بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ
TASATTUR – HIJÂB – COVERING – 1
What is tasattur? - The hikmah of tasattur
1. What is Tasattur: The word tasattur is derived from the root word satr ستر . One of the names of Allah, As-Sattar الستار , which means the One Who veils and forgives man's faults, is also derived from the same root. Tasattur literally means being or becoming veiled, curtained, hidden, concealment, to cover, to veil, to drape, to conceal one's self, veiling.
As a term of the Sharî’ah, it refers to men and women, particularly women, covering themselves as it is stated in the Sharî’ah.
Allah created man in need of artificial clothing, even though He was able to dress him with the most exquisite natural clothing, just as He dressed the animals, particularly the birds, with their exquisite feathers. It indicates that the purpose of tasattur, which is covering and wearing clothes, is not limited to hikmahs, like covering the awrah, protection from cold and heat and adornment. It is as follows:
It is the requirement of the name Hakîm that, at the arena of rising from the dead and assembling for judgment, Janâb-i Haqq will clothe man, who will be stripped of artificial clothing, with a fitrî garment, just as He clothes His creatures having rûh other than man with a fitrî garment. In the world, the hikmah of the manufactured garment is not restricted to protection from the heat and cold, and adornment and covering the awrah. Rather, a significant hikmah of it is being an index and a list that indicate man's disposal over the other species, his relationship with them and his commandership over them. Janâb-i Haqq could, otherwise, clothe man with an easy and cheap fitrî clothing. For if it is not for this hikmah, man who wraps and wears various rags on his body becomes a laughingstock in the view of conscious animals and in comparison with them; he makes them laugh in a ma’nawî manner. In the arena of rising from the dead and assembling for judgment, that hikmah and relation will not exist, so the list should not exist either.
The Twenty-Eighth Letter/The Eighth Matter which is the Eighth Risale/4th Subtle Point/Fourthly
Allah created man with a comprehensive fitrah that is in need of everything; He made man the khalîfah of the earth by subjugating everything to his needs, and He raised man to the rank of Ahsan Taqwîm as the perfect of His creatures. It is as follows:
اَلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اْلاَرْضَ فِرَاشًا وَالسَّمَاءَ بِنَاءً1 Know that, with this phrase, by declaring the grandeur of As-Sâni’s Qoudrah and the favours He bestowed on mankind, the Qur’an urges and encourages man to ‘ibâdah. As if the âyah says, "O man! The One Who subjugated the earth and samâ to you deserves your ‘ibâdah."
It also alludes to man's fadhîlah and his high value and his honour for Allah.
Signs of Miraculousness-318
And since the universe's Owner has chosen the earth from the universe, and mankind from the earth, He has given him an extremely high rank and importance.
The Tenth Word-The First Part of the Addendum
Furthermore, since we see with our eyes and understand with our minds that man is
And most certainly and without any doubt, as a requirement of the above twenty haqiqahs, there will be a rising from the dead and assembling for judgment for mankind, who through the above twenty universal haqiqahs are bound to Janâb-i Haqq's Name Haqq, and whose actions are continuously recorded by Al-Hafîdh Zuljalâl’s name Hafîdh, Who sees the most insignificant need of the tiniest living being, hears its du’â and responds to it through His action, and whose actions that will concern the whole universe are written by the noble scribes of that Name and who are honoured with that Name’s attention more than anything else; they will receive a reward for their above duties and suffer punishment for their faults as a requirement of the name Haqq.
The 11th Ray-7th Topic
2. The hikmah of tasattur:
بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
يَا اَيُّهَا النَّبِىُّ قُلْ ِلاَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلاَبِيبِهِنَّ2
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.
Fortunate 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.
Twenty-Fourth Flash
Just as, due to compassion, women do not resemble men in heroism and ikhlas, and men cannot reach them in such heroism, so innocent women can in no way reach men in dissipation. Therefore, they severely fear non-mahrams and know themselves to be obliged to shelter themselves beneath charshaf (jilbâb) due to their fitrah and weak creation.
Twenty-Fourth Flash - A conversation with women
While defending tasattur in the Eskişehir High Criminal Court, where a death sentence for him was planned, Hazrat Bediüzzaman said the following:
Veiled chaste women of Islam who were beneath charshaf for a thousand years preserve their charshaf today too.
27th Flash/Defence given to the Eskişehir High Criminal Court
Thus, I say to the Appeal Court: “I exclaim that if there is any justice on the face of the earth, it will reject and abolish this wrong judgment that convicts a man who made tafsir of a sacred and haqq principle of Allah which in each century for one thousand three hundred and fifty years was applied in the social life of three hundred and fifty million Muslims, by relying on the consensus and affirmation of three hundred and fifty thousand tafsirs and following our ancestors’ beliefs they had for one thousand three hundred and fifty years. The deaf ears of this century, too, should hear!” I wonder, does convicting a man, because of the tafsir of those âyahs, who, both intellectually and scientifically, does not accept certain European laws that are accepted temporarily due to the requirement of certain compulsions of this time and who has abandoned politics and withdrawn from social life, not conclude with the denial of Islam, betraying billions of our religious and heroic forefathers and insulting millions of tafsirs?
The Fourteenth Ray-To the Judges of the Court of Appeal
Moreover, in order to preserve the respect shown to them, the Qur'an compassionately commands women to wear the veil of hayâ so that those mines of compassion will not be degraded under the feet of the vile desires of the nafs nor be a worthless commodity that is an instrument of satisfying lust. {Note-2: The Twenty-Fourth Flash of the Thirty-First Letter on the tasattur of the women has decisively proved that tasattur is appropriate for women’s fitrah, and the abrogation of tasattur is contrary to fitrah.} As for the civilisation, it has drawn women out of their homes, torn up their veils and corrupted mankind but family life continues with the mutual love and respect of man and woman and immodest dressing has destroyed sincere respect and love and poisoned family life. From the following, it can be understood that especially ‘ibâdah to images terribly shakes morality and causes the degradation of rûh: just as looking lustfully and with desire at the corpse of a beautiful woman who is in need of pity and compassion destroys morality, so too does looking in a way that nurtures the desires of the nafs at the images of dead women or the images of living women, which are their little corpses, shake to that extent the elevated human feelings from their very roots and destroy them.
Twenty-Fifth Word-1st Light-3rd Ray-2nd Radiance
The tyrants, who acted in such an oppressive and deceptive way against tasattur, opened a door to decline and corruption in the Islamic nation because tasattur has a great role in protecting the family institution and establishing material and ma’nawî bounds between the family members, as well as establishing feelings and moral values such as respect, kindness and compassion. In the families that did not establish tasattur as a principle in their lives and lost their moral values, these bounds and ma’nawî values cannot grow. If tasattur is abandoned due to imitating the modern lifestyle, the ma’nawî life of that family will be harmed; such people’s perspective on life gradually narrows down to worldly interests and pleasures and becomes materialistic; the high values and traits of humanity turn upside down and decline.
Dictionary / Arabic - Turkish Terminology