Head Cover

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Science Behind the head covering

1 See Volume One, Chapter Thirty Two for this Sunnah

2 A non-Metallic element.

3 A system of medicine that relies upon the use of only ‘natural’ substances for the treatment of diseases rather than drugs.

4 A system of treating diseases by manipulation, mainly of the vertebrae.

O Allah (The Exalted) bless our master Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) whenever those who remember him do so.

The moral duty of wearing the veil in Islam is an often-discussed topic among Muslim women. However, little has been written about science behind the veil. There are, in fact, a number of health benefits that wearing the veil can provide.

Loss of heat

Protecting the head is very important. Research shows that 40-60% of body heat is lost through the head, so persons wearing head coverings during cold months are protected.

Chinese and Muslim medical texts take this concept even further. In the Hua Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic on Internal Medicine), wind is said to cause sudden changes within the body, and shaking, swaying, and other movements that potentially upset the body’s equilibrium; thus, creating bad health. These texts attribute the common cold to wind elements entering the body and causing the typical symptoms of sneezing and a runny nose.

Cold weather

In the traditional Islamic medical texts of Al-Jawziyya, we can find numerous references to the “four elements” of fire, water, air, and earth, and how these affect the body in adverse ways. In particular, we are advised to stay away from Drafts and to protect our heads in wind, breezes, Drafts, and cold weather. All outdoor workers should wear some sort of head covering for this reason.

Hot weather

Protecting the head is even more important in warm weather. V.G. Rocine, a prominent brain researcher, has found that brain phosphorus2 melts at 108 degrees; a temperature that can be easily reached if one stays under the hot sun for any length of time without a head covering. When this happens, irreversible brain damage, memory loss and loss of some brain functions can result. Although this example is extreme, brain damage can still be measured in small degrees from frequent exposure to and overheating of the head. Bernard Jensen, a naturopath3 and chiropractor4, states that this is because the brain runs on the mineral phosphorus, which is affected by heat.

A head covering should be worn by all public workers serving society to ensure cleanliness and purity. Workers in a number of professions wear “head covers” – nurses, fast food workers, deli counter workers, restaurant workers and servers, doctors, health care providers, and many more. In fact, when we compare the number of workers who cover their heads to the number who do not, we find that more people probably cover their heads than do not.

Visual Signals

Further studies cited in Encyclopedia Britannica show that how a female presents herself to society falls under the category of ritualised behaviour through which animals provide specific information to other animals, usually members of its own species. Virtually all higher animals, including humans, use displays to some extent to do this, and the best-known displays are visual ones. Some biologists actually restrict the term display to refer to visual signals or gestures. These visual signals, which in animals can be simply a bright colour or plume, encourage attraction. In humans, they are usually exhibited in ornamental hair, make up, or clothing. 2 www.GardensOfSunnah.co.uk

In our society, most of the time attractive hairstyles and clothing are worn for the purpose of making the adorner more attractive. The ever-changing variations in fashion tend to affect the brain because it typically has trouble constantly adjusting to changing shadows and forms in the world. Reasonably then, through “lateral inhibition,” the brain automatically simplifies these images into the unconscious message that attractive hair and clothing are meant to attract. Joining these two concepts together, we can see how the human male could receive the signal of “attraction” from the brain before he has enough time to “block” it by “lowering his gaze.”

Stress Having to re-form an image already processed by the lateral inhibition network is a cause of stress for most people. Doing this day after day, after seeing many “displays,” potentially causes a great cumulative stress on society.

Stress causes the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system5, resulting in an outpouring of the hormones epinephrine6, norepinephrine7, and glucocorticoids8 that are essential to man.

5 One of the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system, having fibres that leave the central nervous system via a chain of ganglia close to the spinal cord, in the thoracic and lumbar regions.

6 An important hormone secreted by the medulla of the adrenal gland.

7 A hormone, closely related to a adrenaline and with similar actions, secreted by the medulla of the adrenal gland and also released as a neurotransmitter by sympathetic nerve ending.

8 Any steroid hormone synthesized by the adrenal cortex.

9 A swelling in the floor of the lateral ventricle of the brain.

Present day stresses arise from many things; among these are the vast amounts of visual and physical input we are bombarded with in this “information age” of personal freedom. The problem we face in this is that the body still continues to respond in the same fashion, releasing large amounts of these hormones, which can be very harmful. They can cause an increase in blood pressure, damage muscle tissue, infertility, growth inhibition; damage the hippocampus9, and suppression the immune system.

The two most effective solutions to this problem are, first, to convince the advertising industry, and society as a whole, to alter the presentation of women to our males. The second and more practical way is to simply encourage women to Dress modestly, which will ensure that they do not send inappropriate visual signals to men. We see the many disadvantages it puts on people and society when one does not follow the command of Allah (The Exalted) and the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).

Section One

Shaking hands with a strange woman!

What happens when a man shakes hands with a woman? Science says that there are more than five million cells which cover the surface of human body. Their function is to transfer senses & feeling to the brain. When a man shakes hands with a woman their feelings gets activated. Even the sense of smelling has a role in activating the feeling of sexual desire. The sense of hearing is also connected with the centres of human desires. If a woman hears words which reflect desire from man then what she has heard may move her desires. In this regard Qur’an says “Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their Modesty: that will make for greater Purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And says to the believing woman that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty, that they should not display their beauty and ornaments…” The above verses show that both men and women were addressed in equal terms to guard their various senses so that to reduce the probabilities of evils in the society. In other words, modern Anatomy is now discovering the roles of sense in instigating human desires whereas Qur’an is protecting the believers from such evils since fourteen centuries. Islam wants to save a person from anything that leads to corruption; hence even being alone with a strange woman who you are not directly related to is not permissible, let alone shaking hands. 3 www.GardensOfSunnah.co.uk

Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) has related the Messenger (may Allah be bless him and grant him peace) said, “An eye that looks at an unknown man or woman commits adultery, and a woman who perfumes herself and then passes by a gathering of men is no better.” ii

Section Two

Intermingling with two sex

The Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “A man should not be alone with a strange woman unless there is a Mehram”. The term “Mehram” means the husband or the person who cannot marry the subject woman for example, her father, brother, uncle, sister’s son, brother’s son. It is a well known fact that the unbridled in term intermingling between strange men and women instigates lower animal instincts in both sexes to such an extent that it can threat the existence and entity of the proper moral and good human society. An American scholar called George Balsoshi mentioned in the book “The Sexual Revolution”, that the Ex president of America, George Kenedy has stated in 1962 that the future of America is in danger, because its youth are degenerated, liquid and sunk deep in reckless animal desires. They are irresponsible therefore they cannot come up to the responsibility, which they have to bear. He said that among every seven young men who apply for recruitment in Army six are unfit, because their excessive moral degeneration made them both physically and psychologically unfit.”

A Lebanese Newspaper stated that coeducation in schools and universities makes female students think only about their lower emotions and the ways of responding and quenching the animal instincts in them.” The newspaper went on saying that more than sixty percent of female students failed in exams and the basic reason behind their failure is that they think more about sex than about the academic tasks or even more than thinking about their future.”

This confirms what Dr. Alkas Karlil said. Karlil says that “When sexual instinct arises in Man, a kind of hormone is secreted in the blood. This hormone moves to the brain and paralyses the ability to reason …” Therefore, those who advocate intermingling of two sexes actually are not guided by the brain and proper reasoning but by their lower animal instincts. They do not take lesson from the moral degeneration that affects other nations who enhanced unbridled personal freedom and illegal relations between man and woman.”

A report of American Congress has shown that the crimes committed by the young adolescents are caused mainly by unbridled intermingling of the youth from the two sexes. All these and much more are clearly revealing the advantage of adhering to the sayings of the Prophet of Islam (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) the above mentioned saying of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) can be taken as a base of establishing and defining a proper, moral and really human social relation in general and between man and woman in particular. Unbridled intermingling is one of the main reasons behind the disappearance of the sense of shy, which was a shield that protects the woman from wolf like men. Unbridled intermingling between man and woman has given way to the spread of blind imitation under the name of the so-called civilisation and progressiveness that confused the situation and made men like women and vice versa. It became evident that unbridled intermingling leads to abnormal behaviours and crimes. 4 www.GardensOfSunnah.co.uk

i By Karima Burns (MH, ND); 19/12/2000

ii Abu Dawood

iii Muslim

Section Three

Body

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) once said, “Two kinds of folks would be in the worst situation in Hell. Firstly, those officials who would carry with them whip’s looking like the tails of cows, and they would use them for whipping people. Secondly, those women who would be naked despite wearing clothes they would attract strangers (men) towards them and will themselves be attracted to them. Their heads will be hanging on a side like the humps of fast camels. They will neither enter Paradise nor would they even smell the fragrance of it despite the fact that the fragrance of Paradise will reach far distances.” iii

Science confirmed that the nakedness of women, their body displaying & their moving in an obscene shape is a disaster on them. The current statistics showed that there is a clear spread of the malignant cancer which affects the naked and displayed part of the women bodies particularly those women who dress in short clothing.

It was published in the British Medical Magazine that “the melanoma malignant cancer which was one of the rarest cancers is now spreading among women. The case of this type of cancer is increasing among young women. It affects their legs.” The medical publication went on saying that “the main cause behind the spread of short dress & fashions that expose the body of women to the rays & light of the sun. Moreover, the transparent dress and legs do not help in avoiding this type of cancer.” The Medical Magazine appealed to the environment doctors to participate in collecting information about this type of cancer, because it is becoming an epidemic phenomenon. This reminds us with the Qur’anic sign which says in the tongue of the obstinate unbeliever “O God, if this is indeed The Truth from Thee, Rain down on us a shower of stones from the sky, or send us a grievous penalty”

Now the torture has come down in the form of a malignant cancer. It is caused by the exposition of women’s body to the sunrays and ultraviolet rays for a long time it affects the whole body but with different proportion. Initially, it appears as a dark; small spot on either the feet or the legs, and some times in the eyes. Then it spreads all over the body. It attacks the lymph knots10 at the upper part of the thigh. It also attacks blood and invades the liver & destroys it. It may settle in all the organs of the body such as bones, the belly & perhaps the kidneys. If it attacks the kidneys then the patient will experience urination problems as a result of inner destruction of the kidneys. It may get transferred to the child in the womb of his mother. However, this disease does not allows its patient to survive for a long time & it does not respond to surgical treatment like other types of cancers nor it responds to treatment by rays sessions like some other types of cancers. Therefore have we realised the wisdom behind Islamic legislation which aimed to protect women not only from passers by but also from skin disease. The subject Islamic legislation called upon women to cover their bodies properly & with loose and not narrow and not transparent clothes. Therefore, Islamic uniform for women protect them from physical diseases, from teasing in the streets & from the torture of life on the judgement day.

10 The presence in the urine of lymph.

May Allah (The Exalted) give us the ability to follow the Sunnah closely, Ameen.