Hijab - Be proud of it!

Sometimes when I do read the papers (I NEVER like reading the papers because it is filled with lies and propaganda...), I am saddened by cases of rape and molest. As the world gets closer and closer to judegment day, it also starts to get dirtier and sicker by the second. Rape and molest are not restricted to women alone but even to children and sicker still but true, even to animals. Astaghfirullah! Allah is Great! He who has created this earth is reminding us again and again, this world, is but temporary. This world...is nowhere near the Paradise He has promised His believers. Albeit my sympathy for the victims of humiliation and destruction of their pride and dignity...I cannot help but point another finger to the victims themselves, primarily to the adults. Let us then leave our children and animals out of this.

Women.

We are the cause of men's lust and uncontrollable sexual desire. Yes! We are THAT powerful. A man can have all the riches in the world but he gets weak in the knees when he is presented a creature so beautiful, so pure and pleasing to the eye. Oh my dear fellow male friends, do not even deny what I have written. You might say not all women are beautiful. But you cannot turn away from events of rape and humiliation of even elderly women, handicapped women, women who are intellectually challenged...these have happened and are still happening around the world. Then again, I turn my attention back to us...as women...are we going to allow this to continue? Are you really going to let this happen to you? To your daughters? To your daughters' daughters?? Wake up! Cover up! You who possess the lustrous body, you who possess the beauty, you who possess that essence of purity and artwork of flawlessness. Are you not going to protect yourselves? You who jog in isolated places in your tight shorts and spaghetti tops, you who dress in your low-cut dresses in the clubs filled with drunkards, you who lay on the beaches in your bikinis and sometimes WITHOUT! And you blame the men for their roaming eyes and hands on you? You entice them with your clothless bodies. Who then is to be blamed? It is unfortunate that there are Muslim sisters who say they feel contricted, unliberated when they have to cover up. I am guilty of the same before. But really? Do we REALLY feel free when we show our skin? Are we only liberated when we are in our mini skirts and bareback- tops? Now, in my hijab, I am respected for my talent, my abilities, my true self. I am not given liberties because of how much skin I flaunt, how much hair I show. A fellow Muslim brother lowers his gaze in respect when we cross paths. A man walks past me as if I were invisible! How powerful is that! I am protected with my hijab on! I AM beautiful...in Allah's eyes. Allah protects all who love Him and whom He loves.

Covering Up in Islam

I have mentioned before in a previous post in this blog that I only put on the hijab at the age of 31 after I had given birth to my first child, Lil' Muhammad. Till today, I wish I had put it on much much earlier. I would have saved myself from many a thing that I refuse to mention here. I used to be one who jeered at my fellow Muslim sisters in hijab. Today, I pray and hope that Allah will forgive me and bestow upon me His Mercy for my rudeness and disrespect towards my own religion. My dear sisters in Islam, let us protect what Allah has given us. Put on the hijab.
What IS hijab? Hijab is not a headscarf. No. Hijab is a veil. What then constitutes a veil in Islam? Our clothes, our garments, our dress from head to toe. The hijab protects us from the leering eyes of men, it protects us from intense heat from the sun, it protects us from the harsh environment that we are living in today. The hijab tells a beautiful story of women in Islam, that we are Allah's creatures who deserve respect, courtesy and manners from others. The hijab shows our daughters and sons that we respect ourselves FIRST before we respect our husbands. The hijab shows how much responsibility we have over ourselves. The hijab reflects that Islam is a way of life.


I am happy to see that more and more of my girlfriends are putting on the hijab. Together we are going on this learning journey of keeping it covered. Together we are always reflecting and correcting our ways. We may not be putting on the ideal hijab but we are trying.
This brings me to another issue. As a fellow Muslim sister, please do not be a discourager. You are in no position to judge any sister on the way she puts on the hijab. It is her parents' responsibility to guide her. If she is married, leave it to her husband to do the job. If you yourself do not put on the hijab, all the more you should keep mum and take a look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, a sister might not be putting on the ideal hijab but at least, she is covering up somewhat. ARE YOU? While she is finding all reasons to put on the hijab, youare  finding all the reasons NOT to put on the hijab. While she is slowly earning Allah's love, you are still quite far off in terms of your dressing, Allah knows best. I have made this mistake before and I hope you will not continue to do so.

Fellow Muslim sisters, let us change before it is too late. Let us not allow others to deter us from what we need to do as Allah has commanded us to do. Let us be proud to be sisters in hijab. Let us stand up for Islam, for our religion and the wonderful values that it imparts. Let us teach our daughters to love themselves, to protect themselves, to have pride and dignity as respectable Muslimahs. Let us take this step ourselves FIRST before we even judge others. If so, let us NOT judge at all for Allah is the Best Judge and the One who knows best.

Meaning In Life

Two days back, I had the privilege of attending a workshop at work. One of the subtopics that was covered in the workshop was about 'meaning' in life. The speaker posted a question to all of us, 'What is meaning in life to you?' Each of us was given a paper to pen down his or her thoughts. Almost everyone in my group wrote that it is to enjoy, to be happy, to be positive. I on the other hand, had a different response. At first, I did feel a little relunctant to share my thoughts on meaning in life. But if I did not write what I truly felt, I knew I would have had nothing to write at all. Indeed, I agreed with most of my group members that it is essential to be happy and it is true that every day we wake up, we know have a choice, either to be happy or not be happy. I probably would have thought and written the same thing had this question been posted to me like two years ago from now. But my religious side thugged at me as I prepared to pen down my response.  Meaning in life? I evetually wrote, 'To live for the next.'
'DEEEEEEP!!' was the response I got from my fellow group members. I laughed along. Yes, it is deep. What does it mean then when I wrote 'To live for the next.' What was 'next'? And if so, what does 'next' have in store for me that I live this life, God knows how long I'm gonna live for, only to live for another? Sounds confusing? Not really.

Muslims believe in the afterlife. We are taught that this world is only a stage. Life on this 'stage' is not eternal. Whereas the afterlife, which is life after death, IS eternal. On this 'stage', we are performers who perform our essential duty to the one and only Creator. We are worshippers who bow only to the One God we know. We are servants of our Lord. We live only to earn His love so that we will recieve His rewards as promised to us ever since He had created the first man on earth. Think of this life as a platform for us to earn points from good deeds. The more points we earn, the higher chance of us living in His highest level of Paradise. And in Paradise or Hell, is where eternal life exists. Some of us may think, "Servants?! Worshippers?!". Yah, makes one feel small doesn't it? But what's wrong with feeling small? We SHOULD feel small. We are creations of our Creator after all! Who are we to be cocky? Who are we to question? Who are we to feel that we are so much higher in standard than anyone else in the human race to begin with?? But we are given freewill some might say. Yes. True that. But freewill to do what? Freewill to make the right choice in life, to search for the true meaning in this life. And for me at least, it is to live for the next life, to prepare to achieve true happiness that cannot and will not be taken away from us, to be happy always because we live as if we are going to die anytime to see our Lord, to surrender to be home with Him. He who loves us unconditionally, He who promises us paradise in the afterlife if we only obey His every command, He who forgive us with all His mercy even though every second in our life we make mistakes, we err, we forget ourselves, we forget Him!! Really, why live to achieve the materials in this life when we are promised a million times more in life after death?

To live life, is to be happy.And I have the ability to choose to be happy in this life and to be happier in the next. The meaning in life is to make the right choice because we are given autonomy, we are given freewill. But first, we must know, what IS the right choice. And for someone like me who has wrecked my life for 31 years before realising my true purpose, my meaning in life, I now know what is the right choice. And that is to choose to be happy with my Lord. To do everything only because I know He approves of it, He likes it.  I want to be with Him now and after I die. I want to feel His love enveloping me as I walk along the rivers in His Jannah God-willing! I want Him to love me now and forever. I know that if I manage to earn His love in life, He who has Created everything from the littlest atom to the vast universe, I would never have to worry about anything else anymore. I would have already achieved true happiness and await my judgement for the afterlife without fear but with longing and love of my Creator. I would have fulfilled my meaning in this life.

My meaning in life...is to live for the next. This life? It is only temporary. The afterlife, is where meaning no longer exists. What exists is only what I have only been working for and that is true happiness to keep and to bask in for eternity as promised by my Lord, insyaallah!

I Keep It Covered

I never thought that ONE day, in my 32 years of life, I would actually be looking through my wardrobe and decide on which headscarf to wear for the day. I used to love showing off my hair. Well, not that I have super gorgeous hair but my hair was my crown and I was proud to wear it in public. I'd do stuff to my hair. Splashed it with colours, straightened every strand (well almost) with a hot iron, curled it with the curling iron, got it treated at the hairdresser's. Oh I gave my hair the works yes I did. And believe you me, I was one of those who would always look at hijabis with a dirty look and comment,"What a pity to be hidin' hair under that scarf!" or "How CAN these girls stand the heat all wrapped up in their layers of cloth on their head!" OR "These girls...all covered up...plain boring!"
Astaghfirullah! Satan had got to  me then. He really did! But thank God, things changed. Well, I changed. Took me 31 years till I woke up to my senses but yah, better late than never I suppose? I started to keep it covered after I gave birth to my son, Lil' Muhammad. Most of my friends were shocked of course. Me? A hijabi? Really?! Well yeah. I put on the headscarf, long sleeves, long pants, skirts. I started to fill in the shoes of those 'boring girls' I used to talk about before. My friends asked me, why, how, for what reason did I become one of those I used to sneer at and past nasty remarks at!
I only had one answer, I was ready. I was ready to do what I was actually required to do the moment I reached puberty. It is a must for all Muslimahs to cover up once we hit puberty. Many think that putting on the headscarf is a choice for us. No. It was never a choice. Never!
So I became a hijabi at 32. Old. Much too old. Too much had already been exposed but I pray Allah forgive me for my ignorance and pride. I felt good when I first put it on. For the first time in my life as a Muslim, I felt like I had only begun to really feel proud being a Muslim all covered up. The magical feeling of being protected under my 'cover', the feeling of representing the ideal Muslim woman in my religion, the feeling of receiving respectful glances wherever I go...feels AWESOME.
Today, I simply cannot imagine going out in shorts, spaghetti straps, short skirts and scarfless! I would feel naked that I'm sure. Cheap! And much much too exposed!
Today, I'm a proud Muslimah, a happy hijabi 'cos I keep it covered.

The Beckoning

As I close my eyes and rest,
I take a long deep breath.
I try to block my mind from the chaos,
from the mess.

It's starting to take a toll on me.
They are starting to weigh me down.

My problems, my stress.

I feel the process of wear and tear.
They are more than I can bear.

My eyes still closed.
I'm more relaxed now.

A calmness sets in.
A closenessI feel.

A beckoning I hear.
A beckoning I feel.

Come, come to peace,
come to felicity says He.
"I'll take your worries.
I'll take your stress.
Give them all,
I'll take them all."


He beckons.


To peace, to felicity.

I have to go...

I am going...

Mecca

I am...gone.

- Jaslina Yassin-