Q198 :”Children of Adam, dress well when you attend
any place or worship. Eat and drink but do not be wasteful. Surely He
does not love the wasteful. Say, who has forbidden the adornment Allah
has produced for His servants, and the wholesome means of sustenance?
Say, in the life of this world, they are (lawful) to all who believe –
to be theirs alone on the day of resurrection. Thus do we make Our
revelations clear to people of knowledge. Say, my Lord has only
forbidden indecencies, be they open or secret, and all types of sin,
and wrongful oppression, and that you should associate with Allah
anything for which He has given no authority, and that you attribute to
Allah anything of which you have no knowledge. For every nation a term
has been set. When their deadline approaches, they can neither delay
nor hasten it by a single moment.” the Qur’an “Al-A’araf” or “the
Heights” – Surah 7 verses 31-34: Commentary by Sayyid Qutb
A198 : The pagan Arabs in pre-Islamic period
insisted that people from places other than Makkah could only do their
tawaf around Ka’aba either naked or wearing clothes made in Makkah
only. When Muslims stopped that practice and did their tawaf wearing
ordinary clothes, those pagans ridiculed them. This twisted logic finds
echoes in every ignorant society, as we see in the contemporary
ignorant societies. Those pagan Arabs received their notions
concerning their nakedness or the condition for clothes from their
false lords who fooled them and manipulated their ignorance to ensure
that their supremacy in Arabia remained unchallenged. Later societies
followed the same pattern and received their notions from their priests
and chiefs. The same applies to the non-believers of today who cannot
challenge the conceits that the false lords are keen to establish. The
fashion houses and designers are the lords who present the designs
which is blindly followed by the men and women in the societies of
today. Those lords have only to nete up with their fashions and they
are slavishly observed by the multitude throughout the world. Whether
this year’s fashion or the cosmetics in vogue are suitable to a
particular person or not, it must still be adopted, or they would be
subjected to the ridicule of others who have no say in their own
affairs. The verses quoted remind of Allah’s grace when Allah puts
this question: “Who has forbidden the adornment Allah has produced for
His servants, …” At the same time Allah forbids indecencies, be they
open or secret. In following the fashions blindly, when indecency
creeps, we are guilty of following a forbidden practice. The question
of dress and fashion is not separate from Allah’s law and the way of
life He laid down for mankind. Hence, it is linked in this Surah to the
question of faith. There are indeed several aspects linking it to faith
and the divine law. It has a direct relationship with the question of
Lordship and the authority which has the power to issue legislation in
these matters that have a profound influence on morals, the economy and
other aspects of life. Fashion and dress have direct bearing on
enhancing the human qualities in man and giving prominence over carnal
qualities. Ignorance distorts concepts, values and tastes, making
nakedness, which is an animal quality, an aspect of progress and
advancement, while considering propriety backward and old-fashioned.
There can be no clearer distortion of human nature. We find some people
advocating ignorance and protesting: What has religion got to do with
fashion, cosmetics or how women dress? This is only the twisted logic
that is characteristic of ignorance everywhere and in all generations.
This question, which often appears to be only a side issue, has such a
great importance in the Islamic view. Since it relates to the question
of faith and to promoting sound human nature and preserving proper
human value, the surah concludes its discussion with a very strong and
inspiring netment that is normally used with major issues of faith.
These netments remind human beings that their term on earth is limited,
and that when it draws to a close, they cannot delay or hasten it at
all. This is a basic concept of faith which serves here as a reminder
so that dormant hearts wake up and realize that they must not let
themselves be deluded by the apparently unending life.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )