The Hijabs of Azerbaijan

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ الظُّلُمَاتِ وَالنُّورَ، ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ. لَا يُحْصِي عَدَدَ نِعَمِهِ الْعَادُّونَ، وَلَا يُؤَدِّي شُكْرَهُ الْمُتَحَمِّدُونَ، وَلَا يَبْلُغُ مَدَى عَظَمَتِهِ الْوَاصِفُونَ، بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ، إِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ. وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، وَلَا أَعْتَقِدُ رَبًّا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ، شَهَادَةَ مَنْ لَا يَرْتَابُ فِي شَهَادَتِهِ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ الْأَمِينُ، وَرَسُولُهُ الْمُبِينُ، أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى إِلَى خَلْقِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ، بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ، بَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ، وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ، وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ، وَكَشَفَ الْغُمَّةَ، وَجَاهَدَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ، وَعَبَدَ رَبَّهُ حَتَّى أَتَاهُ الْيَقِينُ، فَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ، وَعَلَى أَصْحَابِهِ الْمُنْتَخَبِينَ، وَعَلَى مَنْ سَارَ عَلَى نَهْجِهِمْ وَسَلَكَ طَرِيقَهُمْ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ، ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

Dear brothers and sisters, this past week the Ummah has watched footage from the school gates of Baku and elsewhere in Azerbaijan. Girls standing outside the gates of schools they had just been students the day before, but now in tears. Girls hugging their teachers goodbye. And for what reason? Not because they had broken a rule of conduct, not because of their poor academic performance, but because of their obedience to their Lord, wearing the hijab.

For the past week or so, students and teachers alike wearing the hijab have been turned away from schools across Azerbaijan. And in some schools, teachers were told to take it off or to hand in their resignation. Those who protested peacefully have been arrested. One young man was detained for thirty days for writing "Freedom for the hijab" on a school wall.

For years we have heard, and rightfully so, the call for education for girls. In recent times, girls were sent home from their schools and universities, and the world spoke. Governments spoke. Campaigners spoke. Front pages were printed. And we too say barring sisters from any learning, in any land, under any banner, is wrong, and our Deen has said so long before any charter did.

Now allow us to ask the question, dear brothers and sisters: where are those voices now? Where are the front pages for the girls of Azerbaijan? Where are the governments that lectured the world on the right of every girl to sit in a classroom? But is that right to an education only a right when faith is wrongfully invoked to prevent them? Does it suddenly become a matter of secularism and internal affairs when she is kept out because of her hijab?

This is what is called having a selective conscience: a gate that is open for some and closed for others. And Allah ’Azza wa Jal has asked something higher of you and I: "يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ", "O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for justice, witnesses for Allah," "وَلَوْ عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ", stand for justice "even if it were to be against yourselves, or against your parents, or for your relatives." Still be just. Justice that does not change depending on who is standing at the gate, that is the justice of a believer.

When anyone tells the world that the hijab and the classroom cannot sit together, let us not forget whose classroom it was. Let us not forget Allah ordained this Ummah to read. The very first word of the Qur'an to descend upon the heart of our Nabi ﷺ in the cave of Hira was: "اقْرَأْ" — "اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ", "Read, O Prophet, in the name of your Lord." But also a revelation that opens with the pen: "الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ", "the One who taught by the pen."

Let us not forget it was our scholars who carried the lamp of learning through the centuries that Europe's own historians call the Dark Ages. While libraries were far and few between elsewhere, Baghdad, Córdoba, Cairo, Fez were bursting with books. The mathematics, the medicine, the sciences now taught in those Azerbaijani classrooms were formed by the very same scholars who share the same tradition as these young girls who are now being told: "You may study it, but not as you are."

Let us not forget it was a Muslim sister who founded the oldest continuously operating university in the world. In the third century Hijrah, in the city of Fez, Fatima al-Fihriyya spent her inheritance to build al-Qarawiyyin, recognised today as the oldest existing institution of higher learning on Earth. A believing woman whose fellow believing sisters centuries later in Azerbaijan is not even allowed into the classrooms born out of her own efforts.

And so glad tidings to you, dear sister. Glad tidings for holding on, for holding on to your faith, to your obedience to the Creator, to your seeking of His pleasure alone. And this glad tiding is not coming from me. It is coming from our leader, our teacher, our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ who said: "بَدَأَ الْإِسْلَامُ غَرِيبًا وَسَيَعُودُ كَمَا بَدَأَ غَرِيبًا", "Islam began as something strange, and it will return to being strange the way it began," "فَطُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ", "and so glad tidings to the strangers."

SubhanAllah, a stranger in a Muslim land, made to feel out of place amongst her fellow believers. But was not our Nabi ﷺ himself made a stranger in Makkah, in his own city? Were not the first believers mocked and pushed out of their own lands by their own people? Sister, I say you are in the best of company. They turned her away over a garment, so listen to what Allah ’Azza wa Jal promises about the garments for those who held firm: "وَلِبَاسُهُمْ فِيهَا حَرِيرٌ", "and their clothing therein will be silk."

Brothers and sisters, our faith, our duty to humanity, and our mandate to illuminate our minds have never been at odds with one another. Never. The women of Madinah went to the Prophet ﷺ and said: "The men have taken all of your time. Set aside a day for us." And so he ﷺ did so and he taught them. Al-Shifa' bint 'Abdillah taught Hafsah radiyallahu 'anha to write at the encouragement of the Nabi ﷺ. And our mother 'A'ishah radiyallahu 'anha said: "نِعْمَ النِّسَاءُ نِسَاءُ الْأَنْصَارِ", "How excellent are the women of the Ansar," "لَمْ يَكُنْ يَمْنَعُهُنَّ الْحَيَاءُ أَنْ يَتَفَقَّهْنَ فِي الدِّينِ", "their modesty did not prevent them from gaining a deep understanding of the religion." Their haya' and their learning were never at odds with one another.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ، فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْأَحَدِ الصَّمَدِ الَّذِي لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ، وَبَعْدُ.

We have spoken about our sisters. Now let us learn from them. Three lessons I would like us to all share with one another. The first of which is they knew the why. No one stands outside a school in tears for a habit. These sisters stand there because they understood what they are wearing and who they are wearing it for. Their stance, their advocacy efforts, their steadfastness can only occur when the why is deeply rooted in one's heart. Allah ’Azza wa Jal says: "وَلِبَاسُ التَّقْوَى ذَلِكَ خَيْرٌ", "The best clothing, the best garment, is righteousness, is taqwa."

Actions: wearing the hijab, the growing of the beard, the attendance at the masjid, the giving of sadaqah, the speaking out against injustice, all is made easy when the environment around you encourages it. But what holds it in place when it is criminalised and looked down upon is taqwa. What will allow us to traverse the volatile attitudes regarding our faith and its manifestations at work, at schools, and in society at large? Taqwa firmly planted in the heart can.

So let us ask ourselves: do we know the why? The why behind all of our acts? Who we do it for? Do our children know the why? Is it limited to "because my parents said so"? Will that stand when push comes to shove? How much will our taqwa and appreciation of our Deen protect us in this world and ultimately in the Hereafter? It was taqwa that protected the Prophet ﷺ when his own family and his own tribe turned against him and drove him out of his land. And it will be our taqwa that protects us in this confusing world we find ourselves in.

The second lesson we learn is to never underestimate the young. This stand is being made by schoolgirls, many of them teenagers, at an age when the world says they should only be thinking of their exams, when their peers are distracted and those days are dictated by their phones, lost of any purpose or meaning. Yet these girls are the ones standing at the gate. They aren't waiting for anyone to come for their rescue. But this should not surprise us, because the Qur'an repeatedly places the youth at the heart of the story of Tawheed. Allah ’Azza wa Jal describes the people of the cave: "إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدًى", "They were youth who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in their guidance."

The verse says fityah, young men, not elders, not those of quote-unquote experience. They stood against a whole society, and Allah's response was to give them more guidance. Look at the youth around the Prophet ﷺ himself: 'Ali ibn Abi Talib accepted Islam as a boy. Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr, a young man who had left the wealth and the comfort behind, was sent to be the first teacher to Madinah, and through him the city was prepared for the Hijrah. Usamah ibn Zayd was appointed by the Prophet ﷺ to command an army whilst still in his teens. When some people questioned it, the Prophet ﷺ defended him and said he was fit for leadership. Our Nabi ﷺ also described the youth having a special place on the day when there is no shade but the shade of Allah. Amongst the seven that He will shade is: "شَابٌّ نَشَأَ فِي عِبَادَةِ اللَّهِ", a youth who grew up in the worship of Allah. Now why single out the youth? Because holding firm at that age against peer pressure, desire, and wanting to fit in is difficult, and Allah honours those who endure the difficult.

So the question is for us and not for them: are we empowering our youth? Are we empowering our youth with knowledge, with trust, with responsibility for them to be fityah? Or are we only giving them rules without reason, and then wonder why those rules don't hold when they are tested?

And the final lesson we learn from the situation in Azerbaijan is to stand together and not to have a selective conscience. In some schools, the boys stayed out of their class to stand in solidarity with their sisters. Parents stood with their daughters at the gate.

Brothers and sisters, this is the Ummah our Nabi ﷺ described: "مَثَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ مَثَلُ الْجَسَدِ", the believers in their mercy, in their mutual love and their compassion are like one body. When one limb aches, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever. A narration we've all heard many, many times, and what a blessing it is to see this hadith in action over and over again.

And even though the ban does not affect the young men directly, they still felt the need to stand for their sisters. How many a cause and how many an injustice do we come across and aren't moved to act due to the issue being quote-unquote irrelevant, distant, unrelated to us because it doesn't affect us? However, our kindness, our mercy and service is to all of mankind and not limited to those for it is most convenient to and personally profitable for.

And remember, brothers and sisters, no closed gate lasts forever. The early Muslims were strangers in Makkah, and within a generation the gates of the world opened to them, returning to Makkah and going on to illuminate civilisations. We ask Allah to open for our sisters in Azerbaijan gates and blessings far greater than that which they have been denied of. We ask Allah to deepen our faith so it may protect us in this world and in the next. We ask Allah to grant us all thabat and steadfastness rooted in knowledge and love of His Deen.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا. اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا صَلَّيْتَ عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَعَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ. اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا بَارَكْتَ عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَعَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ. اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنَا فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ، وَعَافِنَا فِيمَنْ عَافَيْتَ، وَتَوَلَّنَا فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ، وَبَارِكْ لَنَا فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ، وَقِنَا شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ، فَإِنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلَا يُقْضَى عَلَيْكَ، إِنَّهُ لَا يَذِلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ، وَلَا يَعِزُّ مَنْ عَادَيْتَ، تَبَارَكْتَ رَبَّنَا وَتَعَالَيْتَ، يَا ذَا الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ. اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَى نَعْمَائِهِ وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى آلَائِهِ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ، وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ.