Observing the news and human nature

أَعُوذُ بِٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنِ ٱلرَّجِيمِ، بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

 

 

It's really something, the ability of people to bring about the humiliation of the very thing they wanted to raise higher, their actions becoming the reason for the twisted turn of events.

 

Right now the most striking example of this is the recent protest in Iran over their hijab mandate. Can the authorities there realize that, in their effort to "require" hijab and invent a morality police and enforce the standard down people's throats, they have actually caused the hijab to become a symbol of institutional repression, with the masses now feeling that they should take it off as sign of protest?

 

It's incredibly ironic. What hurts me most is that I find the hijab so beautiful and complementary to women. To me, this cloth is the intersection of ideals, of modesty and preservation alongside style and color, of the past and its innate quiet dignity with the future and its tireless adherence to divine command in the face of modern opposition.

I know, I know. That is a heavy notion, but it doesn't mean I'd want everyone or anyone to carry it. But somewhere inside of me, that's how hijab is framed. And to see women throw it down, because of the evil ignorance and stupidity of men/government...this is a matter of shame for anyone who calls themselves Muslim. It is humiliation of something that carries this amazing combination of being connected to our Rabb while also having the potential to accentuate and enhance physical beauty in a way altogether opposite the modern obsession of how society tries to convince people that women should be in order to be 'free'. 

Alas, that's the crux of the matter. As Agent Smith once said, the problem is because we aren't free, that our tendency to seek this freedom manifests sooner or later when it is suppressed externally/violently for so long. It is a blessing that Muslims living in the west have, to make our choices and not have them made for us, and truly, when we can make the right ones, it's all the better because no outside force coerced us into doing so. It's sad beyond measure though, many around the world are not given this choice of obeying Allah or not. Some think that this choice can be made for them, by others, but it cannot. That is shortsighted, wishful, ignorant thinking.

The decisions whose impact will stay, the ones most important, are the ones we can choose for ourselves, accepting the consequences and knowing the reasons behind why we do them. Every believing woman and every woman who might one day come to Islam should have the chance to choose how or when she accepts her call to her Maker. It's the only way the desire for submission will settle into her, just as it would for any human being - by us having the choice and then, bi ithniAllah, choosing rightly, sooner or later.