Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Hijabi / Non-Hijabi Dichotomy

For the longest time I was raised to believe that the Hijab is a requirement. But than I started reading that it was not compulsory. After a bit of research I came across it is mandatory. It has honestly been confusing just because there are so many different sources that conflict with eachother on the matter of the hijab.

With that said, people may wonder why the hijab is pressed on to women in Muslim communities. I feel like the hijab is pressed onto women in many Muslim communities because of the cultures they come from (which have a tendency to be a more explicitly male dominant then Western cultures), rather than their religion.

It is because of such cultural baggage a false dichotomy has occured between those who wear hijab and those who do not. Many Muslim communities look up to those who wear the Hijab whilst looking down on those who do not. This has created an 'in-group' of 'Good Muslims' and an outgroup of 'Bad Muslims' for the various sub-cultures in our Ummah. In times when our Ummah needs unity small things like this make it impossible to achieve such a feat.


From my own point of view its discouraging when you see 'religious' people committing the highest degree of sin while still preaching others. In my time I've seen women who wear hijab and preach to those who don't, but behind closed curtains sleep with another 'religious' man. Another example, I've seen 'religious' people lecture 'less religious' people about what they should and should not be doing even though they are Real Estate Agents(Who deal in Interest might I add).



The point is people do not have any validity to judge anybody regardless of where they think they stand. Everyone is guilty of the same or equivalent sins whether they are able to hide them or not. Plus last time I checked, shouldn't Allah (SWT) be doing the judging rather than our peers?


Anyways, thats something to think about.

Until than, Ramadan Mubarak!

The First post Ever

Salaam!

First off I'd like to welcome you to my blog, 'Just Another Muslim'. And as you can tell from the title, I'm 'Just Another Muslim'.

I've always got a lot to say about the Muslim Ummah so make sure to check back here periodically!

Sincerely,

Kamran