The Way She Walks - Nouman Ali Khan

Islamic education

8/14/2024

Transcript

00:00As-salamu alaykum everyone, welcome to Amazed by the Qur'an, a series in which I try sharing

00:13with you things I find amazing about the Qur'an, and today inshallah I'll share something

00:16with you about how Allah gives us universal lessons in the course of just telling a story.

00:21I happen to believe, and I think that is a universal belief for Muslims, that everything

00:25in the Qur'an is of timeless value.

00:28And when Allah is telling us even the account of something that happened long ago, every

00:32detail he mentions is actually very selective.

00:35In other words, there are lots of things that happen in a story, especially in a historical

00:39account, and there's no such thing as too many details.

00:43But Allah is very selective in telling a story, and He only tells us bits that are the most

00:48relevant for our guidance.

00:50So Allah will skip lots and lots of details about the life of Ibrahim and tell us the

00:53parts that are the most essential for our permanent guidance.

00:57Similarly, the story of Musa alayhi as-salam, so much repeated in the Qur'an, and yet he

01:01only highlights a few things that are of key value.

01:04So one thing that really struck out to me, and I've been thinking about it for some time,

01:08is when Musa alayhi as-salam, when Moses had fled, and he was in Madinah, and he helped

01:14these two girls get water for their animals.

01:18And then they left, and their father asked, how did you get water so early, and he sent

01:22one of them back.

01:23And Allah actually, of all these details, you would imagine Allah would highlight details

01:27about Judgment Day, or the battle between the Pharaoh and Moses, or when he was able

01:35to come back and challenge, or how he escaped, big details.

01:39But in the middle of all of that, in the final revelation of Allah, Allah takes the time

01:43out to mention this little, what seems like a minor detail,

01:46وَجَاءَتْ إِحْدَاهُمَا تَمْشِي عَلَىٰ اِسْتِحْيَاءَ

01:49One of them came all the way, walking, now there's two ways to translate this, she came

01:55walking shyly, like in a shy way, and she came walking over to him despite being shy.

02:01There's two ways of, عَلَىٰ اِسْتِحْيَاءَ عَلَىٰ رَغْمِ مِنْ اِسْتِحْيَاءِهَا

02:04There's two ways of looking at it, okay?

02:06And I was fascinated that Allah would actually go out of His way, in His final revelation

02:11to humanity until the Day of Judgment, to highlight the way a woman walked.

02:17What benefit could that have?

02:18Why is that important?

02:19And I realized that Allah عز و جل, He highlights things in His book that are so

02:26pertinent to human guidance.

02:29The way a female walks is a powerful thing.

02:32It has an impact in society.

02:35As a matter of fact, the female has a presence that has been talked about across cultures.

02:41Just her presence has a power, has an awe, it inspires something.

02:46At the very least, it catches the attention of the male, but there's more to it than that.

02:50There's actually a psychological, even a spiritual effect when there's the presence of a woman

02:57and when she's walking by.

02:58This is something societies were so aware of that in many cultures, the elite women

03:03of a society were actually kept hidden away.

03:05They were kept, like in Korean society, old Korean society for example, they wouldn't

03:09go out until the night time, the elite women.

03:11It has nothing to do with Islam, it's just they were aware of the power of the presence

03:15of women.

03:16And so Allah describes and He's highlighting to women and to men the effect that the role

03:25of a woman in public can have.

03:26And yet at the same time, Islam is not saying keep women indoors because they have too much

03:29of an effect.

03:30They have too much of an impact.

03:32Guys know, the ones that are watching this video, they're sitting in an auditorium classroom

03:36and a girl walks into the class.

03:38She doesn't have to be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, but so long as she's

03:41a female, you're going to be like, everybody in the room is going to at least for a second

03:46look and then, okay, yeah, you know, it has an effect.

03:50It has, a guy walks in, meh, you know, that's what happens.

03:54So now Allah is highlighting a couple of things.

03:57One of the most beautiful things that's being highlighted here is despite her shyness.

04:01In other words, she has to engage in society.

04:03She has to go out.

04:04And yes, there will be people that stare.

04:06And sometimes if you have a vulgar society, people comment and whistle and make passes

04:12at them or worse.

04:13You know, there are societies where even harassing women on the street has become common.

04:17You know, sometimes verbally and sometimes even physically it's become common.

04:20But yet she has to engage in that society.

04:22So she has to find a way of engaging in it that she can protect herself and yet at the

04:26same time be a participant in society.

04:30The second thing that's really beautiful here is she walked shyly.

04:33In other words, she walked guarding her modesty.

04:37She realized that she has a presence and she realized that this is something that has an

04:40impact on others.

04:42It's not just about her.

04:44It's actually about recognizing the presence that she carries.

04:47And so she walked in a way that is shy.

04:49She walked in a way that is not showing off or is not provocative as to get the attention.

04:54And she's walking over to a young man as a matter of fact in this case, al-istihya, you

04:59know.

05:00A female must recognize the power that she has.

05:02And so even the way in which a woman walks is highlighted in such a subtle, beautiful

05:07way, you know.

05:08And it's not like this girl was shy.

05:10It's not.

05:11She walked over by herself to this strange man and said,

05:14إِنَّ أَبِيَ دُعُوكَ لِيَجْزِيَكَ أَجْرَمَا سَقَيْتَ لَنَا

05:17My dad's calling you, okay.

05:19He wants to pay you for the services you provided.

05:21And if she was all that shy and scared, she would have called her sister and at least

05:24two of them would have come.

05:25But she came by herself.

05:26And her dad was confident enough in her to send her by herself.

05:30So there's this amazing balance between confidence and engagement even when you're on your own

05:34and at the same time holding on to your modesty.

05:37All of it captured in just the way that she walked.

05:40It's incredible.

05:41بارك الله لي ولكم.

05:42السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.

06:11Al-Fatiha.

06:12Al-Fatiha.

06:13Al-Fatiha.

06:14Al-Fatiha.

06:15Al-Fatiha.

06:16Al-Fatiha.

06:17Al-Fatiha.

06:18Al-Fatiha.

06:19Al-Fatiha.

06:20Al-Fatiha.

06:21Al-Fatiha.

06:22Al-Fatiha.

06:23Al-Fatiha.

06:24Al-Fatiha.

06:25Al-Fatiha.

06:26Al-Fatiha.

06:27Al-Fatiha.

06:28Al-Fatiha.

06:29Al-Fatiha.

06:30Al-Fatiha.

06:31Al-Fatiha.

06:32Al-Fatiha.

06:33Al-Fatiha.

06:34Al-Fatiha.

06:35Al-Fatiha.

06:36Al-Fatiha.

06:37Al-Fatiha.

The Way She Walks - Nouman Ali Khan

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