The Way She Walks - Nouman Ali Khan
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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.
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