This short, thoughtful and courageous statement with some profound questions is written by a 17 years old girl. We grown ups are morally obligated to address the questions asked in this statement.
My Eid Prayer
I was so excited. It was Eid-Al- Adha today, the sun was shining, my beautiful family was together, I was going to see my friends, and pray. When I got to the mosque, I greeted any friends, then quickly went into the praying room for Salat. When the Imam commenced, I was suddenly in a trance. My eyes were closed, and my mind was somewhere else. I was mesmerized by his melodic, powerful voice. It was like he was singing a song to us; a song that when it ended, I was so disappointed and wanted it to start again.
I still had no idea how he looked like. What I was expecting was very different from what he actually looked like. When the Imam turned around, I saw a built young man, with a warm smile in a suit and tie. Now it was time for the Khutbah. Everyone was aware of how boring these usually are and was just eager to get up and leave. This was different. He spoke of stories and of things that young people like me can relate to. For example, he talked about the positives and negatives social networking sites, and tied it back to being close with your families. I was connected with him from start to finish. Nothing could break my concentration from his Khutbah: not the screaming babies in the background, not the ladies chatting, or fidgeting, absolutely nothing. By the time this was all over, I felt compelled to speak to this guy, to hear his point of view, his thoughts etc… But from this point on, I felt nothing but disappointed and let down.
I was the first one to approach the Imam and the last one to say something to him. Older men were coming in front of me as if I wasn’t there, as if what I had to say didn’t matter. I was being looked at by other men with confusion as they approached the imam, shook his hand and hugged him. “What does this little seventeen year old girl have to possibly to say?” But I decided to wait patiently. This Imam deserved to know that his message was speaking to people like me. Five minutes go by, ten minutes go by, ten men disregard me, thirteen men disregard me. I was embarrassed. As I turn my head with my eyes facing the ground, it is then the Imam finally said to one man “one second brother, this sister would like to say something.” With light tears in my eyes and a light, stuttered voice all I say is “I thought your voice was very beautiful and you did a wonderful job. Your message was mashallah wonderful.”
It is when incidents like this happen to me that I get angry because it becomes clear that justice is not being served. To this day I struggle with one question: Is lslam misogynistic or is it just the culture that is being influenced by the religion? Why was I looked at strangely by other men there? I don’t know. Why was I ignored? I don’t know. Why was it so difficult for me to congratulate a man in his mission? I don’t know. But the point is it shouldn’t be.
By Gia Chawla
Though I have hundreds of interpretations of a woman’s greatness–the most recent being the finding of a neuroscientist that a woman is more intelligent than a man–I view Rumi’s expression about woman as the best interpretation that covers both religious and natural identity of a woman.
Muhammad [pbh] said,
“Woman prevails over the wise and intelligent;
while the ignorants dominate over her.” [it is a hadith].
They [ignorants] lack tenderness and affection
because their animality prevails.
Love and gentleness are human qualities;
aggressiveness and lust are bestial.
WOMAN IS A RAY OF GOD.
She is not the earthly beloved.
You can say:
she is creative, not created. (Rumi, Mathnawi I, 2433-27)
The above lines clearly express the behavior of those who ignored Gia, because they saw in her an intelligent girl who had the guts and courage to step into the crowd of men. They were in fact dominating her because they are “the ignorants who lack tenderness and affection.”
I would say to dearest Gia, I am proud of every young and old girl or woman who is bold and courageous to express herself that “she is the Ray of God.” In the end I want to assure Gia that the behavior of men she witnessed does not advocate that “Islam is misogynistic,” rather it is the ignorance about the heart and mind of a woman and lack of understanding about the tenderness of her soul by all those men there. They might be highly educated, but I believe as a “true human being” they are still illiterate.
Mirza
Thank you so much for the lovely thought out reply. I am glad that there are some people out there who understand how, not only I feel, but many others feel; many people just don’t have the courage to say it. I feel as if this is something that shouldn’t be ignored and questioned by more people. But I really enjoyed reading the verses you cited. They were very nice.
Thank you so much
Gia