Mufti Menk – Support World Hijab Day

			smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam aleikum wa rahmatullah
alameen. The Vina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa termignoni Jambi son in Isla de Nueva.
		

			My brothers and sisters a beautiful evening. It's the first of the lectures of this year 2014 in the
city of Harare. And we thank Allah subhanho wa Taala for giving us this opportunity to meet this
evening session is not going to be a very long session, I know that the weather is quite wet, so
panela and at the same time, we're reading Salatu, the Isha quite late because of the timings and
people are at school and so on. So we ask Allah Subhana Allah, Allah to accept from us. Even the few
moments that we spend here together this evening, I will open the floor for questions in a few
moments. Anyone who wants to ask any question, inshallah, we will be allocating time for that, I
		

			want to start off with something extremely important.
		

			We all know that the job is being bombarded or is being attacked unfairly in several democratic
countries. And these are some of the so called free countries, where people have the wrong
understanding and perception of what a job is. And a lot of the times they have a belief that this
hijab is oppression where women are oppressed, and they are doing it because their men have forcing
them to do it. And this is absolutely incorrect. Because as our women folk would know, even in our
own society and community we all know as Muslims that it is a religious injunction that Allah
Subhana Allah Allah has ordained from amongst us are those who are weak, and they still have not
		

			adorned it. It is not like we've excommunicated them or treated them any different. But they are
those who have become strong, and who have a donate on different levels. So we appreciate this and
freedom would necessitate that each person does what they believe, is correct for themselves. This
is the true meaning of the term of the Democratic term freedom where you do what you believe is
correct on condition that you do not trample over. And for this reason, if someone in this country
were to dress, for example, without a head cover, or showing part of their legs, and so on, it would
be none of my business, oh, yours, because the freedom that they enjoy, and we do in the same
		

			country under the same laws, they would be using to justify what they are wearing, and we would be
using to justify what we are wearing. But the difficulty comes when people think that we are being
forced to wear a certain type of clothing. Well, one could throw the puck the other way and say
perhaps they have to in some way that they may not comprehend, or being forced to wear what they are
wearing, or should I say to undress themselves in that way, due to the very clever, educated
bombardment, via the media and various other networks, which make it fair seeming to the womenfolk
that the best, and anything that you could ever do is to remove your clothing as much as possible,
		

			and cover as little as possible. So that too, could be enslaving in a smart way. However, we do not
want to get into that debate. The issue that we'd like to discuss is what is happening in certain
countries, they actually banned it and they said, in X, Y, and Z places, you're not allowed to wear
the hijab, some of them speaking only of the face cover and some of them are speaking of the head
cover in totality. As a result, it has created negative publicity, where people are unfairly
persecuting our sisters who are in a job, and Alhamdulillah. In a country like this, we enjoy such
freedom and such goodness of inter religious tolerance, that we don't feel any type of a pinch. But
		

			there are people in other countries who are feeling it and they have been spat upon, they have had
eggs thrown on them, they have been sworn they have been beaten up. In some cases, they have been
persecuted in so many different ways. In some countries, they find you literally a fine if you are
dressed in a specific way, and so on. And this is all we would like to think targeting Islam and the
Muslims in particular. However, we need to understand that realize that the same countries that
preach democracy and preach freedom and so on, they have a system in place whereby one is able to
contest a law that is passed. And that, in a way is something good. Now how to conscience ties
		

			people about the job when the whole lot of them have this misconception because of the TV and the
net and what else and their own circles bearing in mind that they don't interact with most
		

			limbs, they do not mix with Muslims, they are not interested in becoming educated about Islam from
the Muslims, they listen to it from the enemies of Islam. So he or she is not the enemies of Islam
and it's not really know how to explain. And they their perception of Islam would be tainted by
whatever has been doing its rounds on the media. And what has happened is, it became necessary for
us as Muslims to do something about this, to reach out to the non Muslims in the democratic world.
And explain to them that look, we are your co citizens, brothers and sisters in citizenship, for
example, over and above humanity. And we would like you to know that we would contribute to the
		

			country just like you would, the only difference is we have a specific dress code. And it's not like
we're being forced for the to, to dress in that way. But it is that we believe firmly that this is
how we want to dress and we should be. And this is why amongst our sisters, even from those who
might be seated here this evening, there are those who do not dress in even a scarf on a daily basis
tonight, they might have come in because it's a religious function, sometimes attending religious
function and MSG, they would know that it's a requirement to cover my hair. But we do know that deep
down, every one of our sisters who does not dress with the job knows that one day inshallah I'm
		

			going to get they're amazing. They know even the young, younger generations, they know some of them,
if you were to talk to them, they tell you, you know, when I'm a little bit older, inshallah I
address it. Now, that topic is a topic on its own, where we would discuss that perhaps, in terms of
encouragement or discouragement, of doing the wrong thing, and so on, when it comes to these
specialized talks within the ranks of the Muslims and so on. But what we do need to realize is
sometimes even parents, when their children or girls are dressing with hijab, earlier on in life,
they become upset and they say, you know what, you shouldn't be wearing the hijab. Now you're too
		

			young. I know of cases where some parents have actually told their daughters to remove the hijab and
the clothes because they claim that how are you going to get married? Which boys are going to see
you? Well, then that needs a little bit of help trying to explain to them the Islamic system.
However,
		

			getting back to the democratic world, so it became our duty to explain to them and to show them now,
what is the system in place on the on a global level when you want to highlight a certain matter or
issue or you want to concern ties, people regarding it, you know, sometimes people have an awareness
campaign, perhaps on TV, not everyone is going to watch your channel, take a look at Islam channel
or ITV Islam, television and various other channels we have, I would like to think 95%, if not more
of the viewers of Muslim. So to get the message across, you would need channels that non Muslim
		

			or you would need to put in something in the syllabuses, or the curriculum of the schools, which
probably we would have no access to. Even the Islam that is taught in a lot of the schools, perhaps
is a little bit warped from the true Islam that you and I know, because it depends on who has been
part of those who contributed towards the establishment or the the burning of that particular
syllabus, which includes some of the teachings of Islam. So how then to reach the masses. One of the
best ways that we found was to conscient ties them through a day where we just call it a name,
either you call it world hijaab Awareness Day, or world he job perhaps just worthy job day world, a
		

			job educational day. So it was thought there's a sister in the United States who thought they have
the idea. And she got the go ahead from quite a few scholars, who, including myself, who supported
the idea not that it is an act of worship, or it's a celebration or something. No, it's like going
to school for one day. That's what it is. So if someone says brother, it's a bizarre, we would say,
well, it's exactly the same as sending your child to school for one day. That's what it is. all
we've done is we've told people look, it's an experiment, experiment wearing it, you're a non
Muslim, take this headgear, wear it and see how you feel for the day. And let's hear your comments.
		

			Do you feel oppressed? To be honest with you 99.9% of those who took part last year from amongst the
non Muslims declared that you know what, it's got nothing to do with oppression. In fact, it looks
so good. It makes me feel spiritually elevated and so on so many good comments that have come up if
you want to search you would find it on world hijab day.com that's the website. Now, this year
Subhanallah you know
		

			Obviously, we had to set the date, the date was set what what date is to be set now, it's just like
school, the school term is set, the timing is set, you know, the lessons are set, the will be that
doesn't come into a means of achieving something big is a term that is considered innovation in an
act of worship. So if I were to add an act of worship or decrease or whatever else, then I would be
guilty of being a disservice to Islam, or perhaps engaging in bizarre if I'm adding, but this is
only to conscient eyes, people. And what happens is those who are already in Egypt have an
opportunity to talk to the rest of the world. Because the day there is a referendum in the States or
		

			in UK or anywhere else in the world. If there's a referendum banned a job or not, we would have done
our job by educating 90% of the mood of the last live women such that they will all vote to say you
know what, let them at least wait. So this is forward thinking in the way that all we're trying to
do is educate, there's nothing else no motive, nobody's saying it's a day of an act of worship,
because he job is necessary every day, not just on that day. But what happened is there are a lot of
sisters from amongst our own Muslim sisters who are weak, something is blocking them, stopping them,
sometimes the environment at work, sometimes within the home, sometimes the environment of their
		

			peers and their friends and their schools and so on. So a day like this would give them to an
opportunity, perhaps, to make this step or to take this step, and to move forward something very,
very interesting. And this is why my brothers and sisters, what we definitely need to realize is to
support such an activity or such an educational exercise, which just lasts a few hours every year,
is something that would be considered a duty upon us, or upon those who are farsighted, those who
can lose 20 years from today and try and picture or try and imagine where are we going to be? You
know, if you look at the way the world is moving right now, a lot of people have a lot of ignorance
		

			about Islam, maybe not in your midst. But we I have travelled, for example, you find people really
and sometimes in some countries, no clue what a Muslim is all about. So how Allah and how are we
going to educate them, it's impossible to infiltrate someone's mind and time to take their time and
everything, to teach them something that really they're not bothered about. It doesn't affect them
in their lives in any way. The data is there a finger and they'll probably say, you know what, these
women are oppressed. So that's why we in order to help the women, we must just vote for the band,
more than if the majority vote for the band, it would be democratically considered that in this
		

			country, we are banning the hijab, because according to the democratic rules, the vast majority have
decided it's not supposed to be worn by women, then what are you going to do? So that has not yet
come? But inshallah, If ever a day comes that that happens, we would have already educated the women
to say, hang on, if you want to vote to support us, then just remember that supporting us would mean
to understand that we are we feel this is a point of liberation. It's not a point of enslavement. So
the date was said, First have faith. Now, so other people came and said, Okay, this is a this is an
innovation, how could you do it? They haven't understood. It's just like going to school. It's like
		

			having an Islamic conference. If you have a conference, Islamic conference, and we say, the first
week of March, every year, we're going to have an Islamic it's a bit because it's just a conference.
It's just a time and a place we've chosen, chosen for convenience of everyone. The idea is to
educate the people as best as we can. And like I said, some of the weaker people would have the
opportunity to some of those who perhaps, or should I say a non Muslim would wear it for a day they
would feel the goodness I know last year of some of the non Muslims who except they felt so pure, so
clean, so good, so beautiful. So spiritually elevated, that they they then chose the dean
		

			SubhanAllah. So they have been positive effects or positive outcomes. And what has happened this
year. Amazing. Amazing. This year, I've been following it quite closely. And what has happened is,
we've had the response from so many countries, so many dignitaries, so many ministers so many
ministers wives, you know, you have Miss Universe, Mrs. Universe, not the Miss Universe But Mrs.
Universe, there's a difference between the two. I only found that out a few days ago. So Subhan
Allah and as a non Muslim, she says, I support this and I will wear this and I definitely do. I want
to make a statement of you know, the, the freedom of a woman to dress as she wants. On top of that
		

			they have been an Allah subhanho wa Taala protect all of us people who have posed * for *
and so on, who are supporting world hijab day. And they are wearing the hijab I know of one person
who is not a Muslim, who has been in that background, who now without being a Muslim with the job
every day because she says I just feel like I want to amazing, obviously, you can check this on
Google
		

			You can actually have a deep edit, we know about In fact, if you've gone to work a job de.com you
probably will find a lot of these on. And so the first of faith inshallah, what is the idea?
Constantine is people give out leaflets, pamphlets, or perhaps, you know, a few of the jobs are
being given out in some countries, I do know. And in some countries, people are going to get
together at certain places and talk about it just for a few minutes, not for long. Now you tell me
amazing, if this has to catch and it has already caught. But if it has to catch the eye of all the
non Muslims who understand that all these highly educated Muslim women with PhDs, who are serving in
		

			various governments who have so many top posts all over the show, who have had major discoveries,
you know, lately there is a woman in total niqab which means the face is covered from the United
Arab Emirates, who has come up with a modified version of PowerPoint in a beautiful way, doing
something amazing, and she is receiving an award in the United States for that innovative creation
of hers, or should I say modification of PowerPoint of hers, and at the same time, or is it Excel or
some one of the one of the
		

			computer programs at the same time she has said that I will go with my teacher, so that a statement
can be made that as, as covered as we are, we are highly educated, we've served not only the our
countries, but humanity at large, by, you know, given for certain things, there are certain things
that we have, we enjoy on a daily basis. Behind the scenes, there are women, highly qualified women,
and they do not feel oppressed at all, they don't want to come into the limelight, or show
themselves and so on. Like we say the other side of the coin is our women, they would feel that why
should we become enslaved by what Gucci has to say, by what Givenchy has to say, by what the Academy
		

			has to say, and so on, if they have to cut all the clothing for us to way behind the scenes are all
men. So men have enslaved us in reality, if we go about wearing the clothes that they have cut, and
so on, whereas we feel liberated when we just cover ourselves as women, nobody judges us, by the
affording of expensive clothes and the scent you have and the face, you look, you know, the face you
have, the type of makeup you have, and so on because it's covered low. So like I said, it's just a
matter of education. And at the same time, nobody's being forced. In the free world, everybody's
free, we have so many Muslims who do not cover their hair, I'm sure you would agree even in our own
		

			community. And like I said, some of these are brilliant people. And they have assisted us and we
have assisted them in whatever way we can. So much. So in our beautiful country here in Zimbabwe,
and I'm sure in so many other countries on a global level, if not every country, there are so many
non Muslims who have benefited directly from Muslims, and so many Muslims who have benefited
directly from non Muslims. That is the humanity, we have human beings, you know, we are
interdependent in that beautiful way. And this is why we preach tolerance of one another, I might
disagree with certain behavior. And I will not partake or take part in it or engage in it. But I
		

			believe that those people are free to do that. Because the same freedom that they are using to do
what they're doing, I'm using to do what I'm doing. And this is what the whole world is about today.
So some of the people who are who lack education, perhaps sometimes they would they would not
understand what we are trying to achieve by this. They will try and say you know, what's all this
nonsense and what well, you haven't seen the world, you don't really know what's going on. You
haven't really thought 20 years ahead, and you know, we will carry on without you by the will of
Allah subhanho wa Taala as they say, one day your children will appreciate what we did for them. Now
		

			Allah Subhana Allah to Allah bless us all. And may Allah grant us goodness and mercy and May Allah
subhanho wa Taala open our doors. So as I was saying, perhaps we may not be having such a great
activity here on the first of film, but you can conscient eyes people send the messages, send them
whether it's on WhatsApp or Viber or Facebook or whatever else. If you have non Muslim friends,
perhaps we can get little pamphlets and so on downloaded from the net and printed and perhaps give
it to them to say if this is worth a job day, I just want you to know what it's all about. Each one
can do his own thing. inshallah, by the time we get to next year, we prep perhaps we'll have
		

			something more coordinated in this particular country, by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala I
don't know in the next day, what we would be able to actually get together. I haven't been to well,
the last week or two I had a little procedure, but Alhamdulillah by the word of Allah subhanho wa
Taala. Today we're meeting before the first of February and here we are talking about it, constantly
telling people about it and explaining what the idea is, like I said, it's not a celebration or
something of that nature. If anything, it is
		

			an awareness. It is a moment of education. It is a time of
		

			When we can exchange notes, and we can actually tell people, this is what it's all about. You know,
I remember when Afghanistan was bombed up, and one of the reasons why it was bombed was that women
were to be liberated. And after everything was over, still the bulk of women have chosen to cover
completely. So some of them were asked that, well, now you're free, you don't need to worry anymore
about so and so and so and so why are you still covered up from top to bottom. And some of them I
know, I read some of this on the net A long time ago. And it's still there. With it explained that
look, that's our identity, it had nothing to do with being covered. If we were oppressed, we were
		

			oppressed in different ways. Take a look at some of the oppression that happens today, in the Muslim
world against women, I can tell you, some women are being forced to marry whom they do not want to
marry. And that is not allowed in Islam. That is what we need to be dealing with. Some some of the
girls are being forced into an early marriage when they don't want to marry at that age. And that is
also wrong in Islam. A father cannot just dictate the pace to his little daughter, just because he's
the father to say, you know what, it's over. This is the thing, this is the decision and she is
unhappy with it. That's not Islam. And people think sometimes because of their cultural
		

			contamination. You know, when it comes to the culture, obviously, there is good and bad we talking
about the bad here. When it comes to that type of contamination. Some people think it's religion,
and it's not religion, religion actually liberates you, it lets you have a link between yourself and
Allah subhanho wa Taala in a beautiful, powerful way. And for this reason, Subhana Allah, for us to
become educated regarding religious matters is liberation. And its freedom. Because now you know, if
that is something mumps is something anyone else has anything you can take us in, you know what,
that's not religion. That's a contamination of culture. People make it so hard to get married,
		

			sometimes
		

			people impose on their women certain items, like let me give you another example of oppression of
women, even sometimes in some quarters of our society where a woman has lost some close relative of
hers, either a brother, a husband, a father, and so on. And she is robbed out of her share of
inheritance. It's happening live today in our societies, perhaps the number of cases might be
diminishing. But even if there is one case, we should know that that is not Islam. Islam allocates
shares for women, which are greater than the shares of women. In essence, perhaps maybe not. Because
it is. And we've explained this in the past that a man who receives 50,000, for example, whilst the
		

			woman of a similar link receives 25,000, the reason why we say in essence, the 25 pounds, because
the woman who received 25,000, will have sole rights to that 25,000, whereas the men who got the
50,000, is obligated to look after all the women who are closely related to him, whom he is the
closest male willing 50,000, if there are five of them, and you divide it amongst them, it will come
up to 10,000 each, you will have the woman who got the 25,000, she will have an extra benefit of
that 10,000 that that young man is going to spend on her being meaning on her being the closest
female relative relative of that particular man. And on top of that, she has the 25,000. In essence,
		

			she's got 35,000, what happened to that man, he's barely making ends meet, because he's money is
distributed amongst those whom he has to look after. So these are some of the beautiful teachings of
Islam that require education before we can actually speak about it.
		

			And before we can understand it sometimes. So my brothers and sisters across the globe, I hope, and
I pray that inshallah we can benefit from such a day. Like I said, the idea is solely to conscient
eyes, it could shift from the first or fifth to another day, it's not necessarily that that's the
day. And like we said, the duty of HR is a daily basis for all those limits, Mashallah. That's the
duty if a person is not wearing it, well, we can continue ties you through a day of education. Some
of the sisters have not been to Islamic lectures or educational systems throughout their lives or in
a long, long time, perhaps a day like this could motivate them, and it has motivated them, go back
		

			to the internet, go to a job de.com and read some of the feedback of the Muslim women
		

			who have now decided, you know what,
		

			we're going to wear it from today on forever. Yes, we for a long time, they have not even known the
importance of it in Islam. So they should make a decision based on being informed. You know, if
someone tells you look, would you like to strike this deal? You need to tell them what the what's
the deal? Explain it to me, if they don't want to even make money. If you're a shrewd businessman,
you won't just agree, because you know, you're witty man, or perhaps you you're sharp, you're
intelligent, and you don't want to just agree with someone who said don't worry, you make money put
it here. No. You're going to ask them what's the detail. When they give you the details, you're in a
		

			better position. They might be selling you something
		

			That is really one in a million opportunity of making big bucks, then what would happen? You would
dive straight into it. The same applies to some some religious teachings people are told you have to
do this sometimes they don't know why. So those who the man is strong without wanting to know why
they're going to stay for as long as the source is revelation from the skies, we are going to do it,
but those who are willing they would probably need explanation Do you know what that is the reason
this is what it is and we try our best to explain and conscient eyes I hope and I pray that these
few words can have motivated myself yourselves and the globe at large inshallah to or should I say,
		

			the Muslim world to understanding what this world hijab day is all about? And why it is that it's
important for us to support such a cause no matter where we are on the globe. Imagine if we have
more than 1,000,002 million, 3 million people of all walks of life, including, like I say,
dignitaries from across the world, highly educated people supporting such a day. Do you really think
a day will come on the globe where the hijab is banned? Now Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us
protection of sallallahu wasallam albaraka Allah Nabina Muhammad