Ethics and Spirituality

Defending hijab by explaining that it is God’s command and that valuable things are kept covered is a beautiful way to offer guidance and an honorable defense of the duty to enjoin what is right. What you said is praiseworthy; it places the proud medal of enjoining what is right around your neck.

Enjoining what is right and discouraging what is wrong in a kind yet firm manner is a form of striving in God’s cause. It brings joy to God and His saints, and places the family under divine care. What you did is commendable, and helps safeguard your family’s well-being and secure God’s special grace.

Girls who wear hijab for the sake of God and listen to His words will receive a great reward in Paradise. They will be companions of Lady Fatima (SA), brighter than red rubies and precious as jewels. Paradise will be spread beneath their feet, every wish that crosses their hearts will come true, and they will receive special blessings from God.

A man’s protective jealousy toward his wife is a feeling unique to men; women do not experience it in the same way. A woman’s concern when her husband behaves in ways contrary to religion or commits sins is of greater worth than protective jealousy: it springs from love of God. For a woman, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong is both obligatory and commendable. By urging her husband to lower his gaze, she is defending God’s boundaries and striving to keep him from moral impurity.

The women cut their hands when they saw Joseph because they were overcome with intense admiration and awe, magnifying Joseph’s beauty while thinking little of themselves. Their rapture made them lose awareness and forget what they were doing; love for anything can be accompanied by a loss of reason.

If a believer becomes obsessed with women, he is stripped of the robe of faith and clothed in the garment of disbelief—in other words, he is no longer a believer. Such an obsession arises when a man takes a woman as his god, disobeys God in order to obey her, or incurs God’s anger in pursuit of her approval. A man’s love and respect for a woman, when in keeping with religious principles and good character, are among the beautiful expressions of his responsibility toward her. But excessive deference becomes undesirable when it prevents him from fulfilling his religious duties.

A wife’s willingness to put up with a bad-tempered husband and forgive her dowry is not an absolute duty; it depends on the husband’s character and conduct. Many hadiths emphasize that a man should treat his wife with honor. For a man of faith and piety, encouraging his wife to forgive her dowry is commendable, since the one who does so is promised a profitable bargain.