World Hijab Day
On World Hijab Day, as your sister-in-Islam, I offer you this sincere naseeha (advice) because I love you enough to care about your aakhirah and I love for you what I love for myself.
Unfortunately, the trend these days, is to live in echo chambers, surrounded by likeminded people, who simply corroborate, validate, and reinforce what we want to hear, and simply go along with everything we say and do. No one wants to step on anyone’s toes or come off as judgemental.
Yes, it can be extremely uncomfortable to speak out against the status quo. Change is uncomfortable. Growth is uncomfortable.
As Muslim men and women, as Muslim brothers and sisters, as Muslim mothers and fathers, we all have obligation and a responsibility to each other that we have to take seriously.
“You who believe, shield yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel will be men and stones”. (Surah At-Tahrim, Ayat 6).
Beautiful companionship is a critical part of our Islamic lives, in order for us to find salvation in the struggle of the duniya (worldly life), while always being focused on the aakhira (afterlife). Sincere companions, who point us towards the success of the aakhira, wanting nothing from us in the duniya, are those whom we want to keep close by us, to learn from, with the hope that by sitting in their company, they will elevate our own rank and state of being. It is in this spirit, I offer my sisters in Islam this naseeha. If you have been thinking about adorning yourself with the khimar (the head covering), then don’t wait for auspicious time, when your very next breath isn’t guaranteed.
The khimar or the head covering (ambiguously referred to as the hijab), is a Commandment of God and an obligation upon each and every Muslim women who has attained the age of accountability. We read here and there, in random posts, by random people, that it is an act of modesty. No. It is not an act of modesty. It is an act of submission. The submission of our will to the Will of our Creator, Who brought us from non-existence into existence and prescribed our way of life for us. The standard for everything in our life, is set by the One, Who Designed and Created us.
The mandatory nature of the hijab is clearly defined in the Qur’an, practiced by the Mothers of the Believers in the Seerah, and upheld by the consensus of the ijmaa (Muslim scholarship of both men and women) for over 1,400 years. There is undoubtedly an inward and an outward component to being a woman who wears the khimar, as an act of worship, as an act of submission. If we all start defining our own arbitrary standards of dress, then who defines the boundaries of these man made standards? Once one boundary is transgressed, then the rest will fall and anything and everything goes.
We must be wary of falling into the same trap as Iblis. Iblis was told to show his respect to Adam (AS), by bowing together with the angels, which he refused to do. Iblis’ refusal is a refusal not to bow, but a refusal to submit to the God who gave him existence. Then, Iblis falls into the trap of using his reason to justify his actions, by saying that he is made of fire and Adam is made of clay, and therefore he, Iblis is better. Iblis used his reason, which was also given to him by God, to justify his actions of refusing to bow, and thus refusing to submit to The One Who Gave him reason. The besetting sin of Iblis, is that he set his reason against The Divine Command and in doing so, Iblis became defined for his arrogance. Iblis compounds this, by refusing to turn back, repent, and seek forgiveness when his error was pointed out to him. In following this path, Iblis damned himself for all of eternity and he is determined to take along as many human beings on the path of destruction as possible. Divine Knowledge and Divine Command, is far above any attempts at reason by mankind. Know this, with absolute certainty.
Being Muslim, especially being a Muslim woman, easily identifiable by the headscarf, is not easy. It is part of the human struggle, internally within ourselves, our hearts and souls, and externally with the people in our lives, the community around us, and the increasingly difficult and anti-religious and especially anti-Muslim world that we live. Our journey of faith, is just that, a journey. We pray, we strive, we struggle, we fall, we break, we pick ourselves up, we turn back, we seek forgiveness, we mend, we try again, we pray, we beg. Rinse. Repeat. We are all a work in progress and no one has arrived at the destination. But don’t wait. Our tomorrow is not guaranteed.
