Is Modesty Relative?

[AbuMubarak]

If you live in a nudist colony and you wear bottoms, are you modest?

if you live in a place where everyone wears burqa, and you expose your face, are you immodest?

on a more realistic level, if you dwell amongst women who wear underwear for pants, and you were a long dress are you modest?

so for the muslim, are we to compare our definition of modesty compared to the area we live, or adhere to "the arab dress of 1400 years ago"?

[muhammed_1428]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

the latter, except I thought it was commonly referred to as 'the sunnah'

[KeeKee]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

The commandments in the Quran and sunnah will never become outdated; and so yes, we should adhere to what the quran and sunnah tell us; for woman to cover themselves modestly.

[AbuMubarak]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

keekee

is modesty the sunnah, (ie arab dress) or is it for muslim women to dress modest according to today's standards?

[KeeKee]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

keekee

is modesty the sunnah, (ie arab dress) or is it for muslim women to dress modest according to today's standards?

what do you mean by todays standards? could you give me an example of what you would think would be counted as sunnah dress for a woman in this age? ie what kind of clothing should a woman wear outside?

[Anonymous2008]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

keekee

is modesty the sunnah, (ie arab dress) or is it for muslim women to dress modest according to today's standards?

I think it's modest if you wear clothing that doesn't emphasize sexual features on the body and does cover up a fair amount. However that's just my opinion.

[KeeKee]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

okay, well the Arabs wear the all encompassing garment and thats modesty to them.
people of asian origin (well the younger generation anyway) like to be a tad more stylish and wear modest but fashionable jilbabs, not so baggy etc. others may stick to clothes such as long skirts, loose shirts etc and that can be called modesty too.

The Niqab is not seen as compulsory by all, however most ulama agree in times of fitnah it should be worn. if not however, then other modes of modest clothing can be worn.

a lot of different styles of dress can be called modest. but some people wear certain clothes outside which they call modest but in reality draw attention from the opposite gender and this should be avoided.

and yep, some may also say, men have eyes, whatever you wear, they will look, but if a woman is dressed modestly with the right niyyah, and still a man looks at her, then its his sin.

[*hijab*]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

the jilbab is the perfect dress to cover the shape of your body :up:

[Chained_Water]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

It is relative in some ways, but for us it is defined also.

Why can it not be both?

Muslims are not the only people in the world, so of course for different societies it is a different thing, there is no harm in recognising that.. if we see a woman wearing a long dress and full sleeves and she's not Muslim, we can still say she is dressed modestly, because in terms of her society she is! ..However I've heard women with their cleavage about to pop out their tops say they are modest.. and I've heard some say it would be slutty to have cleavage and legs on show, and it should be one or the other but not both at same time if you're decent, lol. So people's ideas of modesty vary, and evidently we would not agree with their ideas in some cases! ..But I suppose we could still say for some of them that with their understanding or upbringing or environment.. perhaps they are trying to be modest in their own way.

But for Muslims, our religion defines modesty in a very specific way and so we follow that, and that includes how we dress but many other things also.

[Anonymous2008]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

It is relative.. but for us it is defined also..

Muslims are not the only people in the world, so of course for different societies it is a different thing, there is no harm in recognising that.. if we see a woman wearing a long dress and full sleeves and she's not Muslim, we can still say she is dressed modestly, because in terms of her society she may well be!

I think if someone dresses modestly all the time, I think it's a reflection of morals on some occasions.

[NiqaaBi_InBlack]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

Yes as women we should dress modestly and it doesn't matter where u live, the most important thing is the intention and we should know the guidelines of the correct hijab..and these guidelines are the same no matter which country u are.

But modesty isn't only the way we dress it's also about our akhlaaq.. we shouldn't soften our voice/ laugh and talk without valid reason to a non mahram and we should lower our gaze and when talking to a non mahram we don't look them in the eyes etc. but we lower our gaze..and we don't shake hands with a non-mahram.

All this can look 'extreme' for non-muslims and even some muslims..but like someone mentioned the commandments in the Quran and sunnah will never become outdated.And we as muslim women should be honoured and say alhamdulilaah ! because only in Islam..women have such a high position

When the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi said to the ummah,treat the women kindly History records that in Europe, in the same year, at the same time that Islam was saying this, in the west they were arguing whether a woman was a human or an animal.

Wa LilaahilHamd

[Anonymous2008]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

For Muslims are there certain colours that you shouldn't wear? i.e. a green Niqab, because I have never seen one.

[KeeKee]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

you can wear a green niqab if you want to; might not look so nice but hey, colors aren't haram.

except men are advised not to wear all red, but other than that colour of dress shouldn't be a problem.there are no halal/haram colours.

[Anonymous2008]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

you can wear a green niqab if you want to; might not look so nice but hey, colors aren't haram.

except men are advised not to wear all red, but other than that colour of dress shouldn't be a problem.there are no halal/haram colours.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[KeeKee]

Re: Is Modesty Relative?

your welcome^