 When I would go to the masjid and hear different khutbaz and attend conferences and listen to lectures about Islam, very often the examples that were given in all of those lectures were about the amazing men companions. I wanted to be like Khalid ibn Walid, as he was the head of the military. I wanted to be like Bilal, as he would give the adhan. I wanted to be like these incredible men that I kept hearing. All of these men who changed the world and revolutionaries and did all these things to help this ummah. And then I would also hear in very specific scenarios about the women companions. I would hear about Aisha radiallahu anha and how she was extremely modest, masha'Allah. And I would hear about Khadija radiallahu anha and how she was the most amazing wife radiallahu anha. And I would hear about Faltima radiallahu anha and how she was the most amazing mother. And may Allah SWT have mercy on all of them and enter them into the highest paradise and honor us with being with them. Absolutely, these were incredibly important roles and examples that they set for us, all of which are critical and important. But at 16, I didn't know how to explain to people modesty and hijab. And I didn't know how to take Khadija and Faltima as role models in motherhood and in marriage when I was not thinking about those things at 16 in high school. I needed to know how to navigate being asked to a dance or someone making fun of me wearing hijab or being too embarrassed to pray on campus when other people could see me. I didn't know how to navigate when someone would tell me, you can't be like Khalid radiallahu anha because as a woman, you need to be more quiet. As a woman, you are too outgoing. As a woman, that is not modest. It wasn't modest that I was a secondary black belt. It wasn't modest that I love to be on skateboards. It wasn't modest that I love to play basketball. My entire personality was immodest according to the messages that I was receiving. And that really affected the way not only did I see hijab, but also myself and my relationship with Allah SWT. And I'd like to ask all of you to name for me, in just a few seconds, companions who are men. I want us to honor our men who have taught us radiallahu anha. And let's see how many names we can come up with in a few seconds. Yes. Muhammad. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Yes, the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But there was actually a companion who was named after the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So I'm going to count that as a companion who was named Muhammad. Give me another one. Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu. Bilal radiallahu anhu, Uthman. Radiallahu anhu. Anas. Omar. Azubayr. Zaid. We mentioned Uthman. Okay, so maybe that was 20 seconds and we got to 12 names. Let's do the same thing for a woman. You can't repeat the same one twice. Yes. Khadija radiallahu anha. What did you say? Malala. Radiallahu anha. Thank you. Faltima. Radiallahu anha. Esmat. There were so many Esmat. So let's count that as like five. Okay, yeah. Who did you say? Aisha. Aisha. Nusayba. Umsalama. Umsalama. Sumaya. Umhabiba. Faltima. Faltima was not a companion of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But maybe there was someone named Maryam amongst the companions that I don't know of. Zaynab radiallahu anha. There were multiple. Masha'Allah. What I want you to understand is that so many of you grew up in my generation where we didn't really hear about women and you chose to learn about who they are so you can teach your daughters and your sons. So many of you realized where the problem was for you and your faith. And instead of saying, I'm not going to stay connected to this. You said, I need to teach my children something different. And in teaching your sons and your daughters. Masha'Allah. Your daughters who are here and shouting out the names with such pride and such honor. You have shifted a narrative generationally for us. Insha'Allah. Where I pray that none of these young girls who are here will ever have my story or maybe some of your stories where you would go to the message and you wouldn't see yourself in the companions of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Now, of course, all of your experiences are different. Some of you grew up in different countries and different cities. And so maybe this is all you heard. Maybe women scholars was all you interacted with. Maybe a woman were in every aspect of Islamic history for you. And for all of you, Masha'Allah, what a privilege and a gift to have had that experience and that experience learning that this exists is something that shifted my entire focus when I started really focusing on studying Islam and women's issues within Islamic law. But this idea of not knowing who the woman companions really were made it very hard for me to connect to Hijab specifically. Because I knew we wore it for modesty, but what did that actually mean? What does that mean, modesty? And because I couldn't see who the woman companions were in their personalities, I just thought I wasn't a very good Muslim. I mean, I had a very outgoing personality. I was a very assertive person. Does that mean that I can't be pious too? Does that mean that I also cannot follow the true piety of a Muslim woman? Because all I was being told is that true piety is someone who is very calm, who is very quiet and who only speaks when necessary. That was the message that I was given in certain religious spaces that I attended. But as I learned about who the woman actually are, I realized that that is a very culturally influenced concept of what it means to be a Muslim woman. Because when you look at the names that you mentioned to Maraqallah, we had over 30 women companions who participated physically in battles with the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. There were also women who went and cared for those who were in battle, who were nurses and who were helping the wounded and who served food and who gave water. Those were other women too. But over 30 who participated physically in battles, that means they were visible, that means they were there. They were very strong. And then a specific example like Nuslaib R.A., who's probably the most famous warrior. Many of you have heard the name Nuslaib R.A. Did you know that she's one of the narrators of a hadith related to wearing hijab? When we talk about the women companions and how they interacted with hijab, their understanding of hijab developed over time. Because hijab was not revealed until between the 12th and the 14th year after the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam received the revelation. Which means for the first part of revelation for over 10 years, 12 years, up to 14 years in Mecca in the beginning of Medina, hijab was not a requirement. What were they focusing on instead? Aisha R.A. said that had the Qur'an come down with just obligations from the beginning, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, no one would have done it. In the beginning all the focus was was mentoring the men and the women around the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to develop a depth of connection with Allah and to have a yearning and understanding of accountability and for the hereafter. So when we're talking about Rufayda R.A. and how she was the most skilled surgeon amongst the companions and that's why the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam chose her to be the one to take care of Sa'ad R.A. when he was injured in the battle of Ahzab. We're doing this with an understanding of a mentorship that she's not just doing this for the moment, she's doing this for everything that represents taking care of her brother as a surgeon. When we look at Khansa R.A. and how the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam praised her poetry. She's not just doing poetry for fun. She's doing poetry for the sake of Allah S.A. and she's talking about loss. She's talking about the loss and the mourning of those that she loved who had died. When we look at Um Hiram R.A. the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would visit her and he would take naps at her home and there's different discussions amongst the scholars on how she was related to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But one time he woke up and he was very very happy and maybe you know this narration. What happened when he woke up so happy, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? And he had a dream and in this dream he dreamt that his companions were going to be sailing on a boat and wearing crowns like kings. What did she say in response? Yes, she asked him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to pray for her to be a part of them. This expedition is one which is going to include fighting and she didn't say to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Wow, that's amazing, which it is. She said, how can I be there? What can I do to be there? And this is one of the miracles of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. It's a prophecy of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because he not only made to offer her in one narration and in another narration he told her Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that you will be amongst them. Do you know how old she was when she joined? She was 75 years old. Decades after this moment the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had already passed away. She and her husband, Abad and Ibn Salamit were with the army that were part of opening Jerusalem. They were part of Muslims going in with peace with the keys handed to them from the head of the Christians who was in the Altari of Jerusalem looking up Spannallah over the wall. He's the one holding the key saying that this key belongs in their books to someone who was described exactly as Omar Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he gave the key to Omar Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and they entered Masjid al-Aqsa, Um Hiram Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. After this in a prophecy that came true this dream that came true of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam she wanted to join and she did and no one said you know you're 75 now that was like a while ago that you wanted this maybe reconsider because no age either young or older is one which shouldn't serve Allah SWT in every capacity possible. So Um Hiram had a sister named Um Sulaym and Um Sulaym was standing one time at a battle and she had a dagger and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is like why do you have a dagger? And she's like so I can be here she wanted to be there to defend she wanted to be there to be a part of supporting the Muslim community and the most vulnerable because it's not just about Muslims it's about anyone who needs justice and when I learned their stories I started realizing that these women also were women that I could see myself in some of them were quiet and some of them were loud some of them were shy some of them were outgoing some of them worked some of them worked at home only some of them were full-time mothers and I finally started to see that I am actually one of those types of women a woman who is nuanced a woman who sometimes wants to be out there and other times needs time alone with my Lord a woman who gets scared sometimes like they sometimes did but they were steadfast we see their examples tangibly in the woman of Ghazza today that those women are wearing what many of us wear at home our prayer garments when we don't want to put our whole hijab on that we go outside with our prayer garments I saw a woman in Ghazza and I wonder always is she still alive that she was sitting in a room with her young child and this is in the beginning before every building was just completely decimated and she's sitting and she says we wear our salah clothes ready at any moment to go back to Allah that type of dedication to wear it 24 seven in your house of course it's an honor to wear hijab obviously but don't you get hot in it sometimes aren't there times you go home and you literally I do I'm tired of wearing it I just need some space I need a moment to breathe they're wearing it 24 seven knowing that it might be their last breath that level of dedication is something that we see embodied today from the example of the woman companions radiallahu anhum when they in their culture used to dress it was common for men and women to cover their hair culturally on a cultural level one of the questions I'm often asked is why doesn't the Quran say cover your hair why isn't the word hair in the verse but look at the reality culturally men and women actively covered their hair you can imagine it's super hot haven't you ever been or maybe some of you have been to Saudi or to a country where men wear long soaps and then they wear something on their head and from the back they thought that they were a woman it's happened to me so many times I'm like oh that's a woman I'm like it's actually not a woman that culture where men and women dressed in very modest baggy loose clothing was also something that was part of the culture prior to the revelation but what would the woman used to do they used to cover their hair a bit here not fully and then they would throw back their garment so this whole area was exposed their neck, their chest all of this their ears so what does the Quran say there's two different verses talking about hijab and neither one says the word hijab hijab today is a cultural understanding of how we call what we wear over our heads but the Quran uses the word khimar and khimar is basically a synonym for hijab as we use it today but the khimar in the verse that's being described is telling these women companions to take what they already have over their head and to bring it forward to cover this area to cover this area and it's mentioned in the description of the verse what to cover now if I'm going to ask you right there to put on your hat can you stand up for me for a second you you know you but also you both of you yes both of you yes take a stand oh all three everyone everyone anyone who wants to take a stand so I'm going to ask our dear sister right here okay sister who's wearing a blue hijab what's your name Maryam may Allah bless you or mother for choosing literally the best name in the world for women no offense to everyone else may Allah bless you and your family and everyone I mean and the one next to you Sadia is your name beautiful name too Mashallah and Sarah also beautiful Mashallah okay I want you to watch Maryam Maryam pretend to have a hat pretend you have a hat in your hands hold your hat can you put your hat on perfect Sadia can you put your hat on okay Sarah can you put your hat on okay why did all of you put it on your heads I didn't specify put it on your head why did you do that that's what you use it for you put a hat on your head okay thank you may Allah bless you all so much thank you three different people before it's proven in the whole entire world that I wouldn't need to tell you to put your hat on your head because you're not going to put it on your elbow you are not going to put it on your knee when you're holding a hat you will put it on your head and the people who are learning the Qur'an in that moment are being told to take what's already on their head and cover the parts that are not covered they understand what that means now if we're going to say okay but that's not clear enough we can talk about the Hadith that address it too but the point is when they heard this verse their response as described by Aisha and Um Salam which is very important the people who are explaining to us what happened when Hejab was worn are women every narration many narrations that we have that describe what people did when the verse was revealed were narrated by women themselves so we have to understand how did women understand Hejab when that verse was revealed the women narrated that the women responded by taking clothing including the curtains on their windows and just grabbing it and covering their hair now you're going to see in some translations of the Qur'an that it says everything except for one eye maybe you've come across a translation like that before that is a translator putting their interpretation of what Hejab is into the verse in parentheses which is very confusing if you don't know that and you're reading a translation which is what happened to me as I was reading a translation especially because the narration that this particular translation is based on is not an authentic narration in the first place but the point is that sometimes when we are talking about Hejab we are going to see people share their personal understanding of what Hejab is for example there are other verses in the Qur'an talks about Jilbab I grew up thinking that a Jilbab which is a dress that's kind of just worn in one overflow dress is the form of dress that I need to dress in as a Muslim woman because the Qur'an says Jilbab but the Jilbab we see today is not the Jilbab that women would wear in the time of the Prophet so I said that that's not what they would dress like our concept of Jilbab has evolved and now Jilbab is a very cultural dress with a particular culture so when we see someone from Malaysia or from Pakistan or from other parts of the world not wearing that in their cultural dress does that mean all of these millions of people are wrong in the way they wear Hejab no it means we have not understood that Jilbab does not mean an Arabic cultural dress it just is talking about what needs to be covered in general in these areas of the body in a loose way that is not transparent part of again the concept of bringing in interpretation that's based in culture in Islam is that many times we have been taught that very muted colors are more pious or for example black specifically is more righteous because it is a dark color that doesn't attract attention have you ever heard something similar to that before what color did Aisha wear when she was in Ihram tell me sorry it wasn't white it was red very similar to our dear sister and what she is wearing yes both of these dear sisters masha'Allah and a number of other women including me Aisha in Ihram she wore saffron she wore the color of saffron there is another narration of Um Salam and how wearing the color of saffron so when we are talking about hijab and what it looks like and the ideal Muslim woman and a particular image comes into our mind I want us to have a conversation with ourselves internally and recognize that that image may have been one that someone else has painted for us but that's not necessarily the image of the Quran and the sunnah of love for us and the women who were because color for example is defined by culture is defined by orf in Islamic law if you go to a country where every single person is wearing black and you choose to wear red it may not be haram to wear red but it's not advisable to wear red because you may send a signal that other people understand in a different way than everyone wearing black does that make sense so cultural context is very important Islam always takes into account the culture of a region as long as it doesn't interfere with specifics in Islamic law or especially of course no doubt in Aqidah that cannot be changed so when looking at these general rules when it comes to Islam and it comes to Hijab we see that one time there was a narration of Asmat radiallahu anha and she came to the Prophet's voice and he told her basically that she should cover in clothing that's not translucent and she can show her face in her hands have you ever come across this narration it's like the narration that was taught for Hijab what's the problem with the narration what? say it so loud for me okay sorry apparently we did not have the same childhood what happened in my childhood in my teenagehood is that this narration suddenly everyone knew that it was not fully authentic and we had learned it to be the only narration in which Hijab was established and so all of a sudden everyone was confused well the Quran doesn't say the word hair and all of us who were not native Arabic speakers and were not Arab and didn't know how to use anything other than translation would come across this one narration that's no longer authentic and we would say okay does that mean Hijab is actually not what the women companions did but we have other narrations like Nuslaibah the warrior and she's talking to another woman named Hafsa and she is saying that she witnessed that a woman came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam she asked him saying that she would go to battle and she accompanied her husband also in battle I think something happened to the mic and when they would go she didn't have a hijab to wear like a whole thing to wear so she didn't know what to do now what's so interesting about this narration is that Hafsa when Nuslaibah is telling this to her when Nuslaibah is telling this to her thank you I'm just going to try when Nuslaibah is telling this to her the way that she reacts the way that she responds is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's answer is not to say then stay home the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's answer is to say borrow something from her sister because she still should witness the good she should still come out and participate the good she should still be involved over and over the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam focused on how women are going to be involved in different spaces different ways that works for you your circumstance and how you can contribute to the community and one of the ways that the women companions navigated this relationship with Allah how they felt this ability to do what the women in Ghazza are doing is their interaction with the Quran many times here we focus on hijab as the most important act of worship that's ever existed I was in a masjid where a woman came and wanted to convert and she said that she wants to take her shahada we all made a circle around her and she wasn't wearing hijab she had just walked in to give her shahada and a woman went and she had gotten a hijab there from the masjid she came and just put it on her head I thought this was so rude number one she's about to give her shahada let her focus on her moment of shahada but to what message does this give to this dear sister before even witnessing that Allah is your lord and that the prophet peace be upon him is the final messenger of the revelation hijab more important than you even coming to Allah hijab before you even come to Allah hijab do we have 12 to 14 years of mentorship for our sisters do our sisters feel like they can walk into a masjid space and be who they are navigate who they are bring our concerns and our worries and our fears and our trauma and all of it and say this is who I am or do we hide parts of ourselves because we know we may not be accepted do we hide parts of ourselves because we don't know how people are going to react to who we really are and sometimes that's natural sometimes you don't know everyone but do our children have a space that they know that they can fully explore the questions of their identity and still be welcome Alhamdulillah, MCC is an excellent example of a masjid that does do all of those things masha'Allah but the fact is that the prophet peace be upon him his companions would learn the Quran and they would live the Quran and they would think and interact with the Quran outside of the space of hijab but they had their struggles too the companions of the prophet they struggled with things like drinking they struggled with things that were major major sins and what we see in their time period is something interesting there's a statement of Aisha where she says that if the prophet peace be upon him we're here today we're seeing women today that he would not have said that women should not be prevented from going to the masjid she would have said that women should be prevented from going to the masjid have you heard that statement before some of you have so this is Aisha a scholar a scholar as a woman saying what women are doing today is so bad that the prophet peace be upon him would have said prevent women from going to the masjid this is my question are we worse as a society now than we would they would have been at the time of Aisha al-Dilahu anha would you say yes or no yes generally yes because we say the proximity to the prophet peace be upon him would have changed things but were people in Medina engaging in every type of relationship that was not Islamically acceptable in the time of the prophet peace be upon him yes did they commit major sins in the time of the prophet peace be upon him yes did women dress in particular ways or act in particular ways that women do today every day culturally yes so what was it that the woman in the time of Aisha did that was so different from the time of the prophet peace be upon him that she would make this statement we don't know what it is specific but why that's important is because when talking about Ajaab and women and modesty often times a statement of a woman companion will be used and will be used as the example for this is what Aisha your mother said about women but our question needs to be would she actually say that today because maybe whatever they were doing then is not being done now because what we see today was during the time of the prophet so I said that all those things existed so maybe instead what she would have said which is what Abdu'l-Halim Abushaqa said maybe instead she would have said that considering the time now considering all we are exposed to we are expected to do we are judged for all we have to carry on our shoulders all we have to go through maybe instead of being prohibited from the masjid it would have been it's an obligation for women to go to the masjid because we need a space where we can fall apart we need a space where we can seek refuge with Allah no matter how we walk in that this is a space for Allah and that Allah knows all of our journeys with Ajaab and every other aspect of Islam Ajaab is very physical and that's why it's so difficult a lot of judgments are made based on it but only Allah knows the reality of what someone is going through internally and because the Prophet SAW focused so much on building a nation of people who connected to Ajaab because it's just one of many aspects many aspects of their relationship with Allah the focus wasn't Ajaab the focus was you and your relationship with Allah's Panawata A'la what we see from the companions is the way they interact with the Quran was very actively many times especially with Ramadan coming up may Allah bless us with seeing it may Allah protect the people of Ghaza and Sudan and all over the world and bless them with complete justice what we see often in Ramadan is reading the Quran as quickly as possible but what we have from Asmat for example she's the daughter of Abu Bakr she would recite one ayah over and over again she would say one time be very aware of the day that you are going to be returned to Allah and then she would say it again over and over every time it has a different meaning you apply it in a different way there's a companion of the Prophet SAW who prayed Maghrib behind the Prophet SAW have you ever been going through all of Ramadan and you haven't shed a single sweet Ramadan tear and you're like what's wrong with me has it happened to you? have you been to Mecca or Medina and not been emotional and thought maybe you don't have strong Eman have you been in Arafat and not really focus in your dua and then thought maybe I'm not actually a believer many of us as human beings have had those experiences and we often think it means that we're not enough in our relationship with Allah but there's a companion of the Prophet SAW his name was Jubeir and he was standing behind the Prophet SAW and he said he heard the verses that the Prophet SAW recited and they were were they created from nothing or did they create themselves this ayah he said for the first time he felt Eman in his heart he felt like he was going to fly in the sky a companion who's already converted a companion who's praying with the Prophet SAW who said it wasn't until this moment that he truly tasted faith it is okay for you not to feel like you are in love with Islam sometimes it is okay for you to struggle it is okay when you make a mistake and you hate the fact that you do it but you keep doing it and it is okay if you wish that you used to be who you used to be you wish that you were who you used to be but the fact is that Allah SWT isn't seeing you only in the moment where you're telling yourself I wish I was better I'm not good enough I wish I was better I'm not good enough but he's the moment from the time you were in your mother's womb and even before that he knows every single struggle you have had in every capacity and all of that journey has been one in which you have still chosen to be here the fact that you've still chosen to be here is a testament to your love for him but even more so it's a testament for his love for you it is a testament of his love for you the way that you feel about yourself is not the way that Allah SWT sees you you don't have a right to tell yourself Allah doesn't love me or Allah will not forgive me or Allah doesn't think I'm good enough you don't have a right to tell yourself that you know what Islam part of Islam an act of worship is having hope in Allah having good thoughts about Allah it's an act of worship for you to believe that Allah loves you and that he is with you and that perspective is one that we see that the Prophet SAW deeply embedded in his companions because when we look at interactions between the companions sometimes they would make mistakes and the Prophet SAW could have easily blamed a woman because one time a woman who was known as a very beautiful woman came and spoke to the Prophet SAW she had a question she came it was after Hajj it was during Hajj but after the days of Ihram so she's no longer in Ihram and this is a very important point to know because otherwise many say she was in Ihram and that's why she didn't cover her face no, Ihram was already out she just didn't cover her face she wore hijab without covering her face Islam does not condemn Allah creating women beautifully we should be beautiful in our hijab whatever that beauty means to you she comes and she asks the Prophet SAW a question and behind her is his cousin Al Fadl who was a young man there's two different there's a few different narrations on this but there happens in two different ways in one he sees her and he's like Tabarakullah masha'Allah Tabarakullah until the Prophet SAW sees him looking at her and he gently turns Al Fadl's face away from staring at her there's another narration there's another narration when he keeps looking and she's looking at him and he's looking at her and she's looking at the Prophet SAW turning his face away now I want you to understand that when the Prophet SAW talks about hijab talks about women's roles teaches all of these realities for us it was never done in the space of shaming or blaming women for existing her beauty was not asked to be covered she was not asked to leave and have someone else ask the question the Prophet SAW didn't tell her that she should have someone else be in this space the Prophet SAW addressed him and taught him how to respect a woman in front of him mentored him SAW on how to be respectful and allowed for her to ask a question when she's not being stared at SAW and another narration in the masjid there was another woman who's described as a beautiful woman and she would come to the masjid to pray and she would stand in the front lines of the masjid and there were a group of young men who would come later to stand in the back lines of the masjid so that in Salah when they go down in Rukuwa they could stare at her these are men who are going into Salah in the masjid of the Prophet SAW with the Prophet SAW to look at a woman who's praying in the back row and do you know how the Prophet SAW addressed it? Quran was revealed for it and the Quran simply says we know those of you who go to the back and we know those of you who go to the front it didn't address the woman being told that she should have come to the masjid the Prophet SAW didn't build a barrier between men and women so that her beauty was not distracting the men it was self-accountability when we talk about hijab teaching that perspective that hijab is not for men hijab is for Allah that we wear hijab for Allah that we wear hijab even when we pray in the middle of the night in our own room that it is for Allah SWT it allows for hijab not to be weaponized I taught a halqa of young girls middle schoolers there was like maybe 10 of them I asked they all wore hijab and I asked them why they wear hijab every single answer there was one of two I wear it so that I can save myself from my husband and I wear it to protect myself from men this was maybe 15 years ago and I saw one of those women years later and now she's out of college and in her experience I'm not going to go into details but you can imagine things because we have different age gradients here so I just want to be a little careful but she was questioning hijab, she was questioning Islam because all she was told is going to protect her it didn't happen all that she saved herself for was destroyed and I've heard that message over and over and over again when we teach ourselves and our girls and boys that hijab is not for our boys of course boys have to wear hijab in their own way and we teach our girls that hijab is not for boys we teach our young girls that we're wearing hijab for Allah that Allah is our refuge no matter what we are going through then that connection keeping that connection, maintaining that connection no matter what we go through is one where we don't start resenting hijab because we were taught that it is the ticket to everything that will never happen in a bad way to us or that we will be protected in some way the Quran does say that hijab is a protection but it doesn't specify how hijab is a protection in the many different wisdoms of hijab for every single person's experience hijab can be a protection from someone being extra focused with their outside to the point that they can't focus on other aspects of their life or maybe spend that time or that money in a different way hijab can be a protection in the ways that maybe some of us have conventionally thought of it can be hijab can be a protection in lots of things but I'll tell you how I thought of hijab being a protection this week Kamala Harris came here to the Bay and I was at a protest outside of the building her program was for reproductive rights for women and she's going around trying to re-campaign it's so ironic that women in Gaza are giving birth on the floor with no clean water and they're having c-sections without anesthesia and we know that we are funding it with our tax dollars with her support so we're standing outside protesting and inside the building a number of women who received the invitations to go in some of them were hijab some of them didn't throughout the event they would stand up and they would scream ceasefire now and her event was interrupted so many times the next day she had an event in another state and did you see what happened when two women with hijab tried to enter they didn't let them in they said you've been disinvited from this event and I immediately went to protection I go to protection do you know why? because they can't racially profile every single person if they do no one is going to be at their event and they need the optics of diversity so they can't just say no one can go they don't know who's going to stand up they were people from the Jewish community they were people from the Native American community and we know that Muslims can be so many different races there's no way to be able to specify and we know Muslim women wear hijab Muslim women don't there's no way they'd be able to tell but for these two women they were able to be racist very boldly Islamophobic and do you know what I thought of as protection I said Allahu Akbar a woman in hijab is so powerful and such a threat and they don't even want to have her come in because they assume that she is going to vocally speak for justice it is a protection that someone would see you and say she's not going to stay silent it is a protection that they would see you wearing hijab and say she is a threat she is so powerful that her voice is going to disrupt us that is a protection the last thing we would ever want to be is have an opportunity in the face of someone who's an oppressor and stay silent when we think about that sometimes that's a lot of pressure I know I've had days where I don't want to be the billboard walking for Islam I've had a bad day I'm very very tired I'm just in a bad mood and then someone's like oh Islam is so oppressive I'm like no I'm exhausted aren't you so hot in that yes I am I'm very hot in that and you know what I'm hot for the sake of Allah but the point is I don't want to be someone who has to stand up for everything because I can't emotionally I don't have the capacity in that moment or maybe I'm not an introvert but maybe if you're an introvert I've heard from many of my friends who are they're like I don't want to have to explain hijab all the time it's very overwhelming and I didn't mean to specifically say introverts I mean anyone maybe sometimes at some point you just don't want to talk to people all the time and this is when I think it's important for us to look at the example of Maryam alayhi salam and we're going to close with her story inshallah Maryam alayhi salam many of you know that virgin Mary was the first woman ever to be entered into bayt al muqtis to be entered in to this space which is now Masjid al-Uqsa it is the place that so many prophets every prophet every space of Masjid al-Uqsa there has been a prophet or an angel that has walked upon it there's not a single space this big in which a prophet or an angel hasn't walked there and Maryam was the first woman to be entered there as someone who's worshiping and serving the Masjid now she spent her days in worship she spent it quietly in worship and praying and fasting and doing good she had her time that private contemplative time with Allah but she also turned that into action in that when Angel Jibril alayhi salam came and told her the news of her having a child before he gave that news he was in the form of a man and the description of him is that he was a very beautiful man standing in her chamber so she walks in and she's like why is a man in my chamber and you can imagine this is probably the first time ever a man is in her chamber other than Zakiriyah the prophet who was her uncle taking care of her alayhi salam so the way that she responds do you know what she says? you know some of you know who can recite the verse for us I don't want to hear you what were the two names that Allah called by her? one name exactly she reminds him of Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahman the most compassionate the most merciful she didn't say the one who is the punisher she reminded him to go back to Allah he's the most merciful and what is the response Angel Jibril is so overwhelmed by the power of her voice that he flips into the form of an angel he goes from man to angel flips and he says I am here I'm just a messenger here to tell you you're going to have a baby which of course is terrifying for her and I want you to know her reaction is not to say Allahu Akbar I've been chosen it's to be terrified and then she gives birth again terrified the Quran keeps recording how scared she is how worried she is it's human even when an angel the angel comes to you and gives you news glad tidings from your lord Allah called it a gift she didn't see it as a gift in the moment and what did Allah tell her to do after she had given birth and she had eaten and drank and rested what did he tell her? go to the people that she needed to go to the people with the baby she needed to be the one to go to her people to show them the baby to be there physically he could have told Angel Jibril to go Allah could have told Zakiriyah to go a baby speaking from the cradle saying I'm here with Prophet Zakiriyah and my mother is Maryam she's Virgin Mary and she's actually a miracle my birth is a miracle you're going to believe a baby that was just born if they're speaking and saying they're from God but Allah wanted her to be there alayhi salam me, us to be there he has chosen us to be here in this moment, in California for a reason in this year whatever we think that we're going through and when we feel like we're not enough he knows you're enough and that's why you're a part of this ummah and that is why Allah swt tells us in the end he says mille ta'beekum ibrahim khua sammakum al muslimin m'uqamal wa fi hadha wa fi hadha liakun al rasul shaheedan alaykum wa takoonu wa takoonu shuhada al-salat wa aat wa al-zakat wa aat asimu billahi wa maulakum fa ni'mal maulanaasir this first starts with keep going, keep striving keep going do the act, do the work and then it ends with he is your ally he is the best ally he is the one who will give you victory he is the one who's going to support you he sees every single one of you and what did he put in the beginning of that verse? he has chosen you khua jatabakum he's chosen you for equality he sees inside of meriam inside of every single one of you he chose you for a reason that we are here for a reason in this time period in this ummah for a reason so know that he sees you specifically you and all that you go through and in the journey of hijab but the reason we wear this the wisdoms change sometimes it helps us feel all these different things but at the end of the day whether we hate it and we're struggling with it which is so real or we love it and it's our favorite thing and it's never a test wherever you are in between them that that we wear hijab for Allah and that every single second that you wear it every single second that you wear it of course it's one that's blessed it's one that's rewarded of course but also in following the footsteps of the woman companions it's us sharing their narrative continuing their story and inshallah being able to be those who the next generation says I was inspired to come closer to Allah I was inspired to keep going with the Quran I was inspired to feel close to my Muslim identity because of the woman who came before me and that inshallah is all of us