The first point of enmity against the wearing of jilbāb is the home. The father hates the sacred garment as passionately does the mother. Aunts, uncles, grandparents including nieces and nephews usually see their relative-jilbābīs as complete strangers who perhaps are sojourning a different planet. Are these haters not muslims? Of course, they are. In fact, they are occupiers of the most sensitive posts in our dear mosques. They are high-ranking czars of societies and organizations. They are the baba adinis, iya sunnahs, olori Giwas of asalatu assemblies.
As soon as their daughter takes to jilbāb, the parental love seemingly ceases and stereotypes whispered by shaytan becloud their reasoning. They pretend as though such is alien to Islam. And any attempt to remind them of its stipulation in the Holy Scripture, they turn deaf ears as if it were incantations being rendered.
“O Prophet! Tell your wives, your daughters and the women of the believers that they should draw their ‘JILBAAB’ all over their bodies. That will be better, that they should be known (as respectable women) so as not to be hurt. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiven, Most Merciful.” Q33 V59
Jilbāb is an all-covering wide, long garment worn by a muslim woman or lady on the cloths she wears to adorn herself.
Parents whose hearts were completely, uncontrollably overridden by shaytan had had to strip their daughters naked in the open for their tenacity to step up their spiritual game. Such a luciferous act does not go without a corresponding legal punishment in saner climes. But the order of the day in this part of the world is impunity. Isn’t that Child Abuse? I cannot fathom why a muslim parent would go that gaga over what is as clear as the fourteenth-day moon in the Book he claims to be his Scripture.
Where the minds of parents are softened by their daughters’ explanations of the need to adhere to the dictate of Allah, some relations who have little or no stake in the lives of the jilbābīs tend to reharden the already-softened minds of the parents. These are people whose daughters roam the street almost naked, and all efforts to get them back to sanity have entered deaf ears. Rather than go remedy the awkwardness in their daughters, they want to create a problem where there is progress.
Those who compound this worry are the self-acclaimed alfas, imams, missioners, sheikhs who mislead parents of jilbāb wearers. Their hate for the garment makes them interpret the aforementioned verse out of context – the reason their wives and daughters wander about in outfits devoid of hijāb, let alone jilbāb. And our holy houses – the mosques – are administered by such unholy haters of Allah’s holiness. This is why jilbābis are usually voiceless with their parents. They cannot successfully convince their parents to allow them exercise that spiritual, religious franchise because the alfas who are supposed to know better are on a satanic page. Unfortunate! Painful! Pitiable!
Hatred for jilbāb is also displayed by the so-called liberals – muslims who are selective of Allah’s dictates. They practice Islam halfway. They do it as they so wish. To them, some verses of the Quran are unreasonable, or have become outdated. And since they have taken to the straying path of liberality, jilbāb to them is a sign of extremity. The one who is attired in it is a fanatic. Anyone who supports its use is a fundamentalist. People in this category deprive jilbāb wearers of work in their led-companies or departments, even if they are convincingly competent to do more than paid for. Innā liLlāhi wa innā ileihi rāji’ūn! They prefer people of other faiths to their fellow faithful. This is why I say that the problem of Islam are the practitioners of Islam.
Parents, alfas, imāms, relations and muslims in general should fear Allāh. They shouldn’t manipulate His injunctions to suit their whims and caprices. That is a grievous sin in the sight of Allah.
“And it is not allowed for a mu’min or a mu’minah that when Allah and His messenger have concluded a matter, that they manipulate it as they so wish. And whoever disobeys Allah and His messenger has gone astray real big.” Q33 V36
O Allah, soften our hearts for the love of Your wish. Save us from the deceits of shaytan and arrogance against Your sovereignty. Āmīn!
Sanni Kay Yusuf
