4 August 2011

Ya Muslimah...!!!

Hijab For Women


Question:
Why does Islam degrade women by keeping them behind the veil?


Answer:


The status of women in Islam is often the target of attacks in the secular media.


The hijab or the Islamic dress is cited by many as an example of the subjugation of women under Islamic law.Before we analyze the reasoning mandated ‘hijab’,let us first study the status of women in societies before the advent of Islam.


In the past women were degrade and used as objects of lust.


The following examples from history illustrate the fact that the status of women in the earlier civilization was very low to the extent that they were denied basic human dignity:

                        i.                   Babylonian Civilization
The women were degraded and were denied all rights under the Babylonian law.If a man  murdered another woman/man,instead of him being punished,his wife was put to death.

                      ii.                  Greek Civilization
Greek Civilization is considered the most glorious of all ancient civilizations.Under this very ‘glorious’ system,women were deprived of all rights and were looke down upon.In Greek mythology,an ‘imaginary woman’ called ‘Pandora’ is the root cause of misfortune of human beings.The Greeks considered women to be subhuman and inferior to men.Though chastity of women was precious,and women were held in high esteem,the Greeks were later overwhelmed by ego and sexual perversion.Prostitution became a regular practice amongst all classes of Greek society.

                     iii.                Roman Civlization
When Roman Civilization was at the zenith of its ‘glory’,a men even had the right to take the life of his wife.Prostitution and nudity were common amongst the Romans.

                    iv.                   Egyptian Civilization
The Egyptian (pre-Islam) considered women evil and as a sign of devil.

                      v.                   Pre-Islamic Arabia
Before Islam spread in Arabia,the Arabs looked down upon women and very often when a female child was born,she was buried alive.


Islam uplifted women,granted them their rights 1400 years ago and gave them equality and expects them to maintain their status.


Hijab for men.


People usually only discuss ‘hijab’ in the context of women.However,in the Glorious Quran Allah SWT first mentions ‘hijab’ for men before ‘hijab’ for the women.The Quran mentions in Surah Noor:


“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that they wil make for greater purity for them: and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.” (Nur 24:30)


The moment a man looks at a woman and if any brazen or unashamed thought comes to his mind,he should lower his gaze.


Hijab for women.


The next verse of Surah Noor,says:


“and say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear there of; that they should draw veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husband,their fathers,their husbands fathers,their sons…” (Nur 24:31)



Criteria for Hijab.

According to Quran and Sunnah there are basically six criteria for observing Hijab:


1)                     Extent:
Extent of the body that should be covered is different for men and women.The extent of covering obligatory on the male is to cover the body at least from the navel to the knees.For women,the extent of covering obligatory is to cover the complete body except the face and hands up to the wrist.If they wish to,they can cover even these parts of the body.Some scholars of Islam insist that he face and the hands are part of obligatory extent of ‘hijab’.
All the remaining five criteria are the same for men and women.

2)                     The clothes worn should be loose and should not reveal the figure.

3)                     The clothes worn should not be transparent such that one can see through them.

4)                     The clothes worn should not be so glamourous as to attract the opposite sex.

5)                      The clothes worn should not resemble that of the opposite sex.

6)                     The clothes worn should not resemble that of the unbeliever i.e. clothes that are specially identities or symbols of the unbeleivers’ religions.


Hijab includes conduct and behavior among other things.Complete ‘hijab’ besides the six criteria of clothing,also includes the moral conducts,bahaviour,attitude and intention of the individual.A person only fulfilling the criteria of ‘hijab’ of the clothes is observing ‘hijjab’ in limited sense.’Hijab’ of the clothes should be accompanied by ‘hijab’ of the eyes,’hijab’ of the heart,’hijab’ of thought and ‘hijab’ of intention.It also includes the way a person walks,the way a person talks,the way he behaves, etc.



Hijab prevents molestation.

The reason why hijab is prescribed for women is mentioned in the Quran in the following verses of Surah al-Ahzab:


“O Prophet!Tell thy wives and daughters,and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad); that is most convenient,that they should be known (as such) and not molested.And Allah is Oft-Forgiving,Most Merciful.” (al-Ahzab 33:59)


The Quran says that Hijab has been prescribed for the women so that they are recognized as modest women and this will also prevent them from being molested.


Examples of twin sister.

Suppose two sisters who are twin,and who are equally beautiful,walk down the street.One of them is attired in the Islamic hijab.The other sister is wearing wester clothes,a mini skirts or shorts.Just around the corner there is a hooligan who is waiting for a catch,to tease a girl.Whom will he tease?The girl wearing the Islamic hijab or the girl wearing the skirt?Naturally he will tease the girl wearing the skirt.Such dresses are an  indirect invitation to the opposite sex for teasing and molestation.The Quran rightly says that hijab prevents women from being molested.



Polygamy

Question:

Why is a man allowed to have more than one wife in Islam?i.e. why is polygamy allowed in Islam?


Answer:

Definition of polygamy

Polygamy means a system of marriage whereby one person has more than one spouse.Polygamy can be of two types.

One is polygamy where a man marries more than one woman,and the other is polyandry,where a woman marries more than one man.
In Islam,polyandry is completely prohibited.
The Quran is the only religious scripture in the world that says, “mary only one”.In none of the other religious scripture,whether it be the Geetha,the Talmud or the Bible does one find a restriction on the number of wives.

According to these scriptures one can marry as many as one wishes.It was only later that the Hindu priests and the Christian Church restricted the number of wives to one.

Let us now analyse why Islam allows a man to have more than one wife.
Quran permits limited polygyny.

“Mary women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (wih them) then only one,” (Nisa 4:3)


Islam put upper limit of four wives,only on condition that he deals justly with them.

“Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women…” (Nisa 4:129)


Therefore polygyny is not a rule but an exception.Mny people are under the misconception that it is compulsory for a Muslim man to have more than one wife.

Broadly,Islam have five categories of Do’s and Don’ts:

‘Fard’        >>>   compulsory/obligatory
‘Mustahab’ >>>   recommended/encouraged
‘Mubah’     >>>   permissible/allowed
‘Makruh’    >>>    not recommended/discouraged
‘Haraam’   >>>    prohibited/forbidden

Polygyny falls in the middle category of things that are permissible.It cannot be said that a Muslim who has two, three or four wives is a better Muslim as compared to a Muslim who has only one wife.

Average life span of females is more than that of males.By nature males and females are born approximately the same ratio.A female child has more immunity than a male child.For this reason,during the pediatric age itself there are more deaths among males as compared to the females.

During wars,there are more men killed as compared to women.More men die to accidents and diseases than women.At any given time one finds more widows in the world than widowers.

World female population is more than male population.In USA,women outnumber men by 7.8 million.New York alone has one million more females as compared to the number of males, and of the male population of New York one-third are gays.The USA as a whole has more than 25 million gays.

This means that these people do not wish to marry women.Great Britain has 4 million more females as compared to males.Germany has 5 milion more females as compared to males.Russia has 9 million more females than males.Allah alone knows how many million more females there are in the whole world as compared to males.

Restricting each and every man to only have one wife is not practical.

There are only two options for a woman who cannot find a husband is to marry a married man or become public property.Islam prefers giving women the honourable position by permitting the first option and disallowing the second.

There are several other reasons,why Islam has permitted limited polygamy,but it is mainly to protect the modesty of women.Thus,its shows that ISLAM care…are you…???
Ya Allah…guide our steps..ameen..^_^



:::dany:::

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