My "Why? "

                                                             By: Anonymous

 “Man in the early times was naked, and as his intellect evolved he started wearing clothes. What I am today and what I’m wearing represents the highest level of thought and civilization that man has achieved and is not regressive. It is the removal of clothes again that is regressive and back to ancient times.” – Tawakel Karmen,

Tawakel Karmen is a female Yemeni journalist. She is also the first Arab woman and the youngest person to be awarded a Nobel peace prize. On top of all of that she is also a hijabi and an inspirational figure.

The quote presented above was Karmen’s response to some journalists who asked about her hijab and how it may “not suit her level of intellect”.

            I can begin discussing my own hijab experiences from two angles. I could begin writing about the struggles that come along with wearing hijab in the West, feeling different in high school, and of clinging on to this piece of cloth for a sense of identity, or I can write about my experiences with hijab in Egypt. Ironically, all my hijab-related experiences made more sense to me in the West than they do now in Egypt. It was clear to me why I was covering myself and who I was doing it for and it was easy to reply to anyone who thought to ask me. The answer was simple, “I’m wearing this because I’m muslim.”

“Why? Why are you covering yourself?” “You can still be a good Muslim without wearing a hijab.” “When will you take it off for us?” “But you look so pretty with your hair down” “You’re still so young” “Allah will understand”

These are all comments that have been made by some of closest Egyptian friends and I have spent long periods of time pondering their answers.

I can’t count the number of times I have been asked the question “why?” in Egypt. It is a good question, one that does need to be answered sincerely. The frequency with which it is asked has brought me moments of doubt and confusion.

But I tell myself that the answers this question are still clear and to make them even clearer, I will bring in a few very good points made by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan (a Muslim scholar).

One must, first and foremost, acknowledge that hijab does have countless numbers of social and personal benefits, and it does a lot to honor women (including warming up our heads in this freezing weather) but these benefits will not be argued. Instead of debating all these positive outcomes of hijab Ali Khan argues that a higher purpose exists; one that doesn’t involve explaining “logical reasons”. Once a person believes that the Quran is the word of the Divine, any orders from Allah should be obeyed. This is not to say that one should not question things, questions are an essential in life. However, one should trust that ultimately Allah knows best.

Nouman Ali Khan gives the prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) as a beautiful example to support this point. Allah asks the prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) for several requests. He asked the prophet (PBUH) to leave his family in the desert; obviously a difficult demand. Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) did not react by saying, “You know, I love everything about Islam, except this whole leaving my family in the desert thing”. He never asked Allah for the reasoning behind the demand, or doubted its significance, or even called it “oppressive”. Allah asked, and the prophet obeyed. Then Allah made another request and asked him to jump into a fire, he never said “You know, I love everything about Islam except this whole burning myself alive thing.” Finally, Allah asked the Prophet to put a knife to his son’s throat. Prophet Ibrahim did not say “Well, I love Islam but I also love my son,” the Prophet trusted Allah entirely and without doubt. Of course, in the end, the prophet never had to do this to his son and this is why we have Eid, but you get the point.  Whenever Allah asked the prophet to give himself up or surrender, Ibrahim (PBUH) surrendered. There is a much bigger purpose to Allah’s requests than just benefits and logical reasoning; and that is surrender. We must surrender ourselves wholly to Allah.

I’m not arguing that we should follow blindly, never question anything, and just quietly obey. I’m just answering my Why?, my why I wear a hijab. People are right, I do not necessarily need to be wearing a hijab to be a good Muslim, and my wearing a hijab does not mean I am a good Muslim. However, in the end, I made this choice because I would rather surrender to Allah than to a consumerist society where my looks determine what kind of person I am, or even my “intellect”. I will admit that sometimes I lose sight of what is important in life, I forget where my attention needs to be located, and I spend too much time doing and thinking about useless things. Yet, I am thankful I have a hijab on my head that serves as a reminder and a protector. 

I’d like to end this with a sentence I once read in a children’s book about the prophet Ibrahim’s (PBUH) life: “The moral of the story is that faith in Allah is the only thing that can save a believer in this world and the world to come”.