Beauty

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Assalamualaikum

Title: Beauty

" I want to stop putting on the make-up but I feel naked if I don't slap on my eyeliner, blusher, lipstick and all that. What should I do? "

~ A sister asked me.

If only our dear sisters would realize that actually, real men don't want woman with mountains of make-up on, then I bet that none of the women today, would be pressurised to get themselves the latest set of make-up from those branded stores, just to be on par with the society today. Dear sisters, you'd want your husband to love you, as you are. Deception in whatever form, is only a means of misguidance. Allahu Musta'aan.

But wait a minute. Don't get me wrong. I don't intend to say that women who puts on make-up are a sinful lot. But rather, I am actually referring to those, who slaps on excessive make-up on their already perfect face, to enhance their beauty with the intention of gaining attention from men, and to boast off about their ''beauty'' to the rest of the people, in the whole wide world.

Ibn Anas reported that:

When the Prophet looked in the mirror, he would say: ‘All praise be to God who has given me a good form and shape, perfected my face and made me a Muslim.’

Have we been thankful enough to Allah for creating us humans with such perfection? And then each time we take a look at ourselves in the mirror, do we give our words of thanks to Him or do we curse and complain about the way we look? Or do we, without a single word of bismillah, begin to dab on mountains of make-up on our face, so engrossed in it that we didn't realize that Syaitan had been whispering to us silently, to add even more layers of make-up to our face? And then, having after putting on the make-up, how many of us really do say alhamdulilah after that?

Have we been thankful enough? Have we?

First of all my dear sister, when you slap on all those eyeliners, blushers, lipgloss and what not, what are your exact intentions for doing so? Are those intentions good ones, or bad ones? See, Islam puts a great emphasis about niyyah (intentions). And in whatever that we do, it needs to be accompanied with a niyyah; a right one at that, in order to get blessings from The Almighty.

Some women put on make-up, to please their husbands; and that is of course perfectly okay. Some on the other hand, a minority of them, put on make-up to cover up some defects on their faces; and that too is actually fine. But in most cases, some women put on make-up to be that 'extravagant one' and gain attention from men. And that, thaaaat is definitely not okay. I may not know what your exact intentions are for putting on the make-up but in generally, beauty really lies in the eyes of the beholder. Perhaps a little bit of make-up on the face is okay, for us to achieve that presentable look.

Lets start this by defining beauty. What is beauty to you? Something that is pleasing to the eyes perhaps? Then, what about a beautiful thought? Something that has to be pleasing to the mind isn't it? Then, what about beautiful music? Something that soothes the soul and is pleasing to the ears! Wow. & actually, upon typing this all out, I realised that beauty actually involves a whole lot of perception of pleasure to all our senses.

What about an individual with a pleasing personality? Take Mother Theresa for instance. I find her a beauty because she spreads her beauty through her kindness. The thing about us is that, we tend to have this mindset of; the beauty of the mind, and the beauty of the body, are 2 separate physical qualities, when they are actually not. & so perhaps, that could probably be the contributing factor as to why, a large proportion of us today, spend so much time, money and effort to enhance our appearance. Ironically though, we hardly spend that much amount of time to ponder about our inner beauty. Ironically though, we hardly spend that much amount of money, to donate to charity.

As humans, we are by nature compelled to do all that because we want to be admired, to be loved, to have more friends, to get a boyfriend etc. Well that can't be helped because the society has set such a standard for appearances so much that people begin to judge an individual solely by what they wear, or how they look like.

Doing good deeds, will eventually bring out that inner beauty in you. But in this world, nobody really cares about who you are on the inside. For as long as you are pretty, handsome or good-looking, the people will give their 101% attention to you. But if you are ugly, it really takes a longgg time for the society to really accept you for who you really are. That's just how life is, isn't it?

But the thing is, why do we always have to blend in, with the rest? You don't have to fit in, to stand out. What I am about to say next, may sound a little cliche but the truth is, we are all the same. And the only thing that makes us different from the rest, is not through the amount of make-up that we wear, but rather, it is the level of eeman and taqwa that one has.

At the end of the day my dear sister, who do you really want to please? We can never please human beings because by nature, we are never satisfied with what we have, and we are always forever asking for more. But please Allah, for He has promised us with good rewards in the hereafter. And that...that is where we should be heading towards. InsyaAllah.