This is the first verse she quotes-
“Tell the faithful women that they must keep their gaze focused below/on the ground and cover their sexual organs. They must not put their beauty and their jewellery on display. They must hide their breasts behind a purdah. They must not exhibit their beauty to anybody except their husbands, brothers, nephews, womenfolk, servants, eunuch employees and children. They must not move their legs briskly while walking because then much of their bodies can get exposed.” (Sura Al Noor 24:31)
The bold are Ms. Nasreen’s addition and distortion. Here is the actual verse
“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.”
I am surprised that a writer of her caliber (as Manas points out) cannot differentiate between gaze focused below/on the ground and lower their gaze and guard their modesty. Quran never talked about the women’s gaze fixed to the ground, all it talked about is that women should lower their gaze (a similar command to believing men, the hijab for men!! yes the hijab for men; the beard). She even replaced the word ‘believing’ with ‘faithful’. The command is for a believing woman, if she is not then who is forcing her to! Has she ever worn the veil? I wrote on the veil issue on IM ( What about Burqa, huh? )
This is the explanation from Tafsir Ibn Kathir-
And tell the believing women to lower their gaze) meaning, from that which Allah has forbidden them to look at, apart from their husbands. Some scholars said that it is permissible for women to look at non-Mahram men without desire (whereas its not permissible for men to look at women), as it was recorded in the Sahih that the Messenger of Allah was watching the Ethiopians playing with spears in the Masjid on the day of `Id, and `A’ishah the Mother of the believers was watching them from behind him and he was concealing her from them, until she got bored and went away.
Her distortion is nothing but indicative of her prejudice and her desperation to prove the Quran wrong. She deliberately changed the wording to make her argument strong.
Her second verse-
“Oh nabi, please tell your wives and daughters and faithful women to wear a covering dress on their bodies. That would be good. Then nobody can recognise them and harrass them. Allah is merciful and kind.” (Sura Al Hijaab 33: 59)
Here is the actual verse
O Prophet! say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; this will be more proper, that they may be known, and thus they will not be given trouble; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
The thing with Quran is that many people interpret the commands in relation to the present day world. There were many verses which were revealed for the prevalent situation. Here is an explanation of the above verse
Here Allah tells His Messenger to command the believing women — especially his wives and daughters, because of their position of honor — to draw their Jilbabs over their bodies, so that they will be distinct in their appearance from the women of the Jahiliyyah and from slave women.
This can be interpreted that the above verse was meant for the protection of women who had accepted Islam and who were in constant danger of being molested by the infidels. Jahiliyyah, the period, refers to the nomads who lived in Mecca and Madina before Prophet Muhammed (SAW) brought the message of Islam.
To be continued…
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I Me My 01.20.07 at 7:30 am
It’s bad enough that men have been mandating female behavior over centuries that now we have women doing that and more!
Gosh! Is this masochism or what!!
Sharique 01.20.07 at 12:20 pm
I Me My,
I really wonder but there is no end to it. The ego factor you see
Manas Shaikh 01.20.07 at 10:37 pm
“writer of her caliber”
Sharique, be serious. She is merely a freak. I have read her in bangla. She’s horrible. Not only the content, but the presentation too.
Leave her alone. Everything will be fine.
Sharique 01.21.07 at 2:57 pm
Manas,
I was unaware of this. i though her awards are an indication of her skills. But anyway as you have pointed out, she is good at nothing
Manas Shaikh 01.21.07 at 3:07 pm
Ah awards! You get tons of awards if you write against Islam. Especially so if you are born in a Muslim family.
Sharique 01.21.07 at 8:32 pm
Yeah true..very true!!
Muslimah 01.23.07 at 2:09 am
Nice post…..somebody wanted me to do a small write-up on this issue… I got little time…so wanted to ask if i can copy a few things from here…
I sometimes feel like ignoring such periodical anti-Islam remarks from the woman and her ilk…but the blatant distortions she made in the Quranic translations!!! She should be censured for that.
Despite the hard work they put in, Alhamdulillaah, hijab is really in!!
Sharique 01.23.07 at 7:58 am
Yeah sure go ahead. If its not a trouble then I would appreciate if you could mention this source or else just copy paste
And yes Hijab is in despite rants by frustrated souls!
Manas Shaikh 01.23.07 at 11:43 am
Sharique, can’t he be booked for her deliberate distortion in the translation?
Manas Shaikh 01.23.07 at 11:45 am
she!
Sharique 01.26.07 at 11:58 pm
Manas,
Booked!! which religious police?? you want something similar to salman rushdie??
Manas Shaikh 01.27.07 at 12:58 am
na na, no religious police, the indian police.
lying and spreading misinformation is a crime. specially when you do it to defame somebody or something, and to earn fame and money. can there be a doubt abou that?
Sharique 01.28.07 at 7:46 pm
But do you think the indian police will do anything. They call it freedom of speech! So that means it is perfectly justified to even malign someone as far as you are not violent physically….verbally everything is justified
M Naqqaad 01.29.07 at 9:30 pm
The rantings of the preachers of ‘Freedom of Speech’ are dumb when you talk about the killing of 6m Jews by Hitler out of 4m. There is nothing like freedom of speech as recorded by the media, which is embeded since its creation. What happened to Aljazeerah in Iraq and all over the world is legendry. We should not fall prey to the comments made in media. Our mentality and lack of knowledge (ignorance due to greed for more-material things) menifests in the case I narrate below:
One grown up son of my friend and colleague who studies computer science is like this. He has been watching a reality show(what is real only the claimers know) telling me that uncle the left over meek looking girl who had a chritian sounding name from Kerala is one of the top 10 models of the world. in studies his thought are ‘uncle paper nikaal loonga’(I’ll clear the paper this time). So much so for being modern because we live in a society which is related to a pan-indian govt organisation. I can’t think of terminology and words to define this mentality. When confronted that had she been no 10 in the world what she has been doing for the 85 days she was living in the show, he could not connect and tried to distract. What can be construed from this incident that we knowingly do things and once confronted,try to feign ingnarance. This, as per my little knowledge of Islam, is a quality which is called hypocracy or ‘Munafiqat’. Mind it, this boy is grown-up and yet to complete his studies or do some earnings but his father is contemplating him to be married off. What we have not learnt is that to forget our tribal ways which were not stressed opon when we outwardly embrassed Islam and our paganism which is a “National” trait is sticking to us.
Never mind when people call for reservation, opponet justify the non-avaiability of it to minorties telling that it is based on casteism and Muslims being no-subscriber to this shall not get. This shows that the casteism is a merit for ‘majority’ of Indians.
Last and really the least is that during 1857 more than 10m Indians were killed and here we are, there is nobody to commemorate 1857 after 150 years and World talks about 6m out of 4m. So much so for out knowledge based Techs.
diana 02.01.07 at 2:17 am
Hmmmm… an interesting post & cause. Misinterpretations are the greatest enemy of a religion I believe. That is why the teacher and the disciples must both hold a copy of the text, and reason with God individually. No man (or woman in this case) can perfectly interpret a text for another, and matters of conscience can only be decided by an individual for his or herself…
I have not read many Islamic blogs or writers before and I hope to be back often to read more of your views… glad to have found you… through Manas @ sporadicblogger’s blog btw.
Diana
Sharique 02.02.07 at 12:40 am
Naqqad Sahab,
I completely agree with your assessment. You example of your friend’s son is apt but I wont say its his hypocrisy but its his ignorance. Its often the case that parents neglect their children when it comes to Islamic education, which causes ignorance.
It might be a case that the Muslims be divided when the reservations are made for them on the basis of caste. I am not reservations based on economic status!
Sharique 02.02.07 at 1:08 pm
Diana,
You are most welcome. But the problem is I don’t stick to a theme on this blog so you need to look for articles of your interest
diana 02.02.07 at 10:35 pm
Yeah, I have noticed. You have some interesting stuff around. It’s nice
molly 02.11.07 at 5:01 am
What strikes me the most about this surah is not the hijab but that Allah mentions slaves in it. And there is nowhere in the Quran that says keeping slaves is wrong.
Sharique 02.11.07 at 2:31 pm
Molly,
And don’t forget the rights of slaves Quran talks about. Whats wrong in giving someone a source of income? Quran never encourages slavery!
gess 03.26.07 at 2:29 am
Manas wrote:
Very true!
Karim 03.27.07 at 7:46 am
Salaam Sharique, nice blog.
But, wat a bunch of lies Taslima writes. Orkut Islamophobes r 1000 times better than her.
I dont understand how she became so popular.
Anywayz, gud job keep them coming.
Sharique 03.27.07 at 11:51 am
Wassalam Karim,
Orkut will soon change the way we see things in this world. World War -III will fought on orkut…just keep your fingers crossed.
Karim 03.27.07 at 12:47 pm
Thats better…we wil have few viruses and some e-bombs here and there while we can still fight war with popcorn and cola beside us.
"You must do this...is the will of go" "Are you Crazy!!????!!!!!!!!!! 01.11.08 at 4:21 am
The prolem is, you see that,: “they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty.”
And: “that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex.”
Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!! I’ts wrong. wrong wrong wrong. Get it. Girls should do what they like, if they bravely want to face a men’s face they have to be free to do it. If they want to look at a men with desire, they should be let free. If they like their asses to be shown…let them. and furthermore….only in the old days someone could be so stupid to think that children do not have sexual desires, or shame of sex……READ FREUD MUSLIMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and a little point last….is it really important to count the people killed by Hitler? No, that’s anohter myth….even if they were 4 m instead of 6 who cares???? and for God’s sake did you know that the ss did soap ( soap!!!!!!!!) with them jews??? and did you know that lately in the west some people thought of doing the same with arabs and especially muslims ( but not only….). Remember that the more you mock someone else’s sorrows…the more will people be likely to put you through the same sorrow!!!!
Off course I am an atheist. Off course I don’t understand you, Off course I don’t like you as any followers of any religion. The difference between me and the average “believer” is that I don’t want you to be put in soap bars ( cause see I really love everybody more than you religious people does even if they claim otherwise). But by the way you display your religion, I don’t want you as a neighbour either, I don’t want in my county people that thinks that girls should “lower their gaze”. We have enough problems in taming and grooming chirstians into well mannered citizens and not fanatic animals….so you are screweing up a work that took us Atheists and free thinkers about 4 centuryes. Stop it. How would you feel if ACTUALLY in ANY ARAB COUNTRYES came up an atheist guy asking ( and SUCCEDING) in making changes in the shari’a because it doesn’t fit his Atheism????? You are doing the same, you want to live a happy muslim life? Fine, return your homecountryes and take with you your beloved western converted, they will find laws that nourish their souls in you countries, but leave us alone let our sons and daughters grow atheist sexually active, beautifully displaing all they got and free. By the way…I as a person am not interested in arab petrol either, there are better ways to run cars. ( and by the way I know you’re in india…but these are just my random thoughts I’d like you to answer).
redzedi 03.14.10 at 2:20 pm
tell me this … as per islam should you consider every member of another religion a sinner ?? thus with a moral responsibility to kill him to purge the sin ??
and how much of the holy book do you interpret keeping in mind the contextuality of its specifics ?? case in point is the dictate about dresses, as you pointed out it was contextual in that day and age and even if you take out the specifics and look at the holy book for the moral and spiritual framework that will be more meaningful
redzedi 03.14.10 at 2:26 pm
religion with the noble cause of universal(irrespective of political,religious views,colour,creed,sexual orientation) brotherhood is exalted but a religion promoting a vigorous selective brotherhood on the basis of subscription to that faith and antagonising other denominations is a wonderful strategy for power as it plays on the human need of identity and has network effect