What If?

What if we all followed the rules of Islam to perfection?

Women wouldn’t have the obsessive need to validate themselves by appealing to men. We wouldn’t spend hours making ourselves look good so that males could be attracted to us (please note this does not apply to making yourself look attractive for your husband). We wouldn’t put ourselves through physical and emotional pain just so that we can experience love and a feeling of belonging. We wouldn’t try so hard to make unhealthy relationships work. We wouldn’t risk our psychological well-being and more importantly our faith and religious beliefs simply so that we don’t become “old maids who never marry”.

What would women be like then, if the rules of Islam were followed to perfection?

It’s simple really, we’d be like Queens. Precious pearls protected by beautiful shells. Men would have to first get permission to speak to us and even then, the interaction would ensure that they do not take advantage of us. Men would have to be straight up and honest because while they might get away with playing on the sympathy of us soft and caring females, our male relatives will be able to see right through deceit, lies and all types of falsehood. We wouldn’t have to make ourselves look fake or spend hours trying to look like “perfect” supermodels. Instead, we would realize that we are a whole human being and that our piety, our character and our intellect is far more crucial than the way we look. We wouldn’t care if some human being was impressed with us, because we’d know that we should impress our Creator above anything else, and we’d be certain that when we impress our Creator then He will put the right people in our lives.

In short, we wouldn’t have to try so hard, we’d be happier, we’d be more accepting of ourselves, we’d be grateful for all that we are and our self-esteem would be stable and healthy (as opposed to continuously receiving a bashing from none other than ourselves).

Islam has given women importance and respect, we have traded that importance for the illusion of love and attention.  So instead of spending our time becoming closer to Allah Almighty, we spend our time hopelessly waiting for messages from strange men, for signs and signals to show us that he’s interested, for the time he will say he loves us and wants to spend his life with us, and more often than not the waiting is accompanied with the obsessive need to make ourselves better, just so that a mere mortal can be interested in us and give us love and attention, because somehow, somewhere, the message that a woman can only be validated or important if she has a man who adores her, has managed to be planted into our minds.  

But what if we focused instead on pleasing the One who will never let us down?

What if we tried hard each day to make ourselves better for Allah Almighty, Glory be to Him?

What if we stopped telling ourselves that we have failed if we did not manage to “hook the perfect catch”?

What if we understood that by forgoing the rules of Islam, we as women are giving away the royalty we have been afforded, by none other than the Creator! And by letting go of this we open the doors to being abused and used, physically and emotionally.

What if we reminded ourselves that we are beautiful enough for the One who has made us and we don’t need to have the painful makeovers or incessant diets, or waxing and threading and lazer treatment and all the other things we do that a sane person wouldn’t voluntarily put themselves through.

What if we gave ourselves more credit and focused on ourselves as a whole being?  

What if we truly understood the elevated role of a woman in Islam?

I for one can vouch that once we begin to understand the way Islam intends for a woman to be, then everything else becomes insignificant and instead of restlessness your life is filled with peace.

May Almighty Allah be our guide and help us to always see truth beyond the falsehood, and may we have the patience to accept what Allah has willed for us, Inshaa-Allah Ameen! 

Image 1 from here

Image 2 from here