This article was originally posted in reply to “What Not To Wear“.

 

Peace,

 

I have read your article and I see that you have made some effort in the issue, yet I found that although you are trying to handle this issue intelligently and wisely, and even getting a translation and some pictures as evidence, although you did that, you were misinformed by the translation you used, or may be the translator’s concept, and of course, misled by some Muslim practices rather than Islam’s error, then you have built your article on this understanding. If you bare with me, I might be able to help you get a better view of the issue. First, I am here quoting some translations of the same verses you mentioned.

 

 

Yusuf Ali translation:

 

33:59

 

O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

 

Pickthal translation:

 

33:59

 

O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

 

Palmer translation:

 

33:59

 

O thou prophet! tell thy wives and thy daughters, and the women of the believers, to let down over them their outer wrappers; that is nearer for them to be known and that they should not be annoyed; but God is forgiving, merciful.

 

Briefly, the original Arabic words are “ yodneen alayhen galabeebehen”, the word “galabeeb” is the plural of “gelbab” which is a dress or a garment, “galabeebehen” means “their garments”, and “alayhen” can mean something like “to them” or “on them”, as for the first word, and as you might have noticed, different translations are striving to find a corresponding word to the original Arabic word mentioned in the Qur’an, “yodneen” which can imply the verb “to lower” and “to make closer”.

 

The problem lies in the concept of the translator, would he choose to find a corresponding word to the Arabic “word”, or would he find a word corresponding to the “meaning” that “he” understood from the Arabic verse, and here lies the great dilemma of translation, first, Arabic is not an easy language, and its vocabulary can be many times as much as any other language, with each word having its specific complex meaning, so the English language does not have an equivalent word to every Arabic one and hence cannot fully demonstrate the Arabic meanings.

 

The second problem, is that certain side issues in Islam, have minor controversial explanations and interpretations, this is one of them, most of the great Islamic scholars understood this verse as to describe a long non-exposing dress, and do not see in it an order to cover the face, a minority sees the opposite, and that the verse means to cover the whole body including the face, which actually contradicts other documented Islamic sources that assure that women during the Prophet Muhammad’s time (may peace and blessings be upon him) were not covering there faces, only wearing decent long clothes that cover their body and their hair. Back to the translation method, if the translator believes in the second opinion and sees no English word exactly corresponding to the Arabic one, he may choose to translate his “understanding” and his “opinion” of the verse, and that’s a major issue in the constant misunderstanding of the veil issue in Islam.

 

You might have noticed also that there are no “wolves” in the verse !! And these three translations understood the original Arabic word as to be “recognised “or “known”, which implies to be known as decent or pious, to be known as non-promiscuous; due to the prior-to-Islam Arabic situation where prostitution and adultery were very common and had many forms, hence God asks women to make a prominent different decent appearance.

 

The verse does not mention any word meaning “free women” or “slaves”, the translator used “his” understanding to clarify what “he” thought the meaning was, you may find “free women” or “slaves” mentioned in some explanation of the verse, but NOT in the Arabic text as your quoted translation implies, and more than that, even the scholars who previously “explained” this verse as that “decent women should be known from slaves” were referring to a real situation that was present at that time; that many slave women were seducing and inviting men to have sex with them, and hence these scholars understood the verse as to tell pious women that they should make a different decent appearance that they are to be known and recognised with, so that they are not thought of in a wrong way or treated in a wrong way and hence harassed by impious men.

 

And by the way, slavery was handled wisely by Islam, and though deeply rooted in the preislamic culture for ages, Islam gradually totally rooted it out.

 

As for the other verse related to the veil:

 

Pickthal translation:

 

24:31

 

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands……

 

Palmer translation:

 

24:31

 

And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts, and display not their ornaments, except those which are outside; and let them pull their kerchiefs over their bosoms and not display their ornaments save to their husbands…..

 

Yusuf Ali translation:

 

24:31

 

And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands…..

 

The same applies to this verse, God asks women to be polite in how they look to others, and to draw their veils/pull their kerchiefs over their bosoms; the common dominant understanding that almost all major scholars agree upon is that the headscarf should naturally extend from the side of the head to the side of the face and ears to the side of the neck to below the chin to the neck’s front and down till the the chest to cover the bosom or the breasts and the part above them (including cleavage and neck); obviously, the common understanding is to spare the face from the covering, yet, some minority insist that the headscarf should come from “above” the head to the front of the face to the chest, which is seen by the other group as totally illogical, since the verse does not say that and since women at the prophet’s era did not do that, and since she will not be able to see.

 

Finally, it is unfortunate that Islam is so misunderstood, and that some Muslims present a very bad model, so I don’t blame you for your view, I just hope I made it clearer for you. That’s the religious opinion that I endorse and adhere to, me like the majority of Islamic scholars and Muslims, as for my personal opinion, you might find my article “Naked in a Different Color” interesting.

 

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