As for stepping
out of the home to preach other women, surely this needs to be done in a very
organized manner. In this endeavor, middle-aged women are best suited for the
task as the restrictions of Islamic dress code are relaxed to a great extent in
their case. Surah Al-Noor states regarding the aged women:
"It is alright
for them if they
put aside their coverings."
Satr refers to
the parts of body which, in normal conditions, must be covered at all times and
may not be displayed to anyone but one's spouse. The whole of a woman's body is
considered Satr except
hands, feet, and face excluding ears and hair.
Hijab refers to
the parts of body which, in normal conditions, must be hidden from non-Mahrams. Hijab
refers to Satr plus face excluding the eyes.
They certainly
will continue to follow the orders of Satr, but the orders of Hijab will now be
relaxed in comparison to a young woman. However, what happens in our society is
that the ladies who have always been observing Satr and Hijab and staying at
home become so accustomed to it that they are reluctant to go out even in their
old age. This attitude needs to be changed. They should not hesitate to
participate in the activities that involve studying and teaching of the Holy
Qur'an in their own cities, even if they are not accompanied by their Mahrams.
As far as young
women are concerned it is extremely inappropriate for them to go out alone.
If they can
afford to devote time to the propagation of their Deen, they should
cover themselves properly and a Mahram should accompany them. Keeping these
general guidelines in mind, Qur'anic study circles must be arranged and there should
be a systematic and intensive effort to organize women’s gatherings on a
regular basis for the purpose of effectively propagating the message of the
Holy Qur'an to the masses. This is the most-pressing need of the time.
The third circle
of women's efforts in this regard is that of the Mahram men i.e., husband,
brothers, father, uncles and nephews, etcetera (please note that the husband's
nephews are not Mahram). You must
have noticed that under the influence of various Islamic movements like the Tableegh
jama'at and Jama'at-e-lslami, more and more young men and women belonging to
the middle class are choosing to adopt the Islamic way of life. We see many
bearded young men and veiled young women whose parents and other family members
are oblivious of Islamic values. In this scenario, the younger generation needs
to reach out to the older one to invite them to the right path of Islam. The
third circle for Muslim women, therefore, involves their Mahram men.
In Pakistan we
see that a particular Islamic group sends its female members from door-to-door
canvassing prior to elections. As this group aspires to bring about change
through the ballot box, naturally they need to get in touch with the masses for
large scale campaigning which probably leaves them no choice but to send the
women door to door. But whatever their compulsions are, this practice is highly
inappropriate. Even though these women follow the Islamic dress code, which in
itself is commendable, nonetheless, they, go to houses of people who are
completely alien to them. Islam does not allow Muslim women to freely mingle
even with unfamiliar women.
The list of Mahrams
given in Surah Al-Noor includes "their women" -- meaning
familiar women who are known to be of decent, righteous character. Hence,
Islam does not allow strange women into homes and it certainly does not allow
women to go into strange houses.
We believe that
the real change in the existing secular system can never be brought about
through the prevailing election process. This change calls for a moral, ideological,
and intellectual revolution that permeates all the spheres (i.e. political,
social and economic) of life. We need to work towards forming a "Hizbullah"(an
organized and disciplined party working for the ascendancy of Islam), and for
that, women should ideally be working within the three circles that have been
discussed above. In exceptional situations, their duties may exceed the ones already
mentioned. However under the present conditions, working within the three
spheres mentioned is all that they are required to do in the realm of Da'wah
and Tableegh.
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