-Salam Alikum Ustadh Nouman - Waalikum Assalam, Abdullah, How is it going?
Good to see you, what you been up to?
Nothing much
Man, I'm tired!
You traveled this week, right?
No, not this week, trip's coming up, I'm just getting prepped for programs and stuff
Especially after class this week, a couple of e-mails came through that *groans*
So there's this one e-mail, right?
This lady e-mails, it's a really long e-mail about how she's read that the Qur'an never talks about covering the head
That's not a messed up thing necessarily
But she says I read the Ayah, and I read what it says in Surah 24, Surah Annour has the Ayah
And it uses the word 'Khimar' which is for 'veil'
And I looked up the dictionary, and it says things like a shawl or cover
So it doesn't say anything ever about covering the head
And I start thinking: is this like, a common confusion? or is it just this one time e-mail?
So I do a little digging, and it's actually extremely common,
Like a lot of people think that the Ayah does not talk about covering the head at all
This is a really common confusion, I didn't know
One of the things I really wanna do is adress this in a sane way
I'm not interested in getting somebody to wear Hijab, that's their decision
But in the end of the day, if something is being said about the Qu'ran, we have to be honest
And there are people who would like it to mean something it doesn't mean
And then there are people who genuinely just don't know any better
I'd like to assume that anybody who has this confusion, they just don't know any better
Or whatever they read convinced them of this
I don't like to think that they mean evil, or have an agenda or like a misguided opinion or whatever
The cool thing about Arabic, is that for just covering the head, there are nine different words
And one of them is 'Khimar'
So you have 'Miknaah' and 'Mighfar' and all these bunch of words
And it depends on if it covers the head
and if it's up to here, to here or here, depending on the length, each has its own meaning
And in old Arabic the word 'Khimar' which is used in the Qur'an
You and I know we commonly use the word 'Hijab'
'Hijab' is actually not a word for head cover
It's actually a word for barrier, like a wall could be a Hijab, a curtain could be a Hijab
It just got coined as 'Hijab', but that's not the word in the Qur'an, nor the Arabs ever used it like that
So the word is 'Khimar'
And the cool thing about is the word itself includes the meaning of covering the head
Like the head and then some
And it's used before Islam
The men used to have Khimar, too
One of the names for their turban, if it was extra long and went down to almost the middle of the belly
The men used to call it Khimar, too
It's so cool, the women had like different fashions, or whatever
And one of the things women before Islam used to do is to have this bandanna thing
That they would tie to the back with their ponytails
And it would go to the middle of their back
So they wouldn't drape it in front, they drape it behind them
This also was called Khimar
And the Qur'an says they should take their Khimar and throw it in front of them
In other words, the only difference is, keep the Khimar, the head cover is already included in the meaning
Just used it to cover the front also
And it should be a certain length, that's the meaning
And somebody argues: No, no, the word Khimar just means shawl, it doesn't mean head cover
Are you familiar with the word 'Khamr'?
Is that Alcohol?
Alcohol, right
Do you know why it's called 'Khamr'?
Cause it messes with your head
Blocks your judgment
'Khamar' literally means to cover
And it's called Khamr because it messes with your mind and creates a block in your mind
It's almost as though your head is covered in something
It's part of the meaning of the word, we're not even talking about the Islamic meaning
We're talking about Arabic itself
Back in the day, they'd see, some horses have funny, like from the neck onwards is white and the rest is brown
They would say this horse is 'Mutakhammer'
It's like it has a Khimar on
So how are you gonna explain that?
Horses don't have shawls on
It's just the length and it's covering its head up to its neck and all the way down, so that's why they call it a Khimar
It's already in the language
But it's so unfortunate when they say they should draw their veils on their chests, that's what some translations say
Well, a veil could be a shawl, could be any other kind of cloth
And it doesn't really include head covering
But the Arabic word does
So, I feel a lot of this confusion comes because people don't pay attention enough to the original language
And how a lot of translations oversimplify the issue
And we start coming to drastic conclusions
But I think that even if you talk about all of this
Somebody gets upset and says: Who are you to tell me I have to wear this or that?
I'm not anybody to tell you anything
But what I'd like for people to know is, here is the word in the Qur'an, and here is what it means in Arabic
And if you think there's better evidence, if you think there's another meaning in Arabic, then maybe you should tell me
I don't know, maybe I should do a talk about that someday
Barak Allahu feek, I'll see you next time, In Shaa Allah, take care