Bible 1 Corinthians 11:5-6: But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head – it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
Qur’an 24:31: And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts and do not display their ornaments except what appears thereof, and let them wear their head-coverings over their bosoms…”
From Abraham to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad to all of the world’s great teachers and all the way up until today, righteous women have been known to cover their adornments and their heads, but in recent years, women have been unclothing themselves.
I ask you, if Mary, the mother of Jesus, were alive today, what do you think she would be wearing?
I ask you, if Jesus and Prophet Muhammad, peace be among them, were alive today, what would the women around them be wearing?
Lastly, I ask you, if your great grandmothers were alive today, what would they be wearing? What kind of closets did the mothers of old have?
When Prophet Muhammad was raised from among the Arab people as a Messenger of Allah (God), he found women in a degraded state, and they had very few rights. The Prophet taught about equality in terms of inheritance, property, social and marriage rights. He reversed the way men treated their wives and daughters and upheld the highest respect for women.
A man who parallels to Prophet Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad was raised from among the Black people in America. He, too, found women in a degraded state. He changed the culture of women in America by giving her a peep into her mother’s dressing room. He taught her how to cook, how to clean, how to keep house, how to rear children, how to take care of her husband and how to act at home and abroad.
Similarly, his student the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches that the woman can do anything that a man does. He said that what God permits her not to do is that which is not good for her. “How high can you go? As high as you want,” he said.
The culture of women is ever-changing. We must evolve into the righteous women of old and not devolve into women whom the prophets, messengers and the old teachers of wisdom would frown upon.
In what way do you see women evolving? What is God’s independence for the woman vs. man’s independence for her?
