Widaad the friend and Widad the sister have both on separate occasions called me a Peyton of One Tree Hill fame. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be a good thing or not, but I gather it either means I’ll be landing a Lucas-like boyfriend or I have a natural affinity towards good music. I’ll go with the latter; overly brooding guys stifle me and besides, music is my second language. Third would be BM.
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My fervent apologies to all who texted me and received no reply in return in the past week - I was in Indonesia and credit was very low so I had to forgo all phone mannerisms until I came back. Indonesia was nice, from the drivers’ questionable creative driving skills on the narrow winding roads to the hassling street sellers to the rich culture and awesome waves for water sports. I finally got to see what a rip curl looks like up-close.
Alhamdulillah we got home close to 5am this morning, and I went to my lectures as usual today. I am so wiped right now its incredible how I can even manage to type this out. The days ahead aren’t looking too good though. More deadlines and papers coming up.
And we’re back to reality.
Lutfi flies this Thursday. I wonder how I’m going to be able to meet Awin before she flies off herself.
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I stumbled on a blog of a sister from New York who wrote on hijabs, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The following are some of my favourite excerpts:
“One of the women here criticizes me for wearing too much black. She thinks I need to have more color in my abaya choices. My sister-in-law is so displeased with my black that when she was given the task of sending me clothes, she deliberately used my money for non-black clothing — even though I’d told her to buy black. Back in NJ, some sisters criticized me for not wearing enough black. I don’t wear black to look “like crows,” as it is said in a hadith. I don’t wear it for mourning, or because I think it is the most modest, or for any of the other reasons that Muslim women say they wear black.
I wear black because it’s cool. I wear black because it matches everything. I wear it b/c it’s goth. I wear black b/c I’m from NY and everyone wears black b/c it hides the dirt. I wear it because it’s elegant.
The best for me were her words on the why’s behind wearing the hijab. So many different people, so many interpretations of what the hijab means. It could be a sign of modesty, of rebellion, of identity, of beauty, of closeness to the Creator, a fashion statement etc. The sister simply sums it up in one word: Love.
People, Muslims and non Muslims, say that the “why” is because of sexual modesty, that it is about social control for the patriarchy, that it is because of identity, that it is the politics of resistance, that it is culture. All of these whys may be true for many people, to one extent or another. But to me, as I listened to my friends and saw how they live their life, as I learned more about the Qur’an and tafsir, as I read the works of the ‘awliya, I came to realize that the best “why” is nothing more than Love. The Beloved asks, or commands, and the lover says “Yes.” That’s all. And, in my experience, far more Muslimaat have Love as their most basic reason for wearing it than all of the other whys combined.
The only problem with Love is that, in my experience, many non-Muslims (and some Muslims) don’t get it. Maybe they’re not used to hearing about Love in the context of Islam. Maybe they’ve been so conditioned to the social protest/controlling sexuality arguments that Love does not compute. It’s strange that people can accept “Love” as a reason why we pray 5 times or more a day, and as a reason why we fast, but not why a woman would put a scarf on her head.
So when they ask, we say that it’s because of modesty. It’s easier on us than facing the incredulity you get when you say, “Love.” It is fairly self-explanatory whereas “Love” sometimes requires you to delve into what, exactly, submission of the will is, what the authority of the Qur’an is. And that, my dears, points to a much larger problem as far as da’wah and perceptions of Islam and Muslims than “hijab as a contol feature of the patriarchy” or “hijab is social protest against the autocratic regimes” and all the other nonsense. For the lack of understanding of Love as a reason for something as simple as hijab means that we are not doing the best job possible in getting the Message across.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
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If you like Islam and you like sports, how about an article combining both? Another link from Memphis. Thanks, Chu.
Enough said here.
