The Husband and Wife Conceal Each Other

هُنَّ لِبَاسٌ لَّكُمْ وَاَنْتُمْ لِبَاسٌ لَّهُنَّ 

Surah Baqarah, Aayat 187

“They (Your wives) are garments for you, and you are garments for them.”

A second indication in this simile [of the spouses being garments for each other] is that just as a garment has the attribute of concealing, similarly, the wife conceals the husband, and the husband conceals the wife.

This concealing is in several ways. One is that each of the two conceal each other’s faults.

The nafs has desire in it. If a single place for fulfilling these passions is not determined, then a person will fulfil his desire everywhere. In this way his shamelessness will become apparent everywhere. Therefore, the Shariat has prescribed Nikaah.

In Nikaah, one place is fixed for the desires of the nafs. In this prescription, the Shariat being more well-wishing to a person than his intellect is evident. If the intellect is questioned, then it would not have prescribed Nikaah because according to the intelligence it is awful for a person to be unclothed with another person.

If this prescription of the intellect is practised upon then there would be a greater fitnah in that, whilst in Nikaah just one man and one woman expose themselves to each other, the intellect’s [austere] counsel will lead to how many men and women exposing themselves to each other, because after all, how long can a man and woman restrain themselves from each other!

Considering the repercussions, the Heavenly Shariah has prescribed Nikaah so that the desires are restricted and fixed to one person and fitnah does not become rife. This is a sign of a Heavenly Religion; it encompasses the consequences of actions, whereas those laws and constitutions which are the products of human intellect do not encompass the repercussions and consequences.

(Raf’ul Iltibaas – To be continued, Insha Allah)