Answer to Karima's Questions

Dear Karima, thank you for your questions,

I'll answer them as best I can but in my own personal way

Q. [religions] put so much pressure on women to be modest, and seemingly correct this wrong by muting women's natural femininity/sexuality by having them cover up, as if womens breasts, lips, thighs, legs, belly's arms or hair are the issues, when absolutely the issues are mens longterm objectification of women, mens inability to respect their female counterparts regardless of their dress, mens desire to make women sexual only instead of spiritual, intellectual and sexual ( just like them....) and mens inability to control their sexual desires or feelings of superiority around women. I wonder why women are treating like the problem and asked to conform to check mens shortcomings?

A. I wholeheartedly agree, and the beautiful thing about Islam is, that the Prophet Mohammed sallalahu alahi wa salam did as well! He ALWAYS told men that THEM controlling themselves by looking away from a woman who might tempt them came BEFORE how a woman dresses. Men weren't stressed about how women should dress but how they should behave. It was for women themselves' to stress about how they should dress to please their Creator. So I think for me it is simple, I follow the examples set in the sources of my religion, not in those claiming to follow my religion.

Q. And secondly ... how can anyones faith be written if faith by definition is belief in what is unknown?...meaning not what is learned or written but what is held in the heart and the thinking , examining mind. Ok, i know I have used numerous run-on sentences and my two questions are a tad (maybe more than a tad) wordy but i hope you understand them and I hope you respond as I would love to read your response...again I would like to remind you that as a fellow woman I thoroughly enjoy your blog and your world-view and am very happy that i stumbled upon your blog!

A. Thank you for liking my blog. This is something my father asked me. My answer is, faith is in the person, and it is always seeking the right, the truth, and cannot comprehend anything but the truth and the right, though human will may choose other than that. Religion speaks to faith, but faith is not the same as the truth. For me, Islam is the truth, and speaks to me in all that is right, and it was what my faith was seeking. The unknown is not so unknown. We all crave the the truth and the right even when their exact form is intangible and beyond what we can hold. We often use the word "faith" for what is beyond faith, the only thing that faith answer to. That may sound a bit philosophical in itself, but I said, that's my personal response. Hope that makes sense, inshaAllah!