Daughters – Don’t Ruin their Haya

By Mujlisul Ulama

After Imaan, the greatest and most precious attribute of the Muslim female is her Haya (modesty and shame). While haya is intrinsic with feminity in general, its perfection co-exists only with Imaan. It is therefore, impossible for a non-Muslim female to possess the same degree of haya as her Muslim counterpart whose nature has not been corrupted by the kufr influences of western culture. Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said: “Haya is a branch of Imaan.” This treasure of haya incrementally decreases with the increase of the attributes of kufr. When haya is lost, its opposite, viz. shamelessness/audacity fills the vacuum. Shamelessness has reached its lowest ebb in western civilization which has by far surpassed even barbarians and asses in its exhibition of immorality and lewdness.

Muslim females of this era have also become the victim of the onslaught of western lewdism and shamelessness to such an extent that even the females who don niqaab lack the haya which Islam advocates for them. The niqaab has become an outer façade of deception. Most females who don niqaab nowadays treat it as a deceptive symbol to project the image of piety while in reality almost all of their natural Imaani haya has been extinguished.

The fundamental problem is the failure in the home. From the very inception, parents miserably fail to develop the natural attribute of haya of their daughters. In fact, parents are instrumental in the destruction of the haya of their daughters from a very tender age. The quality of haya, like all other natural attributes of excellence, has to be developed, nurtured and nourished until it attains its degree of perfection. It is for this reason that the Shariah commands the inculcation of Hijaab from a very early age.

According to Hadhrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thaanvi (rahmatullah alayh), a girl should adopt Purdah for the ghair mahram males of the family (cousins, brothers-in-law, etc.) from the age of seven years, and for outsiders from the age of six years. True purdah – that is, Purdah of the heart – cannot be achieved instantaneously and simultaneously with the advent of buloogh (maturity). The Hijaab dress, niqaab, concealing the hair and arms introduced to a girl only at the advent of buloogh is adopted as a social imposition without her understanding the value of Hijaab. The girl nurtured in the western cult of shamelessness, feels the sudden imposition of Hijaab at the age of buloogh to be claustrophobic, burdensome and even loathsome. While she will adopt Hijaab as a consequence of social pressure and norm of her ‘pious’ family, inwardly she rebels against the concept of Hijaab which Allah Ta’ala has decreed for females.

The development of haya and adoption of hijaab have to be inculcated and ingrained in girls from the cradle. However, since parents themselves lack understanding of the Islamic concept of Hijaab, they sow the seeds of aversion for Hijaab in their little daughters. They achieve this dastardly feat by cladding their infant daughters with kuffaar western garments. In so doing they betray their hidden preference for the ways and styles of kufr. They may have adopted an outward display of hijaab due to social considerations, but their hearts are bereft of hijaab, hence it is seen that most Muslim parents have no qualms in dressing their little girls like prostitutes, with tight-fitting pants and skin-tight tops. The girl’s hair is perpetually exposed. She is allowed to mingle with boys and outsider males.

She is allowed to ruin all vestiges of natural and Imaani haya by peddling a bicycle. It is thus seen that the muraahiq (near to buloogh) daughters of even Ulama are furiously peddling bicycles. Shaitaan has succeeded in his plot of deception. He has managed to deceive even the Ulama with talbees-e-iblees logic – “she is riding the bicycle in an enclosure which conforms to Hijaab standard”. This type of deceptive argument is whispered into the hearts of pious parents to achieve the satanic objective of ruining every vestige of a girl’s natural haya.

When Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) has cursed females who ride horses, such admonition was not the product of his whim and desire. The Qur’aan Majeed states: “He (i.e. Muhammad) does not speak of desire (whim and fancy). It (i.e. whatever he says) is Wahi revealed to him.” Thus, the Muslim lady who drives a car should not labour under self-deception that she is observing Hijaab simply because only her two eyes are on exhibition while her nose, cheeks and lips are concealed by the semblance of niqaab she dons behind the steering wheel. She should remember, and make constant thikr behind the steering wheel of the fact that every second she is under Divine La’nat. The plethora of arguments fabricated to justify her exploits behind the steering wheel and the surreptitious exploits of her eyes and heart from behind the flimsy ‘niqaab’, have no validity in the Shariah. The fact that she is able to steer away the vehicle in a public swarming with fussaaq and fujjaar of a million persuasions, is adequate evidence for her audacity bordering on immorality in terms of the Islamic concept of Haya. A woman behind a steering wheel is a maloonah (accursed) in the same class as the maloonah in the saddle.

A little girl – a five and six year old – who is allowed to ride a bicycle, ruins her natural haya. To display tomboy antics on the bicycle – to peddle furiously – requires audacity. Audacity is the opposite of haya. The little girl, instead of her haya being developed, and instead of her being schooled in greater hijaab as she grows, her natural shame is neutralized by acts of self-expression. Whereas Islam commands Ikhfa’ (Concealment) for its female adherents, parents nurture their little daughters in Izhaar (self-expression) and audacity by encouraging and aiding them with dress, mannerisms and activities which only promote abandonment of haya.

The programme of developing the haya of girls requires that they be clad with Islamic attire from infancy. Western lewd styles are absolutely haraam for even little girls. All aspects of Hijaab, barring the niqaab, should be incumbently inculcated in little girls from infancy. Hijaab should become an inseparable constituent of the morality of Muslim females. If parents adopt the proper Islamic concept of Hijaab for their little daughters, the girls will feel ‘naked’ even if an arm is momentarily bared in the presence of a non-Muslim female.

The hair of a female is extremely delicate. Hijaab applies to a greater degree to her hair than to her face. A female’s exposed hair attracts even spiritual and unseen calamities and curses. Allah Ta’ala is The Creator. He knows why He has ordained that not a single hair of the female should be exposed. While evil beings such as the jinn and shayaateen are attracted by the female’s exposed hair, the pious celestial beings such as the Malaaikah (Angels) cherish a natural abhorrence for a female whose hair is exposed. Therefore, the Malaaikah of Rahmat do not frequent a home where the females habitually wander around with their hair exposed, and this applies even if there are no ghair mahaareem males present.

Parents should treasure the amaanat of children and not ruin the haya and akhlaaq of their daughters and sons with the mannerism of the western cult of immorality in which self-expression is an emphasised demand while Islam teaches the exact opposite. And of vital importance to understand and never to forget is that secular school, especially the so-called ‘islamic school’, is the last nail in the coffin of the girl’s haya.