The Muslims' holy book (Qur'an) reads, "Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and God is well acquainted with all that they do." It reads also, "And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof..."
Our Prophet Mohamed, peace be upon him (pbuh), saw a man washing in a public place without a lower garment; the prophet (pbuh) mounted the pulpit, praised God, and said: "God is characterized by modesty and concealment. So when any of you washes, he should conceal himself." Another time, the prophet Mohamed (pbuh) passed by a man who was chiding his brother about modesty; the prophet (pbuh) said: "Leave him. Modesty is part of faith." He also said on another occasion, "Every religion has an innate character; the character of Islam is modesty."
In modern societies, there are several misconceptions about Islam. One of them that Islam required women to cover their bodies and men are free of that law. In fact, Islam promotes modesty and does not differentiate between men and women. Islam prescribes that both men and women behave and dress modestly. Muslims believe that an emphasis on modesty, chastity, and morality encourages society to value individuals for their wisdom, skills, and contributions to the community, rather than for physical attractiveness.
Our Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) and his companions such as Abu bakir, Omar, Uthman, Ali, and many others were noble teachers to the whole mankind. Uthman was well known by his modesty, his piety, his humility, his charity and his resignation to God's will. Ali also, in his poems was shown as a moralist, freely expressing the righteousness of his cause. His poetry was neither romantic nor lyrical, but reformative. It contained no sensuous feelings or imagery and had nothing of the themes on which the old school of Arab poets delighted to dwell. There was no praise of women, wine, music, and amusement. Ali's eloquence was reserved for the praise of patriotism, humility, modesty, chastity, piety, and resignation. Historically, we have learned that there is no place in Islam for nudity or practices such as what we call "the Naked Quad Run," "Bingo," "drunkenness," etc.
A person could try to argue encouraging such activities under the umbrella of a noble cause like charity or others. It is no secret to us what such activities lead to. The enormous harmful sides are very obvious and the results in most cases are severely painful to the individuals as well as to their surrounding. The Holy Qur'an already answered the ones who try to make such argument, "They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit... Thus doth God make clear to you His Signs: in order that ye may consider."
It had been said also in the Holy Qur'an, "... it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But God knoweth, and ye know not." Others would say that we are following the tradition. The Holy Qur'an replied, "When it is said to them: Follow what God hath revealed; they say: Nay! We shall follow the ways of our fathers (tradition); what! even though their fathers were void of wisdom and guidance!"
In Islam individuals become responsible for their deeds when they reach puberty. From that time, everyone is responsible for his/her actions and will be answering to what they did. Religion should not be a burden in our daily life. Indeed, it guides us to the right path, eases our way of life, and protects the rights of every individual. Knowing that the rights of an individual end when it starts to interfere with the rights of the others.
Islam taught us to care for the whole society as a one body, not for an individual as the whole society. I would like to conclude this small article by the wisdom of our prophet Mohamed (pbuh) when he said: "Modesty is part of faith, but obscenity is a part of hardness of heart." He also said: "Indecency disfigures everything and modesty enhances the charm of everything."
Imam Noureddine Hawat is the University's Muslim chaplain.
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