by Dr. Ali Shehata
Modesty and the Headcover in Islam
Modesty too is considered an important part of faith in Islam for women and men, for without it, a person’s faith is incomplete. Once, the Messenger of God passed by a man who was criticizing his brother for being too modest. To this, the Messenger of God stated,
Let him be. Modesty is part of faith and belief. [Bukhari and Muslim]
In other hadith the Prophet commented,
Every religion has a distinctive character and the distinctive character of Islam is modesty. [Ibn Majah]
Modesty brings nothing but good (also reported, modesty embodies all of goodness). [Adab Mufrad]
Modesty and faith are interlinked; if one of them is lacking, then the other shall be lacking as well. [Adab Mufrad]
Modesty is never part of anything except that it enhances and beautifies it, and indecency is never part of anything except that it dishonors it. [Adab Mufrad]
So then modesty, represented by decency, humility, and inhibition against sin, offers protection from indecency and sin. Modesty represents the shyness of a person before God when it comes to indecent and dishonorable actions; such that this shyness acts as a barrier between the person and the sin. Consequently, the person who loses modesty, loses that which prevents him from doing evil, allowing him then to freely indulge in sin.
Among the outward manifestations of a Muslim’s modesty, are good speech, unrevealing clothing, and abstinence from sexual promiscuity. Based on such principles of moral dignity, Islam brought about a moral revolution of unprecedented dimensions with modesty being the corner stone. Pre-Islamic societies may have recognized some aspects of modesty in their lifestyle, but they did not grasp the meaning of modesty in its complete form of inward and outward application. How did Islamic teachings then change this?
First, let us look to the case of human dress. At a time when other societies were using garments primarily as a form of adornment and to elicit sensual feelings from the public, Islam came to remind people that the primary purpose of dress is to cover our nakedness.
O’ Children of Adam! We have bestowed clothing upon you to cover your shame, as well as to be an adornment to you. But the garment of righteousness, that is the best. {7:26}
Hence, the need for garments to cover nakedness has been instilled into the nature of human beings from the beginning. It is this inherent feeling of shyness which distinguishes the human being from lesser forms of creation.
For a Muslim, there is no Islamic life without Islamic morality, and there is no Islamic morality without modesty. In the Quran, God exhorts the believing men and women to lower their gaze and guard their modesty, and then further urges the believing women to extend their head covers to cover the neck and the body. The commands for modest dress code can be seen in the following verses:
Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty … And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not show off their beauty, except only that which is apparent (hands and face); and to draw their veils over their bodies, necks and bosoms and not to reveal their adornment … {24:30-31}
O Prophet! Tell your wives, your daughters and the believing women to draw their cloaks over their selves. That will be better, that they should be known as free respectable women and as not to be annoyed. {33:59}
Also, the Prophet clarified this position in the following hadith,
Once Asmaa bint Abu Bakr entered into the presence of the Messenger of God wearing a thin, transparent garment. Upon seeing her, the Messenger of God turned away from her saying, “Asmaa, when a women reaches the age of menstruation, it is not allowed that any part of her body should be seen except this,” and he pointed to his face and two hands. [Abu Dawud, Bayhaqi]
Thus, modesty is protection. It has been prescribed to protect women from harassment and disrespect. It is hoped that by dressing this way she will not be seen as a sexual object, but will rather be appreciated for the person that she is. Thus, protection is among the primary objectives of the female headcover in Islam. Unlike the covering taught in Christian tradition, it is not a sign of man's authority over woman, nor is it a sign of women's subjection to man. The Islamic headcover, as opposed to the headcover in the Jewish tradition, is not a sign of married women, nor is it a sign of mourning. The regulations of modest dress in Islam are only a sign of distinction with the purpose of protecting all women of faith.
Additionally, the Quran is so concerned with protecting women's bodies and their noble reputation that a man who dares to falsely accuse a woman of unchastity will be severely punished under Islamic Law. This is because Islam came with the commandment to protect the women’s honor; therefore the utmost respect is given to protecting the woman’s chastity and her good reputation. Accusing a chaste woman is actually one of the major sins in Islam:
And those who accuse chaste women, and produce not four witnesses to support their allegations, flog them eighty times; and reject their evidence ever after—for such men are wicked transgressors. {24:4}
Thus, a woman's chastity has to be respected and protected under all circumstances, and this verse refers to all women, not only to Muslim women.
Now we return to the central question which was posed in the beginning of this section, “Do Muslim women feel oppressed by the dress code of hijaab?” The answer to this question comes from a 2005 Gallup poll survey entitled, What Women Want: Listening to the Voices of Muslim Women, by The Gallup Organization as part of The Gallup World Poll.
In more than 8,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in eight predominantly Muslim countries, the survey discovered that what a majority of Muslim women polled resented most about their own societies was the lack of unity among Muslim nations, violent extremism, and political and economic corruption. The hijab, or head scarf, and burqa, the garment covering face and body, seen by some Westerners as tools of oppression, were never mentioned in the women's answers to the open-ended questions, the poll analysts said.
Furthermore, a majority of those polled did not believe that adopting Western values would help the Muslim world's political and economic progress. The most frequent response to the question, "What do you admire least about the West?" was the general perception of moral decay, sexual promiscuity and pornography that Gallup pollsters called the "Hollywood image" that is seen by many as degrading to women.
On the other hand, an overwhelming majority of the women polled in each country cited "attachment to moral and spiritual values" as the best feature of their own societies. In Pakistan, 53% of the women polled said attachment to their religious beliefs was their country's most admirable quality. Similarly, in Egypt, 59% of the women surveyed cited love of their religion, Islam, as the best part of life in that society. Andrews, H. (2006, Jun 8). Muslim Women Don't See Themselves as Oppressed, Survey Finds. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/world/middleeast/08women.html
In conclusion, the head covering in Islam does not result in negative feelings among most Muslim women. It remains a fact fourteen hundred years after the message of Islam was delivered by the Prophet Muhammad pbuh that women still proudly wear this garment of modesty and religious distinction. Furthermore, the act of covering for millions of Muslim women today remains a choice that they freely make, and not an act of coercion as is often portrayed in the West. These women choose to dress in this way so as to “please God,” in the words of one woman, while others dress the way that they do in order to please the societies in which they live. To highlight this issue of choice and the positive outlook of a number of women regarding the head cover, this section will close with a beautiful poem written by Heather Gladden, an American convert to Islam: Muslimah: a Muslim woman Hijabi: a woman who chooses to wear the Hijab.
No comments:
Post a Comment