| Answer: I am afraid this is an incorrect inference. ‘Not
to arouse males’, is certainly not the purpose of the Hijāb. Nowhere does the
Qur’ān say so. On the contrary, the main purpose of the Hijāb, as stated by the
Qur’ān, is to purify the soul of the person who is wearing it. The Qur’ān
explicitly states that the basic purpose of Islamic directives is to achieve
inner purification:
It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger
from amongst themselves who rehearses upon them His verses and purifies them and
for this he instructs them in law and in wisdom. (62:2)
It is only a purified soul who will enter Paradise in the
Hereafter. So one must strive one’s utmost to try to cleanse oneself from things
which pollute the soul. Not wearing the Hijāb, according the Qur’ān, is a
hindrance in this purification for women. Consequently, during the Hijāb verse
of Sūrah Nūr, this objective is mentioned in the following words:
That is purer for them. (24:30) |