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Head Covering For Women
Q: Even if Head Covering is not explicitly commanded by ALLAH to women in general, is it still not better to encourage Head Covering in general?
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16 Replies
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Head Covering For Women
updated 2 years, 8 months ago
6 Members
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16
Replies
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A: The Almighty requires of a Muslim woman to not display her make-up or other embellishments such as jewellery before unknown men except what she has adorned her hands, feet and face with. The Qur’an has made it mandatory upon Muslim women to follow this directive. It is for this very reason that the tradition of wearing the head-scarf or head covering while going out of the house was established, and now has become a part of Islamic culture. Even if women have not embellished themselves and have not put on make-up, they have continued to be very vigilant in wearing some sort of head covering. This attitude has also sprung forth from the insinuations of the Qur’an: the Almighty has specified that the directive of covering the chest and neckline with a covering is not related to old women who have passed their marriageable age on the condition that their intention is not to show off their ornaments. The Qur’an says that they can take off this covering before men and that there is no harm in this; however, it has simultaneously stated that what is more desirable in the sight of the Almighty is that they should be careful in this matter too and not take their coverings off their chests. It is evident from this that regarding the head too it is desirable in the sight of the Almighty that even if women have not adorned it in any way, even then they should not take off their head coverings. Although covering the head is not mandatory yet when Muslim women live with a concern for religiosity and try to draw near God, they necessarily take this precaution, and never like to come before unknown men bare-headed.
(Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)
(Translated by Dr Shehzad Saleem)
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It’s confusing. ولا يبدين زينتهن _. Don’t show your embellishments- بناؤ سنگھار۔۔۔..if she can show her hair,head,face,hands and feet, what embellishments-are hidden? As Shaikh Ghamidi rightly mentioned, women naturally like to do thisبناؤ سنگھار۔. It’s in their فطرہ۔ They spend money,energy and time on their hair and face and hands and feet to make them attractive. They don’t like to go out with out making sure that they look good and attractive. So I’m trying to understand ولا یبدین زینتہن۔۔ what زینت is that Allah wants us to hide if we can show our make up,hair style,ear rings, necklace,bracelet,finger rings,attractive sandals ( that’s all there’s to it as far as the adornment is concerned)
if you think about إلا ما ظهر منها
The بناؤ سنگھار you show should be way less than what you hide. But according to Shaikh Ghamidi it’s ok to show all of it. Please convince me on this issue
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Why did you discount necklace from this? It is a kind of jewelry worn on chest and neckline regions.
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That’s my point. So women should focus on the chest jewelry and don’t worry about the rest?
As far as I know women have been covering their heads for centuries. It’s like the Sunnah. Muhammad sallallahu alai hi wa sallam being the last prophet either confirmed the previous Sunnah or removed it. He was authorized to do it. It doesn’t seem like he sallallahu alai hi wa sallam said anything about women not needing to cover their heads anymore in his shariah. Does anyone has the authority to bring this reform now in 21st century?
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Just because something has been in observance for centuries, it doesn’t necessarily becomes religion. Somethings could be cultural in nature, some could be considered a part of social ethics and some an effort to achieve more piety. It’s true that women have been covering their heads for centuries; on the same line, men have been keeping beards for centuries. None of these facts alone make it Sunnah or a part of religion.
Ghamidi Sahab is not presenting any historical arguments in support of his point, His source of argument is Quran. In my humble opinion, the right way for any Muslim to critique his understanding on Head Covering would be to critique His interpretation of Quran.
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Agree.
Do you think the way he interprets. “ولا يبدين زينتهن”. makes sense?
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I think first we need to see whether there is any linguistic flaw in his interpretation or he is interpreting the whole structure in a wrong way; incorporating preconceived sense into something from a linguistic standpoint is not a fair way to do it. According to my limited research on the matter, Ghamidi sb. is right in making the claim that “Zeenah” can never be used in the meaning of natural beauty/body parts because for beauty, Arabic has a separate word for it i.e. ‘Husn’. This view further gets solidified when we reach Surah Araf (7: 31-32)
يَا بَنـِي آدَمَ خُذُوْا زِيْنَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وكُلُوْا وَاشْرَبُوْا وَلَا تُسْرِفُوْا إِنَّهُ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْمُسْرِفِيْنَ. قُلْ مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ اللّهِ الَّتِيَ أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِهِ وَالْطَّيِّبَاتِ مِنَ الرِّزْقِ قُلْ هِي لِلَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوْا فِي الْـحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا خَالِصَةً يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ كَذَلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُوْنَ
There’s no way one can imply body parts or beauty here, it can only be used as embellishment/adornment, something over and above the natural beauty/body parts.
Attached here is exegesis of Mufti Taqi Usmani, a highly regarded contemporary scholar of Deo-Bandi school of thought; even he has used the word embellishment in the translation and later on in the explanation, he somehow equated embellishment with body parts which is quite an enigmatic leap for me.
Furthermore, if we assume that a lady has already been forbidden to show her body in absolute sense (as can be seen in the attached image), then why is Quran mentioning covering of chest right after that? Doesn’t this additional qualification seems useless righter after absolute prohibition? This according to my understanding leaves a logical flaw in the structure of sentence.
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Ghamidi sahab has explained every minute detail of this issue in this video series. Please watch.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvDnnnkYLWQcYPicXKDaoIBCK24frL4N8
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I have watched and listened carefully the above vedio series خواتینِ کا پردہ۔۔ I still have the above concerns
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Hi Saba,
It seems you are using some Urdu written words in your comments, and since I can’t read Urdu, I am unable to understand your comment. Can you please explain in English your comment (for those specific words in Urdu)?
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Shaikh Ghamidi keeps on saying” اگر عورتیں سینہ کا زیور پہنی ہوں، تب انہیں دوپٹہ یا چادر سے اس زیور کو ڈھک لینا چاہیے” یہ سینہ کا زیور کیا ہے آور کون پہنتا ہے اسے
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They’re actually Arabic words from Qur’an except بناؤ سنگھار which means adornment
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OK.. actually I can’t read Arabic either. I can understand Urdu being spoken, so I can understand video lectures by Ghamidi saab, however any written Urdu or Arabic (written or spoken) I can’t understand.
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سادہ سا ایک سوال ہے جس کے لئے راہنمائی درکار ہے۔ غامدی صاحب نے فرمایا تھا کہ سر ڈھانپنا ایک پسندیدہ عمل ہے اسلام میں۔ صورتحال یہ ہے کہ اگر خاتون ہیں جو کہ عام طورپر سکارف استعمال کرتی ہیں۔اب گھر مین شادی ہے۔ تو کیا ایسی گنجائیش ہے کہ وہ بارات یا ولیمہ کے فنکشن کے دوران کچھ گھنٹوں کے لئے سکارف نا استعمال کریں۔ کیا ایسا کرنے سے انسان سزا کا مستھق ہوتا ہے یا صرف یہ کہ اپ نے ایک پسندیدہ عمل کچھ وقت اختیار نہین کیا؟
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If you read the whole thing above, it’s categorized as mandatory.
“The Almighty requires of a Muslim woman to not display her make-up or other embellishments such as jewellery before unknown men except what she has adorned her hands, feet and face with. The Qur’an has made it mandatory upon Muslim women to follow this directive.”
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I have understood most of it there is slight confusion. There is a practice in desi households that woman tend cover their hairs on regular days like going to market and dawat. But if there is a wedding ceremony and she is all dressed up and has makeup done and worn jewellary she does not cover or hide her zeenah on those days. In that sense the whole practice is against orders of Allah. And in that sense even the bride sitting on the stage all dressed up in a co ceremony is wrong. Is that correct?
My question is women tend to use mild makeup when they do to work, like lipstick and some other things. Do they have to xover themselves in that make up as well?
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