Niqab, religeous or cultural ! ?

Once again, Muslims of Britain are under the microscope. The recent controversy in UK on the Niqab ( face veil worn by muslim women) started when a woman in court was ordered to remove her veil while presenting herself as witness. The judge said this is necessary to evaluate her witness statement.

While Niqab is a sign of religion in the west and not the sign of culture, it has become more or less a culture in the east. Religious women in the west hide their face and body completely to represent their faith but in the east it has been part of mere culture. Most women in the east who may not practice their religion but wear it as part of their culture.

While there is a debate for banning the veil , no one seems to have clear idea why muslim women wear it. Some non-muslims and the so called “progressive Muslims” which I believe is non-practicing muslims are supporting the ban. Wearing a face veil is not brutal but their opposition towards it is brutal. If we just think outside a box it is not only a religeos issue but issue of civil liberties.

In a country where women have won the right to bare almost everything, we have a proposal to ban people from covering almost everything. People’s freedoms are being limited in the name of emancipating them. The newspaper that has page 3, is campaigning for the niqab ban on page 1. Male MPs want to tell women what they can’t wear; ‘progressive Muslims’ i.e. non-practising Muslims are the new Muslim theologians; and practising Muslims are the extremists.

Faith Reborn

I always thought that our generation is doomed. The next generation will see our museums and our broken mosques and temples and tell their childrens the tales of our civilization or it may be the end of Human race at all.

“The love of the world is the source of all transgressions”said Hazrt Ali ( Rtz) . Is this not true that we have been submerged too much in our temptations. Looking at one generation before us , they didn’t have that much abundance of everything , not that much luxuries but they lived more happy life than us. Our previous generation married to whoever they were arranged to marry , but they stayed satisfied with their spouses , they dressed modestly , they ate simple , they looked after their families and they stayed composed , satisfied and happy.

Here comes our generation , we can’t stay satisfied with arranged marriages , we always need more , there is no end to our needs. Our dress and life style became clumsy and immodest. There are people out there , that you wont have seen the faces of their mothers or grand mothers. Even men in their neighbourhood didn’t know how the woman next door looks. Here comes our generation. The girl went out picnic , here are the pictures on Facebook , the birthday pictures , the wedding pictures and then guys comes in to say this is “awesome” . Just one generation before the grand mother fully covered , you can hardly see her face because of “chadder ( scarf)” in her passport picture. But now you can have her whole life history available in pictures online.This is same with men. Showing all your biceps , how muscular your are , how manly you are …… This is so PATHETIC .. so PATHETIC .. honestly …. we are becoming more and more social on social media and becoming more and more lonely in real life. Honestly this is the truth. Since how long has this trend started ??? not even more than fifty years …. let see where it takes us…

This Ramadan , I saw a trend of lot of young people turning to mosques for spiritual purification. The amount of childerns , men , women and young people are turning toward faith I have seen in London this time is phenomenal. This time the wave of knowledge will come from the west and not the east. It seems that the faith is reborn at a different dimension.

I see faith as the only salvation

Inquisitive Heart

“Leaving the moon and the sun behind,
I reached the presence of God, and said,
“Not a single atom in Your world
Is an intimate of mine
The world has no heart, but I,
A handful of dust, am all heart.
It’s a nice garden(universe/World),

but not worthy of my song!”

A smile appeared on His lips?
He said not a word.”  ( Solitude by Allama Iqbal) 

Translator`s notes : “Possession of a feeling heart distinguishes man from and sets him above the rest of creation. This secret was, however, hidden from man not with a view to keeping him ignorant of his distinction but in order to motivate him to discover it through his own effort. Discovery of the secret earns man praise from God: he has risen to his Creator’s expectations, and the Creator smiles in appreciation that his creation has found the truth”

Taken from Allama Iqbal Persian poem “solitude” in his book “Kulyat e Iqbal” , Iqbal shares his joy of longing for his creator and find the truth and elaborates one of the many tiered concept of heart in his poetical work.In Islamic texts in general and Sufi works in particular; the heart is a locus of knowledge and intelligence rather than sentiments or feelings. Equating the heart to ‘emotions’ and ‘feelings’ is a typically modern phenomenon. The Quran employs the term about 130 times and often attributes understanding and intelligence to the healthy heart. Hadīth literature also carries abundant references to it

(Courtesy of research Study on iqbal by M Suhyl Umer)