The Full Hijab

Bismillah wa-salaatu wa-salaamu 'ala Rasulullah

Verily, Allah is praised whether we praise Him or not, yet humbly we praise Him and could never do justice in doing so to the extent at which He is worthy. We seek His Help, His Forgiveness and we seek refuge with Him from the evil of our ownselves and the consequences of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide and whomever Allah misguides (allows to leave astray because they refuse His guidance and have it all figured it out on their own), none can guide. I bare witness there is no diety, object, personality or entity worthy of worship, veneration, invocation, repentance, surrender and submission except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I bare witness that the last and final Messenger of Allah and perfect example to all of humanity until the Last Day is Muhammad ibn Abdullah. May the peace and blessings of Allah eternally be upon him, his family, his companions and all those who follow them in righteousness and piety until the Last Day. Amma ba'ad:

Brothers and sisters in iman, as-salaamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullah. When our Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala described the truly faithful, successful believers in Surah an-Nur, He said they are those who say, when a command of Allah reaches them: "sami'na wa ata'na" meaning "we hear and we obey". Not that we hear and we delay. One of the traps of Shaitan to which many of us fall victim is what I touched on and labeled in my Food For Faith blog as the "in'sha'Allah syndrome". It's those time when we know full well we're wrong and our response to our fellow Muslim's naseehah (i.e. reminder, advice, etc.) is "in'sha'Allah, I'll change", "in'sha'Allah, I'll stop this and start that", "in'sha'Allah... in'sha'Allah... in'sha'Allah". This sheisty trap of Shaitan, if we're not careful or protective of our deen enough, will have us saying "in'sha'Allah" until we visit our graves (which could be at ANY moment, brothers and sisters!).

To digress a moment:

The sin we commit in addition to not obeying Allah in some matter, is by saying in'sha'Allah we will start obeying Him as if we know EXACTLY how much time we have before we die to make tawba and do better. This is 'ilm ul ghayb, knowledge of the unseen, for Allah alone knows the measure of our existence. When we say "in'sha'Allah I'll start doing this or that", we're in turn claiming certainty we'll be around to do it when in fact we have no clue. The time to obey Allah in a matter we know He commanded is right away. Not an undetermined amount of days, months or years from now, but right now.

As I come back:

The subject is the "Full Hijab", however, this issue of immediate and consistent compliance applies to all of us, brother and sister, when it concerns the commands of Allah. When He azzawa jall or Rasul salallahu 'alayhi wa salaam orders something it is waajib, fard, non-negotiable, obligatory and mandatory. Such as praying, such as growing the beard, such as fasting Ramadan, such as covering the awrah and so on. They are not suggestions from Allah. They are not recommendations or mere allowances from Allah. They are obligations, meaning, Allah is telling us we have NO CHOICE. And so our response, as believers who fear our Lord, should be: "sami'na wa ata'na". When we hear we obey as instant as physically possible; not that we hear and we obey when we feel like it.

Now that I've picked on all of us, so as not to have the sisters feel singled out, what follows is a filmed lecture discoursing the importance, the beauty, the benefits and fruits of observing hijab. It is delivered by our respected brother and shiekh, Salem al-Amry. Brothers I encourage to watch as well as there is indeed benefit in it for us as much as there is for our sisters. Also, brother al-Amry's female impersonations are timeless! LOL. Enjoy, absorb and apply, in'sha'Allah: