By: A Muslim Sister (14-12-11)

Today began like a usual rushed work morning of trying to complete 10 tasks
in less than 10 minutes.

Between getting done, eating and other daily chores I donned a ‘camels
hump’ which is now the latest hijab trend globally.

I opted to change my dreary Hijaab look by ‘spicing’ up my appearance and
adding some gulf Arab ‘flavour’.

As I stared at my reflection in the mirror, guilt ate at me as I reflected
at my hypocritical nature.

Just last week I had a discussion with a friend where I unequivocally
claimed that wearing that bun/flower clip/ camels hump was all wrong and
could not be condoned in any way.

But my self-righteous Nafs kept whispering that it is perfectly acceptable,
to the extent that I completely believed, standing in front of that mirror,
that wearing the camels hump was the ‘lesser of all evils’.

‘At least I wear Hijaab,’ I thought to myself.

Hence, I donned my ‘hijab swag’, smiled at my reflection in the mirror,
picked up my bag and walked out the door.

At work I began furiously typing on my keyboard, frantically surfing the net
as attempted to meet hour to hour deadlines.

I completely disregarded my choice of garb for the day until I happened to
look up and caught a glance of my appearance in a wall-mounted frame, when
suddenly the words ‘their heads are like the humps of camels’ rushed through
my mind like flood waters gushing through sluice gates.

I deliberately tried to avoid pursuing the thoughts of the hadith of Nabi
(saw) where he describes the women of Jahnnam.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) stated in a sahih Hadith from Muslim:

“There are two types of the people of Hell whom I have not seen: men in
whose hands are whips like the tails of cattle, with which they beat the
people, and women who are clothed yet naked, maa’ilaat mumeelaat, with their
heads like the humps of camels, tilted to one side. They will not enter
Paradise nor even smell its fragrance.”

A peculiar sensation ran through me as if I was being electrocuted by my
thoughts.

“Why am I doing this? Why I am trying to condone a wrong out of vanity,” I
asked myself.

Before I actively realized what I was doing, my hand went beneath my hijab
and I removed the camels hump.

I dare not to be holier than thou, but this whole episode made me very
introspective.

We tend to look at those below us on the spiritual ladder and be content
even though we still have a length to climb.

I believe that like myself, there are many Muslims that condone their ill
actions consequently believing that their actions are good.

Let us not be fooled by our own deceptions and feeble justifications.