Enjoining
certain Manners so that the Mothers of the Believers may be an Example; and the
Prohibition of Tabarruj
These
are the good manners which Allah enjoined upon the wives of the Prophet so
that they would be an example for the women of the Ummah to follow. Allah
said, addressing the wives of the Prophet that they should fear Allah as He
commanded them, and that no other woman is like them or can be their equal in
virtue and status. Then Allah says:
﴿فَلاَ تَخْضَعْنَ بِالْقَوْلِ﴾
(then
be not soft in speech,) As-Suddi and others said, this means, do not be
gentle in speech when addressing men. Allah says:
﴿فَيَطْمَعَ
الَّذِى فِى قَلْبِهِ مَرَضٌ﴾
(lest
he in whose heart is a disease should be moved with desire,) means, something
unclean.
﴿وَقُلْنَ
قَوْلاً مَّعْرُوفاً﴾
(but
speak in an honorable manner.) Ibn Zayd said: "Decent and honorable talk
that is known to be good.'' This means that she should address non-Mahram men
in a manner in which there is no softness, i.e., a woman should not address a
non-Mahram man in the same way that she addresses her husband.
﴿وَقَرْنَ
فِى بُيُوتِكُنَّ﴾
(And
stay in your houses,) means, stay in your houses and do not come out except
for a purpose. One of the purposes mentioned in Shari`ah is prayer in the
Masjid, so long as the conditions are fulfilled, as the Messenger of Allah
said:
«لَا
تَمْنَعُوا إِمَاءَ اللهِ مَسَاجِدَ اللهِ وَلْيَخْرُجْنَ وَهُنَّ تَفِلَات»
(Do
not prevent the female servants of Allah from the Masjids of Allah, but have
them go out without wearing fragrance.) According to another report:
«وَبُيُوتُهُنَّ
خَيْرٌ لَهُن»
(even
though their houses are better for them.)
﴿وَلاَ
تَبَرَّجْنَ تَبَرُّجَ الْجَـهِلِيَّةِ الاٍّولَى﴾
(and
do not Tabarruj yourselves like the Tabarruj of the times of ignorance,)
Mujahid said: "Women used to go out walking in front of men, and this
was the Tabarruj of Jahiliyyah.'' Qatadah said:
﴿وَلاَ
تَبَرَّجْنَ تَبَرُّجَ الْجَـهِلِيَّةِ الاٍّولَى﴾
(and
do not Tabarruj yourselves like the Taburruj of the times of ignorance,)
"When they go out of their homes walking in a shameless and flirtatious
manner, and Allah, may He be exalted, forbade that.'' Muqatil bin Hayyan
said:
﴿وَلاَ
تَبَرَّجْنَ تَبَرُّجَ الْجَـهِلِيَّةِ الاٍّولَى﴾
(and
do not Tabarruj yourselves like the Tabarruj of the times of ignorance,)
"Tabarruj is when a woman puts a Khimar on her head but does not tie it
properly.'' So her necklaces, earrings and neck, and all of that can be seen.
This is Tabarruj, and Allah addresses all the women of the believers with
regard to Tabarruj.
﴿وَأَقِمْنَ
الصَّلَوةَ وَءَاتِينَ الزَّكَـوةَ وَأَطِعْنَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ﴾
(and
perform the Salah, and give Zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger.) Allah
first forbids them from evil, then He enjoins them to do good by establishing
regular prayer, which means worshipping Allah alone with no partner or
associate, and paying Zakah, which means doing good to other people.
﴿وَأَطِعْنَ
اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ﴾
(and
obey Allah and His Messenger.) This is an instance of something specific
being followed by something general.
|
وَقَرۡنَ فِىۡ بُيُوۡتِكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَـرَّجۡنَ تَبَرُّجَ
الۡجَاهِلِيَّةِ الۡاُوۡلٰى وَاَقِمۡنَ الصَّلٰوةَ وَاٰتِيۡنَ الزَّكٰوةَ
وَاَطِعۡنَ اللّٰهَ وَرَسُوۡلَهٗ ؕ اِنَّمَا يُرِيۡدُ اللّٰهُ لِيُذۡهِبَ عَنۡكُمُ
الرِّجۡسَ اَهۡلَ الۡبَيۡتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمۡ تَطۡهِيۡرًا ۚ
(33:33) And stay in your
homes48 and do not go about displaying your allurements as in the
former Time of Ignorance.49 Establish Prayer, give Zakah, and obey
Allah and His Messenger. Allah only wishes to remove uncleanness from you, O
members of the (Prophet's) household, and to purify you completely.50
48. The word qarna in the original is derived
from qarar according to some lexicographers and from waqar according to others.
In the first sense, it will mean: “settle down, stick firmly” and in the second
sense: “live peacefully, sit with dignity.” In both the cases the verse means
to impress that the woman’s real sphere of activity is her home; she should
carry out her functions within that sphere peacefully, and she should come out
of the house only in case of a genuine need. This meaning is clear from the
words of the verse itself and the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) Ahadith also
impress it even more forcefully. Hafiz Abu Bakr Bazzar has related on the
authority of Anas that the women made a submission to the Prophet (peace be
upon him), saying: “All kinds of virtues have been secured by the men: they
fight and accomplish great deeds in the way of Allah. What should we do that we
may also get a reward equal to that of the warriors?” The Prophet (peace be
upon him) replied: “The one who sits in her house from among you; will attain
the reward of the warriors.” What he meant was: The warrior can fight
confidently and with full peace of the mind in the way of Allah only when he is
sure that all is well at home. His wife is there to look after the house and
the children, and there is no cause for him to worry that she will betray him
in his absence. The woman who will provide him this satisfaction and peace of
the mind will be an equal partner with him in his fighting though she will be
sitting back at home. According to another tradition that Bazzar and Tirmidhi
have related on the authority of Abdullah bin Masud, the Prophet (peace be upon
him) said: “The woman must remain veiled and concealed. When she comes out of
her house, Satan stares at her. And she is closer to Allah’s mercy when she is
inside her house.” See (E.N. 49 of Surah An-Nur).
In the presence of such a clear and express
command of the Quran, it is not at all permissible that the Muslim women should
seek membership of the councils and parliaments; that they should run after
social activities outside the house; that they should work side by side with
men in the government offices, should get education along with boys in the
colleges, serve as nurses in the male wards of hospitals, should be employed as
hostesses in the airplanes and rail cars, and should be sent abroad for
education and training. The greatest argument that is given in support of the
permissibility of the women’s outdoor activities is that Aishah (may Allah be
pleased with her) had taken part in the battle of the Jamul. But the people who
present this argument perhaps do not know what was Aishah’s own opinion in this
regard. Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Hanbal has related in his Zawa id az-Zuhd and
Ibn Mundhir, Ibn Abi Shaibah and Ibn Saad in their own books the tradition from
Masruq, saying that when Aishah during her recitation of the Quran would reach
this verse (wa qarna fi buyut-i kunna), she would start crying involuntarily;
so much so that her head-wrapper would become wet, for this reminded her of the
error that she had committed in the battle of the Jamul.
49. In this verse two important words have
been used, which must be understood for the proper understanding of its
intention. They are tabarruj and jahiliyyat al-ula.
The word tabarruj in Arabic means to become
manifest and appear openly before others. The Arabs use the word baraj for
every conspicuous and elevated object. A burj (tower) is so called because of
its prominence and elevation. A sailingboat is called barijah, because its
sails become visible from a distance. The word tabarruj when used in respect of
a woman will have three meanings: (1) that she should show the charms of her
face and body before the people. (2) That she should display the adornments of
her dress and ornaments before others. (3) That she should make herself
conspicuous by her gait and figure and coquetry. The same explanation of this
word has been given by the leading lexicographers and commentators. Mujahid,
Qatadah and Ibn Abi Nujaih say: Tabarruj means to walk in a vain, alluring and
coquettish manner. Muqatil says: It means a woman’s displaying of her
necklaces, ear-rings and bosom. Al-Mubarrad says: That a woman should reveal
her adornments which she should conceal. Abu Ubaidah comments: This that a
woman should make herself conspicuous by display of her body and dress to
attract the attention of men.
The word jahiliyyat has been used at three
other places in the Quran besides this, in (Surah Aal-Imran: Ayat 154),
where about those who shirk fighting in the way of Allah, it has been said:
“They began to cherish about Allah thoughts of Ignorance Jahiliyyat, which were
void of the truth. And in (Surah Al-Maidah: Ayat 50),
where about those who want to be judged by their own law instead of the law of
Allah, it has been said: “Do they desire to be judged by the laws of ignorance
(Jahiliyyat)?” and in (Surah Al-Fath: Ayat 26),
where the prejudice of the people of Makkah due to which they did not permit
the Muslims to perform Umrah, has been called as "the haughty spirit of
paganism (jahiliyyat). According to a Hadith once Abu ad-Darda in the heat of a
quarrel abused another person in respect of his mother. When the Prophet (peace
be upon him) heard of it, he remarked: You still have jahiliyyat in you.
According to another Hadith the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Three things
show jahiliyyat: to taunt the lineage of another person, to take omens from the
movement of the stars, and to mourn over the dead. All these customs show that
jahiliyyat in the Islamic terminology is every such conduct which goes against
Islamic culture and civilization and Islamic morality and etiquette and Islamic
way of thinking and behavior. Thus, jahiliyyat al-ula would mean all those
evils in which the Arabs of the pre-Islamic days and the people of the entire
world were involved.
This explanation makes it abundantly clear
that what Allah forbids women is to move out of their houses showing off their
physical charms and beauty. He instructs them to stay in their houses because
their real sphere of activity is their home and not the world outside. However,
if they have to move out of the house for an outdoor duty, they should not move
out as the women used to do in the pre-Islamic days of ignorance. For it does
not behoove the women of a Muslim society to walk out fully embellished to make
their face and figure conspicuous by adornments and tightfitting or transparent
dresses, and to walk coquettishly. These are the ways of ignorance which Islam
does not approve. Now everybody can see for himself whether the culture which
is being made popular in our country is the culture of Islam, according to the
Quran, or the culture of ignorance.
50. The context in which this verse occurs makes it manifest that the word
ahl al-bait (people of the house) here implies the wives of the Prophet (peace
be upon him), because the address begins with: “O wives of the Prophet,” and
they are the addressees in the whole discourse preceding it as well as following
it. Moreover, the word ahl al-bait in Arabic is used precisely in the sense
in which the word “household” is used in English, which includes both a man’s
wife and children. No one would exclude the wife from the “household.” The Quran
itself has used this word at two other places besides this, and at both the
wife is included in its sense, rather as the most important member of the family.
In Surah Hud, when the angels give the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) the
good news of the birth of a son, his wife exclaims: “Shall I bear a child now
when I have grown too old, and this husband of mine has also become old?” The
angels say: “What! Are you surprised at Allah's decree, O people of Abraham’s
household? Allah’s mercy and blessings are upon you.” In Surah Al-Qasas, when
the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) reaches the Pharaoh's house as a suckling,
and the Pharaoh’s wife is in search of a suitable nurse for the child, the Prophet
Moses’ (peace be upon him) sister says, “Shall I tell you of a household whose
people will bring him up for you and look after him well?” Thus, the Arabic
idiom and the usage of the Quran and the context of this verse, all point clearly
to the fact that the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) wives as well as his children
are included in his ahl albait; rather the more correct thing is that the verse
is actually addressed to the wives and the children become included in the household
only because of the sense of the word. That is why according to lbn Abbas and
Urwah bin Zubair and Ikrimah, the word ahl al-bait in this verse implies the
wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
But if somebody says that the word ahl al-bait has been used only for the
wives and none else can be included in it, it will also be wrong. Not only this
that the word “household” includes all the members of a man’s family, but the
Prophet (peace be upon him) has himself explained that this includes even himself.
According to Ibn Abi Hatim, once when Aishah was asked about Ali, she said,
“Do you ask me about the person who was among the most loved ones of the Prophet
and whose wife was the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) daughter and most beloved
to him?” Then she related the event when the Prophet (peace be upon him) had
called Ali and Fatimah and Hasan and Husain (may Allah be pleased with them
all) and covered them all with a sheet of cloth and prayed: “O Allah, these
are my household, remove uncleanness from them and make them pure.” Aishah says,
“I said: I also am included among your household (i.e. I may also be covered
under the sheet and prayed for).” Thereupon the Prophet replied: “You stay out:
you, of course, are already included.” A great many Ahadith bearing on this
subject have been related by traditionalists like Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Ibn
Jarir, Hakim, Baihaqi, etc. on the authority of Abu Said Khudri, Aishah, Anas,
Umm Salamah, Wathilah bin Aqsa and some other companions, which show that the
Prophet (peace be upon him) declared Ali and Fatimah and their two sons as his
ahl al-bait. Therefore, the view of those who exclude them from the ahl al-bait
is not correct.
Similarly the view of those people also is not correct, who, on the basis
of the above cited Ahadith, regard the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him)
as excluded from his ahl al-bait. In the first place, anything which has been
clearly stated in the Quran cannot be contradicted on the basis of a Hadith.
Secondly, these Ahadith also do not have the meaning that is put on them. As
related in some traditions that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not cover
Aishah and Umm Salamah under the sheet of cloth which he put on the four members
of his family, does not mean that he had excluded those ladies from his “household.”
But it means that the wives were already included in ahl al-bait, because the
Quran, in fact, had addressed them as ahl albait. The Prophet (peace be upon
him), however, thought that the apparent words of the Quran might cause somebody
the misunderstanding about these members that they were excluded from the ahl
al-bait. Therefore, he felt the need for clarification in their case and not
in the case of his wives.
A section of the people have not only misconstrued this verse to the extent
that they have made the word ahl al-bait exclusively applicable to Ali and Fatimah
and their children to the exclusion of the wives, but have gone even further
and concluded wrongly from its words “Allah only intends to remove uncleanliness
from you and purify you completely”, that Ali and Fatimah and their children
are infallible like the Prophets of Allah. They say that “uncleanliness” implies
error and sin, and, as Allah says, these ahl al-bait have been purified of this,
whereas the words of the verse do not say that uncleanliness has been removed
from them and they have been purified. But the words are to the effect: “Allah
intends to remove uncleanliness from you and purify you completely.” The context
also does not tell that the object here is to mention the virtues and excellences
of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) household. On the contrary, they have been
advised here what they should do and what they should not, because Allah intends
to purify them. In other words, they have been told that if they adopted such
and such an attitude and way of life, they will be blessed with cleanliness,
otherwise not. However, if the words “Allah intends to remove uncleanliness
from you” are taken to mean that Allah has made them infallible, then is no
reason why all the Muslims who perform their ablutions before offering the Prayer
are not held as infallible, because about them also Allah says: “But Allah wills
to purify you and complete His blessings upon you.”
(
Surah Al-Maidah: Ayat 6).
