so many hundreds of young people.
Your activism is not meaningful in your relationship
to Allah unless there is sincerity in it.
And everything else in your life, none of
it, as Allah tells us in Surah Al
-Kahf, it becomes on the Day of Judgment
like dust unless it were for Allah.
But we talk about sincerity.
What is sincerity?
That your actions have no life without sincerity.
Sincerity is the life of your actions.
And this is what makes someone a person
of standing before Allah.
What is this sincerity?
Allah tells us in the closing of Surah
Al-Kahf, that whoever
seeks the meeting
of their Lord, let them perform righteous deeds
and associate none with Allah in His service.
Let them associate none with Allah in His
service.
It is not enough that you act, but
your actions have to be righteous actions, they
have to be amal that is salih, that
is goodly.
This is sincerity.
Sincerity is not only that you act, it
is not only that you obey Allah, but
it is that you obey Allah, you act
in the right way for the right reason,
that you act for the sake of Allah.
But more than that, more than just this
statement that I'm acting for the sake of
Allah, there has to be a seeking of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in one's actions.
فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوْ لِقَاءَ رَبِّهِ فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوْ
لِقَاءَ رَبِّهِ فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوْ لِقَاءَ رَبِّهِ Whoever
longs for the meeting of their Lord, let
them act and make their actions goodly.
This is what you need in following the
Prophet ﷺ, right?
And we strive to follow the sunnah as
both men and women.
What does Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tell
us about it?
And it's amazing if you think about it.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, لَقَدْ كَانَ
لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ That verily
you have in the Messenger of Allah the
very most beautiful of examples.
And Dr. Jamila gave us some beautiful examples
of living women.
But you have in the Messenger of Allah
the very most beautiful of examples, but for
whom?
لِمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوْ اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ For whoever
seeks Allah and the last day.
وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا And makes much remembrance of
Allah.
So this is critical.
Why?
Because in anything that we do and anything
that happens around us, we observe forms and
there's realities.
When you see someone, they have a form.
When you perform an action, it has a
form, but it also has a reality.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
does not judge people or actions on the
basis of forms.
As the Prophet ﷺ told us, that Allah
does not look at your bodies or your
forms, but rather He looks at your hearts.
And in some narrations, rather He looks at
your hearts and actions.
So when you see someone on the street
and they don't have the regulation length beard
according to your standards or they don't have
the right kind of hijab or they're half
naked, you don't know where they are with
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
Right?
Because you don't know what's in their heart,
number one.
Number two, you don't know how they're going
to end up.
And we have to understand that we don't
know the reality of matters.
Why?
There's an amazing example from the words of
the Prophet ﷺ.
We all know about the hadith of intention.
Right?
Actions are by intentions and each person shall
have what they intended.
We don't reflect enough on the second half
of the hadith.
The second half of the hadith tells us
about the hijrah, the migration, this tremendous historic
event that shifted the story of the life
of the Prophet ﷺ from the Meccan phase
to the Medinan phase.
Now if I were to ask you, where
was the hijrah from?
Can someone tell?
Where was the hijrah from?
It was from Mecca.
Where was it to?
It was to Medina.
Was it to Medina?
What?
To Yathrib?
Okay, it was not.
The hijrah was not in reality to Medina.
Where was it to?
Where was it to?
Okay, you know, women are smart, right?
They get the point.
Like usually when I ask questions like this,
some sister in the audience spoils my answer,
but they figure it out.
What does Allah's Messenger ﷺ tell us about
the hijrah?
فَمَن كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى
اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ That whoever's migration, this known action
which began in Mecca and ended where?
In Medina.
And it was referred to before as Yathrib.
Whoever's migration was to Allah and His Messenger,
His migration was indeed to Allah and His
Messenger.
And then there was this poor guy, right?
Whose migration was for a woman.
And we'll get to this guy, right?
I've done a Giuliani and I've got my
cell phone on, so just a second.
Whoever's migration was for Allah and His Messenger.
His migration was indeed to Allah and His
Messenger.
So the action has a form which it
went from one place to the other.
Its reality was that it was for Allah
and His Messenger.
And then there was the person, the sahabi
known as Muhajir Unqais, the one who migrated
for Unqais, right?
He was one of the sahabi.
Good man, smart man.
He heard the words of the Prophet ﷺ
who said that this world is a mere
provision and the best of its provisions is
a righteous spouse.
So what did he do?
He looked for a righteous spouse.
And he found Unqais.
And she was a righteous woman.
But Unqais was smart.
He said, listen, I'd agree to marry you,
but I have a condition.
You have to migrate.
You have to show me you're a true
believer.
Now, he was taken by this woman, right?
She had everything he sought.
She was a righteous woman.
She was an intelligent woman, like her condition
tells, right?
If you're serious about marrying me, migrate.
Show me what you're all about.
So he did.
But the other companions used to give him
a hard time about it.
Why?
His migration was for good intention, right?
He wanted to marry Unqais, this righteous woman.
May Allah be pleased with both of them.
But he missed out.
Why?
He had a good intention.
But he didn't have a great intention.
His intention wasn't to seek the pleasure of
Allah directly.
It wasn't to seek the pleasure of Allah
directly.
So we should have this high intention in
life.
And then there's secondary intentions that come.
There's benefits.
So when you want to marry, you should
be seeking the pleasure of Allah.
And then there's other things that come, similarly
with everything else, right?
What does this tell us?
This tells us many things.
One is, when we look at other people,
you can't judge how they are on the
basis of how they look.
Because you don't know, one, what's in their
heart, and you don't know, secondly, how they'll
end up.
Because as the Prophet ﷺ said, that actions
are by their endings, right?
Imam Qurtubi has this beautiful thing, and I
believe Shaykh Hamza said it too.
I was preparing it, and I said, he
said it.
But I was happy too.
That was probably a smart thing to say,
right?
Imam Qurtubi had this amazing thing, that when
Umar ﷺ, who was prostrating to idols, right?
And was trying to kill the Prophet ﷺ,
he was still beloved, he was with Allah
ﷻ, the beloved of Allah, the second Khalifa
of Islam, the one whom the Prophet ﷺ
said that if he walked down a path,
Shaytan would flee from it.
Because this was his reality with Allah.
Because actions are by their endings.
So how could you judge?
That person who comes to you and he's
dressed in all the manifestations of what we
would consider to be corrupt conduct.
He's got all the wrong kind of dress,
and it's hanging like Imam Zayd said, way
too low, and all that kind of stuff.
How do you know how he'll end?
And how do you know how you'll end
up?
Alright?
So this is something to be careful of.
Rather, how are we supposed to look at
others?
How are we supposed to look at others?
What was the look of the Prophet ﷺ?
Not only at other Muslims, not only with
other humans, but with other, with all of
creation, with animals.
One of the great scholars of the Indian
subcontinent said he decided to gather a collection
of forty hadiths on the rights of animals,
and he said he couldn't.
Why?
Because there's far too many hadiths to limit
them to forty.
So he wrote an entire book instead.
Right?
Even how we look at an animal, how
do we look at Allah's creation in general?
Right?
We see it.
The look is that this is the creation
of Allah.
This is something that Allah has created.
Right?
So this is how we deal with all
of Allah's creation.
Our look is a look of mercy.
Allah's Messenger was sent only as a mercy
to all creation.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ So our look,
not only at our fellow Muslims.
Right?
Because it's not just about your righteous circle
of friends.
Not only all Muslims, but all humanity.
Other animals, because the human being is an
animal at the end of the day.
We are supposed to be rational animals.
Although sometimes that's questionable, right?
But all of creation, we're supposed to look
with the gaze of mercy.
Now what is mercy?
Like we don't think about these things.
When Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
praises something in the Qur'an, we go,
hmm, and we move on.
But do we understand what mercy is?
And I won't ask you guys, but normally
when I ask people, what is mercy?
You know, they start, you sense that they're
getting this fuzzy feeling, right?
That mercy is this nice fuzzy concept.
But what is mercy?
They don't, you know, they'll tell you mercy
is kind of like, it's compassion.
That's a synonym, or a near synonym.
So that doesn't define something.
What is mercy?
The scholars like defining things because things are
known by their definitions.
Mercy is sincere concern that causes one to
seek good for another and to grant good
to another.
This is what mercy is.
At a very sort of, just in a
knowledge-based way, like what does it mean?
Mercy is sincere concern that makes us seek
the good for another and to grant them
the good.
This is the way we're supposed to look
at creation.
The Prophet ﷺ told us in a hadith
that you all probably know, and traditionally it's
the first hadith narrated by a teacher to
their students, and I'm not a teacher and
you're not students, so I'm not narrating the
hadith.
But the Prophet ﷺ said, that
the merciful are those shown mercy by the
All Merciful.
Be merciful to those on earth and the
Lord of the heavens and the one in
the heavens, Allah ﷻ, will be merciful to
you.
So the degree to which you attain unto
the mercy of Allah, of Allah ﷻ, granting
you the good is to the extent that
you are merciful to creation, to the extent
that you have sincere concern for others, that
you wish well for them, that when you
look at someone, your look at them is
not a look that, does she have a
regulation hijab?
Does he have a regulation beard?
Where are his pants?
Where is this?
Why is he wearing this?
Why isn't that?
How come this?
How come that?
But rather, you look at Allah's creation with
the look of mercy, with the prophetic look,
how the Prophet ﷺ looked at creation, wishing
well for them.
This is why the Prophet ﷺ said, religion
is nasiha, and this is intranslatable.
But what is nasiha?
Nasiha is sincere concern.
Nasiha is wishing well for another.
Right?
Religion itself is this sincere concern.
Why?
Because religion is mercy.
Right?
Religion is mercy.
So to the extent that you lack mercy,
you lack religion.
To the extent that you lack mercy, you
lack religion.
What is mercy?
Mercy is not that you want God to
be merciful to you.
Mercy is that you seek the good for
others.
Right?
And this is how we're supposed to look
at other people.
Right?
So this is one point.
Right?
That is critical.
This is why the Prophet ﷺ said, none
of you believes, none of you believes until
they wish for others as they wish for
themselves.
Right?
None of you believes until they wish for
their brothers, but as Imam Nawawi and many
other great commentators said, that the brotherhood mentioned
in this hadith is the brotherhood of humanity.
So it could be perhaps idiomatically translated, none
of you believes until they wish for others
as they wish for themselves.
Why?
None of you believes until they're merciful.
Right?
So this is very important, how we look
at other people.
Right?
And what we consider about them.
And this does not apply just to Muslims.
It's not just about hijab.
When you see someone walking down the street
and someone's badly dressed, someone's dressed in a
way that we may consider abhorrent, do we
think ill of them?
Absolutely not.
Firstly, right, you're not God.
Right?
You're not God.
You're not judging these people on the day
of judgment.
Right?
You're not responsible for them.
And if you are responsible for them, then
you're in big trouble.
Right?
Because people really mess up in life.
And if you're responsible for the way things
are, you shouldn't be alive.
Right?
But it's serious.
Right?
You're not responsible for them.
What are you responsible for?
You're responsible for yourself.
You look at someone, if they're doing something
wrong, you have sincere concern for them.
You wish well for them.
If you can do something about it, you
do.
Right?
If you can go and advise someone in
a meaningful way, you do.
If it's going to have a good effect.
This is all you're responsible for.
The believer can never feel overwhelmed with the
way things are.
Why?
Because you're not responsible for it.
If you walk down Yonge Street and things
aren't that great on Yonge Street.
Right?
I used to live there 10 years ago
and it's basically the same right now.
Right?
Although it's better in some ways.
Subhanallah.
Right?
Things don't always just get worse.
You walk down Yonge Street, you're not responsible
for the crazy things people are doing.
All you're responsible for is what you do.
So if you're walking down Yonge Street and
you like what is beloved to Allah and
you dislike what is disliked by Allah, that
is a statement of faith.
That is a statement of faith.
One of my teachers, he's an Egyptian scholar.
He was going to spend some months in
America.
Right?
And he completely flipped my mind with this
thing.
I said, must be tough.
There's so much fitna and this and that.
He looked at me like I was stupid.
Right?
He looks at me like, why?
Why should it be tough?
I said, it must be hard on one's
faith after going from such a righteous environment
to go to such a place.
And he looked at me like I'm stupid.
Right?
And he's a really gentle soul.
But he didn't say anything.
So I asked him, you disagree?
And he said, listen, if someone had the
least of faith, they'd see everything around them
as a sign of the signs of Allah
Right?
That's it.
You see someone who is sinning.
If you dislike it, that is an increasing
of your faith.
And then if you can do something about
it, do it.
And if you can't, that's all you're responsible
for.
And disliking something for the sake of Allah
will change it.
Right?
An amazing thing from the hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ.
The hadith of commanding the good and forbidding
the evil.
The Prophet ﷺ said, whoever of you sees
the wrong, let them change it with their
hand.
And if they can't, then what should they
do?
Let them change it with their tongue.
Right?
And if they can't, then what?
Then with their heart.
And it's amazing.
What is implicit in the wording of the
Prophet ﷺ?
That if you can't change it with your
own actions, you can't go out there and
do something about it, and you can't speak
out against it, then at least dislike it
with your heart.
Why?
And this is not exactly what the Prophet
ﷺ said.
Then with your heart, i.e. then change
it with your heart.
Because if enough people in society actively dislike
something, even if they can't speak out against
it, it will change.
This is the promise of the Prophet ﷺ.
And if you read something, an amazing book,
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, you'll see
how little things make such a tremendous difference.
As we see with so many things, so
many social issues that have come up in
our times.
So this is one thing about judging other
people.
In closing, another point is we have to
look at our own actions.
That what defines you as a Muslim, what
defines you as a Muslim woman, is not
the fact that you wear the hijab.
And this is part of submitting to Allah
ﷻ to do so.
Because it is a command of the commands
of Allah.
What defines you as a Muslim man is
not the fact that you have a beard.
What defines you as a Muslim is not
that you're praying five times a day.
Allah did not command us to pray five
times a day.
What did Allah command us to do?
He commanded us to establish the prayer.
He didn't just say pray.
He said establish the prayer for my remembrance.
Establish the prayer for my remembrance.
So we pray, but we establish the prayer.
Why?
For the remembrance of Allah ﷻ.
No action is meaningful unless it's for the
sake of Allah ﷻ.
And even the smallest of action is rendered
tremendous when done for the sake of Allah
ﷻ.
Our religious lives, we feel no sense of
direction.
You meet people ten years later, and they're
exactly as you left them.
Why?
Because they have no sense of direction in
their lives.
As Ustadh Muhammad Sharif mentioned, you have to
know your destination.
So your actions should be for a purpose,
seeking the pleasure of Allah ﷻ.
And then the final thing, for our sisters,
right?
We all like talking about what happened in
the past and these pious women of the
past.
The question is, what are we doing to
create, to have pious women in our communities?
And it's amazing.
You find so much interest amongst our sisters
in the deen.
I work for an online academy, and 60
-65% of our students are women.
There's so much interest in that.
But what are we doing to facilitate learning
for them?
You come to a convention like this, and
you see, sisters have modesty.
You see a speaker, and afterwards, all these
men throng around them.
Do we do anything to facilitate sisters having
access to our scholars?
We don't.
Because we don't actively think about that as
our community.
So there's a few things, and sorry if
I go over time.
There's five short things.
First is, you have to seek knowledge.
You have to seek knowledge.
You can't complain about the way things are
in the community.
And yes, the community may be a mess.
You're not responsible for the community, you're responsible
for yourselves as individuals and as a group.
And you see at this convention what people,
when they get together, what tremendous things they
can do.
This is number one.
Number two, we have to actively promote female
scholarship.
We have to actively promote female scholarship, right?
Because you can't complain that our messiahs aren't
doing anything about this, because they're not doing
anything about so many things.
Like they say in Arabic, din-esaf, right?
It's sorry to say.
But go out there and promote female scholarship.
Find who are female scholars in our local
community elsewhere.
Assist them, because it's harder in many ways
for sisters to become scholars.
They have less access to scholars sometimes.
So facilitate those things for them.
And seek to become a scholar yourself if
Allah facilitates that for you.
Thirdly, our communities in many ways sometimes are
a mess.
And for a sister it can be very
frustrating, right?
And you can want to go out there
and like condemn the community and march into
the mosque and tell them where to go
and all these things.
We have to have positive, constructive engagement with
our communities, so we can deal with issues
of women's access, of women's learning, and dealing
with issues that face women in unique ways,
but in a positive, constructive way, with the
look of mercy to deal with these issues,
seeking to make things better, not just to
make a point, right?
And with that, sisters, the hijab, what is
it about?
It's about modesty.
But the Prophet ﷺ said something amazing.
A few of the women of the Ansar
came and asked a very sensitive question, a
very embarrassing question, and I won't mention it.
And one of the wives of the Prophet
ﷺ looked at those women like, how could
she say something like that publicly, right?
So the Prophet ﷺ said, may Allah have
mercy on the women of the Ansar, because
their modesty does not prevent them from gaining
understanding of religion.
So for sisters this is important, that virtue
of modesty is amazing, right?
It's amazing, and if you reflect on it,
it's a tremendous sign of the signs of
Allah ﷻ.
It's something that makes women amazing, but that
should not prevent one from seeking benefit.
That should not prevent one from seeking benefit,
because true modesty is modesty before Allah ﷻ.
And then, these are difficult times in many
ways, but if you look at the righteous,
they saw tests as a gift from Allah
ﷻ.
Why?
Because we know that, as the Prophet ﷺ
said, the people most tested are the Prophets,
and then the foremost, and then the foremost.
So you'll be tested, and the whole Qur
'an is a testimony of how the righteous
are tested.
But this is a gift from Allah ﷻ.
As one of the righteous said, when he
was tested, he was sick and in financial
distress, but he was crying with joy in
the depths of the night, saying, O Allah!
And he had tears in his eyes, O
Allah, what have I done for me to
be honored in the way that the best
of your creation have been honored by these
tests?
Why?
Because these tests show the trueness of our
face.
These tests, if we respond to them in
the right way, they manifest our sincerity.
That we're not worshiping just because it's cool
to be, it's nice to be with religious
people, and they don't backbite you and slander
you, and it's a nice time.
No, you're not in it for the ride,
you're in it for Allah ﷻ.
And this is the challenge that we face,
and we ask Allah ﷻ to make us
the best of communities by holding fast to
the example of the Prophet ﷺ and these
righteous women of the past.
We ask Allah ﷻ that we take the
means to recreate communities like the community of
the Prophet ﷺ.