Page 290 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

covers the entire body, from head to foot; its purpose is
essentially to cover the entire body. If we remember that
verse 31 of Surat an-Nur commands women to cover up their
breasts, we can see that there is no possibility of the chest of

a woman wearing the jilbab being uncovered in any way, so
the verse is not addressing women who cover their entire
head and body. The people making that claim seem to have
forgotten this very important and fundamental point.

2- Women in Arab societies of the time moved around

unclothed and that is why the verse was sent down. Follow-

ing that verse, Muslim women began covering their previ-
ously exposed chests. Let us recall that the word "juyub" in
the verse means bosom, and that the true sense of the pas-
sage in question is "that they should cover their breasts
with their coverings."

3- According to some commentators who insist on the idea of
a "pre-existing head covering," the women in question have

"already" covered their heads with scarves, yet, according to
their way of thinking, their chests are somehow completely
uncovered! According to this peculiar way of thinking,
women managed to think of covering their heads, but not of

covering their breasts (surely Muslims are beyond that).
They were supposedly scrupulous when it came to covering
their heads, but walked around naked. That is the
inevitable conclusion from these commentators' idea of "the

pre-existing headscarf." With this interpretation, these peo-
ple are maintaining that women "with their chests exposed
but their heads covered up" are being advised to pull those
head coverings down to cover up their chests. This terrible

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