"I know all about Izlam"
A Singing Dawa Day

By Dr. Altaf Kaiseruddin

She limped down the hospital hallway.

"Hi, how are you?" Kind of generic, but it was 1:00 am, and I was trying to finish admitting this patient so I might get some sleep before Fajr.

"Um, okay."

"Hmm, you don’t look okay. What’s the matter?" She was a part-time nurse, and I hadn’t seen her in months. Actually, I got to know her a little when she and I took care of a couple of the same patients. I saw her a couple of times after that, in the hallways, but she never answered my greetings after that.

"My, getting a little personal aren’t we, Doc?"

"Excuse me?!" I was very emphatic about my disagreement. What was she saying?

"Yeah, you see me in the halls and don’t say hi, and now you’re asking about me."

I had no idea what was going on. We had always gotten along cordially before. "What are you talking about? I’ve seen you three times in the past six months and said hi to you each time. I never heard anything from you. In fact, I was never sure if you even saw or heard me."

"Are you sure? Why are you even talking to me? Is that allowed?"

"What do you mean?" I was so confused, and being awake for the past 21 hours wasn’t helping.

"I mean can you sit here with me? What about your Izlam?" Then things turned surreal as she continued with a very facetious and condescending tone. "I know all about Izlam. How you guys treat women. Why can’t they drive or go to the mosque?" She turned to the other nurse who was standing there, "If I were Moslem, I couldn’t even sit in his presence — I would have to stand." She slowly turned back to me. "Isn’t that right?"

Subhanallah. Here was a very upset young woman with a quick mind and sharp tongue who, for some reason, decided to lecture me on women in Islam.

"Actually," I started, "Islam treats women with ..."

She wouldn’t let me continue, as she went on and on about the hypocrisy of Muslim men and the subjugation of Muslim women. Three or four other nurses gathered around the ruckus. The problem was not so much that she was wrong in the presentation of the examples, but that she attributed them to all Muslim women and especially that she thought this was all going on because of Islam. "…and I know all about the Koran."

This had to stop. And she wasn’t going to listen to me trying to be polite. "Really?" I imposed sarcastically. "Did you actually read it, or did you just hear the quotes given to you by your shaikh, Peter Jennings?" She stopped, partly because of confusion and partly because of shock. That one sentence had so much for her to digest. I never speak in that tone. I rarely interrupt people when they are speaking. I still wasn’t looking at her. Shaikh Peter Jennings?

While she was still mentally back on her heels, I took the opportunity to continue. "I think if you truly read the Qur`an, you would see a lot that you like."

Now the conversation was a bit more respectful. I figured that I had control of the situation and this should be as productive as possible. I started describing how women are seen in Islam — as equals, partners in society, protectors of men even as men are protectors of women, having the rights to keep her name, vote, own property… but she wasn’t convinced.

"But why do they have to cover? Can’t men control themselves?" Why do non-Muslims, especially non-Muslim women, feel so indignant about hijab?

I decided to change the whole tone of this exchange. "You know, my friend sings a nice song about that. It was actually written by a Muslim woman. Would you like to hear it?" She and the others looked interested.

I cleared my throat and spoke the words clearly, trying to measure the cadence dramatically.

They say, "Oh, poor girl, you're so beautiful you know
It's a shame that you cover up your beauty so."

[The group instantly focused with full attention]

She just smiles and graciously responds reassuringly,
"This beauty that I have is just a simple part of me.
This body that I have, no stranger has the right to see.
These long clothes, this shawl I wear, ensure my modesty.
Faith is more essential than fashion, wouldn't you agree?"
This hijab, this mark of piety,
Is an act of faith, a symbol for all the world to see.
A simple cloth, to preserve her dignity.
So lift the veil from your heart to see the heart of purity.

They tell her, "Girl, don't you know this is the West, and you are free?
You don't need to be oppressed, ashamed of your femininity."
She just shakes her head and she speaks so assuredly.
"See the bill-boards and the magazines that line the check-out isles,
with their phony painted faces and their air-brushed smiles?
Well their sheer clothes and low cut gowns they are really not for me.
You call it freedom, I call it anarchy."
This hijab, this mark of piety,
Is an act of faith, a symbol for all the world to see.
A simple cloth, to preserve her dignity.
So lift the veil from your heart to see the heart of purity.
Lift the veil from your heart and seek the heart of purity.

Everyone was silent. It was quite obvious that they were pondering over what they just heard. I couldn’t resist continuing. "You know, I wrote a rap a while ago. It has a part about women in it. Would you like to hear it?" They all nodded enthusiastically.

Muslim woman, dressed from head to toe,

This is her way of saying her body’s not for show

Subject to the mockery of those who don’t know

The reasons behind the way she dresses so

They don’t understand all the ramifications

The dress is for modesty and identification

Yet they seem obsessed to press her to confess,

That she’s oppressed, to which she answers, "Don’t mess with my dress!"

Western women pride themselves on being "liberated"

Forgetting all the recent conditions that they hated

A hundred fifty years in these States United

Women couldn’t even vote, only men decided

They still don’t get equal pay for equal work

This leads them to believe that all men are jerks

A long time ago Islam gave us the sight

To see that men and women have equal rights

Before Islam, women’s voices went unheard

To even think that they were human was absurd

Islam came in way back when and corrected this

It doesn’t seem right today to object to this

Especially when women here pose practically nude

To sell everything from cars to frozen food

This treatment of women is to what we object

We say that wearing Hijab leads to self-respect

Subhanallah, they all sat and stood with looks on their faces which signaled a great shift in understanding and a whole new perspective. Or maybe I just saw what I wanted to see at 2:15 am. Allahu a’lam. At any rate, now I really had to finish and try to get a little rest before Fajr. Everyone thanked me for the discussion and went back to work. I moved to a different area to continue writing.

A while later, as I was finishing up, the first nurse (with the limp) approached again. "I just wanted to apologize."

"Don’t worry about ..."

"No, let me finish. I need to say this."

"No, you don’t."

"Yes, I do. You see, the truth is I have been avoiding you. Ever since 9/11…" She described how she was in the Army reserve; how a Muslim man made unwanted advances even though he knew she was married and had children; how she was among those sent by the US to help "Moslems" in Bosnia. It was the strangest combination of knowledge and ignorance - and all of it was sincere.

I had no idea what to say. How could this mindset have come about? And what could be done about it? What could I possibly do? May Allah help us all.