unslaved roses

HIJAB: Fabric, Fad or Faith?

“Yeah, I just got on the bus and I’m on my way home. Okay, Mum, Wa’alaikum Assalam.”

I slip my cell into my bag. A girl in a yellow tank top and dark blue cut-offs plops into the seat beside me.

“Ugh, I hate taking the bus, especially in this heat,” she says.

I nod and smile.

She raises her eyebrows at my full-length dress and the cloth wrapped around my head. “Aren’t you hot in that?” she asks.

I contemplate my answer. The girl shoots another question. “Why do you wear that thing on your head anyway?”

I fiddle with the clasp on my bag. I wonder what I should say. Why do I wear Hijab?

Why the Hood?

It’s tough to explain, isn’t it? Hijab relates to the basic faith that there is only one God worthy of worship. As Muslim women we want to submit to God and obey all His commands. Since Hijab is a clear commandment of God (see Quran 24:31), we choose to do it to please Him. If we wear Hijab for any other reason, we may fulfill an obligation without gaining the reward for it.

Aisha (The wife of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him) said, “May Allah have mercy on the immigrant women (from Makkah). When Allah revealed ‘that they should draw their veils over their juyubihinna*,’ they tore their wrappers and covered their heads and faces with them.” [Bukhari]

The female companions of the Prophet gave up the traditions and norms of their society and covered up immediately to respond to Allah, before they knew the proper method.

Only a Head Covering?

cRy 4Or heLp

Rain falls down

cold afternoon, the sun lost in a battle

waters invade from the sky

penetrating deep into the green bed of trees

passing through helpless bare land

knocking the doorway, adding the river height

it’s cold in here, walking barefoot across the floor

i don’t know the name, water trapped inside a whole

i don’t know the name, the president who sucks children blood

i don’t know the name, a mother that kills her own flesh

i don’t know the name, civilians speak up in machine-gun language

i don’t know the name, i don’t know what it’s called

girls who break their own walls

digging their own graves, jump into the burial before the time

i don’t know the name

i don’t know the name…