Almighty ALLAH has created this universe
with a lot of natural beauties. When we look around we will observe that almost
everything which is beautiful and precious has been kept in a natural cover. Diamonds
can only be found deep in the ground, covered and protected. Pearls can be
found down in the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful
shell. Gold, covered over with layers and layers of rock. What message do we
get from this sign of the nature? It teaches us to protect all our precious and
beautiful in a cover so that they become hard to get, so that they cannot be
spoiled by the outer filthiness.
Are women not beautiful creators of the
universe? Are they not precious enough to be protected to avoid the outer
filthiness? Yes they are, a man is a person who probably runs a family but it
is a woman who actually creates a family. She is responsible for upbringing of
a whole unit of the society, what will happen if she is not being protected?
Certainly if a unit is spoiled, it will gradually spoil the whole society. That
is the reason, Islam- which gives us the whole way of life, urged the women to
be covered- that is, to be in Hijab.
The Hijab in Islam refers beyond just a
head cover. It includes the necessity that women carry such apparel that cover
the whole body, except for the face, hands and feet in front of any least one
grown-up man who is other than her husband or close family members. Muslim intellectuals believe that there is no
any particular shape, style or color for Hijab. It must contain specific
criteria which are mentioned above.
The importance of hijab is proven in the
Holy Quran as well:
"Say to the believing men that they
should lower their gaze and guard their modesty......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 ordinarily appear
thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms...." (Quran
24:30,31).
"O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments over their bodies (when abroad) so that they should be known and not molested" (Quran 33:59).
"O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments over their bodies (when abroad) so that they should be known and not molested" (Quran 33:59).
Currently we see in the society that the
young females are obsessed by physical
appearance like fashion, hairstyle, favorite music, or the most up-to-date
gadget like iPad, popular culture celebrities. They blindly follow these trends
and want to be like them; also they rely too much on the physical appearances
for their identity. So, without relying too much in physical appearance or be a
follower of celebrity, what is another way to define our identity?
One way is through the role of religion. I am a Muslim
and Muslim is a term to define the follower of one of the major of religion,
called Islam. Some teens might believe that following religious teaching hinder
them from having ‘cool’ identity but in reality, one who is following the
religious teachings is actually creating a separate identity for her.
According to Forever Families website, sponsored by
School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, “when a girl focuses too
much on her physical appearance, she places her self-esteem, emotional and
physical health, academic achievement, and sexual safety on the chopping.”
A girl wearing Hijab will not focus on her physical
appearance because she covers her hair and her body. Hijab prevents her
from sexual trend; therefore, self-esteem, emotional and physical health,
academic achievement and sexual safety will become a priority
For Muslim women, Hijab is real
identity and a true freedom which also shaped a humble and modest lifestyle
that prevent us from the filthiness of the society. I am a proud Muslim girl
who does not feel ashamed of using Hijab, instead, it is my identity and I am
proud on it.
