Hijab and its Essence

Although the underlying meaning and essence of hijab is a universal thing and applies in one and the same way on all Muslim women, we can see several different interpretations to it among today’s Muslim women. This gives rise to several different kinds of practices in wearing hijab, making the essence of hijab being lost somewhere along the way. To understand this issue better, the following points might prove to be of assistance.

Many Muslim women believe that hijab is just about covering the hair, and that’s all! Such an interpretation of hijab is usually complimented with tight/revealing clothes, which tear down the basic purpose of the hijab. Having your body covered is a prerequisite for wearing a hijab.

Since the main purpose of the hijab is to not let yourself be noticed and attract the attention of others it’s better to chose more subtle colors for the hijab. Loud make-up is also another way to attract other people’s attention and could meddle with the purity behind the purpose of Hijab. So it’s better to save it and avoid loud make-up.

Another very important issue is the “camel hump hijab”. This is important because many women are not aware of it, but the camel hump hijab is absolutely a wrong way of doing hijab. In fact, it doesn’t even remain a hijab anymore if you wear it that way. For this, I quote a Hadith; It was reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There are two types of the people of Hell that I have not seen yet: men with whips like the tails of cattle, which they strike the people with, and clothed yet naked women, walking with an enticing gait, with something on their heads which looks like the humps of camels, leaning to one side…..” (Narrated by Muslim in al-Saheeh).

Many scholars declare the camel hump hijab as forbidden in light of this Hadith, but most women are unaware of it and only a few do it on purpose.

Today, we see many fashion brands offering different styles and variations of hijab. One might defend them by saying that it’s a good thing as it encourages more women to wear it, but then why publicize the wrong way of wearing it; which is why I’m not a big fan of such brands.

If you want to accessorize your Hijab don’t do it with shiny embellishments and bright colors. There are much better things available, for which you don’t even need to go to a store to buy. Accessorize it with the purity in your character, with the modesty in your body language and your speech and lowering your gaze. These are the things that beautify your hijab better than any material thing ever could.

View the Original article