Modesty

Aroosa Akram, Slough

The Islamic principle of modesty is an essential part of faith and it concerns a Muslim’s physical and mental state.

To fully understand the importance of modesty, ‘haya’ (حیاء) in Arabic, let us look at its meaning in some detail. The word ‘haya’ comes from the Arabic word of ‘hayat’ which means life. It also means sense of shame or modesty or shyness or bashfulness or ‘keeping back from a thing from fear of blame’. The word ‘haya’ is the antonym of the Arabic word ‘fahsha’ which means lewdness, an excess or enormity of anything exceeding the bounds of rectitude, or a thing excessively and enormously foul, immoral or obscene.

For Muslim women, outward expression of modesty usually includes covering of the head and shape of one’s body. It seems simple enough but in Western countries where the outer appearance of women is held to such a high importance that women are always expected to fit within a very narrow concept of acceptable beauty standards. These so-called beauty standards are used to bash women for not dressing in certain ways which in turn the media dictates. This can be seen, for example, in the vilification of women in burkas in French media. In such an appearance focused atmosphere, remaining modest by wearing a hijab and not showing off one’s beauty can be difficult.

His Holiness, Khalifatul Masih V the Khalifa (Caliph) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community gave excellent guidance regarding modesty during his address to the ladies at the Jalsa Salana (annual convention) on 3^rd August 2019.  His Holiness said: “modesty is the true adornment for women, and they should take pride in this”[1]. For Muslim Women, modesty is their way of beautification and they should be confident when covering themselves. To wear revealing clothes would be the opposite of ‘haya’.

Another aspect of modesty described in the Holy Qur’an is of one’s mind. This means to have pure thoughts and refrain from any unpleasant thoughts.

An example where a Muslim practices modesty of the mind is by refraining from having any indecent thoughts or viewing anything indecent on the media. As mentioned earlier ‘immodesty’ in Arabic means ‘fahsha’ which is the antonym of modesty (haya). A Muslim is taught to remain chaste from a young age and to not watch indecent and sexual images. However, in such a promiscuous society, a person is introduced to lewdness from childhood through magazines and films. Through encouraging boys and girls to become friends to allowing naked images in newspapers with models giving a ‘sexual gaze’. It is ingrained in mass media and has become normalised.

In the Holy Qur’an Allah the Almighty has described people He will reward as chaste: “…men who guard their chastity and women who guard their chastity…” (33:36) [2]. To protect their chastity Islam asks men and women to have separate seating at events and to restrain their eyes, allowing them to remain modest.

Modesty remains a large part of a Muslim’s life in every way. From controlling base urges to avoid cursing and swearing to dressing modestly and restraining of the eyes. His Holiness, Khalifatul Masih V has said that a woman should be proud of her modesty and use it to adorn herself in the deeper, real sense rather than dressing provocatively. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly mentions sense of modesty in different forms for example chastity.  His Holiness Khalifatul Masih V explained in his Friday sermon of 15 January 2010 that a Hadith relates that indecency makes the perpetrator unsightly and modesty gives a modest and bashful person inner and outer beauty.

[1] http://www.alhakam.org/take-pride-in-modesty-hazrat-khalifatul-masih-delivers-address-at-ladies-jalsa-gah/

[2] The Holy Quran, Chapter 33, Verse 36.