Veil/Hijab Becoming a Symbol of American Muslims?
By Dr. Bashir Ahmad
Wildwood, MO

Dr Ibrahim B. Sayed has written a response to an article written by me in which I had commented on an article by Mr Moin Moon Khan. Dr Ibrahim B. Sayed is a Muslim scholar from Louisville, Kentucky.
I am extremely saddened that a scholar would falsely insinuate that I am advocating that women should be totally covered from head to toe and to prove his scholarly talents he has quoted the following from the “Conference of Books” by Abou el Fadl.
“---one can only ponder what type of ROTTEN 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.”
By using this derisive and derogatory language, Dr. Ibrahim B. Sayed has indirectly aimed the words at me! What a display of scholarly conduct!

In my article I quoted the verses from the Qur’an pertaining to purdah. Heaven forbid, is Dr Sayed also targeting the verses of the Holy Qur’an.!
In his article, Dr Ibrahim B. Sayed totally ignored the verses of the Qur’an and took cover under the word Jalabih - meaning - the outer covering.
WHAT IS JALABIB?
Jalabib, (outer cloaks) is the plural of jilbah, which means,
a. A woman’s outer wrapping garment.
b. A garment that envelopes the whole body.
c. A garment worn by a woman that entirely envelopes the body so that not even a hand is left uncovered. “Lane”.
The important verse 24/32 of Surah AL-NUR is the following:
“ -----they should draw their head coverings across their bosoms, and should not disclose any part of their beauty or their adornment, save to their husbands ---.”
In translating this verse Dr. Sayed has very deftly ignored to translate the Arabic word bi-khumurihinna, meaning their head covering. He dug out the word KHIMRAS - a feminine Arab dress.
In the verse it is stated that (women) should not display and disclose any part of their beauty or their adornment.
Surely a female dress covers all of the body except the hair and the face. The verse forcefully commands that these beautiful parts and features should not be displayed to the stranger, but only to the husband and very close relatives.
Following is part of this verse, followed by its translation:
“Wa Laa yubdiina ziinatahumma illaa maa zahara minhaa wal-yazribna bi-khumurihinna alaa juyunbihinn; Wa Laa yubdiina ziinatahunna illaa libu-uula-tihinna ----.”
Yubidiina - to disclose.
ziinatahunna- their beauty or adornment.
illaa maa zahara - which is apparent.
wal yazribna - and should draw
bi-khumurihinna - with their head covering
alaa juyuubihinn - across their bosoms
wa laa yubdiina -and should not disclose
ziinatahunn - their beauty or adornment
illa - except
libu-uulatihinna - save their husbands ----”
I hope Dr Sayed would ponder over these verses and desist from taking cover under the “jalabib” and KHIMRAS”. He should also refrain from quoting improper quotations and show due propriety while discussing Qur’anic verses.
What a fanciful imagery Dr. Sayed has created. He has in his article totally ignored to mention the word “bi-khumurihinna” which means head cover and replaced it with “KHIMARS”. What a blatant disregard of the sanctity of the Holy Quranic verse; and what scholastic trickery!
KHIMAR, he writes, was a cloth worn by women in the pre-Islamic period on the neck and claims that it was normally thrown towards the back leaving the head and chest exposed.
Surely Dr Ibrahim B. Sayed implies that the Arab women used to roam around with their head and bosoms totally uncovered; and the Qur’anic verse instructed them to pull their “khimar” from their back onto their exposed bosoms.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
© 2004 pakistanlink.com . All Rights Reserved.