Hosai Mojaddidi – Hijab is Our Crown, Not a Crime (World Hijab Day Celebration)
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Just it's very great to be here with all of you. And this, you
know, this day, you know what it means what it symbolizes for all
of us here is so important. That's why putting something like this
together, especially for our younger generations, is really
commendable. So you want to really please make dua for again, the
organizers. I wanted to kind of keep this casual. Normally when I
present I always have a presentation of some type. But
because this is such a deeply intimate and personal topic,
hijab, right, even though we're celebrating, you know, the
recognition of hijab through this holiday, I think the topic of
hijab as all of us know, whether we wear it, we've been wearing it
for a long time, whether we're inspired to wear it one day,
inshallah maybe we wore it, and we had a difficult time, and we took
it off. And now we're in this transition, you know, or the
experiences of women are, of course, they differ because we are
not a monolith. No one was no women, not all women are the same,
right? We're also different, and our lives are different, our
temperaments are different, our personalities are different. And
so I really wanted to just have a conversation and intimate
conversation. And I love the fact that we're finally in person to
have this, it's not behind the screen, that makes it even more
special. So I thought it was fitting to start this off by
sharing my hijab story. Because I didn't always wear hijab and and
then you know, speaking on a few different points from from the,
you know, from our sacred texts, and then inshallah really having
conversation, I would love to hear from you all. So I want this to be
a more of a dialogue as opposed to a presentation. So please feel
free to interject with any questions or stories of your own,
if you've had any experiences that have been inspiring for you. And
maybe that's something that you can think about now, like, what,
what would you want to share if someone asked you, what was your
what is your most favorite memory of hijab or what inspired you to
wear the hijab? Think about that, as I'm speaking, and then please
participate, I'll open it up to all of you in Sharla. So I'm going
to take you back to just a little bit to my childhood, and then kind
of bring you up to two where I was, you know, inspired to wear
the hijab. So I was born and raised in Afghanistan. Sorry, I
was born in Afghanistan, and I was raised here in the US, so I was
born there. But like many Afghan families who are here now we came
as refugees from the war with Russia. So although I was born
into a Muslim Afghan family, the topic of hijab was definitely not
something that I ever was familiar with. And no one in my family
immediate family wore the hijab, you may be familiar with the
Afghan dress and although when I'm honest, on, you know, the
childhood either the blue, you know, long, you know, covering is
common. They're here are many of the OBGYNs that I had witnessed as
a young child in my own family, they did not dress like that ever,
I never saw a single person wear that in my life. The only thing
that I was exposed to was a very thin it's like a, I think it's I
forgot the actual material, the fabric, but it's a very thin,
covering head covering that yes, my mom and other elders in our
family would wear but usually their hair was still showing
invisible, it was more cultural. So hijab from what I later came to
know of it was very foreign to me. And just Islam in general, we had,
I think, like a typical experience that many people have here, where
Islam was something that was infused in our day to day, but not
something taught. You know, it wasn't like we were being
instructed daily with Quran and Hadith, or anything like that was
more just the general you know, lessons that we learned of Tobia
Have you know been of serving your parents of being you know, truth,
truthful, all of those things, infused in our cultures. And dress
modesty was definitely part of, of our, of our culture, your as
Afghan women. So we were taught to always dress modestly and we had
codes of dress for sure even as young children for example, we
weren't we couldn't swim like me and my sisters we were not allowed
to learn how to swim or swim because you know those usually
required very revealing clothing in my father was super
conservative. So we just never learned how to swim as children my
brothers of course learned so there were those elements that I
just I don't think I ever questioned because they were
common. All my cousins had similar experiences. So anyhow, Dean was
something that I really only recognized as being something
really prominent around Ramadan eid, and that was really it other
than that, it was kind of in the background, you know of my life
and
And then fast forward to high school, where I had the very first
experience ever of listening to a born or an American convert.
Muslim speaker teacher who I felt related like relatability to
because every other person who I saw as a religious authority was
from an immigrant background usually had a very thick accent.
And I just did not relate to. And so in high school we actually had,
this was many, many years ago, but we were privileged to hear from I
mean, Abdullah medic, Eddie, who was here in our community, my
shot, he's in the Oakland Community, but he came to speak to
us about the topic of Malcolm X, because the film was going to be
released soon. And I think it was just a really relevant topic, like
in the news. So we invited him to speak. And this was the first time
I'm ever hearing someone speak about Islam without a thick
accent. And he was, of course, he's a dynamic, amazing speaker.
He had me so engaged, I was like, so inspired by everything he was
saying, and I felt so much pride, I feel like that was this first
seed, really, that was planted in my heart to feel pride as a
Muslim. Prior to that I had a strong Afghan identity, but
Muslim, it was there, but not really. So when I heard him speak,
I was like, Oh, my God, I'm so moved. And I immediately went to
the library, I got the autobiography of Malcolm X. And I
read it, I read it within the next maybe few days or so. And that was
definitely a really big part of my, my journey coming into Islam
is reading his story, because it was transformative. And then it
was also American. And I did feel very American in my identity, even
though I had a bi, you know, cultural life, I had to add to
dual realities. At home, we spoke our language, we ate our food, we
had to, you know, live according to our culture. But outside of
course, as many people know, in public life and public school,
you're totally different. So, anyhow, when I had that experience
of feeling moved to be more strong in my Islamic identity, you know,
it took time and it took a few more years or a couple of more
years for that really to solidify and an experiences and that's the
thing about, you know, Islam, Islam is a journey, right? It's,
it's, it's not something that overnight, necessarily, I mean,
some people may have realizations that are very powerful. But
really, when you look at the message that we're constantly
told, in our deen, that this is, you know, we're in this for the
long haul, or the law, you know, it's a long game, I mean, not
game, but you know what I mean, it's not something that you want
to rush through, right, you have to really feel, you know, or
understand have knowledge, of course, and really understand the
weight of what you're doing when you take on, you know, your
practice and you have a strong identity. And so over several
years of going through high school, finishing high school, and
then my first year of college, was part of that right part of that
evolution, that just gradual understanding of what it meant to
be a Muslim, as opposed to an young African American Girl. And
the next seed, what came in my first year of college, and this is
actually probably I mean, it is the biggest seed was really when
the garden I guess you could say flourish. But what happened? First
was I lost someone, right? Anybody experienced loss, like a real big
loss? Okay, how many of you have experienced loss in your youth?
Like, either young age, right child or high school? College?
Yeah. So this was my very first big loss. first year of college,
it was my grandfather, who I was very close to, and experiencing
death on that level where you don't know what it means, right?
Someone is with you, and then they're not and, and then you see
adults that have never showed weakness or emotion before
breaking down. And it's very, you know, destabilizing for youth to
see your grandfather, for example, crying, right? Because he was my
father was always the, you know, pitted me of strength. And so
here, I'm seeing him like that. And I don't have any point of
reference to understand what what is happening, because I don't know
about what's the next phase of death. We never really studied
that, like what happens after a person dies, and am I ever gonna
see this person again? So that was actually a very traumatic
experience for another reason to I was misinformed. Someone told me
and for some reason, and this is why it's so important to learn
your deen yourself and really take initiative of that. I'm just you
know, that's a little footnote. But at that time, I was told that
my grandfather because he was sick in the hospital, that he would not
die because in order for a person for Allah to take this person's
soul, all of his children have to be
with him, and we had one uncle who was still in Pakistan. So here I
am this very naive, you know, girl thinking, Oh, everything will be
fine. Why are people so worried because I had the secret
information. I don't know why I thought it was true, but I just
did. So I believe that my father, my grandfather is going to come
out of the hospital, everything would be fine, but just another,
you know, routine visit. And then so when he was actually gone, I
felt my cry as I was like a crisis of faith. Like, what, this isn't
what was supposed to happen. And something, you know, really, I
mean, it definitely affected me. So that was very traumatic. And
then in that period of time,
some other events happen, and I'll get to the hijab story. But prior
to me even being in that position of mourning my grandfather,
I have to rewind a little bit because I forgot a big part of the
story. But I was because I always had, you know, I guess, social
personality. I don't know, just, you know, I had friends and I made
friends easily. So when I went to the campus, this was a junior
college here in, in Pleasant Hill called Diablo Valley College. Some
of you may know it, but that campus, there were Muslims on
campus. And there was one sister in particular, who was he Jabby.
She was one of two girls that I knew that wear hijab, I didn't
know anyone else. And I always, you know, I just thought they were
really extreme. Like, I thought, Whoa, like that family is super,
super extreme Muslim, because I never saw that before. But she was
really sweet. And she came to me one day, and I remember, she just
said to me, you know, Jose, you should you should wear, you should
wear the hijab.
And, and I looked at her like so puzzled, because I thought like,
there's no way that I could, you know, do that in my mind. Of
course, I wasn't rude to her. I was just like, sure, you know,
like smiling along as though it was a possibility. But in my mind,
I recollect thinking that she was completely out of her mind,
because hijab was such a foreign concept to me at that time. But
the reason why she said I should wear hijab is because I was
encouraged by some of the Muslim students to be to take on the
leadership role of the MSA to be the president of the MSA. So she
just felt like I'm in a leadership position on the front face of this
club. And I should represent Islam. Well, and she just was
giving me general Naseeha. Right. But I just didn't have that
knowledge. And I'm just thinking, okay, she's trying to push me, you
know, into something I don't want to do. But I was still polite. So
I remember thinking that and I remember looking at her like,
yeah, right. And then Subhanallah, a few months go by and I
experienced this loss. And I'm really starting to question life
and death. And everything is just really strange. For me, there's
just because when you experience death, it's it shakes your
reality, right? You're just everything just felt fuzzy. I
don't know how else to say it. But it didn't feel real. But I was
requested as the president of the MSA to accommodate a speaker. They
said there was going to be a speaker, and she was from an
African nation. I think it was either Somalia or Sudan. And she
was going to come and she needed to she was going to address the
college on the topic of FGM, which, hopefully, you guys know
what that is. And the the school administration really wanted the
support of the Muslim students, because they felt like she needed
to be supported. This was a very traumatic experience for her. And
so I said, Okay, sure. So I gathered the MSA, and we said,
Let's go there, and let us hear this speaker. And when she went up
on stage, unfortunately, I found out on the spot because she
started insulting. The Provost was sort of making horrible remarks
that she was not Muslim. She had left Islam because of whatever.
And she was disparaging our dean. And so there I'm sitting in the
audience with my other fellow club members looking at this person
that I'm supposed to be supporting. And she's disparaging
our dean, and I'm shocked and I'm angry. And I'm just like, I need
to do something, because this is this is getting out of control. So
the from the law, we I requested the mic, you know, they were
passing out the mic for questions. And so I went up and I just said
to her, you're You are insulting us. You're lying about our faith
and about our, you know, Prophet and you need to stop. You're not
here to talk about Islam. You're here to talk about what happened
to you, you know, that's a very political or cultural experience.
Why are you doing this? And so I was very visibly mad and they cut
off my mic.
So when they cut off my mic, I was like, Whoa, because the just keep
in mind, the audience was huge. First of all, is a big packed
auditorium. Fully.
I mean, there are many everybody was seated, but there were a lot
of people there. And then most of the people there were like in
women's studies, they were, you know, kind of liberal, West, you
know, what I mean? Feminist leaning, because this was, you
know, such a serious topic for them anyway, so they, they wanted
to be there and they had an
agenda. So when they hear me going after their guest who's flown over
here from all the way across the world, I'm the enemy now, right?
So they all turned on me. And that was really shocking because I
wasn't wearing hijab obviously, at that point, I just looked like
everyone else. And so they all turned on me. And I felt like,
Whoa, this is it got really serious, you know, at that point,
but I wasn't done. So, you know, I felt like there's more to say
because she kept going, she kind of, you know, got the mic back.
And she started going on and saying stuff about me. So I was
like, oh, no, no, no, this is this isn't, you know, we're gonna we're
gonna end this. So then hamdulillah my friend hubba. May
Allah bless her, she passed away all that haha. But at that time,
she, she's, she had these big, beautiful blonde curls. You know,
she's Egyptian. All the Egyptians. Here are the Egyptians. I want to
show I love the curls. She had these big, beautiful girls. And so
she didn't look Muslim at all. She actually looked very, you know, I
mean, she could pass for anything. So I said, Hey, raise your hand
for the mic. She was seated a few seats down from me. So they gave
her the mic, and then she threw it to me.
So this is part two of
unleashing on this woman and 100 Allah, Allah gave me the words, I
don't know what I said, I wish I had a record of it. But I don't
know. But I know that it got to the point where the hall went
crazy. And they had to shut down the entire event, which was for
me, fine, Allahu Akbar. Because that's what I wanted. I thought
she was she just didn't deserve to be up there. So when that
happened, this was the second major seed for me. Because, again,
now it was a matter of this question that we all have to ask
ourselves, every one of us at every point of our life, who am I?
Right? And what am I doing? Where am I going? These are questions
that even though Quran Allah subhanaw taala asks us, right? For
Aina to have bone right, where are you going? But the question of who
am I was a was a question that really stayed with me. And I felt
very puzzled because I had such conflicting identities. Right? I
am African American, I already mentioned that I so that what does
that mean, I have this culture at home. And then I have this
identity outside where I look like any other western woman, you know,
I work like scoopneck T shirts, which was were revealing. I had my
hair done, I would wear makeup, sometimes short sleeves. I didn't
be on that, you know, were more revealing clothing. We were We
were not allowed to. But I still looked so Western that people
would never looking at me. presumed that I was Muslim,
because actually everybody thought I was Latina. And when they would
speak Spanish meant to me and I was like, I don't know, unless
it's like the old they thought I was like a liar. You know, like,
no, no. And then, you know, I went to different trends where I would
pass for like, even Native American. I was like, no, no, you
know, so the point being, I don't know who I am, what am I? What do
I where am I going? And then death was looming around me. So I'm just
like, starting to really, really have no this internal existential
crisis of like, you need to think about things seriously, you know,
this life is temporal. You just witnessed someone that you, you
know, loved and had such a strong relationship buried in the ground.
These people that you look like, you act like you listen to their
music, you dress like them. They're so different from you,
they were about to turn on you, you know, so who are you? And then
even my friends on campus? I had a dream Subhanallah it's just the
reason why I share this is because you see, when I was proud that
says he's the only one who guides in misguides This is the
experience of people who've experienced you know, who've come
through a path of guidance from Jehovah, right, you come, you'll
see the, the all of the dots connecting. So all these things
are happening at the same time. And then I had this dream and the
dream was really the final point. For me. The dream was my friends
Heba. I mentioned her May Allah bless her Aloha, and some other
friends who are non Muslim. Those are my core people. So even in my
friends I had like a mixture of this is like, Who are you right?
But in my dream, I come out and I am looking at I'm standing on the
front of my house, and I'm looking at the moon. And the moon is so
beautiful and I still remember how love is these details of that
dream. But in the middle of it is flashing Allah Muhammad, Allah
Muhammad, like these beautiful calligraphy, you know, letters,
and I'm just in awe. So I call my friend Heba. And my other friend,
her name is yoga. And I said, have a yoga come here? And I was like,
oh, and they came to me. They were really far when I called them.
They came and they stood right next to me. They said, look, and
they both were like, What are you talking about? They you know, they
didn't see what I saw. And I was like, look again, and then every
time I would look over them, they would be further and further and
further.
or they're further away. And so anyway, there was a lot of
symbolism in that dream. But you know, I had it interpreted and
someone said, Well, you're you're kind of on your own path. And
that's the thing that I also understood early. And you know, we
have to realize as women, because we're so usually tied to other
people, right in our households growing up, obviously, our
siblings, our parents, then we immediately usually just, you
know, for some of us anyway, maybe not all, we move into the next
phase of life, right after school and living with our families, we
suddenly jump into a relationship. And now we're tied to our
partners, and then our children come along, and we're tied to
them. So this idea of, you have your own path, you no matter how
many friends you have in your life, or no matter how many shared
common interests you have, you are your own. You're this, you know,
this is your own journey. And I really took that to heart, because
I wanted to have support, right? It's very natural, when you are
making changes in your spiritual practice, to wish to have people
doing it with you, right? How many of us have been felt inspired, and
we want to share it with our loved ones, because we want them to feel
the inspiration, but they don't have the same reaction, right? I
mean, that's happening, how many times right? You read an AI
Hadith, you hear a story or a talk, and you're like, Oh, my God,
you have to hear this. And then the response from that person is
like, now, Mashallah.
And you're like, come on, you know, I felt like this, you know,
big awakening, how could you not have? Well, that's a proof that
Allah subhanaw taala, you know, is speaking to us through these, you
know, mediums in different ways. And if we're not, on the, we're
not, it's not meant for us at that time, there's a veil, right,
there's a veil and, you know, tied to this theme of hijab, right?
That's, that's what the word hijab is, it's a veil. But when I got
that, when I had that dream, that's when I understood what all
these, you know, experiences meant for me that Jose, you need to
start taking your life seriously. What is your identity outwardly is
not matching your reality inwardly. And until you bring
those two together, you are going to feel this tug and pull and this
fragmented identity, right? Because you're, you're not solid
in who you are. And so I needed to take some time and 100 out with
Allah's guidance and good people around me, I decided to I need to
wear hijab. So that was my intention. I was like, this is the
only way that I'm going to solidify my identity. Because if
you if I am a Muslim woman, and I believe in this faith, which I
did, I had a belief and I I wanted that nearness to Allah subhanaw
taala. Right. I wanted to know him. I really wanted to know Him.
If you think about how much we
when we love someone, or we love something, how much we dive into
that, right? You when you get fixed on something that you love,
whether it's a hobby or even people get infatuated with people,
right, maybe there's a particular I mean, I remember I used to have
when I was a teenager posters, I honestly don't know how my parents
allowed me to have huge closet size life size posters of like,
New Kids on the Block in my room, and I'm like, how did that happen?
You know, like, we weren't allowed to talk to boys at school, but I
could stare at them every single day in my room. So just really
bizarre you know, experiences like that. But when we love something
we dive so into it right that we It absorbs us it it consumes us,
right when you love a song? I mean, I don't know how many of you
are like this. I'm notorious if I like a song, it's on repeat
forever until I absolutely can get sick of it. And then I hate it. Or
like even I remember a group of friends. We used to get together
for holidays. And there was there were these snacks. They were was
it. Gold something pretzels. Anyway, someone brought these
pretzels and every time we got together we'd we'd have those same
pretzels and pretzels until the point where we're all so disgusted
by that pretzel. Like okay, we need to stop going to the extreme.
But this is human nature right when we some of us are like that
some may have a little bit more self control. But usually when we
claim love of someone or something, there is action to
follow. So when it comes to these claims that we have about our
Lord, right, we have to call ourselves into account like you
you love Allah subhanaw taala you love Allah, you claim you love
Allah. Where's where's the evidence? Right? Where's the
evidence of your love?
If someone came to you right now and said, I love you, right? I'm
in love with you. But then their actions proved otherwise. Would
you believe them?
No. So this is the same standard we have to have for ourselves when
we make claims and I think that realization hit me that I say I
love
Like, I want to be close to him and I want to know Him. Therefore,
how can I do that unless I fully embrace his call. And his call for
us as women, is to adopt a very noticeable, strong identity as
Muslim women. And it's not for him, he doesn't need this. Right,
none of what we do, whether it's our hijab or our prayers, nothing,
not a single thing that we do is for Allah, it's for his sake,
because He commands us to, but out of His love and Russia, he
commands for us what we would otherwise not do for ourselves,
even though it is the best for us, because we don't always have our
best interests in mind. So that's why he makes it a command. Right?
If you left it optional, if you left all of the good, that would
benefit us optional. Most of us are too weak, we wouldn't fall you
know, follow up think of Ramadan. It's about to start soon. How many
of us
if fasting was optional, and Ramadan would not fast, let's just
be honest. Right? That's, that's how you get to the heart of your
you know, to the truth of your own self. Right? To to really call
yourself out and to know who you are. This is what self awareness
really means is to be like, Yeah, you know, fasting is tough for me.
For those who had stuff for right I probably wouldn't do it if it
was optional. But because Allah makes it mandatory fuddled, we do
it. Right. So there's certain things in our Sharia, Allah knows
that if we had the option, we wouldn't, even though it's better
for us. So hijab, like all of the prayers, they all are, fall under
that our prayers are the same. If our prayers are all optional, we
would likely squeeze them all in maybe, or not doing them at all
right? Like we do them all, like, let's just say, Allah said, just
do five prayers a day, we probably do them all in the morning and go
now I'm free for the rest of the day, right? Because we're being
efficient. But that still is one of the nuts because in your
efficiency, you're actually opening the doors of fitna for
yourself, because the purpose of the prayer is, is to spread them
out so that at every interval of your day you check yourself like
you're not going to go and do haram if you know you got four,
five prayers ahead of your day. But if you squeeze them all out of
the way, and you you know, got them out of the way then where's
the reminder? Where's that? signpost that says, Hey, watch
out, you know, don't do this. So I'm good for you. Danger, danger,
right? Those are that's what the prayer is. And similarly he jab.
He jab is the same, right? He jab is Allah subhanaw taala,
protecting us from the dangers, right, that are around us. Because
the world is a dangerous place. Not I mean, that's not to, you
know, bring us all into a state of panic. But we have to be
realistic, that there are things in this world that take us away
from the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala and that is
dangerous for our souls. Right? When we are heedless when we are
in a state of overflow, and we forget Allah subhana wa Tada. We
are in a very dangerous state. And if that continues, and we
habituate to those things, we're doomed. It's very serious, right?
Unless, of course, Allah calls us back and He guides us. But this is
why we have to see the hijab for what it was. So at that time in my
life, when I started to contemplate deeply about my own
sincerity and claim of love of Allah subhanaw taala, I was left
with no choice but to say, homicide, despite your family,
who's telling you what are you crazy? And I did I had family
members who are like, what are you crazy? Why are you wearing a
hijab? You're not 50 You're not 60? You haven't done hudge that's
what they thought the hijab was? Why would you wear that? How are
you going to get married, nobody's going to even like you, you're
going to look so weird. People are going to attack you. And they had
all these negative things to say, maybe one or two people at that
time in my life, were actually telling me, encouraging me like,
you know, mashallah, if Allah is calling you to the hijab do it.
But this is where you have to go back to the point that I made.
This is your journey. You can't sit here and listen to everyone
else, because everyone's always got an opinion. And they're going
to come from their frame. So my parents are coming from their
frame. My friends are also coming from I had friends very close
friends who discouraged me from wearing the hijab at that time,
because they don't they think like, I'm going to be too weird
now, right? When you're have like a group identity, right with your
friends, and everybody kind of dresses the same and you look the
same and you liked the same things. When there's an outlier,
it, you know, affects the group. So people will tell you advice
based on them and their interests. Unless you get goodness you how
who are looking for you. And when someone tells you in a car that's
for you. It's there factoring in your asset, other factoring and
all of the things that really matter. So at that time, I didn't
have a lot of those
voices which again, put me in that situation like I need to make this
decision on my own. And I just prayed a lot. I asked Allah like
y'all please, I want to do this but I'm scared I have no support.
Nowadays look at this mashallah, we didn't have anything like this
20 however, many years ago, it's been maybe 30 something years now,
I'll close to 30 years since I wear hijab.
There was nothing like this, I could not go out to any place and
just expect to see a hijab now, mashallah, I almost always see a
hijab be somewhere in the car at the store. Wherever I am, I've
gone to really remote places, like, you know, so I will lie,
it's happened to me, I've gotten to like, you know, halfmoon Bay
and somewhere where it's like, oh, look, my own private beach, and
then you turn around, there's, like, oh, I guess we both had the
same idea. Mashallah. But like, it's so common now to see jobbies.
Even in those experiences, I didn't have this then. So I had to
really sit with myself and this is the beauty of our deen is that we
come into this world alone, every single one of us I mean, unless
you're a twin, or triplet, or, but we come into it spiritually, you
know, different independent of anyone else, that even we join, or
share a room with. And we leave this world alone as well, our
spiritual journey is completely solitary, is why it's important to
study. You know, like the book, for example, the mom and dad dad's
the lives of men, that goes into the different journeys of the
soul. Because what that does is it puts all of us in a position of
really understanding the uniqueness of our existence.
Right, when you really appreciate who you are, that Allah made you
independent of all of these other 8 billion people that share the
planet with you, that you are an idea in, in in his, you know, and
I mean, God created you, and that he puts you brought you into
existence for a reason, then it puts the weight of your existence
on you suddenly, like, wow, I am a significant creature, right? I'm
significant, because if I wasn't significant, first of all, I
wouldn't be here. Second of all, I wouldn't be a human, I wouldn't be
in the OMA of the Prophet salallahu, salam, all of these
things are reasons enough for us to know our worth and our value.
But we forget, we're forgetful, right? Because we get caught up
with the dunya. And the dunya is messages are very, are low or
much, are much lower, right? A lot what Allah calls us to, doesn't
compare to what we call sometimes ourselves to or what people call
us to, right. Because for as women I mean, right, like society
cultures, what are we usually we're, we're boxed in, right?
We're told that we only,
you know, are fitting for this role or that role. Right? I know,
I mean, even nowadays, SubhanAllah. I know, people
currently in 2022, whose family cultures are, are it's tragic that
this exists, but that they, you know, their their culture, teaches
young girls that there's no real point even in striving for
education, because, you know, what's the point you're just gonna
get married. And that's the plan that ultimately, that they just
need to have, you know, be married and have children, which is, of
course, a great station a great honor, and nobody's taking away
from that. But to set those limits right away from such an early age,
to tell a girl that she doesn't need to focus on developing her
intellect and finding her calling, find her passion. And to just put
her in a box that says you're just going to be a homemaker, just
leave it at that. This is what human beings do, right. And this
is unfortunately, where when you study the history of women and
what we've had to overcome, right, as a, as a gender, I try to
overcome all of these different systems of power that work against
us. A lot of it is because they've suppressed us, they've told us
that we are only this, where Islam is constantly elevating us, and
telling us that your significant, right that you are the other half
of the greatest of all creations because humanity or human beings,
when we know Allah subhanaw taala. And when we strive for his
pleasure, we rise above even the angels, right? And this is known
and so where the other half, there's, of course, man and woman
were a pair, but we also intellectually, spiritually, all
of our efforts and endeavors are the same in value. There is
absolutely no difference between the prayer of a man and the prayer
of a woman, the reading of the Quran of a man and the reading of
the Quran of a woman to fast, there's a cat, it's all in the
sight of God, I bet that and it's all the same, we are elevated and
Allah calls us to have these lofty aspirations lofty goals, but human
beings call us to what focus on, you know,
making sure that your hair looks this way that your nails look this
way that your body looks this way, your eyebrows are like this, your,
you know, constant emphasis on the external, stripping us away of all
of the other beautiful facets of our existence, reducing us to
nothing but
Again, trophies, right like dolls, you know, how can we, you know,
trim this and cut this and fix this, like molding us into just
these little. That's what women have become in this society and in
the world. No longer are we inspired to learn, you know,
someone was telling me yesterday about a story of some of I have a
sister who, at 60 years old became a half of the Quran. And I just
said somehow I love our deen because women are never told to
stop like it's, Oh, you're too old. Now your kids are older.
Forget about it. You know why why even bother know, up until your
last breath? You want to go into this field? You want to go into
that field? Do it? If it's halal and it's you're able to manage all
the other responsibilities, do it there are no glass ceilings in our
deen for women. It's just, you know, prioritize know what, what
Allah expects of you, but you don't have these limitations that
humans impose. So Allah is always calling us to elevate ourselves.
It's just that we, we of course fall we fall into these other
narratives, where we're told to focus on these things that are
going to they're not going to matter. Right. And that's one of
the beautiful things about Hijab is that what you do when I when I
really understood the reason why hijab was imposed on women, of
course, this takes time. And I didn't have all these realizations
when I was in it. It was over many years of looking around, seeing
women in different situations, seeing exploitation, seeing women
confused about who they are.
And constantly, you know, focusing again, on all the wrong things,
that I began to learn that what ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada was doing,
by giving us the hijab and telling us to where it was to say, take
the reins, right, take hold of your path, because the hijab is so
it's yours, it's personal. And it's your, what, you know, your
you your effort with Allah subhanaw taala, it has nothing to
do with anyone else. And that's why it's not a uniform, right? How
many, how many times is the word hijab mentioned in the Quran
five times. And those references do not have to do with what I'm
wearing, or what we're wearing here. Because hijab literally
means veil, right? So the word hijab has been used and made to,
to hype to emphasize this one aspect of the body of a woman in a
way that historically and socially is really meant about, you know,
kind of keeping her away from public life. That's why the actual
verse that has to do with what the covering is came out of the word,
right, but we see this word hijab over and over again, because part
of that is it's a term that is used to basically keep women out
too right to keep them away from public life. But we have over or
misunderstood, really the essence of why we cover because we get
fixated on labels, we get fixated on terms, we get fixated on
meanings and definitions like oh, that hijab like I saw Post
recently on you know, the proper hijab and then there's like,
different women, some are wearing the full, you know, chador, the
full veiling, others are wearing niqab some are wearing like a rap.
And, you know, the whole post was so negatively framed because it's
basically saying that there's only one right way and if you're not
doing it that way, you're you're wrong. And this is also we have to
be careful of using that type of language because the it's
something that is there's rules to it. Of course, you know, we know
that when you look at our Sharia and our descriptions of what a
hijab entail. It is very simple, right? Very simple. Basically
cover your your outer cover your private parts, and don't show your
adornments don't be too that's why we don't wear tight clothing.
That's why we don't wear see through clothing. We wear clothing
that is covering our beauty our adornments and as long as we are,
you know, we can show our face we can show our hands and of course,
you know there's different fifth opinions about feet from the mala
head. But other than that, you have the the right. It's actually
in the Quran to beautify yourself, as long as your intention is not
to be seductive and to be you know, using your body or your
hijab in an inappropriate way. But you have the right to wear
colorful scarves, you have the right to wear patterns and prints.
And that's why it's behind law when you see hijab represented in
different cultures look around, where do you see a uniform concept
of hijab, right? Historically, you find I mean, in every culture, you
go to China, you go to parts of Africa, you go to parts of
unassign you see
Cultural iterations of what the hijab means, right? Because that's
Islam. Islam doesn't come to say, yeah, there's this again, one way
of interpreting these things we are allowed as human beings to be
human. Some people have very artistic, you know, inclinations
they love. I mean, I have friends who are very much into fashion,
and they love it. And so to tell them that, oh, you know, your your
two sister, your dress is too beautiful. And this is not
appropriate because you're showing wearing too many colors. It's just
tragic that, you know, we're sending those messages, especially
in this day and age, when we want to give our girls a really strong
identity of what it means to be Muslim. So this is why again, we
have to go back and say, Well, what does our deen say about these
things? Right? And I wanted to share a verse that I think really
kind of hits hits the nail on the head is in terms of how we need to
understand hijab because you're gonna get different
interpretations and different meanings and different messages,
but I think if you get these verses, Inshallah, you'll have a
really solid grounded understanding of what hijab is.
This is in surah, the I think, chapter seven, verse 26, Allah
subhanaw taala says, Yeah, Benny oedema cadenza la la, comme
Lieberson Euro so, so Adhikam where he share when he bears a
taqwa, liquefier, that he came in I Atilla Hilah, Allah homea, the
karoun. What does this mean?
Oh, Children of Adam, we have bestowed upon you clothing to
conceal your private parts, and as an adornment, but the clothing of
righteousness that is best, that is from the signs of Allah that
perhaps they will remember.
So this is look at the way the Vs, you know, is explained here,
right? That Allah subhana has given us clothing, He's given us
the ability to manufacture the fabrics. I mean, just look at the
textiles, look at the colors. Look at the patterns, the the way that
he's these are all from him, right? We understand. I mean, if
anyone is anyone colorblind here, I have, I know people who are
colorblind, and I'm always like, subhanAllah, that they can't see
certain colors. But for those of us who have, you know, average or
regular sight, we can perceive an array of different colors that a
lot of people can't, or people who can, you know, who have
sensitivities, maybe to certain fabrics, just think of like, the
range, right? The the variety, that Allah Subhana Allah has given
us as human beings to be able to appreciate you know, these things.
But he's he's the one who's given us that why to conceal our private
parts. So this is the crux of it. This is it. He's given us these
means, so that we can dress modestly, because in the absence
of modesty, what do you have, you have a lot of problems look around
you, it's evident when you don't behave and dress modestly. You get
a lot of, you know, social societal problems that come out of
that. So of course, he knows us better than we know ourselves. So
he's told us, tells us that he's bestowed upon us clothing to
conceal and as an adornment, so this is where the permission comes
from the we are allowed to and, you know, the FCA many of them if
I sit in agree that this explains the permissibility for us to
beautify ourselves in our clothing. As long as we are
abiding by the rules, we're not dressed again, in too tight
revealing clothing, we're not showing our nakedness because
nakedness isn't just skin shape. You know, when you see these
women, you know, May Allah guide them, they they're just under the
spell of, of the beauty or whatever fashion industry of this
society. But when they're wearing yoga pants, you have to realize
that that is a very toxic message to send to women to go out. And in
the name of comfort and ease and convenience, walk around naked
because they are that is a naked woman who's dressed like that. So
please, I mean, if you weren't dressed like that, surely you
should not to dress like that, because it is nakedness in our
Sharia that is a version of nakedness. It's not just about
showing skin, because you're showing your shape. And if someone
can look at you and see the outline of every single curvature,
that is nakedness, right? So this is a message that young girls now
not even women, young girls, you have young elementary school
girls, they make brands for these girls that are encouraging them,
conditioning them to start to dress in this way, so that by the
time they develop, and they have you know that they look like women
that they have already acclimated to wearing either very short
shorts, right? How many
stores do you remember the phase of of the short shorts? Right? I'm
sure they're still there, but how many stores catering to young
children did we see with those types of clothing, it's horrible.
To start to exploit young children, especially girls, and
you'll see there's many people have written blogs about this. But
finding modest clothing for girls is almost impossible. Because
there's always they target them so early. So we have to question
these things. Why? Why do we live in a society that reduces women to
just focusing on basically giving and show shit giving our bodies to
for the pleasure or for the exploitation of other people? Or
for whatever? Why? And why? Why does Allah Subhana Allah tell us
to do the opposite? Because who has our interests in mind? Do you
think the society has your interests in mind? Do you think
they care about you, as an individual, you're just a
consumer, all they care about is your money, they don't care about
your safety, they don't care that someone could attack you. And you
know, that's not victim shaming or blaming. That's reality, people
target women who dress a certain way. So they don't care that you
know, that. They want you to just, you know, make them walk around,
like walking billboards for their brands, so that other people buy
their brand and make them rich. Whereas the last panel tells us
dress modestly, cover yourself, because if you don't you give up
agency you give up, right, your protection that this will help you
and not to say that Muslim women are never attacked. Yes, I mean,
we see this horrible crisis that's happening in places like India and
others where women are fighting for their right to wear hijab,
they are being pulled, the hijab has been pulled off of them. So
there are Muslim women who are attacked as well. But what this
does for us is it gives us control right, of what we want to share
with other people. And that's why almost, that calls us to it. But
we are, of course, allowed to beautify it, right? And then Allah
says, So He gives us this instruction. And then he finalizes
the message by saying, the clothing of righteousness that is
best. So what is that telling us? That as much as hijab is always
the central focus of almost every talk around women. Right, which I
mean, today is obviously fitting because we're celebrating World
Hijab Day. But usually, whenever you hear a talk on women, Muslim
women, it's always like the Jab, Jab, Jab, Right? Of course, hijab
is essential. It's fun, but nobody's gonna dispute that. But
it is not. It is not the the defining quality of a Muslim woman
character is. And that's what we have to understand that Allah is
reminding us here in this verse, right? Clothing of righteousness.
So what does it mean to have clothing of righteousness? This is
where your character matters? Are you a good person? Right? Do you
understand that as a, as a creator, as just a human, not just
a woman? Because, of course, modesty and good character. And
all these virtues apply to both men and women. But do you
understand that aside from your outward external display, that
what matters most to Allah? subhanaw taala is your core who
you are as a human, how you treat people, you know whether or not
you are kind and generous, and you're adaptable, you're flexible?
Are you harsh? Are you cruel? Are you judgmental? So if we are
outwardly looking the right way, because we wear a hijab, but
internally, we have all these diseases in our heart.
Does that mean anything? Are we you know, what does that mean? It
means we've completely missed the message. The message is not hyper
focus on the outward, and then judge every woman according to how
she looks externally. That's what these people do. Let them do that.
Allah tells us simply these are the rules. But the more important
thing is develop your character, get rid of the diseases of your
heart, be a good person follow the prophetic example. And constantly,
right is that like, question yourself, but more focused on
yourself. And this is really the essence of what hijab is. But the
the beauty of why, again, the external matching the internal is
essential, is that it's such an I had this realization Subhanallah
you know, when I, when I started wearing hijab,
that because I wear hijab, it's actually facilitating my journey.
And what I mean by that is, when I wasn't wearing hijab, I got away
with a lot, because no one knew that I was Muslim, right? So I
could like I used to, you know, I'm not proud of it, but I used to
curse.
Like, I used to say bad words when I was in high school, especially
because everybody did it. I didn't know.
So when I did that, nobody was making me accountable because Hey,
aren't you muslim? Like should not be cursing, right? Because I
didn't openly tell people I was Muslim. They may have known they
may have not, but it didn't even matter. But when you wear hijab,
can you get away with that?
Right? Someone's gonna look at you sideways, like, wow, you know?
And think of that in terms of your goals.
If your goal is to start checking yourself to be better and to hold
yourself accountable, isn't that a huge favor, that God is actually
making other people a witness to you so that you stop yourself from
being bad? Like what a great favor, right? And I realized, like
Subhanallah, that's a huge blessing of the hijab that I think
is lost on a lot of people who wear hijab, that by wearing hijab,
we police ourselves better. Because I'm like, you know, I used
to do this, again, I'm not proud when I drove as a, you know, young
teenager with my license, I couldn't care less about cutting
people off, I would, you know, zoom past them, I'd flip them off,
if they bothered me, I didn't care. Because I didn't have
anything to hold myself accountable to or they couldn't
sit there and make me feel bad. I was just a stranger. But guess
what the responsibility, right of like, oh, this is gonna reflect
really poorly on Islam and Muslims. And it's shameful. And
how confusing Am I I'm supposed to be this pious person. Because, you
know, why else would I be wearing this, and then I go in, I cut
people off, and I curse them and I, you know, do things that are
reprehensible, it doesn't match. So this is where aligning the two
makes perfect sense. And that's one of the natural, just gifts
that come from wearing hijab is that you become more aware of
yourself and it's not, you know, it's, it's, it's to facilitate
your path to Allah. Because why. And this comes from again,
studying the human beings studying the nature of the human being, it
is essential that we know that Allah subhanaw taala, created us
as triune. Okay, what does that mean? We have three different
aspects of our creation, all of them, we have to understand them,
we have the intellect, right, the reasoning, the ability to perceive
the ability to know, to all of the faculties that we have that fall
under that right, then we have emotions, right? The emotions that
are forces, they compel us, right? So when you're angry, how are you
when you're happy? How are you when you're sad? How are you? We
likely look very different in all of those three states, right?
Because emotions are forces and are very powerful. And then we
have appetites, appetites that can control us. Right? So this is
where the three, you know, different distinct aspects. And so
I'm gonna have Sally and others, they have analogies. So for the
intellect, it's like a man, you know, or a human. You think of
like a person, a little person guiding you, right? They're
driving the ship, hopefully. Then you for emotions, they have the
analogy of a dog, right? A guard dog? Because if you have control
of a dog, or a guard, dog, anybody a dog owner here, maybe
not one. Oh, my gosh, I'll get nice. I mean, I love animals. So
I'm like, what not even good. Dogs are amazing, right? Especially, I
mean, they're man's best friend. But when you train a dog, they are
so loyal to you. And they're very useful to you. So like a hunting
dog or a guard dog. When you dispatch them, you give them a
signal, you give them a command, boom, they do it, and they come
back, you're in control, right? So that's what emotions do they serve
you the way that a dog a guard dog does, then appetites, the analogy
is a pig. Think about that. So all of us, have the intellect have
this dog that needs to be trained, and dispatched when useful,
because emotions are useful when they're trained. And then you have
appetites, that have to be governed that have to be under the
command of who, who should. The emotions and the appetites be
under the command of the intellect, right? So this is
where, you know, understanding these aspects of our creation will
help us to see that we are weak, right? That we are weak to our
appetites were weak to our emotions. But if we think of our
if we use our reasoning skills, we can navigate this complex world.
And that's why hijab isn't something that we should be
politicized. It isn't something that should be an emotional thing.
It isn't something that you know, it should be something that you
really think through and start to reason and understand things like
this is there's a reason why Allah made this a requirement for us.
And it starts to make sense, logical sense when you look out
into the world. And you see the way that women are treated. And
I'll tell you, the very first day I wore hijab was again, life
changing. And I know I'm probably going over saw, Oh, can I get a
time check? Just so I know. So I don't go over, like two minutes.
Okay. The very first day, I wear hijab, one of the most, like eye
opening things for me, and this was really when it was like whoa,
was the way I was treated by men. And what I mean by that is prior
to that, like I said, you know, I used to wear like, you know, just
open neck lines and so at that
Hi, um, I just always had, you know, this negative energy around
just men and I felt like very, I just, I would never was
comfortable around them because they had nothing to stop them, you
know, they that was very normal in a society to look at women in a
weird way or treat them differently or whatever. So I
always was uncomfortable by that. But so I had a lot wear hijab, and
our very first day, I'm like, What is this? Men are opening doors for
me, ma'am, excuse me, I'm like, Never in all my years have I
experienced that level of instant respect. And I said, Subhan Allah,
Allah knows what we need. And I felt so much more comfortable, so
much more comfortable to be around in those spaces, shared spaces, I
could talk to, you know, men at that point not feel weird, because
they had a signal a very clear sign for me, that you need to take
me seriously. You know, I'm not letting you have access to
anything anymore. Except for this, right? You just this. And that was
a signal that I was giving. And they and hamdulillah understood.
And that's been the case. I mean, I've been wearing like I said,
close to 30 years on him that I was sugar Allah, I love the hijab,
I pray to Allah subhanaw taala that all of us come to love the
hijab. And if you're struggling with it, know that that's common,
but there's likely emotional things that are going on
internally with you. You know, maybe you just you just need to
really pace yourself. Maybe you were rushed into it. humanize
yourself but call on Allah, call on Him, turn to Him, ask Him for
strength. And know that if you really understand the wisdom, of
why we wear it, than you realize why there's so much cause to
celebrate it in sha Allah, may Allah increase us all, protect us
all, just like a little kitten for your time. I apologize if I went
over, but hamdulillah Thank you. So I'm on the way here but to get
to
I'm Sheila, we're so blessed to have speakers like this does FSI
like she mentioned you know, when we were younger, we didn't have
this kind of support. So we're so blessed and we're so thankful to
have our female scholars helping us here and inspiring us.
Mashallah. Powerful reminders. So important to self reflect? Like
she said, Inshallah, we'll go into the question answer session. We
have some questions here. We can also if you want to raise your
hand, we can call on you, insha Allah. We have many of the
questions asked, were kind of covered in the talk. But I do have
a question here.
What is a good age to start wearing hijab? Mashallah,
first of all, I'm sorry, I totally turned everything off. I don't
know why I forgot about the q&a session. The good time to start
the hijab. It's such a subjective thing. As I said, from the very
beginning, this is a personal journey. So we can give you the
answer and say, as soon as a girl becomes bilevel, and she's, you
know, reached age of puberty, this would be certainly the time to
begin. But I think it's much better. I mean, I don't have
daughters, but I have many nieces. And I have friends who have
daughters. And I feel that you have to plant those seeds early
before you just expect it. Because I actually have seen that
backfire. When it's like, oh, no, you're you know, you're getting
your period next year, wear the hijab right now, I think that
message is a little too strong for our young girls, they need to be
prepared well in advance. So if you wear the hijab, and you wear
it with pride, then naturally what should happen is your daughter
should want to wear it because she wants to be like Mommy, and she
sees the pride you have, it's a crown, you're wearing it with real
strength, and she's just modeling after you. And so for many people,
that's the natural course. But if you feel like you're struggling,
and your daughter just doesn't want to wear it, please do not
force your daughter, please, please, please remember, she has
her own journey to Allah subhanaw taala. And what your job is to do
is to guide her through her, whatever issues that are going on
for her. So maybe there's pressure in her friends group, maybe at
school, she goes to a public school or a place where there
aren't many other Muslims and she doesn't want to be singled out.
Maybe there are other internal things that have happened that you
don't know about. But I would spend much more time building her
up and reminding her that her relationship with Allah, even if
she doesn't wear hijab is something she should develop.
Right? That it's not just oh, if you you know, you wear hijab, and
that's the only you know, way that you could find Allah No, let's
work on your prayer. Let's give you good company and Sahaba let's
bring you around spaces like this where you see other strong Muslim
woman, those things if you do them then gradually in sha Allah when
she's ready, and her time, but if in Allah Allah subhanaw taala will
open the door for her to embrace the hijab. But if you make it an
either or situation, it's going to backfire. Please do not do that.
Just like
our next question
shun is when you receive hate, because of your hijab, or someone
from your family is pushing you to not wear hijab. How do you respond
motional love this is also a very just unfortunate,
tragic reality of our time that people are, whether it's external,
outside of their community or within their own family systems
experiencing those things. But I think, you know, it depends
because obviously sama phobia is real. And if you're living in an
area or region where you feel like there's hostility towards you, you
have fully the right to safeguard yourself. So you can you know, if
it's a working environment, for example, you feel like there's
negative energy there or in a schooling environment, I would
absolutely speak up to anybody who's in a place of authority and
tell them what you feel, if you have neighbors, who you feel
hostility towards, I would absolutely try to, you know, have
dialogue. But if they're shutting dialogue down, and you feel like
they really have a lot of hatred and animus towards you, then
certainly file a police report. Because, you know, there are
unfortunate situations that have happened in the past where people
because of their, you know, goodwill and just thinking, Oh,
maybe this person will get over it, they've unfortunately, been
harmed. So we want to always safeguard ourselves with whatever
means we can, dialogue is important. But if it's not
possible, then go to the point, people have authority. Now in
family systems, you need allies. So if you feel that there is a
person who's targeting you, don't put yourself you know, in harm's
way, because if it's a parental figure or someone, adults that you
feel like, okay, they're really being harsh. You need to find
other people in the community, maybe an extended family, you
might have grandparents or aunts and uncles or people that you can
turn to as allies for you to say, Hey, can you please speak to mama
or Baba or uncle or grandma, or whoever the person is? And tell
them that they need to back off? Because that's not acceptable? And
you should never feel like, well, uh, well, there's no point it's
your mom, it's your dad. No, there's always some way recourse.
Inshallah, I'll open that for you. It could be in your family, it
might be outside of your family, maybe you need to contact you
know, the local imam or chef or some other person who has a
position in the community that can also talk to your family member
and give them the see her to say, Listen, you need to stop this is
unacceptable. And sometimes the threat of people knowing about
these things is enough to shut it down. Right? Like I will expose
this behavior to someone else. If you don't stop that could do it.
Because oppressive people and people who abuse their positions
of authority get away sometimes because they think no one's ever
going to find out. So silence is not the answer. But ultimately
safeguarding yourself making sure that you're really choosing the
right course for your particular situation is important. So turn to
someone that you can ask them to see her from first before you go,
you know, you act, always sickness, you had to say, Listen,
this person or that person is being harmful or hateful towards
me about my hijab? What do you recommend and see if there's
someone that you that you can turn to who can give you good counsel
about your specific situation? Because giving general answers
like this is hard, right? Unless you know more than we can get more
into the specifics, but always seek goodness, hi, inshallah. And
may Allah make it easy for you, but safeguard yourself.
Our final question, and then we'll turn it over to the floor, if
anyone has a question is how do you respond when someone asks, Why
do you wear that? Very good. As well, in my years, you know, you
get different answers all the time. But I think you know, the
best thing to do. And this is something that I've actually
really appreciated about this generation that like the Gen Z's
and the Gen Xers millennials, that you're unapologetic about a lot of
things. And I actually admire that because as a Gen X er, we had to
kind of we were forced to, in a way be apologetic Muslims, because
911 happened. And everybody kept turning to us and expecting
answers to everything right. So I was like, sorry, sorry, sorry, but
I actually don't think you need to explain to anybody anything and
just say because I want to, because God tells me to and keep
it at that you don't need to go into long winded explanations.
Because when people ask you questions like that they're trying
to, you know, put you in a position right of weakness, like
it's a it's a power play. Don't give in to people who do power
plays because people have respect would never come to you and put
you in that position. Usually it's a rhetorical question and
rhetorical questions framed that way or coming from a place I mean,
again, you have to pick up the tone if someone's like, why do you
wear that? Obviously, it's obvious right? If someone's really curious
and says Why do you wear that even saying because it's a command of
God should be sufficient That's it. I'm I'm a believer and this is
a command of God.
There you go, why not? Put it back on them to answer the alternative?
Excellent. I love it. But this is because the thing is, you know,
this is where learning what is the motive behind that?
Question is important. And yes, we shouldn't be suspicious. But if
you feel that that person is genuine, sometimes we think we
have to over explain, and we have to go into well, you know, because
a hijab does this, and then this and that, and that's not you know,
it's kind of like fasting, like, why do you fast? Well, it's really
good for you. And you know, there's poor people, and we want
to, you know, it's like, yeah, you can have all those additional
reasons. But the ultimate reason why we do anything, is because
Allah commanded us to, and we are believers. And to be honest, that
actually gets a lot of respect from people, because they're like,
Wow, you are really sincere. You don't it like, faith isn't lip
service for you, right? You're just you're a person of real
seriousness with your faith, you take it seriously. So it's
actually enough to end it there. Right. Now, did you have
Mary, the mother of Jesus?
She had in her cover? Yes. This command is for us. The Muslims?
Are all the people described before us.
Before us, yes, Allahu Akbar. And that's
me.
Absolutely. And that's a very good way to also explain that this is
not a foreign act only exclusive to Muslim women. Because, again,
modern society, when they don't see other examples of hijab, they
think, Oh, these oppressed women of Iran and Saudi Arabia and Oman,
Hassan who have no choice, they're, there's a gun to their
head, they have to wear these things, this is what they think.
But when you actually explain to them that Did you know that in
other traditions, headcovering is actually in the sacred text
message? I mean, sacred texts of, you know, of, you know, the Bible
and Judaism and other religious traditions that women even
nowadays, there's Orthodox Jews, there's even look at what do they
think it's called? Mennonites, right? Or Amish? Or other people
in other Christian, you know, sects, they also were the
headcovering, then it becomes, Oh, you're right. Oh, I didn't even
think about that. Okay. And you start to realize that this is just
something that is, you know, it's a devotional act.
Any questions from the floor?
All right, in sha Allah, then after our we wrap this up, we'll
move into our age based activities. So our leads, if we
can get you guys to go to the rooms and set up. On a final note,
positive note, what do you say to someone who is on the fence? They
want to do it? They feel it in their heart, but they're nervous,
they're afraid? How are my friends gonna tear my family going to
react? What advice do you have for those people? Beautiful, Michelle,
just like you're looking at and, you know, as I mentioned, we may
have people here who are in those crossroads and kind of not sure.
It's part of, you know, life that we're going to be faced with
choices and every situation, right, we're always at a
crossroads of something. But when it comes to what will propel you
or draw you closer to Allah subhanaw taala, you have to kind
of, you know, start thinking that that should the answer of that
choice should be pretty simple, right? And hijab is one definite
way that we draw near to Allah Subhana. Because any action where
we obey, Allah draws us closer to him, right? But as I said, it
might be a matter of time for you of when to do that. So you want
to, you know, pace yourself, but just make a lot of dA. I'm always
telling people, like, if you're really, really confused about
something, where's the istikhara? Where's the tahajjud? Get up and
cry to Allah subhanaw taala really show the sincerity of the crisis
you're in or the confusion you're in. And watch what happens.
Because when you do that sincerely, like you're confused,
Allah Subhan, Allah will start to make things very easy for you.
He'll make it very obvious for you. And all of a sudden, you'll
realize you know what, this is, this just feels right. And also,
this is a follow up to that.
Don't look at hijab as something you either have to wear
permanently or never wear at all. Please don't do that. Because for
some people like prayer, it comes incrementally. So some people
start praying like Fajr and Asia and then they add on the hurrah
set, and some people do all five at once, with the hijab, the best
thing to do and I actually learned this from one of my closest
friends who for years, everybody thought she was a hijabi. But she
wasn't. What she did is she wore it most of the time, in places
where she felt very supported to wear hijab. And she became a
hijabi you get it? Because as she wore it more and more like to the
grocery store to Trader Joe's to, you know, the gym to the doctor's
office, the identity of becoming a hijab. He became one with her
identity, but she didn't have this rule that said, Oh, I have to wear
it or I don't and I think that is a very detrimental message that
women get because you would never tell someone who's struggling with
their prayer. You can't pray any of the prayers until you pray all
five would you do that? Of course not. You would say pray make you
know make it the best effort possible and inshallah in your
prayer and then the action of doing your prayer consistently
Allah Subhana Allah will then begin to facilitate for you and
next thing you know you'll be praying all your prayers Same with
the jab so where it like to the masjid where it to gatherings of
you know where you feel supported, where it to places where you feel
safe where it in the car, if you can just become infused with the
hijab so that one day you wear it and you don't ever take it off
inshallah I mean eventually but you know what I mean?
Vertical RPKI Allah, masha Allah Baraka, Luffy Costanza, this has
been such an inspiration Masha, Allah, we're so blessed to have
you in sha Allah, give it a second
hamdulillah The honor is mine. Thank you again for organizing
this beautiful event. And just like a little credit to all of you
for coming out. And support my show was really been so beautiful
to just look at all of your faces and all with the masks, but you
know, to see your hijabs and just to see you here, so just to thank
you hamdulillah
Allahu Akbar
and to see Subhanallah all the different age ranges and the
diversity and we're all here together supporting one another,
celebrating one another, especially in today's day and age,
the age of social media, like such as I was saying, pulling us into
different directions and here together we know ourselves we know
our identities and hamdulillah and we're always here to support one
another in sha Allah. We