When one passes from the darkness of the kufr to the light of iman, an enormous shift takes place, across an abyss. This is accompanied, in most cases, and it is logical that this is so, by a strong discomfort towards the world of kufr and towards one’s personality prior to the acceptance of Islam.
A serious mistake committed by the Westerners who enter Islam, often incited by males equally in error, is to exacerbate this opposition to the surrounding kufr and one’s own pre-Islamic history (not facilitated, for sure, by such unfounded follies as “be reborn in Islam “). This extreme rupture with the past and with a surrounding environment considered alien manifests itself in particular in the choice of clothing and in an accentuation of female subordination compared to the dominant lifestyle and one’s former self.
Certain important truths must be emphasized:
a) It is necessary to maintain the balance. The Prophet, Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa-Sallam, has taught us that the Dīn is potent and will subjugate you if you try to subjugate it;
b) It is absurd and unbalanced to try to practice (in a strongly non-Islamic and anti-Islamic society) 100% of the dictates on clothing and kindred matters, which cover in the books of classical fiqh 1% of the legal treatment, while, for example , judgments on trade, finance, political leadership, judicial procedure, marriage and divorce, custody of children and inheritance, the zakat itself, which cover 60-70% of the same texts, are practiced for 0.001%;
c) Even more absurd then to practice something, the niqāb, which is not even part of those same dictates, is a weapon pointed at the da`wah, and is moreover ridiculously useless in an age when the enemies of Islam can, using satellites and satellite images, literally undress any person hidden inside his niqāb;
d) We need more balanced males in educating their women, and women who do not emotionally take to extremes their detachment from the kufr of the past. On the other hand, both should think more and study the Dīn in a more well-rounded fashion, both its general principles and those areas of the law that have always been much more important for our jurists.
e) And we need Western Muslims who do not parrot their immigrant brothers and sisters, but propose themselves to their society of origin in a congruous, accessible and beneficial way.
Shaykh Ahmad Ali Adani
Comments