WHY I, AS A CHRISTIAN, AM FASCINATED BY THE HIJAB…
To begin to understand why I am fascinated by the hijab, we must explore the reason Allah gives for this revelation to His beloved prophet,
“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands…”
(Surah 24:31)
It would appear the reason for this is so that a woman does not reveal her beauty to anyone else other than her husband. Modesty seems to be the key factor here.
In another Surah, yet another reason is given,
“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allāh Forgiving and Merciful.”
(Surah 33:59)
The second reason is in order to be distinguished as Muslim women and avoid being abused or molested as some translations read. So in summary, the hijab in Islam is to guarantee two things (i) The modesty of a woman (ii) A woman’s freedom from abuse.
On the Modesty of a woman
The modesty of a woman here, i.e. the specific modesty the Quran is concerned with, is that a woman’s beauty belongs and should be enjoyed only by her husband. This is a beautiful thing isn’t it? It is indeed beautiful until you realise this same Quran permits the husband to
(i) marry women other than his wife
“And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphan-girls then marry (other) women of your choice, two or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one or (the slaves) that your right hands possess. That is nearer to prevent you from doing injustice.” (Surah 4:3)
(ii) beat his wife into submission if he fears rebellion
“Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allâh has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient (to Allâh and to their husbands), and guard in the husband’s absence what Allâh orders them to guard (e.g. their chastity, their husband’s property). As to those women on whose part you see ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them ; but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance). Surely, Allâh is Ever Most High, Most Great.”
(Surah 4:34)
(iii) Have sex with slave girls other than his four wives
“Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (slaves) whom your right hands possess. Thus has Allâh ordained for you. All others are lawful, provided you seek (them in marriage) with Mahr (bridal-money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage) from your property, desiring chastity, not committing illegal sexual intercourse, so with those of whom you have enjoyed sexual relations, give them their Mahr as prescribed; but if after a Mahr is prescribed, you agree mutually (to give more), there is no sin on you. Surely, Allâh is Ever All-Knowing, All-Wise”
(Surah 4:24)
(iv) Perform “Mutah” i.e. temporary marriage of a man and a woman in exchange for “dowry”. This will be discussed a bit further subsequently.
If we take all the above factors into account, we seem to get a clearer picture of what this hijab is. It appears to be just one more way women are subjugated to the whims of their husband. As Surah 4:34 says, a righteous woman obeys Allah and her husband, who is entitled to marry and sleep with multiple women other than this modest wife.
One might ask, what is the point of this beauty being exclusive to the husband if he can despite such exclusion to his wife’s beauty sleep with other women? Again, if he can marry 3 or 4 women, all of these women would be bound to be modest for the sake of this one “very lucky” husband.
Secondly, what is the point of this beauty, if the husband is entitled to mar this beauty by beating his wife into submission (Surah 4:34)? There is a hadith where a woman was beaten until her skin turned green and she still had judgment given against her by Allah’s messenger, again Muhammad in the Hadith says, “A man should not be questioned as to why he beat his wife” (e.g. Sunan Ibn Majah 1986). Again, what is the point of the hijab if the beauty it seeks to preserve can be beaten out of the wife?
The hijab thus seems to be yet another form of control over the woman. We saw the legendary Ali Dawah (A Muslim Youtuber with over one million subscribers) have his wife on a video fully covered up and communicating with a white board, the video is titled “My wife reacts to Khalid and Salama’s divorce”, have a look at that video and then let me know if you are as blown away as I am by the beauty of his wife’s modesty or if it looks like she is in a hostage situation. Just to let you know, if you are in the latter category, you are an Islamophobe.
Speaking of abuse…
On the woman’s freedom from abuse
Again, just a cursory look at Surah 33:59, reproduced here for ease,
“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allāh Forgiving and Merciful.”
would seem to legitimise abuse against women not wearing the hijab. The various Tafsir(Islamic expositions on verses of the Quran) for this verse state that this command was given to Muslim women to distinguish slave women from free women. Again, it might be a little ungenerous to interpret this as endorsing abuse against women not covered up, but it seems to acknowledge a state of affairs where women could be abused if they were not covered up and in this light, the verse seems to protect them, which is also a beautiful thing…
However, there is a bigger over-arching issue here, why is there no notion of self control preached to the “abusing” or “molesting” men referred to in this Surah? Jesus expressly stated that just looking lustfully at a woman is tantamount to adultery, by contrast, it would seem Islam has no concept of self control, I cite the below Hadith of the holy prophet Muhammad,
“Jabir reported that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) saw a woman, and so he came to his wife, Zainab, as she was tanning a leather and had sexual intercourse with her. He then went to his Companions and told them:
The woman advances and retires in the shape of a devil, so when one of you sees a woman, he should come to his wife, for that will repel what he feels in his heart.”
(Sahih Muslim, Book 16 Hadith 10)
The Hadith does not tell us whether or not the woman was wearing a hijab but it is a problem either way, if she was wearing a hijab then it seems the whole concept of hijab is pointless because a woman wearing a hijab is still capable of inciting lust in the holy prophet Muhammad Himself (what chance does the regular Muslim stand?), if she was not wearing a hijab, then it highlights the fundamental absence of self control wired into Islam as an ideology.
Another instance of this lack of self control can be seen in the endorsement of the Mutah marriage. There is authority for this in the hadith
“‘Ati’ reported that jibir b. Abdullah came to perform ‘Umra, and we came to his abode, and the people asked him about different things, and then they made a mention of temporary marriage, whereupon he said: Yes, we had been benefiting ourselves by this temporary marriage during the lifetime of the Prophet (ﷺ) and during the time of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar.”
Sahih Muslim, Book 16 Hadith 18
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
“Mutʿah, in Islamic law, a temporary marriage that is contracted for a limited or fixed period and involves the payment of money to the female partner.” (sic)
This was a practise allowed in the Quran, Surah 4:24,
“All others are lawful, provided you seek (them in marriage) with Mahr (bridal-money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage) from your property, desiring chastity, not committing illegal sexual intercourse, so with those of whom you have enjoyed sexual relations, give them their Mahr as prescribed; but if after a Mahr is prescribed, you agree mutually (to give more), there is no sin on you. Surely, Allâh is Ever All-Knowing, All-Wise”
Now there is some disagreement as to whether Mutah marriage should be done today or whether it has been abrogated till the day of resurrection. But there is no debate on the fact that it was a practise allowed by the holy prophet at some point.
Again just for emphasis, and an example of this in practice:
“Rabi’ b. Sabra reported that his father went on an expedition with Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) during the Victory of Mecca, and we stayed there for fifteen days (i. e. for thirteen full days and a day and a night), and Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) permitted us to contract temporary marriage with women. So I and another person of my tribe went out, and I was more handsome than he, whereas he was almost ugly. Each one of us had a cloaks, My cloak was worn out, whereas the cloak of my cousin was quite new. As we reached the lower or the upper side of Mecca, we came across a young woman like a young smart long-necked she-camel. We said:
Is it possible that one of us may contract temporary marriage with you? She said: What will you give me as a dower? Each one of us spread his cloak. She began to cast a glance on both the persons. My companion also looked at her when she was casting a glance at her side and he said: This cloak of his is worn out, whereas my cloak is quite new. She, however, said twice or thrice: There is no harm in (accepting) this cloak (the old one). So I contracted temporary marriage with her, and I did not come out (of this) until Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) declared it forbidden.”
(Sahih Muslim Book 16 Hadith 23)
Point is, it appears the bigger problem in Islam is getting men to control themselves. The woman is made to be “modest” to apparently help men do this, but it just does not work going by Islam’s most trusted sources. If it did, there would be no need for the Mutah marriage or to permit a man to have more than one wife and an unlimited amount of sex slaves.
The Adult breastfeeding problem
Finally, there is another issue…a problem was brought to prophet Muhammad, the wisest man who has ever lived, the man who according to a fictional quote by Bernard Shaw, could solve all of the world’s problems while sipping his morning tea.
This was the issue, a man was jealous whenever another man was in the vicinity of his wife, the wife brought this story to the prophet, his response is stated below,
“It was narrated that ‘Aishah said:
“Sahlah bint Suhail came to the Prophet and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I see signs of displeasure on the face of Abu Hudhaifah when Salim enters upon me.” The Prophet said: “Breastfeed him.” She said: “How can I breastfeed him when he is a grown man? The Messenger of Allah smiled and said: “I know that he is a grown man.” So she did that, then she came to the Prophet and said: “I have never seen any signs of displeasure on the face of Abu Hudhayfah after that.” And he was present at (the battle of) Badr.”
(Sahih Muslim Book 9 Hadith 99)
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of Hadith on this matter of breastfeeding, how many times to suckle an adult and the rules of when said adult became prohibited from marriage was a very serious matter. For context, Muhammad’s logic was that if a woman breastfed an adult man a certain number of times, the man was prohibited from marrying her.
In fact a Quranic verse was revealed about it and if not for a stupid sheep or goat (May Allah curse it), we would have it in the Quran today,
“The Verse of stoning and of breastfeeding an adult ten times was revealed, and the paper was with me under my pillow. When the Messenger of Allah died, we were preoccupied with his death, and a tame sheep came in and ate it.”
(Sunan Ibn Majah Book 9 Hadith 100)
Issue again, what is the point of the hijab to cover a woman’s face if she is permitted, and even required, to present her breasts to a complete stranger? Are these breasts not part and parcel of the beauty which is supposed to be exclusive to her husband?
And this is the reason the hijab fascinates me. It is utterly pointless. The modesty of the women it claims to protect is already defiled by the fact the husband is under no obligation to be exclusively faithful to her, then add the freedom to beat her up, then add the fact that she can present her breasts to a total stranger, then add the fact that it is an “enabler” of a man’s lack of self control, it is the woman’s fault if a man is aroused by her, what do we expect the man to do? look away? Ridiculous!
