The government enforces us to cover our genitalia, do you say "No, they are inhibiting our choice?"
No, you say "oh yeah that's- that's modesty"
Okay who decided that's modesty?
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Asalaamu alaikum guys and welcome to another episode of smile2jannah.
So earlier this year... I missed this bit of news to be honest guys...
earlier this year- apparently Miss USA committed suicide.
She was 30 years old and the reason she committed suicide was- she said that-
continuously online she received messages calling her,
"old" (she was 30) and calling her "ugly".
Now bear in mind that Miss USA had graduated in Law, so she was smart.
She was beautiful, you know she had stuff that many of us would think, subhanAllah...
Why would somebody like that...? Miss USA!
So you got the beauty, you got the brains,
you got the best of both worlds. Why would she commit suicide?
Because we do care what society thinks.
We care what people think. We care what society thinks yeah, it's unfortunate.
And it's at varying levels. And this is very important
to understand because unfortunately and sadly... this is just an example,
some sisters when they take off the hijab they say
"oh it's our choice it's our choice to take off the hijab"
or certain brothers when they shave their beard "we did it out of choice,
it's our choice" but is it? Is it your choice?
I wouldn't say it's your choice. And let me explain. It's not your choice
for you to put on the hijab and to grow the beard because Allah told you to yeah.
Allah told you to. And it wasn't your choice to take the hijab off and shave the beard
because society told you to,
the fashion industry told you to. Yes, because think about it
in the fashion industry there are 20 main brands,
and out of those 20 brands
only a few: H&M, Zara, ASOS, there's only a few that do something called Fast Fashion.
Now, Fast Fashion is something that increases the production line of the fashion industry yeah.
Normally there are two seasons in fashion in the whole year. Two seasons.
But Fast Fashion makes 52 seasons mate-
52 seasons. That means every week there are new clothes. Yes.
So those 20 fashion brands become four or five fashion brands yeah, only a handful.
So when you say you have a choice, do you
necessarily have a choice? When these fashion brands dictate...
they are literally dictating what you're wearing. And then when you go to the shop,
you don't get to decide which retailers around your area. It depends.
It depends. So you go there... and again the clothes have been picked
so you have this illusion of choice.
You have 20 things that have been selected. Out of those
20 I'm gonna pick... "I want this and I want that", not necessarily.
Same with the brothers,
you see all these footballers you see all these stars you know without a beard and you know
"I'm gonna... I'm gonna shave it off as well".
Now it's a bit different innit, a lot of people... it's part of fashion to grow the beard but
this is maybe 10 years ago it wasn't fashion yeah.
So this is something to bear in mind guys, the illusion of choice
and let's stop saying this because look,
when it comes to hijab and you know other things i.e. the beard and other things,
just giving you examples well yeah,
yeah, choice, their choice is very important but guys bear this in mind
the government enforces us to cover our genitalia.
Do you say no they are inhibiting our choice? No you say "oh yeah that's that's modesty" okay,
who decided that's modesty? Can you prove it using first principles?
Can you prove that this is the correct way? Not necessarily.
So the west says modesty is covering this bit and covering that bit.
Islam just extends that further, to the hair. So
why are you saying... Islam has a different moral standard?
So guys let's just bear this in mind and let's not get deluded
into this western notion of "oh yeah... the choice over there"
Because western notion if you don't put on the seat belt,
you don't stop at a red light "no but that's for our safety"
so that's the safety of the people. What? So is covering yourself?
Are you honestly telling me a person that's covered is going to attract
predators equally to a person that's exposing themselves?
No. Bear in mind I'm not saying that the person that exposed themselves is asking for it yeah.
I know people jump on that straw man argument.
No, what I'm saying is you can't compare the two.
Yes a person that's clothed can also be attacked by a predator.
So guys let's bear this in mind. This whole notion "oh it's my choice mate" No it's not.
You took the hijab off/you decided to stop praying
because of what's around you. In the fashion industry, the role models you have, your friends,
these are the things that dictated to you and you just
you wanted to fit in with the crowd. That's what you wanted to do.
Just like this woman, she was receiving these messages and
because she wasn't validated by these messages it affected her.
She cared too much what other people think, she took her life.
I don't want you to follow the same trajectory. It starts with the hijab. It starts with the beard.
It starts with salah and then that's where it can go so
may Allah protect us, and guys let's leave it there until next time.
Asalaamu alaikum.