A NIQAABI LIKE A GEISHA GIRL

By

Sanni K. Yusuf

I was a lad but wasn't too young, so I could recall the event from the start to the tail. Opposite our residence - across the road - was a popular hair-stylist. As if she was the only hairdresser around the area, the patronage she got from women of timber and calibre was indescribable. 10pm sometimes, she was still in active merchandise.

One night, we saw a man barge into the salon dragging out a woman as would do the police with an obstinate criminal. While the woman resisted the pull, the man insisted she must go with him ro the house. To prevent the brouhaha from worsening beyond control, elders around intervened. And before a twinkling of an eye, some crowd had collected, and that included lads and lasses like us - the sofos. The point of attraction, really, was that the man in question was a clergyman - the outfit said it all.

"I trailed her down here. She must go home with me today," said the man. "No, I am going nowhere. I am not interested in covering my face. I will never do that," reacted the woman.

Talks from both sides revealed that they were a couple. The woman was being pressured to use the face veil as a customary phenomenon with the mokondoros - the zumras. Meanwhile, the woman in question was not even a user of hijab - not even the skimpiest.

The lady who recently rode herself in the mud dancing flirtatiously in niqaab must have been lured into covering her face like the one aforementioned. She must have accepted to wear it not because she understood the spiritual and mundane goodness of the garment, but because her father and/or her husband must have pressured her to dress as such. Since the dressing did not appeal to her and the various ettiquetes attached to it weren't in her, she could act as worse as having a romance with shaytaan.

Niqaab is a garment of honour ordained by Allah and exemplified by the wives of the Prophet and those of the companions. Dancing in it as foolishly done the ninny is gross desecration of its sacredness and absolute misrepresentation of what it symbolises. And the one dancing with the niqaabi was more foolish. I suppose he should know better, but he had proven to be brain-barren with that singular act. It is just an indication that turban - however gargantuan on the head - is no proof of know-how. And if truly the co-dancer was the husband, I would not be surprised if they ended up breeding geisha girls for offspring. That would be a perfect corresponding reward for the golden skill.

I know the virility of the paining video would have got to the culprits, but they might not be remorseful over the shame. After all, one preacher popular with the agberos - Mr Sulaiman Fa'ruq Onikijipa - ones invited Mr Wasiu Ayinde Marshal to play at his daughter's nikaah ceremony. The preacher danced. The wife danced. The bride danced with the groom. Muslim women there present danced. So what has the niqaabi done wrong? 

Alhaji Habeeb Adam Abdullah Al-Ilori could be used as a proof to substantiate the trash, too. He had once said that the sohaabah would listen to music for relaxation. So if the salaf could do it, in fact, in the presence of the noblest of the human race, what offence has the lady-dancer committed? May Allah save us from the evils of stayer-clergymen.