Page 298 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

Even though the verse is perfectly explicit, countless very
different and odd interpretations have been produced from the term

"... so that their hidden ornaments are known." These interpretations
vary according to people's way of thinking, and sometimes depend-
ing on their perspective toward women. Mindsets that seek to shut
women away, pacify them, make them ugly and keep them away
from society and humanity, to make them second-class citizens and

– may God forbid - turn them into entities that live only to serve men
and not God, have tended to want to eliminate women entirely by
means of the single word "ornament." Through these false interpre-
tations of verses of the Qur'an, many people have departed from the
essence of the faith and have regarded the Qur'an as an incompre-
hensible book, and when these additions have been taken together

with fabricated hadiths, the result has become an interpretation of
faith very different to that seen in the Qur'an.

However, the term "hidden ornaments" in the verse is very clear,
and refers to two areas that are kept hidden, the sexual organs and
the breasts. In the 31st verse of Surat an-Nur, God names the people
in the presence of whom women do not have to hide their 'orna-
ments' and with this verse, God gives extensive freedom to women.

The Error of Making Adornments and Accessories Unlawful

Some people maintain that the "ornaments" in the verse are
things like "beads, jewels and other accessories." This is significant

in grasping the error and oddity of various interpretations based on
false hadiths. According to this astonishing claim, a man's instincts
are so primitive that the sight of a single bead is enough to drive
him out of control. So according to that mindset, beads should be

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