Veil/Hijab
Becoming a Symbol of American Muslims?
By Dr. Ibrahim B. Syed
Louisville, KY
This is in response to the
opinion piece titled “Veil/Hijab Becoming
a Symbol of American Muslims?” written by
Dr. Bashir Ahmad, Wildwood, MO, and published
in Pakistan Link of July 29, 2005
Dr. Bashir Ahmad wrote, “The Qur’anic
verses are very explicit about hijab and chastity.”
“ O prophet, direct thy wives and daughters
and the women of the believers that they should
pull down their outer cloaks from their heads
over their faces. This will make it possible for
them to be distinguished so that they will not
be molested. Allah is most forgiving, ever merciful.”
Qur’an AL-AHZAB 33/60
A conservative and literal translation of the
first quoted verse (Surah Al-Ahzab 33:59) would
read:
“O Prophet tell your wives, daughters and
women of the believers to lower or possibly draw
upon themselves) their garments. That is better
so that they will not be known and molested. And
God is forgiving and merciful.”
The operative words in Arabic are ‘yudnina
alayhinna min jalabibihinna’. This could
mean ‘lower their garments’ or ‘draw
their garments closer to their bodies’.
Jalabibihinna literally means ‘their garments’.
A jilbab is a garment, like a dress or Arab robe,
which has stitches and thread. A single piece
of cloth like a chador or an abayah which some
women wrap around their bodies in the modern age,
would normally be called a jilbab.
‘Yudina’ literally means to bring
closer or to lower something, in this case a garb.
Therefore, one can interpret this verse to require
the covering of the legs, or a more vigilant covering
of the torso, or, simply, modesty, but the original
text does not support covering the heads over
their faces. Nowhere does the verse says that
the face should be covered. In fact, the verse
is devoid of the word ‘face’. If the
face was required to be covered, words to this
effect should have been present: (yughatina wujuhahunna:
they should cover their faces).
There are certain directives about women which
have been erroneously derived from some verses
of Surah Ahzab. These can be enumerated as follows:
i. Women must cover their faces and wear large
cloaks (jilbabs) when they go out of their homes.
ii. Women must not speak in a polite tone with
strangers.
iii. Women should primarily be confined to their
homes.
iv. Women should be kept secluded except from
their immediate relatives.
Dr. Bashir Ahmad claims, “In another verse
the Qur’an details the code of moral conduct
both for men and women.”
“And say to the believing women that they
restrain their looks and guard their private parts,
and that they display not their beauty or their
embellishment except that which is apparent thereof,
and that they draw their head coverings over their
bosoms, and that they display not their beauty
or their embellishment save to their husbands,
or to their fathers or the father of their husbands,
or their sons, or the sons of their husbands,
or their brothers or the sons of their brother
or the sons of their sisters, or women who are
companions or those that their right hands possess,
or such male attendant as have no desire for women,
or young children who have not yet attained knowledge
of the hidden parts of women. And they strike
not their feet so that what they hide of their
ornaments may become known. And turn yet to Allah
all together, O believers, that you may prosper.”
Qur’an AL-NUR 24/32.
But a literal translation and more honest translation
of Surah 24: 31 would read: “And say to
the believing women to lower their gaze, and guard
their private parts, and that they should not
display their adornments except what would ordinarily
appear. And, that they should draw their veils
over their bosoms and that they should not display
their beauty except to their husbands..:”
The Qur’anic Arabic instructs that women
should take their KHIMARS and cover their JAYB
(pl. juyub). The Arabic is ‘wal yadribna
bi khumurihinna ala juyubihinna’ which means
that women should take their khimars and strike
with it or place it upon their bosoms.
The jurists add that the khimar was a cloth worn
by women in pre-Islamic times on the neck and
that it was normally thrown toward the back leaving
the head and chest exposed. The verse apparently
instructs that the piece of cloth normally worn
on the head (the khimar) or neck be made to cover
the bosom or to descend down to the point of touching
the cloth.
Dr. Ahmad wrongly interprets that the Qur’an
commands Muslim women to cover their head. The
Qur’anic command clearly to cover the bosom
using the Khimar.
I totally agree with Dr. Ahmad when he says that
“Islam instills in the believers the spirit
to create a society of very high moral standards.
Ignoring those moral values the Western culture
is entrapped in a vicious circle of higher divorce
rate, extramarital affairs, infidelity etc.”
However the Qur,an balances the various rights;
the Quran does not expect women to bear the full
burden of modesty. The weakness of men cannot
be the source of hardship and suffering for women,
and any approach that does not acknowledge this
fact, in my view, is not true to the spirit or
letter of the Qur’an.
Dr. Bashir Ahmad seems to be working under a very
different set of assumptions. He seems to be under
the mistaken impression that the Qur’an
aims to eliminate all sources of temptations and
enticement in society, and that women should bear
the brunt of the burden in this process. Hence,
the vast majority of Muslim men want that women
should be covered from head to toe except perhaps
for one roaming eye, and men may happily swagger
around undisturbed by scrumptious female parts.
Worst of all, this fundamentally male-indulgent
view is presented as God’s unquestionable
truth.
“From the gross liberties taken in translating
the text, apparently the translators believe that
God wishes women to be like house broken dogs
-loyal, timid, sweet and obedient. One can only
ponder what type of rotted and foul soul imagines
that God wishes to imprison women in a sewer of
squalid male egos, and suffer because men cannot
control their libidos. What an ugly picture they
have created of God’s compassion and mercy.”
[Taken from: Conference of the Books, Abou el
Fadl, p. 290-301]
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