I was reading with my husband and was so excited to come across one of my favorite ayat in the Book of Allah.
Surah Al Ghafir : 41-42
“And O my people! How is it that I call you to salvation while you call me to the Fire! You invite me to disbelieve in Allah, and to join partners in worship with Him; of which I have no knowledge, and I invite you to the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving!”
And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allah’s Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren, and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allah makes His Ayat clear to you, that you may be guided.
O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared. And die not except in a state of Islam.
And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.
I just got back from my daughter’s back to school night. Alhamdulillah, my mom was able to come watch the kids, so I was able to go solo. I got there a few minutes early and parked. As soon as I started to walk to the school, a woman stared at me from afar as I approached. Ok, great start. I saw her teacher and assumed I was supposed to follow her to the classroom or something, but she directed me to the cafeteria after I stood there looking like a lost child for 2 min.s. In the cafeteria, I quickly grabbed a seat in the back, which ended up being a bad place to sit because when the speeches were about to begin, they removed the separator between the grades, so I ended up having a bunch of people sitting behind me. So the speeches and introductions began as a little girl constantly stared at me. Boy, was she annoying. I had a book I was reading before the speeches started, so I tried my best not to pay her any mind, but without my book, she was hard to ignore. Then a couple came and squeezed in between me and the other women in my row. And I say squeezed between the man was big and kept rubbing against, which highly aggravated me. Then we finalllllly went to the classes to meet with the teachers. My daughter is in a special needs class, for speech therapy, so there’s only about 5-6 students in her class, but I was the only parent who came. I didn’t mind at all because now I could have 1 on 1 time with the teacher and not have to worry about the stares since her teacher was pretty used to my niqab by now. She told me all about my daughter’s progress and what they would be learning this year and so on. I was so touched when she told me a little boy in the class asked her why my daughter had to cover her hair and the teacher explained why, and she said my daughter beamed with pride that she wore a khimar. Aww. I had to laugh when the teacher told me she asked my daughter what she wanted to draw in class and she said my daughter responded by saying, “Well, my mommy told me not to draw people, so I’ll draw a rainbow.”. It was funny because I tell my daughter not to draw people or animals (things with souls), so when she sees someone drawing a person or animal, she’ll say, “Mommy, why he drawing people? Allah don’t like that.” After a while and realizing no other parents were coming, I lifted up my niqab because my face was hot and hey, they were no men around. I was quite surprised she didn’t show the usual shock I get when I wear niqab into a place and then lift it, if it’s only women. I appreciated her acting normal. It was a good experience. Her teacher was very informative and seemed nice. So we talked for a while more about our other kids and then I flipped down my niqab and headed towards the exit. Got stares on the way out, but just played with my phone and kept it moving.
It is reported that the Messenger S.A.W. said, “I left upon you two things of which you will never go astray after them: The Book of Allaah and my Sunnah. They will never be separated until they return to me at the Haud (the Pond).”
Al-Albaanee has authenticated this hadeeth in Saheeh Al-Jaami’
Say (O Muhammad SAW to mankind): “If you love Allah then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you of your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
Since my daughter still has yet to get transportation to school, I’ve still been dropping her off and picking her up. Friday and this morning, my husband was awake, so we all took her to school, which made it much less awkward for me, but when I pick her up, I’m usually waiting by her exit for 3-7 min.s, so at that point, it’s pretty hard not to notice the stares and head turns. One girl waved, but the rest just stare and some tug at their parents sleeves like, what the heck is that?
On friday, my daughter’s abaya was a bit too long and she kept tripping on it. I wanted to hem it, but my dear daughter told me no, she liked it like that. I think she’s had a change of mind now. So when I picked her up on friday, her teacher informed me the kids had gym on mondays and thursdays, so maybe I could put a shorter outfit on her these days. So today she had on a floor length skirt (that I made, yayyyy) and a long sleeve shirt. I thought this would be ok, but when I picked her up today, the teacher told me she had fallen on her face in gym class because the skirt was too long. She said she knew, religiously, we had to dress modestly, but she was concerned for her safety. While I understood she wasn’t coming from a bad place, I was still taken back. So I walked back to the car trying to figure out what the heck she can wear on gym days. I’m still a little lost as to that answer, but insha Allah, I’ll figure out something.
As for people’s reactions to my niqab at the school, everyday I pass different parents, so I get the same shock everyday. It’s annoying, but I assume most of them would never expect to see this at a school. But I’m gaining more and more confidence and paying less attention to others, which has helped when we’ve went to stores because now I’m getting more used to the attention, be it negative or positive.
Bye, bye from niqabi land.
I think the title says it all. It’s been a longgggg day. I drove to my daughter’s school and got there just in time. I parked and immediately felt the eyes on me when I got out the car in my niqab. We walked towards the school and I talked to my husband about anything to distract me. I got to the door and realized her name wasn’t listed under any teacher. Odd. So I went into the main office, where, after some searching, they informed me she had been transferred to another school. ‘Excuse me?”. Yes, they transferred her without so much as a voicemail or email. “It’s only 6,7 blocks away from here.”. Gee, thanx. So on my way to the right school, my husband had to part from us and go to work. Nooooooooooooooooo. Niqabi…on her own……Deep breath. I finally found the school, then found some parking. I walked in and all eyes were on me in the lobby. I walked up to the secretary and she immediately leaned in as if I was so oppressed I couldn’t speak above a whisper. She hardly listened before she rudely directed me to the cafeteria, where the school’s orientation was already underway. Great, I’m late and lost in the conversation. Little did I know,but would find out at the end, that the kids were in the classes getting to know their teachers and classmates. Ya think the secretary could’ve let me in on that little secret? Of course not. So I’m sitting in the cafeteria, catching a few people staring. Surprisingly, the person who’s staring the most is a muslim, but that seemed innocent, like giving the salams with their eyes. Lol. While the rest of the parents went of a tour of the school, I was on a mission to find out what the heck was going on with my daughter’s registration. I slowly walked into the front office as people watched me struggle to get through the door with a stroller and 2 kids. I said why I was there was and was quickly told to go to another office, which isn’t where I needed to be, so after watching the fiascos in the nurse’s office, she told me my daughter wasn’t registered there and took me back to the first office I was in. Can you tell I was getting very aggravated at this point?
I got into the office, after once again struggling in since neither the nurse or the secretary who went in after her could be bothered to hold the door open, and was told my daughter wasn’t registered, but they had at least assigned her a class. Alhamdulillah, moments later, her teachers walked in to collect their mail, and I got to formally meet one of them. She seemed very nice and said she had muslim students before and understood the dietary restrictions and that there were more girls than usual in class this year. She also said if I had any concerns or any accommodations for her, just let her know, which was nice to know since my daughter doesn’t go by her birth name, so I was worried the teacher would have a problem with this. My daughter quickly corrected her when she called her by her birth name, saying “My name is ….”, and the teacher just asked me to send a note with the spelling.
So after being at the school for an hour and a half by now, I had to give them my lease and proof of address papers again. Alhamdulillah I brought it because they sure didn’t get it from the other school. Then I got the run around about the bus and decided to handle the rest tomorrow insha Allah because I had become increasing hot since the a.c. was barely on in the school. I knew my face was probably red under my niqab. I attempted to walk out of the school, but the kids with looks of curiosity and fright were blocking my way. After their parents finallllly moved them, I made my way to the car, packed in the kids, and got a few more stares before getting in myself.
What a day? The school kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. But I was proud of myself for facing the people at school with niqab on, well not really facing them. Hehehe. Once my husband had to go to work, I could feel a part of me losing my resolve, but I had committed to wearing my niqab and I wasn’t gonna back down now. I’m happy the parents, for the most part, actually acted like adults and didn’t stare or make comments. So tomorrow, I’ll have to take her to school insha Allah, since no bus is set up for her yet in, so I hope it goes well then too.
I found out my daughter’s orientation is tomorrow and her first day is thursday insha Allah. So tomorrow is the big day, but alhamdulillah I found out my hubby will probably be able to come insha Allah, so I’m a little more at ease. I’ll let yall know how it goes insha Allah.
My Niqab Is My Beauty 