Evolución de la LODE

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This issue is still alive. I read the comments and I can say that there are many views on this topic. I guess it comes down to personal choice.Wow!!

- Posted by zulu2 on July 7, 2010 at 09:55 AM

Why would you assume it comes down to personal choice? When you say that it means essentially whatever position you take, well, its arbitrary, just personal preference. I’m not sure many of those

commenting would agree with you there.

- Posted by edabdalghafur on July 7, 2010 at 10:02 AM

I commend Dr. Umar on speaking out against the hollowness of legal fetishism that characterize certain ideological and physical spaces amongst Muslims in the last thirty years. Although I strongly differ with him on points of fiqh, and the exclusion of non-Sunni jurisprudence from this or any other major treatment of hijab online, I can appreciate his sentiments toward love and tolerance as a priori any legal enterprise. I am glad that he attempts to maintain a modest line given the clear tyranny of a frequently condescending religious hierarchy in our community, a hugely interrelated and under-examined issue.

- Posted by Abbas Jaffer on July 7, 2010 at 10:35 AM

Dear Rabea:

Is there a way that the references and citations of the hadith and statements he attributes to the Prophet can be posted here too? I’d be interested in those, especially the statement the Prophet said about fanatics. Thanks.

- Posted by asifsheikh (San Francisco) on July 7, 2010 at 11:35 AM

@edabdalghafur…then I guess those women out there will have to comply with your demand or your single interpretation! NOT!!!

It’s choice. After all, why are there two sides?

- Posted by zulu2 on July 7, 2010 at 01:19 PM

“[These] rigid rules ... hallow rules [of] no understanding, no theology, no love of the Prophet, this is destroying us.” Cannot agree more with this. As a community ( and I am not only talking about the US) we have became insecure in our intelligence, increasingly outwardly and superficially obsessed with political identities we have created for ourselves throughout the past century or so, and we are losing the

spirituality, which is the only thing that matters in the end of the day.

- Posted by SofiaM. on July 7, 2010 at 03:23 PM

Also, make dua for Umar, since publicly saying anything about hijab outside of the party line can be near political suicide in our Muslim-American community, to say nothing of what it does to people overseas who say similar things.

- Posted by OmarG on July 7, 2010 at 03:26 PM

Zulu2,

You’ve obviously been indoctrinated into conventional liberal dogma. Mere disagreement over a given issue does not logically imply that things are a matter of choice, or up to me. To assume that is to demand others comply with your particular liberal interpretation.

It seems that people on this website basically want to privatize dress (excluding Dr. Faruq), make it a matter of personal preference and arbitrary choice, and thus insulate women from any criticism. Thats a fine position to take. Thats the line of the Western mainstream and increasingly the global mainstream.

But call a spade, a spade. It’s not submitting to religious guidance, its submitting to the whims of the self.

- Posted by edabdalghafur on July 7, 2010 at 10:36 PM

I get it. Say anything that you disagree with and it’s considered liberal!!! ...conservatives are the only ones who know best. Alright….time to convert out i guess???

- Posted by zulu2 on July 7, 2010 at 11:05 PM

as salam alaikum zulu2. First of all, why so much anger? No one is asking you to leave Islam. There’s no need to convert out if you disagree with another Muslim. If everyone did this, there’d be no Muslims left!

Dress in Islam is both personal preference AND religious obligation. If you agree with hijab in its most common interpretation (only showing the face and hands and [depending on the scholar] the feet) that still leaves a lot of room for women. For example, I wear long, broomstick skirts with a kurti and a shayla hijab. I wear white, black, brown, blue, orange, and many other colors. This is both my religious obligation (as I believe it to be) and my personal preference.

I know sisters who wear modest jeans and long-sleeve t-shirts with an al amira. I know sisters who wear salwar kameez with a huge dupatta (and they cover their hair but not their necks/ears). I know sisters who are from Africa and they wear kaftans (or something that looks like a kaftan to me) and a head covering that doesn’t cover the neck or the ears or the bosom.

Are these women right or wrong? The answer is: it depends. It depends on the intention of the woman.

If she is covering just because of societal/family demands, she’s missing the point. If she’s covering inadequately (by my definition) but her heart and her intention are well placed, then any issue with her dress is between her and Allah, not with me. All I can do is be a good example inshallah.

The only time I become upset about sisters who refuse hijab are the ones who wear super tight and/or revealing clothing. You don’t have to reject all aspects of modesty simply because you disagree with hijab, and I think all of us can agree that dressing modestly is an absolute requirement of Islam. How can you be modest when you have cleavage or (worse) butt cleavage showing (and yes I’ve seen this in the masjid)? How can you be modest when everyone knows the exact outline of your hips, including cellulite?

I also become upset with sisters who wear hijab and cover all the “required” areas, but they may as well be uncovered because their clothing is super tight.

However, my being upset is MY problem, not their problem. And it’s certainly not the problem of some random guy in the community who has become the haram police. Especially when he goes swimming in short-shorts in front of women, or he refuses to grow any sort of a beard, not because he disagrees with

the sunnah of growing a beard but because it’s “inconvenient” or makes him “less attractive”.

There’s room in Islam for a liberal interpretation, as long as the fard is not ignored. If you honestly believe hijab is not fard that is between you and Allah. I am not part of that transaction, whether you are right or wrong. But please respect my right to believe hijab is fard, and don’t insult me because I made a

“personal choice”. If I believe that hijab is not a choice but a command, how can it be a personal choice?

To me, it is an obligation.

- Posted by Revertive on July 8, 2010 at 10:10 AM

Please take a look at the article again - Dr. Umar has included hadith citations.

- Posted by Rabea Chaudhry on July 8, 2010 at 09:13 PM

The hadith that were quoted seemed to be framed in a way that fundamentally do not contradict the principles of Islam.

Others that I’ve read seem like they address the realities that people go through in a certain situation, and which may not be applicable to other situations.

I liked the opening hadith that Dr. Umar stated because sometimes if women who are not married try to do

“humanitarian” work, it might seem to be a problematic result of her singlehood. If someone chooses not to get married because they think there is something which is stopping them, whether it is preparedness or a societal problem, then why not work in the meantime?

Other hadith seem very problematic. One time I was reading a book that said that this world should feel like a jail for the believer. I don’t know in what context it was said, but it didn’t make sense to me as a teenager or even later. (however much I like privacy). That is where my skepticism about where these sayings of the Prophet began - in search for truth. In that search, I also felt that ethics were often neglected from the contemporary American context, in place of discussions about painted finger nails.

On the other hand, Yusuf Ali speaks about hadith in a way that is supposed to lift burdens in a certain

environment. Even then, to lighten burdens, its acknowledged that only so many details can be addressed by the hadith - a common point with Rushdie.

- Posted by Saadia on July 27, 2010 at 03:10 PM

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