Veiling in Islam

A Conversation with My Believing Sisters of the Hereafter

I observed that groups of women in various provinces showed a sincere and fervent interest in the Risale-i Nur, and had learned that they placed far greater confidence in my lessons on it than I deserved, I returned for the third time to Isparta, the spiritual Madrasa-az-Zahra. There I heard that those women, my sisters of the Hereafter, were expecting a lesson from me, imagining that I would address them in the mosques in the manner of a sermon.

At that time, however, I was suffering from several illnesses and was in such a state of weakness and exhaustion that I was scarcely able to speak or even think. Yet that very night, the following warning was impressed forcefully upon my heart:

“Fifteen years ago, at the request of the youth, you wrote The Guide for Youth, and many benefited from it. But in this age, women are in even greater need of such guidance than the youth.”

In response to this inner prompting, despite my weakness, exhaustion, and helplessness, I shall set forth, in three brief points, a number of necessary matters for my blessed sisters and my young spiritual children.

The First Point

Since one of the most important principles of the Risale-i Nur is shafqa, and since women are by nature its foremost exemplars, they possess a special affinity with the Risale-i Nur. Praise be to Allah, this innate affinity is evident in many places. Because the self-sacrifice contained within such shafqa expresses true ikhlās and devotion without expecting anything in return, it is of the utmost importance in our present age.

Indeed, the fact that a mother, without seeking any reward, is prepared to sacrifice her own life in order to save her child from danger, offering herself with complete sincerity in fulfillment of her natural duty, demonstrates the extraordinary heroism found in women. By cultivating this heroism, she may attain salvation both in her worldly life and in her eternal life. Yet under the influence of certain harmful currents of thought, this precious and powerful quality may fail to develop properly or may even be misused.

One small example among many will suffice.

A compassionate mother willingly accepts every hardship so that her child may remain safe in this worldly life and enjoy every possible benefit. She raises him with that aim, saying, “May my son become a distinguished man,” and spends all that she possesses on his worldly advancement. She may even withdraw him from a Qur'an school and send him to Europe, yet she fails to consider that his eternal life may thereby be placed in jeopardy.

She strives to rescue him from the prison of this world while neglecting the far greater danger of the prison of Hell. Thus, contrary to the very purpose of her innate compassion, she turns the innocent child who ought to intercede for her in the Hereafter into one who brings a claim against her. He will say: “Why did you not strengthen my faith? Why did you become the cause of my ruin?”