Maryam Amir – Here is where the Quran talks about covering the hair The hijab
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When I was growing up, going to the masjid or going to
conferences, or even reading books about how to be the Ideal Muslim
woman, what I would read about and what I would hear about was hijab.
Everything was about the importance of Muslim woman wearing
hijab. And so when I moved to Egypt from California so that I
could study Islam. When I finished memorizing the Quran, when I got
my degree through Al Azhar in Islamic Studies, and when I got my
master's at UCLA in education and critical race theory, I had the
intention that I was going to use all of these resources, these
blessings, this knowledge, and talk about the role of Muslim
woman in Revelation, and talk about the female companions of the
Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam and their political
engagement. And talk about how we can merge our identity, our
understanding of ourselves wherever we are in the world, and
that unique connection to God as Muslim woman, and then I was
invited to speak at a conference. And what was the topic I was
given? I was asked to talk about Hijab myself and Sheikha musima
permal. When we got this topic, we were like, seriously, after all of
these years of study, the only thing they want us to talk about,
still, is hijab. We're so tired of hearing about hijab, so we didn't
talk about hijab. We kind of touched on it, but what we really
focused on was how a Muslim woman has not just a space in the
masjid, but has a critical role to play. We talked about Muslim women
and leadership, Muslim women as mothers, Muslim women as Quran
reciters. We talked about Muslim women in all of these different
spaces, as narrators of Hadith, as people who carried on the legacy
of Islamic knowledge. And the feedback we got back from that
lecture was disappointment from woman that we hadn't addressed
hijab, and I didn't understand at that time, because I was like,
aren't you tired of hearing about only hijab?
But the more that I heard from women, the more that I realized
that Sheik Muslim and I came from an era where that might have been
the focus, but we're in a little bit of a different time now. The
questions that I receive about hijab from women isn't about,
not necessarily, how to feel, you know, proud of wearing hijab when
they're in different spaces, which is what I grew up hearing.
I'm receiving questions about wanting to remove hijab, and there
are so many different reasons why Muslim women struggle with hijab
and depression, with confidence, with relationships, with identity,
with their faith and doubting certain issues about women in
Islam, Muslim women struggle with hijab when it comes to being in a
place in their life, putting it on when they had all this support,
and they felt this kind of community support in the wider
MSA, for example, but then 10 years later, they don't
necessarily feel that type of love and commitment and support.
Sometimes they're tired of wearing hijab outside
to be stared at or judged and then to walk into a masjid space and
not even be able to make sajda without feeling like the
architecture of the masjid and the policies of the masjid don't make
her feel like she's critical in that space, like it's her safe
space. I'm hearing from so many different women for so many
different reasons on why they don't feel hijab but one of the
questions that I consistently am receiving is Muslim woman
questioning whether or not hijab is actually an obligation, whether
or not covering the hair is mentioned in the Quran.
The questions that they have are things like, is hair actually
mentioned to cover in the Quran?
Does the fact that the society of the Prophet, peace be upon him,
the cultural reality of their time no longer exists in terms of
classes? Does that then mean that hijab is no longer applicable now?
Was it simply a cultural garment and not actually a religious
mandate.
What if hijab causes more attention
also? What if hijab isn't a form of protection? What if Muslim
women wear hijab and they're still victims and survivors of sexual
assault? Then what I.
Inshallah, we're going to address all these questions and more right
now Bishan or him,
there are two verses that talk about hijab and the Quran. These
verses are in Suratul Nur, the 24th chapter and surat al ahzat
the 33rd chapter.
Now, when were these verses revealed? It was a minimum of at
least four to five years after coming to Medina, when the verses
were with hijab were revealed. So that means the entire time in
Mecca and in the beginning period of Medina, there was no mandate to
wear hijab religiously. Instead, the verses that came down from the
Quran focused on building a relationship with Allah, Subhanahu
wa, these verses focused on the hereafter, descriptions of
paradise, descriptions of hellfire, descriptions of what
it's like to stand up for social justice with vulnerable
communities. The Quran focused on character building. It focused on
a relationship with Al Wadud, the source of love, with Al Karim, the
all generous, with Al Rahman, the completely merciful.
This building up of a relationship happened that with the mentorship
of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, the ups and downs that
they went through, with persecution, with being kicked out
of their city, with being physically assaulted for being
Muslim, they went through all of that.
And in that process, they not only became closer to Allah. They not
only had the support of the Prophet, sallAllahu, alayhi wa
sallam, PC upon him, but they also built this community of support
amongst themselves. So when the Quran reveals the verses on hijab,
it's not like today when someone walks into a masjid to convert to
Islam, which is what I have seen on more than one occasion. Before
she even gives the testimony of faith, women around her in a group
are trying to put something on her hair. She hasn't even become a
Muslim yet, and the first thing that she's taught is that she
needs to cover. Look at the female companions we're gonna talk about
their reaction to these verses. They were built their Imaan, the
relationship with Allah's Panama, tada, was built over time before
these verses were revealed. Now in Surat nur Allah begins by talking
about that. This is a chapter in which talks about different types
of rulings.
These rulings talk about holding men accountable. These rulings
talked about the protection of women. And in this surah, in the
Surah that talks about how God is the light of the heavens and the
earth, a verse is revealed.
Allah tells us in a long verse, which I'm only going to quote a
part of Walid Nabi humuri, hin, Allah, do you be hin? Let's look
at that well, and that lamb that you just heard that is an order.
So when Allah subhanahu wa is ordering something, this land is
used right here, that means is not a it's not like, hey, it'd be kind
of cool if you wanted to do this. No, it's actually a religious
commandment, just because of that little letter. Well, yeld ribbana
is to put to put something together with shidd strongly. So
what is Allah ordering us to do? To put tightly something
somewhere. Be humori hin, a part that bat be a part of humor hin.
We're going to talk about in a second what that word is Allah
jubihan.
So it's an order to put a part of something tightly to make sure
that it's fastened over something else. Ju you'll be him. Is this
area? That jabe area? So in the society of Mecca and the society
of Medina. Woman would wear the chemo and men as well, often would
cover their hair,
but they would put this part back like this, so this area is
covered, but this area is exposed. Now, what does the Quran say to do
to bring it to cover. Cover completely this whole area up your
neck is covered.
Your khimar is covering your ears. Your khimar is covering
this area down here, it's completely covered up now,
yes, it was part of.
Their culture to wear something over their heads, but
I grew up in a time where texting and driving was normal. People
would text and drive, but there were some people who didn't text
and drive. Right now, it is illegal to text and drive in
California, you cannot text and drive legally.
We put that into a law when we recognized, as a society that
there were so many people harmed from texting and driving.
Would you say that our current law of texting and driving is a
culture that we've adapted because some people were doing it in the
past, were not texting and driving in the past, so some people were
not texting and driving in the past. Some people were did we
adopt the culture of people who are not texting and driving and
that's why we all don't do that anymore? Or is it actually a legal
mandate now, because of so many reasons. It had to do with the
protection of people. It's a legal mandate in the same way, yes, some
women and men covered their hair. But does that mean that it's no
longer does that mean that it's only cultural No, because once the
Quran was revealed, once the revelation came down, it became a
religious mandate. It's no longer simply a cultural action. The
himar, in and of itself, is a head covering. It's like saying a hat.
If I were to tell you, put on your hat. Are you going to put your hat
on your elbow? Do I need to specify to you put your hat on
your head, or are you gonna know that a hat covers your head? It
covers your hair by definition, intrinsically of what a hat is, is
the same for a khimar. A khimar intrinsically covers your hair and
your head. It's part and parcel of the definition of the khimar.
But here's another point, if somebody were at work and they
were wearing a t shirt that they knotted up and exposed their
stomach,
let's say Work Code policy says that you're not supposed to expose
your stomach, so her boss approaches her, and her boss asks
her, Can you please unknot the part that you've pulled up and
knotted,
pull it apart and use your shirt.
Be humori hin, a part of your shirt. Allah, do you be here? Not
the same body part, but pull it over your stomach. Is that person
going to take off their shirt and then wrap their stomach with their
shirt to cover their stomach? If their boss says, Look, part of a
professional work code, part of what's acceptable here is to untie
that knot and cover your stomach. But the boss does not say
specifically, keep your shirt on and then untie it and then cover
your stomach. Do you think that that person would take off their
shirt to cover their stomach? No why, from the context, it's clear
that at work, you're supposed to cover your upper body with your
shirt, and now remove it just to cover your stomach. It's the same
thing in the Quranic phrasing, if you read this and understand the
rhetoric of the Quran bimori Hen isn't saying take a khimar that
you have lying around and cover your upper body with it. It's
saying take the himar You're already wearing on your head,
because it's now a mandate, a religious mandate, to do so and
then cover this area with it. Now how did the female companions
react to hearing this verse, because this is where we're gonna
understand their physical, actually lived experience with
these verses. Ay sharodila huanha. She talks about the muhajirat and
the Ansar, and she praises them, and she says that when these
verses were revealed, they ripped the curtains down, and they
covered their heads with them, and they covered their necks with
them, and they covered their bodies with them. That's Aisha
radila anha, who was a scholar, who was the leader of an army,
even though she regretted doing that later because of her
political position, not this fact that she led it. Ayesha radila was
well versed in medicine. She is somebody who is so comprehensive
in her personality. She was feisty and dynamic. Her reaction to this.
Ayah is praising the woman who grabbed the curtains and wrapped
their heads, their necks and their bodies with it. Um Sala.
She was the one who counseled the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam in hudaybi, when who and all of these other male
companions, and all of these other great companions were not
following the Prophet sallallahu Sallam because of their emotional
distress. She is the one who told the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam what to do. She explains that when the female companions
heard these verses, they covered their heads so much that it looks
like it looked like there were crows on their heads, their hair
and their heads were covered. Aisha radila anha, her niece Hafsa
came to visit her, and she was covering her head, but she wasn't
covering her neck. And so Aisha radila anha, she came and she
covered her neck for her and this area for her, and taught her how
to wear the hijab. So when we're looking at the reaction of the
female companions, we can see that their reaction was one in which
they understood that the hair was included. In fact, in that
narration of Aisha radiah, scholars say that women sometimes
already covered their hair, so the fact that Aisha radila Quran has
said this, it was to be an emphasis on the fact that now they
no longer understood it to be a cultural matter. They actually
understood it to be a religious mandate, and that's why they acted
so quickly. Now
let's talk about something else. That is the second verse that
talks about
Jill Bab, the Prophet
sallallahu, alayhi wasallam is ordered. And so till I said, and
so till ahazab Is the 33rd chapter.
Yeah, you had Nabi only as well jikawada natika, when he said,
meaning you, then Alaihi be him. So what does Allah Spano say? He
says to the Pablo salad, say to your wives and daughters and the
believing woman is, take your chilbab and lower it. Lower it.
What is a Jul bab? A Jul Bab, in the Quranic context, is talking
about a garment that covers the hair, and it's even more
comprehensive than a himar. It covers the hair, it covers the
body, but it can be thrown on top of clothing that, for example, is
tight or revealing or see through. It's something that's like a cloak
that is wide and large and and not opaque. The jelab that we're
seeing today is not explicitly the Quranic Jul that you just need to
cover the areas that the Quran is talking about, and that's
generally everything except for the hands and the face. The
scholars have a discussion on the hands and the face, that's for a
different time, Inshallah, and also the Hanafis say the feet, as
long as you're covering those areas and you're wearing loose
clothing that is not tight and it doesn't show your body and it's
not see through, you're fulfilling the requirements, it doesn't
matter explicitly what cultural dress you're wearing or what
you're comfortable wearing, you just need To fulfill the
requirements in terms of what to wear or what to cover. I should
say
the juzbab In this ayah, when it was revealed, how did the female
companions understand it? Let's look at this narration from Hafsa.
She says rodi Allahu anha, that there was a woman who participated
in six battles, and she came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, and she asked him that she participates in taking care of the
wounded and helping the injured, and she doesn't have a cloth that
would cover her hair and cover her whole body. So Should she just
stay home and not participate anymore? The Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa salam told her to borrow clothing from her sister, not to
let her hijab hinder her from being able to continue to work and
serve and be a community leader and be a part of service. Don't
leave. Don't let the hijab stop you from doing those things.
Borrow a hijab from someone so that you can continue to be a part
of the good that you're doing in society. Now, Hafsa rodilla takes
this narration and she talks to OMA Atiya. Do you know who amatiya
is? Uma Attiya is nusleiba. Bins kaab. She is the warrior who stood
in front of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in the Battle of
Ohad. Everywhere he looked, she was defending him. Sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam. So nusrava, OMA Atiya is the one who is actually
narrating to have said, radila, another narration. So Hafsah is
like, did you hear about this? And omartia will be Allahu. Anha. She
responds, and she talks about how they used to keep at home their
attractive young woman instead of going out to certain occasions. So
these women, women are like, we didn't used to let them do that,
but the prophets will always.
Them, ordered us to have them come out. And Attiya is talking about
how the Prophet saw them. Was asked, well, what if someone
doesn't have a Jill bath? What if she doesn't have something that's
going to cover her hair and cover her body? What does the Quran say
over and over, all three Allah, well, altiya Abu Asmaa Ali, he was
Allah wa altiyo Rasul, over and over, obey Allah and obey the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Peace be upon him. So if
the Quran is telling us obey the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's response is
using the same lamb, this commanding lamb, she should borrow
some clothing from her sister so that she can still be a part of
witnessing and participating in these beautiful occasions and
these rewarded spaces. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is
encouraging Muslim women not to let their dress impact the fact
that they can't be a part of society instead, take some
clothing, borrow it from a friend, and go out and be a part of the
religious gatherings. Now,
there is a Hadith of Asmaa, radila anha, and that is used to talk
about how it is an obligation to our hijab, but it's also weak. And
so people say, well, the only narration of the Prophet
sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, talking about Hijab is actually
weak, and therefore it's not an obligation. A few points on that.
Number one, if you study Oswald Hadith, you know that if there are
enough narrations that strengthen another narration, it's no longer
perhaps it's weak in and of itself, but with the strength of
the narrations, you can take the meaning, but put that aside. We
have two narrations here where the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
sallam is ordering woman to wear Jill that. We have another
narration of faulty model the her clothing was so
short if she were to put it on her head, the bottom part of her, you
know, bottom part of her leg, feet, ankle area, would show if
she were to pull it up or pull it down, then her hair would show,
and her head would show. And so the Prophet saw them is like, oh,
right now it's cool, because you're only around me and someone
else who was part of the people that she could show herself to
SallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam. So the point is that that narration
might be weak, but we have all these other narrations in which
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is actually ordering
woman to wear hijab and is actually encouraging woman to wear
hijab as a religious commandment. I'm not going to get into the
hundreds of other narrations of female companions talking about
wearing hijab in Hajj or in the masjid or on the battlefield. I'm
not going to talk about all of those because there are literally
so many that we have from the female companions themselves, over
and over again narrations by them talking about other women on how
they understood the concept of hijab, when we dismiss women's
voices, when we say women's voices are not enough as proof, then we
really need to ask ourselves, why would we not count the very way
that women who were witnessing the revelation, why would we not think
that that is enough proof for us? These are our foremothers. They
are the ones who
Sumaya, rodilo Ho anha was martyred because of Islam, because
of her, her strength of her belief that she went and let go of her
belief, and they martyred her royal huanna. These women gave up
everything so you and I
can live Islam,
and these are our examples. Now, what does the rest of this first
say you denina, alaihi, namin, jala, bibihan, Velika, Edina, and
your fellow, you vein Velika ADINA, that is Velika adna, and
you are RAF na phala Yu vain, so that they will be known and they
will not be harmed. What does it mean? So that they will be known
and not be harmed? There are so many wisdoms in my hijab, wisdoms
in Wang hijab, our great grandmother, Virgin Mary, Maria
mahalahi. She was assertive. She was dynamic. She was a Daya. She
was somebody who held her ground. She went through immense hardship,
but in the whole process of that immense hardship, she was
constantly connected to Allah subhanahu wa. She is somebody who
Allah God Almighty talks about in the Quran as the best woman in the
whole entire world. Virgin Mary is constantly pictured wearing hijab,
even though, of course, we don't say that's actually her picture.
She is.
Are role model. We wear hijab with the same identity. We wear hijab
so people will know that we are submitters to God, and you are
rafna and you are a so that they will be known as submitters to
God, they will be known as the people who are so connected to
carrying the weight of this religion publicly. One of the
wisdoms of hijab is that it allows us to disassociate ourselves from
the commodification of women's bodies.
There is an entire industry which financially profits from our
insecurities. The more that we are supposed to not like the length of
our eyelashes or the way our eyebrows are or any part of our
body, the more products we need to buy to fulfill all of these images
of beauty, the more we no longer focus completely on what's
actually inside the raw power that God has given a woman's voice,
that God has vibrated within a woman's soul, our hearts, our
tongues. In all of this is this agency given to us by God
Almighty. And I want to tell you that I have so many loved ones
that I love so much who do not wear hijab, and I know that so
many of you don't wear hijab, and I don't want you to think that you
don't have those things too. Of course, we are all in this
together as a woman, but in part of the wisdoms of hijab, it's
simply to dissociate ourselves from an obsession that we
ourselves might have with our outer to focusing on developing
the inner and the actions that we're able to bring forth into
society, so that that is what the focus of our Life in our
interaction with the outside world is instead of the way that we look
externally,
but beyond anything else that hijab is. What is hijab in and of
itself, beyond the statements that it makes or the identity or
way that we interact with society, or society interacts with us, or
us with our own selves. Hijab is an act of worship. Hijab is a form
of worship to God Almighty. Hijab is done for God.
The whole purpose of hijab, the whole the crux of hijab is that it
has done its submission to the will of the one who created us out
of His love for us. And we show him our gratitude, and we show him
with humility, our love for Him
in this form of worship to Him in wearing hijab the same time, there
are men who, out of their abuse of power and control, will actually
harm a woman who's wearing a bikini, or a woman who's wearing a
himar, completely covering her face and Her body because the
actions of men who harm women are not about her dress, they are
about his issues with power and control.
However,
when we see that women are still being harmed despite the fact that
they were taught that hijab is supposed to be a form of
protection, and it is, in many ways. I personally have so many
stories of random times when a random guy like, I'm on sitting on
a college campus, and this guy came up to me, and he looked at
me, I was sitting at this table for our Muslim Student
Association, and he was like, let me ask you something when I see
her, and he pointed at a random girl walking by, the first thing
that I see are her *. And he said something even more explicit.
And he says, when I look at you, the first thing I see is that you
got your head covered. And I was like, Well, you're the one with
the problem. You are the one who needs to work on yourself. But one
of the wisdoms of hijab is that it forces people outside of ourselves
to look at the way that we're presenting ourselves, like Virgin
Mary when she's coming to her people holding Jesus as an infant.
He's just born. She was never in a relationship. She's a miraculous
birth, and she's trusting in God, that God Almighty is going to be
the one who uses her her presence, that uses her strength, that uses
her trust in Him to be a form.
Of helping people see that God works miracles in our lives.
But even with that,
there are going to be men who abuse women. Does that then make
hijab obsolete? If a woman was wearing hijab and she was harmed,
God forbid. Does that make hijab no longer applicable? Because one
of the wisdoms of hijab is supposed to be a form of
identity in society, and a man who is the one with the problem didn't
interact with her in that way.
No. And this is why, because there's a difference between the
Allah and the hekma. What is the NA Allah? The Allah is the
Sabbath. It is the cause. When we look at traveling, for example, if
you travel, you shorten your prayers.
We could say that the reason you shorten your prayers is because
traveling is so hard, it's exhausting. It's just so hard,
it's hard to just pray the full extended amount of prayers, and so
it's shortened.
But what if your travel is super easy? I've heard from people who
say they feel guilty shortening their prayers because travel is so
easy. Today they're mixing up the wisdom and their Allah, you
shorten your prayers when you travel, because you travel, not
because traveling is hard. So whether or not traveling is easy
or difficult, you shorten your prayers now look at the same idea
in hijab, the Allah, the cause is not so that she be known and so
that she's not bothered. That's amongst the wisdoms. The cause is
in the first part of that verse, guli as well. Jika wabana, tika
wanisa, meaning, who the as wedge, the wives, the daughters and the
women of the believers are already by this time,
the wives and the daughters, radila anjun, are already mature
woman. By the time these verses are revealed. They're already
woman. Nisa, mom, meaning woman. This verse is addressing when
women are mature, when a girl becomes a woman, woman of this
ummah, that is the Allah, that is the cause,
that is what brings hijab into effect. It doesn't matter the
reality of the social structure that's amongst the wisdoms, which
might change over time. What matters is the cause. Allah does
not address little girls. He doesn't tell little children to
wear hijab, he addresses women, and that is where their Allah is
now. Part of the
confusion about this verse is that there are scholars who say that
hijab was meant to differentiate between classes and society.
But the problem with using that as the reason for hijab is that it
ignores the fact that Allah says when he said meaning, it doesn't
matter what her class is, it doesn't matter what her social
status is. It doesn't matter what her relationship status is. If she
is a woman of the believers, then this applies to her even if
someone were to focus on the class structure as one of the
interpretations, then that completely ignores the fact that
there is a completely different verse that already obligates
wearing him are and covering the body, irregardless of any type of
reasoning that might be associated directly in the verse or the
interpretation itself.
Now, of course, there are circumstances when a woman
actually fears for her life because of hijab. That's
different. If that is something that someone is going through,
they need to talk to their local community and make a decision on
hijab based on her fear of her life. So often women ask, Well,
what about men? And while that is an entire separate lecture,
because of the Quran and the Sunnah, Islamic law takes into
account not only the protection of women physically, but also her
emotional protection, and holds men accountable for those things.
But just to mention something quickly, because in our
overemphasis and our focus on hijab for women, we've also
neglected to recognize that men have their own responsibilities to
both the way that they dress and the way that they interact with
women as well. Over and over we have in the Quran and in the
prophetic.
Lifestyle. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, for
example, had el fuddle sitting behind him, and a beautiful woman
came to ask him a question in hajj, and her face was not
covered, and Al FAW saw her, and he was staring at her, and the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gently turned al fauls face
away. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam didn't tell her to
leave. He didn't tell her to cover her face. He didn't tell her to
find a man to come back and ask the question on her behalf. The
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam focused on teaching al Fabul
personal responsibility and shorts and Noor before the ayah that
talked about himar Allah spantala addresses the believers and the
believing men to lower their gaze, to lower their gaze and to guard
their chastity. There's a narration in buchare that
mentioned that someone asked Hassan radila about women who were
not covering their hair and they were not covering their body, and
he was like, What are we supposed to do?
And the response that he received was, lower your gaze. He didn't
tell him to tell them something. He didn't tell them to go out and
give them a lecture. He didn't tell them to yell at them. He told
him, lower your gaze. And then he quoted the verse over and over in
the Quran, we see that men are held accountable by Allah for
upholding the rights of women. Men and women are supposed to be
allies the concept of hijab and modesty for both men and women, we
emphasize so much women, but for men as well, the Prophet
sallallahu, alayhi wasallam. Do you know who he praised in his
modesty? Arth, man, Radi Allahu, Anhu. He praised Earth man, a man
radila anhu. So modesty is so important for both of us. It
allows us this, this type of interaction allows us not to focus
or obsess or be,
you know, captivated or or or distracted by our own outer
appearance, personally or that of someone else, and instead focuses
on our actions and how we build a society together. Of course, that
isn't to say that people who don't observe these things don't do
those things as well, but we're talking about a prophetic society
and revelation that's coming from the one who's created us to help
us become the best versions of ourselves. We've talked about
the we've talked about how female companions have viewed these
verses. There's another part of this, and that is the ijmara of
the scholars. So one of the things that I hear a lot is that we don't
want to accept hijab from male scholars. We need to hear from
females that there were females in the history of Islamic
the Islamic civilization that had the opinion that women need to
wear hijab. Now, sometimes when we say that there were only male
scholars, specifically,
I know why we say that, because we don't hear so much about female
scholarship, we don't hear so much about the females in our Islamic
history. But look at who the teachers of the male scholars
were. They were women. Subhanallah Aisha, the daughter of Saad ibn
Abi wakas radiahma, she was the teacher of Imam Malik.
When we look at Imam ashevia, do you know who his teacher was? His
teacher was a great granddaughter of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi,
wassam, Sayyidina, Nafisa. When we look at the great, famous scholar
of Daddy, do you know who his teacher was kirima, Sheik Karima,
who was the greatest narrator, the greatest the most person of the
most knowledge of Swahili, buchari in her time. Almorabit Abdul
Rahman was a great scholar in the time of Amar ibn Abdullah Aziz,
and he ordered Ibn Hazm, not the Abdullahi methab, to compile her
narrations SubhanAllah. We also have Ibn Hajj al aspalani, the
great Hadith scholar and the commentator of Bukhari. Do you
know who his teacher was? Ai sheb bins Mohammed. We have all of
these female scholars, and I've only mentioned a few. You can read
of so many more in Al muhadifat, one of many resources as
muhaddifat, is a book written by Dr Muhammad Akram nadui. You can
get it online. It's in English, and it talks about he found over
9000 female scholars throughout Islamic history. These are women's
voices. These are women's voices telling us about the rulings of
hijab over and over again. It's so interesting to me that sometimes I
hear from someone saying that they only want to get a ruling from a
woman. They don't want to hear that a man says that she should
wear hijab, but then she comes to me with a ruling from a man saying
that he doesn't find it a requirement to wear.
Hijab, if you hear from somebody on a TED stage that has absolutely
no qualifications with all due respect to talk about Islamic
scholarship, or an academic with all due respect and with all love
and all sincerity and all sisterhood, who doesn't give any
details or any proof other than to say that it simply didn't exist,
without actually substantiating that claim, or a great commentator
of the Quran, whose commentary is beautiful, but who wasn't actually
grounded in Islamic scholarship. That doesn't take away from the
centuries in which there was no debate on hijab from female and
male scholars.
There are so many female scholars right now that we can access
knowledge from we have she Aisha prime, with Berke Incorporated. We
have she, Dr Tamara Gray, and she is with rubble talk. We have Dr
Aisha wazwaz with the gems of light, Dr heisa Yunus with Jannah
Institute. Sheik Muslim permal with the Majlis and Sheikha Zainab
Ansari, what taysir seminary. There are Muslim women who I
haven't mentioned, who exist, who are all over the world, who are
teaching, who've started their own institutes. You can learn from
these women and understand the power of a woman's voice and the
power of a woman's legacy, in her connection with Allah subhanahu
wa, in your connection with God. I know that wearing hijab can be
overwhelming, and even Muslim woman who wear hijab at times, who
feel so strong in it, can feel super, super down wearing it at
times, they might love it, and other times they might feel so
ugly and frustrated and tired and hot and so many other things when
you're going through those experiences, whether you love
wearing it every single day, or whether you're struggling with it
and are considering taking it off, or whatever is going through in
between or thinking about putting it on. There are two points I'd
like you to think about. The first one is that sometimes when we
think something is about hijab, it's actually about something
else. So look at your life. Are you not loving the concept of
hijab because of something else in your life? And it's not
necessarily hijab in and of itself, but it's another thing.
Consider working with a professional like a therapist
who's Muslim, who might be able to help you explore what you're
struggling with on a spiritual level, but also what you might be
processing on an emotional level, and don't make a decision about
hijab in that moment, process what you're going through and then see
how that makes you think about your relationship with the concept
of hijab. And the most important point is that so many people see a
hijab as a symbol of liberation or a political identity or a
statement, so many different things. But at the end of the day,
the biggest
issue, the biggest point of hijab, is that it's worship.
24/7, every moment that a person is wearing it, it is a form of
worship. And so in processing how you feel about it, think about who
you are wearing it for there is a beautiful series that inshallah is
going to be published as an actual book. It's called the names of
Allah series by usted jinann on virtualmask.com
Allah's panel to Allah has so many beautiful names and attributes,
and she's written this in a way where you can read one article a
week. It's like a two and a five minute read. You can know how this
name of Allah or this attribute of Allah, of God Almighty, really,
you know is in your life. How do you see him? Manifest His bounty,
his blessings, his gifts to you manifest in your day. Choose one
name a week. For example, as salam. Choose that name, read
about it and make dua to God by that name. That whole week, think
about that name, process that name, and then the next week, take
another one. And the following week, take another one. Read one
verse of the Quran in translation every single day. If you don't
understand the Arabic, I'm not Arab. I came to loving God and
loving who
my Lord is through reading a translation of the Quran. That's
what made me want to change. That's what made me want to know
him. Don't focus on what the action is. Focus on who you're
doing the action for all of the other reasons aside, hijab is a
form of worship. Hijab is a form of connection. Hijab is a form of
showing our gratitude to God Almighty. So when you think about
hijab, yes, the rulings of hijab come into play when you are in
front of men. You are not blood related to, but we don't wear
hijab for men. We.
Wear hijab for God a.