Protecting the Muslim Woman - Ustadh Muhammad Tim Humble

Khutbah al-Ula (First Sermon)

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, we ask His help, and we ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls, and from the evils of our deeds.

Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whom He misguides, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

May Allah send peace and blessings upon him and his family and companions.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O mankind, fear your Lord, Who created you from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and created from them both many men and women. And fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual rights. Indeed, Allah is ever watchful over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah and speak a word that is true. He will correct your actions and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great success.

To continue, the best speech is the Book of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. The worst of matters in this religion are the newly instigated matters, the newly invented matters. And all of these newly invented matters are innovation, and all innovation is misguidance, and all misguidance is in the Hellfire.

Introduction: The Subject of This Khutbah

My khutbah today, بإذن الله تبارك وتعالى, deals with an extremely important issue. And something that is becoming ever more prominent in our society, and indeed something which causes a great deal of pain when we see it.

The khutbah today, بإذن الله تبارك وتعالى, is going to relate to our sisters in Islam, and to relate to how they carry themselves, and how they preserve their deen, in a country where it seems that so many people are set up to take them astray from the Book of Allah, and from the path of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

And when writing this khutbah, and thinking about what I was going to say today, it's not that I am speaking to those of our sisters in Islam that are not practicing their deen, that are not wearing the hijab, that are not practicing the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ. But my concern before anything else, is for those people, those sisters in Islam, that are practicing their deen, and they have a love for Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. And they have strived to implement their religion to the best of their ability.

Two Ways the Shaytan Misguides: Shahawat and Shubuhat

However, we need to understand something. We need to understand that the Shaytan misguides a people in one of two ways. And if you are saved from one of them, perhaps you would fall into the other. And that is that the Shaytan misguides through shahawat and shubuhat. The Shaytan misguides through increasing and through speaking to a person's desire.

And the first of those desires that Allah spoke about in the Qur'an:

The first of them which Allah spoke about — it has been made beautiful for the people their desires. And the first one which Allah mentioned is the desire for women.

But those who are saved from their desires, and those who are able to control them, and those who strive to overcome them, there is still another challenge. And that is the challenge of the shubuhat — of the misconceptions and the misguided ideas that people say amongst each other. And perhaps a person would come out in the morning intending to obey Allah and they would fall into disobedience of Allah because of some of this misguidance that is spread.

And that is why today in this khutbah, I don't just want to talk about the shahawat and the desires, and how easy it is to disobey Allah. But also to talk about the misguidance that is presented to our sisters in Islam, and to their families, in order to take them away from the path of Allah, when they feel that they are obeying Allah.

The Shari'ah's Protection of Honor and Dignity

So before we begin, we need to understand that one of the things that the Shari'ah came to preserve and to protect in every single ruling of Islam is al-'ird — a person's honor and a person's dignity. Every single ruling in Islam is built upon preserving certain fundamental things, like the person's religion and their wealth and their intellect and their life, and so on and so forth. But one of the things that the Shari'ah is built upon, and one of the fundamentals that is present in every ruling of the Shari'ah, is to protect the honor and dignity of people.

And that relates to that which is between you and Allah, and that which is between you and the people. It relates to the religion which is between you and Allah, and your worship of Allah, and your coming close to Allah. And it relates to that which is between you and the people, and preserving a person's honor and a person's dignity.

And when you see the extent to which the Shari'ah preserves and protects a person's dignity, you can understand the importance of what we are going to talk about in this khutbah. You understand that when the Prophet ﷺ was passed by two men from the Ansar, and he was speaking with his wife ﷺ, they passed by him and he called them back. He called them back and he said, "This is my wife Safiyyah" — or, "She is only Safiyyah bint Huyayy." They said, "SubhanAllah, ya Rasulallah! Exalted is Allah! How could we think anything of you other than this? We would never imagine this." But the Prophet ﷺ explained that he feared that the Shaytan would stir something within them, and that the Shaytan flows through the children of Adam in the way of the blood, or in the system of the blood.

So Islam went to this extent to preserve a person's honor and dignity — even those things that would take away from it, even if they were not really true, Islam preserves a person's honor and dignity to that extent.

The Command to Lower the Gaze

And when we look at some of the ayat in the Qur'an that deal with the situation of the Muslim woman, and her covering, and her hijab, and the way that she carries herself — what did Allah say? Allah commanded the believing men and the believing women to lower their gaze. Allah said:

Say to the believing men: to lower their gaze, and to protect their private parts, to guard themselves from falling into the haram. This is more pure for them. And Allah addressed this to our sisters in Islam as well — to the extent that Allah not only commanded them to lower their gaze, not only did Allah command them to guard their honor and their dignity, but Allah even forbade them from tapping their feet together so that somebody might hear something of the beauty that was there, or might become attracted to them. To this extent, Islam sought to preserve the honor and the dignity of the people.

And there is no doubt that this entire society is built upon removing that honor and removing that dignity — in the name of liberalism, in the name of freedom, in the name of women's rights — removing the honor and dignity. And there is no honor and dignity in what these people consider to be the rights of women.

The Rows in the Prayer

But just look at what Allah commanded us to do as believers — to lower our gaze, for the women to lower their gaze. To the extent that the Prophet ﷺ, in the matter of the prayer, said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 881)

The best of the rows of the men are the first row — the row furthest away from the women. And the worst of them are the last row, the row that is closest to the women. And the best rows of the women are the last rows. And the worst of them are the first.

Rather, more than that — one of the female companions came to the Messenger ﷺ. She said, "O Messenger of Allah, I love to pray with you" — pray where? In the Masjid al-Nabawi. She loved to pray with the Prophet ﷺ in the Masjid al-Nabawi. What did the Prophet ﷺ say to her? He advised her that the prayer in the masjid that is next to her house, where her tribe lives, is better for her than the prayer in the Masjid al-Nabawi. And the prayer for her in her house is better for her than the prayer she prays in her local family masjid. And the prayer that she prays in a part of her room secluded from everyone is better than the prayer that she prays in the rest of the house.

SubhanAllah, to this extent that Islam came to preserve the honor and the dignity of our sisters in Islam — that it is better for them to pray in a secluded part of their own room than it is to pray in the other rooms of their house. And it is better for them to pray in their home than it is for them to pray in the local masjid next to where they live. And it is better for them to pray in that local masjid than to pray with the Messenger ﷺ in the Masjid al-Nabawi, despite the virtue of praying there. This is what Islam came with.

The Command to Remain in the Home

Then you see what Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ and tells the believing women, commanding them:

And stay in your homes. Remain within your homes. And do not go out displaying yourself with the adornment of the time prior to Islam.

Our Honor Comes From Islam

Ya Ikhwani, we are a people who have our 'izzah from Islam. Our honor comes from Islam. Whenever we abandon Islam, we lose all of that honor. Look at how women used to be in the time of Jahiliyyah. They were nothing different than property that was bought and sold and passed on. A woman would be forced into marriage by the people who inherited the wealth of her husband. If they inherited the wealth of her husband, they would force her into whatever marriage they wanted — as though she is just like a possession and just like the things that he left behind from his house and his cattle. And Allah gave this Ummah so much 'izzah, and He did not prevent this Ummah from anything that had good in it for them.

But we are living in a society that is jealous. And we are not saying that they are jealous based on what we see — Allah tells us about their jealousy. Saying that those people from the People of the Book, they wish that they would turn you back on your religion, turn you away from your religion:

Out of the jealousy that they have for you. They want to take you away from your deen. They want to take you away from what is good for you. They want to corrupt every single aspect of this Ummah. And this is not a conspiracy theory. This is what Allah tells us in the Qur'an. And we see this with our own eyes.

But one of the saddest things is that we are engaged in supporting this. One of the saddest things that we see is people from our own people — from the Muslims — from the people whose names are Abdullah and Ahmad and Fatima and Maryam — speaking against the hijab, speaking against the role of the Muslim woman that has been given to her by Allah.

Responding to the Claim That These Ayat Were Only for the Wives of the Prophet ﷺ

And in case some people come up with this concept and say that these ayat were revealed only to the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and are not for us — what does Allah say?

Allah says: Allah wants to remove everything which is impure — every sinful thing from you, O family of the Prophet. And He wants to purify you with a great purification.

And this ayah is an evidence against them, not an evidence for them. First of all, Allah mentioned that their staying in their homes and their hijab is what removes sin and purifies them. Secondly, and even more emphatic than that — who were these ayat revealed to? They were revealed to the most pure of mankind after the Prophets and the Messengers: the companions, رضي الله عنهم — the furthest people away from zina, the furthest people away from haram. The women who, when the ayat of the hijab were revealed, tore the cloth to cover their faces and looked as though crows had settled upon their heads. And yet Allah commands them to do this.

We are more deserving and more in need than they were of keeping away from the haram. And we are closer to falling into it than they were. And Allah tells us in other ayat of the Qur'an — O Messenger! O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters, and to the women of the believers — and then the ayat of the hijab that they cover themselves with their cloaks. These are the ayat. And we do not have time to mention all of them and the ahadith.

And when you see how the Prophet ﷺ and how the wives of the Prophet ﷺ would conduct themselves, you see the reality of how the Muslim woman should be. Allah wants to remove everything impure from you. Allah wants to remove all of the evil deeds from you. Allah wants to purify you and purify your families. But to do so, you have to obey Him. And you have to follow His law.

Our Responsibilities Towards Our Sisters in Islam

And I want to focus upon three or four particular things that I feel that we as brothers, as fathers, as husbands fall short in as it relates to our sisters in Islam.

First: Educating Our Families

The first is educating our family — teaching them what Islam tells them. Because by Allah, there are people who seek to educate your family with something other than Islam. And they go to school and they see something other than Islam. Even the Islamic schools — even the Islamic schools have in them so much evil that you see. Perhaps they are better than the alternative, but you see within them so much evil in terms of what our daughters and our wives and our sisters are exposed to in these kinds of environments.

So our first job is to combat this negative image and this education that they are getting — these shahawat and shubuhat telling them that you do not have to cover, that you do not have to cover your face, that you do not have to cover your hands, and you do not have to do this and you do not have to do that — and getting them to go out in the way of the pre-Islamic time.

Educating our family. Spending some time to teach them these ayat and the other ayat. Spending some time to buy them beneficial books. And letting them watch beneficial lectures about the role and the position of the Muslim woman. Giving them that encouragement to do what they are allowed to do.

And one of the sad things is those people who go too far and stop their family and their wives from doing things that they are allowed to do. When you make this kind of hardship upon a person, you fear that the person will leave and back off from everything. Rather: educating them, supporting them, and aiding them.

And in the second part of the khutbah, بإذن الله تعالى, I want to mention a couple more things that I think are particularly relevant to this topic.

Khutbah al-Thaniya (Second Sermon)

All praise is due to Allah alone, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger ﷺ and his family and his companions.

We are talking about our sisters in Islam and, indeed, in the latter part of the khutbah, our responsibility towards them — to teach them and to educate them.

Second: What Our Children Are Exposed to in School

School is a big problem. You cannot avoid it, but you need to be aware of what it is that your daughters and your sisters are learning in school — the friends that they keep and the kinds of things that they are being told — whether that is from the point of their desires, where they know that it is wrong but they are doing it anyway, or whether it is from the point of confusion, telling them that there is a difference of opinion and it is okay and this is just something extreme, and so on and so forth.

Third: What We Allow Our Families to Watch

From the things that we must take responsibility for is what we allow our families to watch on the television. And الله المستعان — those people who read the news in this country, you see what it is. I mean, to the point of girls 6 years old, 5 years old being exposed to this — the kind of haram that you would not have imagined a person 10 years ago would have seen when they were 18 or when they were 20. You would not have imagined that they would have seen these kinds of videos 10 years ago with a mark on them saying "18 and above." And these days you have 6-year-old girls, 7-year-old girls watching this on the television — watching the music channels, watching the videos, watching the celebrities, watching these kinds of things. And these are from the worst of people. What kind of role model are they setting? What kind of things are they exposing them to?

And nobody is saved from this except for the one whom Allah has mercy upon. So be careful about what your children are allowed to watch on the television. And if you get rid of the television, then this is far better for you. But if you must have it and you have no way of getting rid of it and you continue to have it, then at least fear Allah with regard to what you put on and with regard to what the people see.

Fourth: The Danger of the Internet

And then, more than that, and my final point, is with regard to the internet. Because some of our sisters in Islam — and I alluded to this in the beginning of the khutbah — ما شاء الله تبارك الله, they have a heart with a good intention and they want to correct themselves and they want to cover, and you see them covering properly in every way. And then they are exposed to the YouTube hijab tutorials. And الله المستعان — some Shaytana, a devil in the sight or in the clothing of a human being, comes and says that this is how you should wear your hijab. And then they take this sister who wants to wear the hijab and they ruin her, and they teach her how to beautify her hijab so that she looks more beautiful in her hijab than she does out of her hijab.

And on Facebook and Twitter and all the rest — the people are there and they are not saying to our sisters, "Take off your hijab." They are telling them to take it off in a different way: to beautify it, to put on the makeup, to wear it in a style that makes you look good.

I say to our sisters in Islam: if your hijab looks good, it is not the Islamic hijab. Wallahi, if your hijab looks good, you have contradicted the very asr — the very fundamental, the very purpose — of the hijab. The purpose of the hijab is to divert the sight. The purpose of the hijab is to conceal. The purpose of the hijab is to protect. The purpose of the hijab is to set a standard and to send a message that this sister is a practicing Muslim woman, and she is not the kind of cheap individual with low self-worth that sells themselves for a low price. That is what the hijab is for.

And there are sisters telling our sisters in Islam — and most of them are from the Sufiyya or from the people of Ahlul Bid'ah — and they are coming and telling our sisters in Islam to remove their hijab in a different way, whether it is the way that they wear it or the color or the design or the way to look at it. And none of them have any knowledge of Islam or any knowledge of fiqh. And yet they come in a way that attracts people who want to practice Islam. And this is from the shubuhat that we must be careful of — as brothers and sisters we must be careful of it.

Conclusion: A Collective Responsibility

And so this khutbah today is not simply aimed towards only our sisters in Islam, but towards the brothers who are responsible for them and indeed towards the whole Muslim community — to come together to protect one of our greatest assets in Islam. The greatest mata' — the best of the pleasures of this dunya, the best thing that you can have in this dunya — is a pious woman. And this asset of ours is being eroded and attacked by the non-Muslims and by some of the Muslims as well.

And so it is an obligation upon all of us to come together to stop this — to come together to educate, to support, and to encourage, and to teach our families, and to prevent them from those things which would harm them, whether those things come from the school or whether they come from the television or whether they come from the internet.