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.
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