Naima B. Robert – My niqab aint goin nowhere (insha Allah)!!!
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AI: Transcript ©
I have a conversation
quickly about the niqab
because after I posted my video
where I was talking about, you know, if
I took off my niqab, you know, how
would you feel? How would you take that?
How would you understand it?
I've seen so many comments from people saying,
you know, if you feel you need to
do it or if you did it or
I'm so sorry to hear you're going through
this and, you know, like, people sounded really
concerned,
and they were either, like, you know, please
don't do it or we understand totally if
you did or, you know, all sorts
of really kind and sincere responses.
I just would like to make it clear
to everyone
that I am not considering taking off my
nacarb.
Okay. I'm gonna say that again. I am
not considering taking off my nacarb.
When I made that video it was in
the wake of a lot
of quite high profile,
influencers
taking off their hijabs
and sharing their personal journeys. And, you know,
it caused a lot of,
should I say, unease within the community at
the time.
Because on the one hand, you know, we
are all we know about the obligation of
hijab.
But on the other hand, you know, we
don't want people to feel judged and we
don't want them to feel ostracized by the
community. So at that time, it was actually
a really difficult
a really difficult thing for people to see
sisters that they had looked up to, that
they had admired, that they had been rooting
for. Maybe they had supported them in terms
of likes or views or shares or even,
you know, monetarily
for for them to see them kind of
turning their back on hijab or letting the
hijab go or their hijab sort of becoming
not what it was before.
So this was the context in which I
recorded that video so it was a while
back Alhamdulillah that was a good couple of
years ago. I'm still here. I'm still wearing
my niqab.
I personally
have never felt the need to take off
my niqab
to do the work that I'm doing.
Okay?
And I I am grateful to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala for that.
Even though I view the niqab as sunnah,
as something mustahab and inshaAllah I pray that
allah rewards me for it I still have
been wearing this niqab now for good I
wanna say 20 years, maybe even 21 years.
And everything that I've done that you've seen,
whether it's writing books, whether it's speaking on
stage, whether it's being on TV, whether it's
teaching, coaching, making money,
giving charity, whatever it is,
also raising my 5 children,
living an active,
involved life with them, moving countries, traveling the
world.
All of that has been done with this
niqab wolilai hamt.
And
I just wanna put that out there because
I remember having a conversation
with a Dutch journalist who had come to
my house to interview me for something.
And she said to me, you know, like,
why
why do you hold on to this particular
aspect of Islam? You know, if you don't
believe that it's that it's Wajib, you don't
believe that it's obligatory,
so why
would you put that on yourself? Why would
you make things difficult for yourself in that,
in in that area, you know? Europe would
accept you so much more if you didn't
have that. You have important things to say.
And, you know, Europe, she was saying specifically
Europe because she was from Holland,
Europe would be able to listen to you
so much more if you didn't have that
covering your face, and your message would be
able to spread so much more.
And I said, you know what? Thank you
for your kind words. I appreciate it. But
what you need to understand is that my
success or failure
and my growth and my,
achievements, my triumphs and my my my, you
know, my my my my tests and my
challenges
are from my lord.
They are from Allah
You see all this stuff that I've achieved
through my life.
I cannot take
the credit for any of it. And if
anyone has listened to me speak or you've
learned under me or I've coached you or
you are a close friend of mine,
you know
that I don't take credit for any of
this.
Whatever it is that I have of Khair
is a blessing from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala chose and saw
fit
to bless me with these things
while I was wearing this niqab for his
sake alone.
So why would I,
in the pursuit of more of what he's
already blessed me with, why would I then
take a step back and do less for
my lord?
That doesn't make sense for me. Doesn't make
any sense. Why should I
get rid of something that I pray is
earning me in the akhira,
in order to exchange it for something of
the dunya?
It doesn't make sense to me. And, again,
this is my personal
experience.
And, I like I and I always will
say, Allah
has blessed me to be able to do
all that I do with this niqab. And
the interesting thing is check this out.
I remember,
I've been working with PopUp.
I've been working with PopUp, which is a
wonderful organization related to children's books. And I've
been working with them for a few years
when I was living in the UK a
lot more. But even when I moved away,
they still used to invite me over. They
would present my books into schools, and schools
would study books like She All Red Trainers,
especially the very popular one.
But schools would study them, and then pop
up would bring me to the UK so
that I could, you know, do workshops with
the kids that had been studying my book
in class. So,
they approached me again to to to come
in on another another for another year.
And I said to the guy who runs
it, Dylan, I said,
why me, Dylan? You know, why
why do you choose to work with me?
You know, there's so many children's authors out
there.
And you know what he said to me?
He said to me,
you are powerful, Naima.
You are powerful.
And I was a bit taken aback. I
was like, and he was like,
your books are amazing,
but on top of that,
you get people thinking.
You challenge their ideas.
You challenge their preconceptions.
You challenge their prejudices
by your presence,
by the work that you do,
by the way that you present yourself, by
the confidence with which you are
totally yourself,
you are powerful.
And, you know, thanks so much, Dylan Calder.
I will never ever ever forget that.
And so anytime someone tries to put me
in a box,
especially
a victim box because I'm wearing a carb,
I'm busting up right out of there. I'm
sorry. I don't accept any victim labels because
of the fact that I wear nakab. I
chose this. I chose this for the sake
of Allah. I chose this as an act
of worship. And whatever comes with that, I'm
good with it.
Like I said, my experience Alhamdulillah
so far has been more or less overwhelmingly
positive. I haven't had to deal with some
things that other sisters have had to deal
with. So please bear in mind I'm speaking
from my own perspective.
But
on to the issue of the personal journey.
Like I said I've been wearing the niqab
for about 20 years now. Alhamdulillah I'm still
going strong with it and I pray I
pray a lot I pray
wallahi. I pray Allah never
allows me to show my face in public
on this forum or anywhere else where you
guys will see
me. I I ask Allah's protection from that.
I've been wearing the Ka'at for 20 years.
I've no interest in taking it off
Even if
and I wanna say this to sisters who
may be struggling with their iman or struggling
with the demands of their lives or maybe
the fact that they're in a new situation
means they can't wear it anymore or whatever
the case may be, everyone's journey is different.
But what I will say is,
I don't want to be one of those
people who
their personal journey
and their personal struggles with obeying Allah
end up being a fitna for the people.
I'm gonna say that again.
I seek refuge in Allah from being one
of those people
whose personal
struggles with iman end up being a fitna
for the people.
Because while on the one hand, we all
understand that iman goes up and down, we
understand that everybody's on a journey,
it's a private journey.
It should be a private
journey.
If I start sinning tomorrow,
that should be between me and my Lord.
It should not be broadcast to the world
in the name of transparency,
in the name of sharing my truth, in
the name of being real with my followers.
That's nonsense.
I don't agree with it.
I think it's a very dangerous trend that
us muslims have gotten caught up in, where
we broadcast our sins
before the people in the name of transparency,
in the name of authenticity.
I'm sorry. I don't agree with it. If
I'm struggling and I'm sure I will struggle
like any one of you will struggle. If
I'm struggling,
trust and believe. I'm a keep that to
myself. And I'm gonna make dua to Allah
to help me to get through this
and to to to become stronger, to rectify
myself, to do my istighfar
without dragging anyone else down with me.
And that's the quintessential truth, Ruth. Like, that
is that is what it is.
So for those of you who were worried
or felt some kind of way about the
the video on the nakab,
please don't worry.
Alhamdulillah
Allah's protection
reigns and I am not in any danger
of taking off my niqab. It's not something
that I'm considering at all.
I I do believe that some of us
have a responsibility
to stay strong
for the people.
Even if you have your own private issues,
your own private weaknesses and difficulties,
stay strong in what you show the people.
It's not
you know, somebody correct me if I'm wrong,
but it's not hypocrisy.
It is
it's just your isn't it? You know and
it's not being a fitna for the people
by
displaying your sins or making something public that
Allah has kept private.
So
with that being said I want to thank
every single one of you who has who
commented on that previous video.
I hope that this clarifies that I'm not
looking to take off the nakab and alhamdulillah
under no distress whatsoever about it. May Allah
preserve me and protect me with that and
all of you as well wherever you are
on your journey
may Allah
strengthen you
make you strong allow you to keep moving
forward be even in love so that you
can meet him with the very best of
your deeds.
Okay inshallah
so guys
that's was just a quick just wanted to
jump on here. So just put the niqab
on quickly, came over and did this video.
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