Hijab - Raiment of Righteousness

The word hijab comes from the Arabic word ‘hajabah’ meaning to hide from view or to conceal. Women, who conceal their beauty in society and do not give into its oppressive system, are looked upon as oppressed, without sexuality and backward. I'm often mistaken for a nun, an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist, who may be hiding God knows what up under all that stuff, or the poster child for oppressed womanhood everywhere. I feel the hijab for many women, is the truest test of being a Muslim. In instructing us to wear the hijab, Allah has given Muslim women what they can bear as far as injunctions and obligations. For Allah says, "And we do not lay on any soul a burden except to the extent of its ability, and with us is a book which speaks the truth and they shall not be dealt with unjustly." [23:62]

Unfortunately, Satan and his cohorts are calling the Muslim woman to enslave herself to the creation, and to forget about her servitude to her creator. Chastity, modesty and piety are deceptively marketed as shackles on personal freedom. Allah warns the believers that they should not let Satan deceive them, as he deceived their parents, Adam and Eve. Under the guises of fashion, culture and modernism, however, Satan is succeeding in calling the Muslim woman into immodesty.

From the dawn of civilizationon, flowing dresses and headscarves have always been associated with "godliness" or "god consciousness". Even the Christian pictorial representation of the earlier prophets and their women folks bear a familiar likeness to the dress ordained for Muslim men and women. This tradition of modesty is reflected in the Quran wherein Allah says, "O children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover yourselves and as an adornment. But the raiment of righteousness, that is better." [7:26]

But since the hay-days of the feminist movement there has been an increasing amount of scrutiny placed on the dress and status of Muslim women. According to these liberated women, the hijab not only covers the head, but also covers the mind, will and intellect. They say that our dress code is outdated and oppressive, and that it stops us from being productive human beings. They speak out of ignorance when they say that our hijab does not belong in these modern times, when due to the constant decrease in moral values in the world today, circumstances make the hijab even more necessary. More than ever before sex crimes are rampant and liberated women in the larger society now face increasingly higher chances of being raped or sexually harassed. In America a rape crime is committed every six minutes.

The women who uncover their beauty and show off their bodies and made-up faces for all to enjoy, expose themselves to be harmed by these wolves in human clothing. Allah enjoined the hijab on the Muslim woman to protect her from harm. He knows his creation and that when women make dazzling displays of themselves with immodest clothes, perfumed bodies and makeup, that it serves to increase the sexual deviance of the overall society. Many of those who are misguided would have us think that the hijab is a portable prison that restricts our minds, lives and hearts. It is none of these things, and in order not to fall victim to their plots we must begin to understand what the hijab truly is.