Hijab/Jilbab Is Not An Option, It Is An Obligation

Wearing the hijab is an obligation to all Muslim women, it is not something optional. Though some may claim that wearing the hijab makes one to look out of fashion or even look less beautiful, such claims are 100% baseless. In the current generation, many different designs of the hijab have been brought on market in order to give chance for variety. Though it has to be observed that this modernity has to be in line with the Islamic teachings on how the hijab is meant to be worn and how it’s meant to look like.

Just like it is stated in the Qur'an Q.S Al-Ahzab 59:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُل لِّأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاء الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِن جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ ذَلِكَ أَدْنَى أَن يُعْرَفْنَ فَلَا يُؤْذَيْنَ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا

(33:59) O Prophet, enjoin your wives and your daughters and the believing women, to draw a part of their outer coverings around them.¹¹⁰ It is likelier that they will be recognised and not molested.¹¹¹ Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.

In the verse above, Allah commands the prophet to instruct the believing women, first and fore-most his wives and children because of their status, in that they should cover themselves with their outer covering {Jilbab/hijab-according to the precise Arabic meaning}. In that due to this kind of clothing, they are able to be identified.  In other words Jilbab / hijab gives identity to the Muslim women

The hijab to be worn has to be in line with the Islamic recommendations (covers the body and not transparent). It is also recommended for women to choose cloths which are not tight, those that do not dispose their curves.

Q.S Al-A'raf 26:

 يَا بَنِي آدَمَ قَدْ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ لِبَاسًا يُوَارِي سَوْءَاتِكُمْ وَرِيشًا وَلِبَاسُ التَّقْوَىَ ذَلِكَ خَيْرٌ ذَلِكَ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللّهِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ

 0 Children of Adam!  Indeed we have sent down to you a garment which covers your shame and provides protection and adornment. But the finest of all is the garment of piety. That is one of the signs of Allah so that they may take heed.

By referring to an important aspect of Adam and Eve's story, the attention of the people of Arabia of those days was drawn to the evil influence of Satan upon their lives. Under Satan's influence they had begun to see dress merely as a shield of protection against the in clemencies of the weather and as a means of adornment. The basic purpose of dress, to cover the private parts of the body - had receded into the background. People had no inhibition about the immodest exposure of the private parts of their body in public. To publicly take a bath absolutely naked, to attend to the call of nature on thoroughfares, were the order of the day.

To crown it all, in the course of Pilgrimage they used to circumbulate around the Ka'bah in stark nakedness. Women even surpassed men in immodesty. In their view, the performance of religious rites in complete nudity was an act of religious merit.

Immodesty, however, was not an exclusive characteristic of the people of Arabia. Many nations indulged in it in the past, and many nations continue to indulge in it even up to now. Hence the message embodied in these verses is not directed just to the people of Arabia. It is rather directed to all men. Mankind, which is the progeny of Adam, is warned against this particular aspect of satanic influence on their lives. When men show indifference to God's Guidance and turn away from the Message of the Prophets, they virtually place themselves at the mercy of Satan. For it is Satan who makes them abandon way's that are consistent with true human nature and who leads them to immodesty in the same way he did with Adam and Eve. We’re man to reflect on this, it would become quite evident that when he is deprived of the guidance of the Prophets, he cannot even appreciate, let alone fulfil, the primary requirements of his true nature.