04-06-2005, 10:50 AM
Bismillah
As salam alykom
To add on my dear sister Intuition’s thorough reply, we all know that the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam had the authority to legislate by virtue of the Ayah:
“It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he has indeed strayed in a plain error.” (Quran 33:36)
To this effect he was actually establishing a very important rule, not only to be observed then, but till the day after as in any other Divine rule. Thus he had to give a thorough and detailed description, using the tools of eloquence of which the Arabic language is rich, to a potential leader who may be assigned at any give time. To give the description, he was aiming to convey to them, that they might be headed by an Ethiopian who has a head like raisin in terms of being dented that is a description of the hair.
BTW Intuition here in Egypt I also only saw clear yellow coloured raisins never seen the black ones.
In this hadeeth, he used tools of eloquence of which the Arabic language is rich as we may say her eyes are as black as the night; the horse is as fast as lightening. The Messenger had to leave no point of making sure that when a black man is assigned as a leader they must follow, even if he looks so and so.
He wanted to make sure they totally get rid of the racist part in them, that even applied on him personally. As Quran explained:" And they say: "Why is not this Qur'an sent down to some great man of the two towns (Makkah and Ta'if)?" (Quran 43:31). Racism, arrogance and classist attitude were so much inherent at that time.
Actually as always, the situation occurred later during the time of opening Egypt. When Amr Ibn El`as asked Omar for help, he sent him an army of 4000 men leaded by 4 men whom he described as each man = 1000. Of them was O`bada Ibn Essamet, very dark black man who was also chosen by the army members to lead the delegation to talk to Moqwaqas chief of the Egyptian Copts at the time. When they attended at Moqwaqas presence, he said O I am scared of this dark man take him away from me. Egyptians were astonished asking the Muslims how can they accept the leadership of such a black man.
They said this is Islam our Messenger commanded us to obey and accept leadership of chief regardless of color or race.
They even said he is our speaker we will not accept anyone else to conduct the negotiations. And the amazing conversation went on, which is not our core of interest here. I am trying to bring the relevant aspects of the situation.
To bring this point more into focus, the Messenger told ahadeeth related to the signs of the Hour. In one of them he gave full description of women having a certain hair style as follows: under the authority of Abdullah Ibn Omar who said I heard RasullAllah salla Allah a`alyhee wa sallam say: By the end of time, there will be men among my Ummah who ride over saddles but only look like men (trying to say they are not acting like real men), they get off by the gates of masjeds, their women are dressed but naked, on their heads (referring to the hair style) like camel humps, curse them for they are cursed. If there will be an Ummah that succeeds you, your women would have served their women just as women of the preceding Ummahs served you”.
Because both hadeeth involved crucial matters such as obedience of chief and cursing of a certain group. Full detailed description was given.
In this hadeeth, there is a very important rule which is the application of cursing. Whom to curse? That is why Now if u look at the type of woman who according to hadeeth must be cursed, u will find that the description is as follows:
1. Men who are semi men, riding over saddles and get off by the gate of masjed. It is an indication that they dont get in to pray.
2. Women who are related to this type of men in any way will be:
a. Dressed up but naked.
b. Using a hair style that takes the hair up in a high bun similar to camel hump.
Therefore, the description is precise making it a certain category of people.
If any of the above conditions is absent, then the woman does not deserve the curse.
But all conditions must be present including the type of men they are related to in order to be the eligible category for cursing. In addition that they must be seen together.
Just look at the precision of the talk.
The Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam had to close the gap by giving the hair description of a potential chief. Supposed the hair description was not included, this would leave the door opened for people not to obey except a leader with straight hair.
At the end I agree with Intuition on the importance of asking, we live our lives to learn and can never do without asking.
That is why even we even give much space to non Muslims to ask and keep patient even when they repeat their questions.
wallah A`lam. whatever is correct is from Allah and whatever is wrong is from me and Shaytan.