In general, the Quran and Allah do not support turning women into tents.
Before presenting the Quranic rules for women's dress, it is essential to be reminded of the following:
1- The Quran is the only source of law that is authorised by God (6:114).
2- The Quran is complete and fully detailed (6:38, 6:114, 6:89 and 12:111).
3- God calls on His true believers to make sure not to fall in the trap of idol worship by following the words of the scholars instead of the words of God (9:31).
4- God calls those who prohibit what He did not prohibit, aggressors, liars and idol worshippers (5:87, 6:140, 7:32, 10:59).I will very briefly simplify the argument against women covering their whole body or everything except their face. It is very important to state that true Islam is derived from the Quran and not from the culture of the original/current Muslim people.
The strongest argument against this whole scene of head-covers is the fact that there are no words in all the Quran where God commands the woman to cover all her body. We must accept that the Quran has all the details (6:114), and that God does not forget. If God wanted the woman to cover all her body from the neck to the feet God would have said that clearly. Those who make such un-Quranic claims cannot find words in the Quran with such extreme commands, so they manipulate Quranic words, mainly in 24:31 and 33:59, to comply with their false claims.
"Hijab" It is important to state the word Hijab in the Quran does not refer to the same thing that modern muslims call Hijab. The word 'hijab' appears seven times in the Quran (7:46, 33:53, 38:32, 41:5, 42:51, 17:45 & 19:17). None of these 'hijab' words are used in the Quran in reference to what the traditional Muslims call today 'hijab', that being the head cover for Muslim woman!
Historical background of hijab: The 'hijab' is an old Jewish tradition that infiltrated into the hadith books like many innovations that contaminated Islam through the hadith. Any student of Jewish traditions would know that the head cover for the Jewish woman is encouraged by the Rabbis and religious leaders. Here is a jewish rabbi discussing this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysHBoQsg9e4. Many Jewish and Chrstian traditions have entered into our hadiths. One prominent one is the myth of the antichrist or the "dajjal" nonsense.
"Khimar"The Arabic word khimar means cover. Any cover can be called a khimar, such as a curtain, a dress. A table cloth that covers the top of a table is a khimar. A blanket can be called a khimar and so on. The word khamr, which is used in the Quran for intoxicants, has the same root as khimar. Both words mean that which covers. The khimar covers a window, a body, a table and so on, while khamr is that which covers the mind. Traditional translators, obviously influenced by Hadith and culture, claim that khimar in 24:31 has only one meaning, and that is veil or hijab. Thus, they mislead women into believing that 24:31 commands them to cover their hair! The correct meaning of the word khimar can easily be verified by consulting any Arabic dictionary.
In 24:31 God is telling women to use their khimar (cover/garment), which could be a dress, a coat, a shawl, a shirt, a blouse, a scarf and so on, to cover their cleavage/bosoms.
The Quranic proofs: [Quran 24:31] "And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and to guard their private parts, and not to reveal any of their ‘zinatahhunna’ (beauty spots) except what normally shows, and to draw their ‘khumurihhinna’(their khimars) over their ‘juyoob’ (cleavage/bossom)"There are 2 parts of the above verse that make it clear.
For a start, we note that the words ‘head’ and ‘hair’ are not found in 24:31.
In addition, we must differentiate between two components in the wording of 24:31.
God says to women to draw their khimar (garment) over their cleavage/bossom. Here we have:
1- The subject of the command, which is the cleavage/bossom
2- The tool, which is the khimar.
The command is only obligatory in relation to the subject and not the tool.
If the obligation was for the tool as well God would have said:
“cover your hair and cleavage with your khimar”
God is not short of words, nor is God vague in the commands He decrees for us.
God will hold us accountable on the Day of Judgement to the commands He gave us, so it is not rational to imply for one moment that God would give us vague commands which lack precision and certainty.
In the above verse, notice the first underline: It is saying that you should cover your adornments except what normally shows/normally apparent!
The immediate question is: what are the parts of the body which people (in general) and women (in particular) normally cover, and thus would be described as "normally apparent"? When we have defined what is normally covered, it follows that the remaining parts of the body are what is referred to as
"normally apparent", or normally uncovered. In general, people cover the following:
1- People cover their private parts in order to maintain righteousness (7:26). For women this would include all parts of the body which have sexual connotation such as the private parts, the backside, the chest, thighs and so on. It is for this purpose that God commands women in 33:59 to lengthen their garments so as not to be too revealing.
2- People also cover their bodies in order to keep warm. In warm climates people would only cover what is included under item 1 above, which would be the minimum clothing required but also with maintaining righteousness, while as in colder climates people would cover more of their bodies depending on the severity of the weather.
The above two points define what parts of the body would normally be covered under the words “normally apparent”.
To imply that the words “normally apparent” mean all the body, as some Imams preach, is yet another manipulation of God’s words.
If God wanted the woman to cover all her body God would not have bothered with words such as the “cleavage” "bosoms" (in my first underline) nor with “what is normally apparent”! God would have simply said “cover all your body”. But for God to single out specific parts of the body for covering is the proof that God never required women to cover all their bodies.
The fact that God says in 24:31 to specifically cover the breast indicates clearly that there are other parts of the woman’s body that do not have to be covered.
If God wanted the whole body of the woman to be covered, God would not have bothered saying "cover your chest" since an overall command to cover all the body would be a more appropriate command, and it would also be the only command that is needed. But since God specifies certain parts of the woman’s body to be covered, then this is clear proof that here are other parts of the woman's body that do not have to be covered, as long as the are not beauty spots of sexual connotation (zinah), and as long as righteousness in dress is maintained (7:26).
"O prophet, tell your wives, your daughters and the wives of the believers that they shall lengthen their garments. This is better so that they will be recognized and not molested. God is Forgiver, Merciful." 33:59The command to "lengthen the garment" also proves that the woman is not commanded to be all covered from head to feet. For if that is the case, and the woman is covered down to the ground, there would be no meaning to “lengthen the garment”. How can the woman lengthen a garment that is already down to the ground?
I hope this will help you expose the extreme hypocrites who are distorting the beautiful religion of Islam.
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For the sake of brevity, I will stop here. I will answer further questions/comments in this thread.
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Summary of the above arguments:
- 1- There are no words anywhere in the Quran which command women to cover all their bodies. Those who preach such un-Quranic rules cannot find words in the Quran to justify this extremity, so they manipulate various words in 24:31 and 33:59 to justify the falsehood.
- The fact that God says in 24:31 to specifically cover the bossom indicates clearly that there are other parts of the woman’s body that do not have to be covered.To elaborate on the indication of the words in 24:31, let us ponder on the following example:
Think of your house and in it you have a garden. You have gardener who comes to look after your garden. One day you tell the gardener: please water the area under the big tree and also water the back of the garden.
What does this example tell us?
It tell us that since you specified only areas to be watered, then this is a clear indication that there will be other areas in the garden that are not to be watered. If you wanted the gardener to water the whole garden you would have asked: please water the whole garden.
When we apply this example to the issue of women’s dress code in the Quran, the same principle applies. If God wanted the whole body of the woman to be covered, God would not have bothered saying "cover your chest" since an overall command to cover all the body would be all that is needed to say. But since God specifies certain parts of the woman’s body to be covered, then there are other parts that do not have to be covered, as long as they are not beauty spots of sexual connotation and as long as righteousness in dress is maintained. - The command to "lengthen the garment" also proves that the woman is not commanded to be all covered from head to feet. For if that is the case, and the woman is covered down to the ground, there would be no meaning to “lengthen the garment”. How can the woman lengthen a garment that is already down to the ground?
I hope this will help you expose the extreme hypocrites who are distorting the beautiful religion of Islam.
Remember: God calls those who prohibit what He did not prohibit, aggressors, liars and idol worshippers (5:87, 6:140, 7:32, 10:59).
