The Twenty-Fourth Flash

Concerning Tasattur

While being the Second and Third Matters of the Fifteenth Note, in consequence of its importance it has become the Twenty-Fourth Flash.

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

يَا اَيُّهَا النَّبِىُّ قُلْ ِلاَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلاَبِيبِهِنَّ1

to the end thereof... This âyah orders the tasattur. As for the dissolute civilisation, it opposes this decree of the Qur'an. It does not consider the tasattur to be appropriate to fitrah; it says, “It is a slavery.” {Part of the defence that is written to the Appeal Court, which opposed the Court and silenced it: "I say to this court of law that if there is justice on the face of the earth, it will surely refute this unjust decision and overrule this judgement, which convicts a man who, through relying on the confirmation and consensus of three hundred and fifty thousand tafsirs and following our ancestors’ beliefs they had for one thousand three hundred and fifty years, has made the tafsir of the most sacred, true and right principle of Allah applied in the social life of three hundred and fifty million people, in every age, for one thousand three hundred and fifty years!..."}

The Answer: We shall declare only four of the many hikmahs that indicate that this decree of Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm is completely appropriate for fitrah and the opposite of it is contrary to fitrah.

First Hikmah: Tasattur is appropriate for women’s fitrah and their fitrah requires it because, in their fitrah, women have an inclination not to be subjected to detest, to make themselves loved and not to be hated since, by creation, they are weak and delicate and are in need of a man's protection and assistance for themselves and for their children whom they love more than their own lives.

Furthermore, six or seven out of ten women are either old or ugly, and they do not want to show their old age and ugliness to everyone. Or they are jealous; they do not want to appear ugly compared to those who are more beautiful than themselves, or they fear aggression or being accused; by fitrah, they want tasattur so as not to be subjected to attacks nor to be accused of betrayal by their husbands. As evidence, it may be mentioned that, if observed carefully, the old are the ones who hide themselves the most. And out of ten women, only two or three can be found who are both young and beautiful and not embarrassed to display themselves. It is well known that women are embarrassed and affected by the looks of men who they detest or do not like. Even if a beautiful woman dressed immodestly likes the looks of two or three out of ten men, she surely detests seven or eight of them. Furthermore, since a beautiful woman, whose morality is not corrupted and who is not tainted, is sensitive and quickly affected, she will certainly be embarrassed by the poisonous dirty looks, the effects of which have been physically experienced. We even hear that in Europe, the place of immodest dressing, by being annoyed with this intense look, many women report to the police that "These vile men are harassing us with their stares."

It means that civilisation's abrogation of tasattur is contrary to fitrah and the Qur'an's command of tasattur is appropriate for fitrah. With tasattur, it saves women, who can be the mines of compassion and worthy eternal companions, from degradation, abasement, ma’nawî slavery and misery.

Furthermore, by fitrah, women have timidity and fear of strange men. As for the fear, by fitrah, it requires tasattur. Because there is the possibility of suffering for eight or nine years the calamity — which will extremely make the eight or nine minutes of pleasure bitter — of eight or nine minutes of illicit pleasure due to carrying with difficulty the heavy load of a child, as well as the tarbiyyah of a child without a protector. And since this happens frequently, their fitrah truly fears non-mahrams intensely, and their inborn disposition wants to avoid them. And their weak creation commands and severely warns not to excite the appetites of non-mahrams and not to give any opportunity for their aggression, and shows that their shield and fortress is their charshaf (jilbâb).

As I heard: The bare-legged wife of a high worldly-ranked man being molested in the centre and capital city of government, in a bazaar, in the daytime, in front of everyone, by an extremely vile shoepainter, gives a slap to the shameless faces of those who are against tasattur!

Second Hikmah: The extremely essential and intense relationship, love and connection between man and woman are not only based on the needs of worldly life. Yes, a woman is a life companion of her husband not only in worldly life but also in eternal life. Since she is her husband's life companion in eternal life too, she surely should not attract the looks of other men to her beauties besides her husband, her eternal friend and companion, and should not offend and make him jealous. Since, in consequence of the mystery of îmân, her mu’min husband's connection to her is not confined to worldly life, and his love is not only animal-like, temporary and restricted to the time of her beauty, but rather he is attached to her with true and earnest love and respect in terms of her being his life companion in eternal life. He bears that earnest love and respect for her not only during her youth and at the time of beauty but also at the time of oldness and ugliness. Indeed, in return for this, devoting her beauties to his regard alone and restricting her love only to him is the requirement of humanity. Otherwise, she would gain very little but lose very much.

According to the Sharî’ah, the husband should be equivalent to the wife, that is, they should be suitable for each other. The most important aspect of this equivalence is the point of being religious. Happy is the husband who sees the piety of his woman and imitates her, and he becomes pious in order not to lose his companion in eternal life.

Happy is the woman who sees the piety of her husband and enters taqwâ in order not to lose her eternal friend.

Alas for the man who enters dissipation that will cause him to lose his sâliha woman eternally. How unfortunate is the woman who does not follow her muttaqî husband and loses her blessed eternal friend.

Thousands of alas for those unfortunate husband and wife that they imitate the fisq and dissipation of each other; they help one another to be thrown into the fire!

Third Hikmah: Family’s happiness in life continues through mutual trust, sincere respect and love between husband and wife. Lack of tasattur and immodest dressing destroy trust and spoil mutual respect and love because out of ten immodestly dressed women, only one does not try to make herself liked by strangers since she does not see any better than her husband. Nine of them see other men who are better than their husbands. And only one out of twenty men does not see a more beautiful one other than his wife. Then, it can awaken an extremely ugly and extremely despicable feeling besides losing sincere love and mutual respect. It is as follows:

By fitrah, man cannot carry a lustful feeling towards his mahrams, like his sisters, because the faces of his mahrams break the lustful inclinations of the nafs since their faces make him feel compassion and licit love arising from kinship and being mahram. But to leave the parts of the body bare, like the legs, which are not permissible (jâiz) to show even to mahrams according to the Sharî’ah, can awaken an extremely ugly feeling in the people who have an inferior nafs. Because the face of a mahram is a reminder of being forbidden in terms of close kinship, and it does not look like a non-mahram but, for example, a bare leg is the same as that of non-mahrams. Since it does not bear any distinguishing mark, which will be a reminder of being a mahram, it may awaken a bestial, lustful look in mahrams with an inferior nafs. Such a look is a hair-raising decline of humanity.

Fourth Hikmah: It is well known that the abundance of generations is desired by everyone. There is no nation or government that does not support the multiplicity of successive generations. Ar-Rasûl Al-Akram ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm decreed: تَنَاكَحُوا تَكَاثَرُوا فَاِنِّى اُبَاهِى بِكُمُ اْلاُمَمَ  (As he said) That is, "Marry and increase, for in the qiyâmah, I will take pride in your great numbers." However, the abrogation of tasattur does not increase marriage but decreases it greatly because even the most dissolute and modern young man wants a chaste life companion possessing a keen sense of honour. Since he does not want her to be modern like himself, that is, he does not want her to dress immodestly, he remains unmarried and even enters fornication, but woman is not like that; she cannot restrict her husband to that extent. Because her most essential moral quality should be loyalty and trustworthiness since, on account of being the domestic administrator in the family life, woman is an official in protecting all of her husband's possessions, his children and everything that belongs to him, and immodest dressing destroys this loyalty; she loses trustworthiness in her husband’s eyes and makes him suffer the torment of conscience. Even courage and generosity, two beautiful moral qualities in men, are considered bad moral qualities if they are present in women since they damage loyalty and trustworthiness. But her husband's duty is not loyalty and not being a treasurer to her, but rather protection, mercy and respect. Therefore, he cannot be restricted. He can marry other women as well.

The continent of the Islamic world cannot be compared with Europe. Because, there, amid the immodest dressing, honour is preserved to a degree by violent means such as the duel. One who looks at the wife of an honoured man with impure eyes wraps his shroud around his neck and then looks. Also, in Europe, the continent of cold countries, characters are cold and frigid like that continent. Asia, the continent of the Islamic world, is the place of warmer countries compared to Europe. It is well known that the environment has an effect on the morality of man. In those cold countries and those cold people, immodest dressing that will sharpen appetites and stimulate animal desires might not result in waste and misuse, but in warm countries, immodest dressing that will continually excite the desires of the nafs of the quickly affected and sensitive people is certainly the cause of much waste, misuse, weakness of generation and a loss of strength. Instead of once a month or twenty days need of fitrah, he supposes himself to be obliged to waste every few days. Then, since he is obliged to avoid his wife for fifteen days every month due to occurrences like her menstrual cycle, he will even incline to promiscuity if he is defeated by his nafs.

The urban people cannot abrogate tasattur by comparing themselves with the rural people or nomads because, in the villages and amongst nomads, due to the occupation of livelihood, working physically and being tired, innocent working women, who are coarse to an extent and comparingly less attractive than urban women, being partially open does not excite the desires of the nafs. And since dissolute and vagrant men are few, one-tenth of the corruption of the city cannot be found among them. Therefore, they cannot be compared with rural people.