Yesterday, a friend told me something bizarre: she heard the imam of her local masjid make a shocking announcement on the microphone right before he started leading taraweeh prayers.
The imam of a large masjid in an American city announced to the congregation: "I am sorry to be forced to make this announcement. But sisters, please, if you come to the masjid for taraweeh, please don't wear makeup or perfume. Many brothers have been coming to me this Ramadan to complain about this issue. Jazakum Allahu khair."
I feel genuinely shocked.
Ladies, if you decide to go to the masjid for salah or taraweeh (knowing that a woman's prayer at home gets more reward!), be vigilant about wearing correct hijab.
Make sure your clothes are long, loose, and truly cover your shape. Make sure your hijab and `abaya are neither tight nor transparent. A tight-fitting dress that shows your curves, skin-tight jeans that reveal your shape, a see-through blouse, or short shirts that show your back when you go into ruku` or sujud are not proper hijab.
Not covering your hair at all is not proper hijab. Even if you are not a hijabi sister, when you go to the masjid, please wear a hijab to cover your hair. And no, it isn't "hypocrisy" to wear a hijab inside the masjid if you don't yet wear it outside in other places-- it is respect for the rules of Allah at least in the house of Allah. This can be your first step to hopefully wearing your hijab full-time in other public places aside from the masjid. But start with wearing it in the masjid.
Do not wear makeup.
Do not apply perfume.
We women like beauty and we all want to be beautiful. It is in our very nature. This is not a bad thing in and of itself; but it all depends on WHERE we display that beauty. To WHOM do we reveal our beauty.
To reveal our beauty and to enhance it with makeup, perfume, and pretty clothes is good and natural at home with our families. A wife dressing cute for her husband at home earns her reward with Allah!
Isn't it so amazing and so beautiful that by doing something she *already wants* to do, like dress up and put on makeup, she receives ajr from Allah??
But it has to be in the correct context. The natural female desire to be beautified and draw male attention and attract masculine admiration has to be channeled in the only healthy, wholesome way: marriage.
Nowhere else.
We as believing Muslim women do not display our beauty in public. We do not reveal our bodies to strange non-mahram men.
Our beauty is not a commodity for public consumption.
To do this would be tabarruj, تبرج.
And we especially don't commit tabarruj in Ramadan at the masjid! Of all times and of all places!
عن يحيى بن سعيد ، عن عمرة بنت عبد الرحمن ، عن عائشة زوج النبي ﷺ أنها قالت: "لو أدرك رسول الله ﷺ ما أحدث النساء، لمنعهن المساجد كما منعه نساء بني إسرائيل."
Yahya ibn Sa`eed narrated that `Amra bint Abdirrahman narrated, that `Aisha رضي الله عنها said, "If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were to see what the women have started doing, he would have forbidden them from going to the masajid, as the women of Bani Israeel were forbidden."
Where are we, now in our current time, from the time when our Mother `Aisha uttered these words?
عن أسامة بن زيد رضي الله عنهما، عن النبي ﷺ قال: "ما ترَكتُ بعدي فتنةً هي أضرُّ على الرِّجالِ مِن النساءِ." متفق عليه
Usama ibn Zayd, may Allah be pleased with them both, narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, "I have left after me no bigger fitna that is more harmful to men than women."
Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله classified tabarruj as a disease of the heart, under the bigger category of الشهوات, Desires.
There is a direct link between a woman's dress and the state of her heart. Most of us don't think of it this way.
The more we work on purifying our heart and elevating our inner state, the more our hijab will be in line with Allah's command.
The more we neglect our heart and the more diseased our heart becomes, the more careless we get with our hijab and the more tabarruj we fall into.
Allah links the concept of hijab with the purity of the heart in this ayah:
وَإِذَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُنَّ مَتَاعاً فَاسْأَلوهُنَّ مِنْ وَرَاءِ حِجَابٍ ذَلِكُمْ أَطْهَرُ لِقُلُوبِكُمْ وَقُلُوبِهِنَّ...
"And when you ask [his wives] for something, ask them from behind a partition/ hijab. That is purer for your hearts and their hearts..." (Surat Al-Ahzab, 53)
The hijab and the heart.
Observing full and genuine hijab in its most comprehensive meaning (more than merely a piece of fabric on a woman's head) is purer for our hearts.
This is a reminder for myself first and foremost before it is a reminder to my dear fellow sisters.
May Allah grant us genuine haya' (حياء), aid us in establishing true hijab (حجاب), and purify our hearts, ameen!
Umm Khalid
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