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FAH0033 ISLAMIC STUDIES SEPTEMBER 2011 SEMESTER

By

Makhliyo Gapparova Norashiqin Zawawi Nurul Fakhira Zulkefli Shahira Mohamad Jumaili Siti Nursyazwani Ismail (Petroleum Engineering Foundation) and,

Nadhirah Mohd Rosdi Noorsyafira Mohamad Helmi (Petroleum Geoscience Foundation).

COPYRIGHT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY PETRONAS (UTP), Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia.

Abstract
Nowadays, the issue of tabarruj / flaunt / finery occurs almost everywhere in the world, done by almost everyone living on earth. This issue is becoming more and more crucial with the fast-pace technology development. This problem is dangerous because it has been the main problem of crime scenes and social problems that has occurred and is occurring mostly in cities and urban areas. In this issue, the females are always seen as the victims. How true this statement is and how does this happen are the properties that we need to solve. To solve these problem statements, we did a survey on this topic. The survey shows that most people agreed that women are the cause of the occurring social problems. This shows that women must do something in order to control the rate of social problems rather than just to follow their desire that always wants to look charming in front of the others.

Introduction
The topic that we chose is tabarruj. Tabarruj (flaunt / finery) simply means to display what needs to be hidden in the women. This term has been used in the modesty of a woman going out and showing her charms and to highlight the merit is by covering it in front of strangers or ajnabi.

Here are its definitions via different sources : 1. The author of Lisn Al-Arab (3/33) said: [Tabarruj] is the womans displaying of her beauty, or exposing her face and the charms of her body to men, and everything that elicits their desire, and strutting in her walk, so long as that is not for the husband. 2. Imam al Qurtubi (RA) mentions the meaning of al Tabarruj after gathering the views of the previous commentators of the Quraan. He says, in short, Al - tabarruj means a woman exposing her beauties to men. (Tafseer al Qurtubi, vol. 14, pg 175 ; Cairo)

Background Literature
Issues
Dalils of Tabarruj 1. Women that wear tight clothes and on their heads there are humps like those of camels

Dalil : The Messenger (sallAllaahu alayhi wasallam) said, There shall be (in the later) part of my nation women who are dressed but are in fact naked. On their heads are humps like those of camels. Curse them for they are surely cursed. (Reported by at-Tabaaranee, Shaykh al-Albaanee graded this hadeeth Saheeh)

2. Women who change her walking styles to seduce men and a wife that beautify herself in front of other man instead of her husband

Dalil :

The parable of a woman who moves with a slow sweeping motion trailing her beautified clothes performing not for her husband is like darkness of the Day of Judgement, she has or comes with no light. (Reported by at-Tirmidhee in his Sunan, Shaykh al-Albaanee graded the hadeeth weak)

3. Women who are using too much perfume

Dalil :

Abu Hurairah said that:

A woman passed by him smelling strongly of scent. He called to her: "O slave of the powerful, are you going to the mosque?" She said that she

was. He said: "Go back and wash it off. I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) say: 'Any woman who goes to the mosque wearing perfume will not have her prayer accepted by Allah; first she should go back home and have a bath *to wash it off+.

Imam Adh-Dhahabi said in his book Kitaab al-Kabaair (The Book of the Great Sins):

"Of the deeds woman is cursed for are displaying the ornaments which she is wearing, wearing perfume when going out, and wearing colourful clothes and silky short cloaks."

4. Women that soften their voice when addressing men

Dalil :

In tafsir ibnu kathir, Allah says:

] [ (then be not soft in speech,)

As-Suddi and others said, this means, do not be gentle in speech when addressing men.

Related past studies

In 2003, a study on tabarruj was done by an undergraduate student from Malaysian Islamic Science University (USIM) for her academic project paper of al - Quran and Sunnah Studies Faculty (FPQS). This research was done to differentiate between the need to have external beauty and the need to develop the beauty of the soul from the Islamic perspective.

http://ddms.usim.edu.my/handle/123456789/3204?show=full

Method
Sample [ONLINE SURVEY FORM]Tab

Data collection
We collect the data through: 1. Online survey forms 2. E books 3. Blogs 4. Online forums 5. Online encyclopedia (Wikipedia) 6. E-mails 7. Social networking 8. Books

Study instrument
This study is fully conducted through online survey forms and a few other references.

Result
Data analysis issues
Based on the survey, we chose ten questions that relates to our topic of TABARRUJ and another four questions on the respondents backgrounds. These are the questions asked in the survey form: 1. Have you ever heard of tabarruj before? 2. Do you think Muslim community today know well about Tabarruj? 3. What do you think the hukum of tabarruj? 4. In your opinion, how many women around you doing tabarruj? 5. Among of this action, please tick the action/s that you think considered as tabarruj? 6. In your opinion, why women nowadays doing tabarruj? 7. Do you think the hukum of tabarruj discriminate women in beautifying themselves? 8. Should women go out without taking care of their appearance by not dressing properly? 9. Do you think that tabarruj is the main cause of many social problems nowadays? 10.Today many people do not know about tabarruj and its hukum. Who should be blamed for this?

11.What is your gender? 12.How old are you? 13.Where are you from? 14.What is your religion?

COMMENTS :

1. Have you ever heard of tabarruj before?

For the first question, there are two options either yes or no. The percentage of yes is 55% while the others answered no which is 44%. What we can tell from the result is that tabarruj is a word that is not common amongst people. From our direct survey, people only know what tabarruj is when we said something about display beauty to ajnabi person. Only few people could tell what the meaning is. In conclusion, majority people are familiar with the word tabarruj.

2. Do you think Muslim community today know well about Tabarruj?

For the second question, we prepared three possible answers which are yes, no or I dont know. 78% answered yes, 16% no, and the remaining 6% said I dont know. Most of people believe that Muslim community know well about tabarruj, but there are still few people who said Muslim community dont know about this issue and minority which is ignorance type answered they dont know about others point of view. What we can conclude is most of our respondents think that community today dont know well about what is tabarruj.

3. What do you think the hukum of tabarruj?

When we asked people about the hukum of tabarruj, 75% said tabarruj is haram, 16% said makruh, and 7% of people answered I dont think it is wrong. Although the number who said tabarruj is haram is quite large, but it

still surprising when there still got people who answered makruh and some believe that there is nothing wrong with doing tabarruj. We should know that tabarruj is haram in syariah. Rasulullah SAW clearly said in the hadith: I give my acknowledgement that you must not set partners to worship besides Allah, that you do not steal, commit fornication or adultery, that you do not kill your child, that you do not commit any falsehood before your hands and between your legs, that you do not wail and that you do not make tabarruj like that of jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic era).(Reported by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad, Shaykh Ahmad Shakir graded the chain of the hadeeth as good and stated that Imaam ibn Kathir mentioned this hadeeth in his tafsir saying that the chain of this narration is good. In conclusion, majority understand the hukm of tabarruj, which is haram. However, there are still a few people think that it is nothing wrong with doing tabarruj. We believe that the main reason why they think that tabarruj is makruh and it is not wrong is because of they lack knowledge on this matter; they are committing it and refuse to say it is haram to defend themselves. 4. In your opinion, how many women around you doing tabarruj?

For the fourth question, we provided them with four answers which is almost all of the women,majority,women who up to date with fashion and a few. The results are 16%, 49%, 27% and 16% respectively. Most people said that majority around them are doing tabarruj. While 27% said only women who up to date with fashion are doing tabarruj and 16% believe that tabarruj are done by all of the women. According to the flowchart, it is clear that that most of the women in this world commit tabarruj.

5. Among of this action, please tick the action/s that you think considered as tabarruj?

Question number 5 requires them to tick what actions that they think is considered as tabarruj. For this kind of question, we put many options. But most people agreed that showing necklaces, earrings and the neck is mostly considered as tabarruj. While the action with the lowest percentage is to be gentle in speech when addressing men. The conclusion is, the large number of our respondents agree that showing necklaces,earings and neck are the actions which considered as tabarruj, while only few people said be gentle in speech when addressing men is considered tabarruj.

6. In your opinion, why women nowadays doing tabarruj?

For the 6th question, we asked respondents their opinions about what is the reason for women doing tabarruj.To make it easier, we didnt put many options but only four options to make it easier when it comes to evaluation, but we believe there are many reasons to be concerned. 44% said that women are doing tabarruj because they want to follow the trend. Meanwhile, 34% said that women do not know the hukum of tabarruj, thats why they still commit it. 13% said that it is fitrah (natural) for women to look beautiful and the remaining 8% said that women beautify themselves (tabarruj) to seduce men. Based on our respondents opinion, the main reason why women doing tabarruj is because they want to follow the trend and only few people said women doing tabarruj is to seduce men.

7. Do you think the hukum of tabarruj discriminate women in beautifying themselves?

This question is the most important question, because we are eager to know what others would say about discriminating the muslim women. As a woman, surely everyone has the desire to beautify themselves for her own satisfaction but there is a limit. Now, let us reveal what are their responds. Do they feel discriminated? Alhamdulillah, about 85% answered no. Tabarruj does not discriminate women in beautifying themselves. They all believe that Islam has a special way of conveying beauty only to the beloved husband. But also about 12% answered yes, tabarruj discriminate women in beautifying themselves. Based on result, most people understand that Islam never discriminate women in beautifying themselves, It is just we have limit and to know who we should display our beauty to. Nevertheless, a few people said that Islam discriminates women. They might have their own reasons why they said so. What we can conclude is those who answered yes maybe they love to beautify themselves and still cannot accept the law of Islam in conveying beauty.

8. Should women go out without taking care of their appearance by not dressing properly?

For the eighth question, the answers are yes, no or I am not sure. Most of the respondents answered no (around 86%), 2% answered yes, and 11% answered I am not sure. As expected, majority answered no, we should not ignore our appearance just because they are afraid of committing tabarruj. Tabarruj is display of beauty, but dressing properly is not necessarily making us beautiful in front others. It is enough if we just take care of the cleanliness and tidiness of our outfits to display good image. 14% who answered no, we assume that either they do not know the truth of tabarruj or they actually dont understand the question. To those who misunderstood the meaning of tabarruj might think that tabarruj prohibits people from dressing properly. This is wrong, Islam never teaches us to ignore our image in front others but only not to show our beauty to random people.

9. Do you think that tabarruj is the main cause of many social problems nowadays?

The next question is provided with two options; yes and no. About 80% answered yes while 20% answered no. Minority that said no maybe thought that todays social problems are caused by other factors, not because of

tabarruj, while others agree that tabarruj is the main cause of many social problems happening nowadays such as free sex, baby dumping, uncontrolled relationships between male and female and many more. It is agreeable that tabarruj is the main cause of many social problems nowadays as most of our respondents said so.

10.Today many people do not know about tabarruj and its hukum. Who should be blamed for this?

For the 10th question, we are looking forward to the respondents opinions about the person to be blamed when there are many people who do not know the hukum of tabarruj. Most of them blamed themselves while the minority admitted that the blame should go to the school syllabus practice. In conclusion, one should be blamed if one do not know about this matter, they should take the initiative to explore more about islam and not just blame others.

11.What is your gender?

The next question is about their genders. This is because we want to know which gender cares the most about this issue. Based on the result, 58% of them are female and 42% are male. As expected, this issue is regarding to female surely so, no wonder that majority of our respondents are female. But we are really curious and eager to know the males points of view about tabarruj since we need to know the responses from both genders and see how their opinions differ from each other and to get a more relevant answer.

12.How old are you?

For question number 12, we asked about the age of the respondents. Most of them, 84%, are from 16-20 years old. Meanwhile, 9% are from 20-24 years old,5% are 24 years old and above, and lastly, only 1% are below 16. What we can conclude is most of our respondents are about

the same age of our age, teenagers. While, only 1% are below 16. This maybe because the young people do not concern about this kind of matter yet, perhaps they still young and not so familiar with tabarruj.

13. Where are you from?

a. Places by country : Places Malaysia India Jordan Egypt UAE Ambiguous Error / Empty TOTAL : 181 No. of respondents 169 1 1 2 1 7

b. Respondents in Malaysia only (by states) : States of Malaysia Sarawak Perak Johor Pahang Selangor Penang Negeri Sembilan Kedah Terengganu Malacca Kelantan Sabah TOTAL : 132 No. of respondents 4 28 7 6 49 5 12 10 3 1 3 4

c. Respondents by States, cities and other smaller parts of the countries : Places Shah Alam, Selangor Kuala Lumpur, Selangor Subang Jaya, Selangor Cyberjaya, selangor Banting, Selangor Klang, Selangor Seri Iskandar, Perak Malim Nawar, Perak UTP, Perak Sitiawan, Perak Teluk Intan, Perak Tapah, Perak Serdang, Kedah Langkawi, Kedah Nilai, Negeri Sembilan Seremban, Negeri Sembilan Taman Guru, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan Kota Konabalu, Sabah Tawau, Sabah Kulai, Johor Johor Bahru, Johor Butterworth, Penang Kuching, Sarawak Machang, Kelantan Cairo, Egypt No. of respondents 9 11 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 9 1

1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

This question is asked so that we could determine how the condition of a certain place affects the way the questions would be perceived and

answered by the respondents. According to table (a), we have a total of 181 respondents whereby 169 (93.37%) of them are Malaysian, a respondent for each countries of India, Jordan and UAE, that is 0.006% for each of these countries, 2 (0.011%) from Egypt and a total of 7 (0.039%) anonymous respondents. This ambiguity is caused by unanswered question. These 7 people may have skipped the question purposely or maybe unintentionally such as over skipped question as they scrolled down the survey form. To sum it up, most of our survey is based on the Malaysians points of views only.

14. What is your religion?

This question is to know how a persons religion background affects his opinions on TABARRUJ. The respondents are mostly Muslims by the numerical value of 179 (98.895%). Only 1 (0.006%) respondent answered other and another one did not answer. He may forget to answer or over skipped the question. In a nutshell, most of the responds are based on the views of Muslims.

Analysis on daily response :

The line graph above shows the responds we got during the days we started the survey until we got the results. The graph the rating of the respondents in answering the spread sheet and survey forms. The number of respondents are at maximum at the beginning of the survey since at that time, we had promoted the survey form by posting it at the Facebook to attract the respondents answer it. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fspr eadsheet%2Fviewform%3Fformkey%3DdGxvbGFYZHdhTWYyeXFUeHZXWUVm VlE6MQ&h=kAQFMq7foAQFB6erY6KvUlV8HMvwj3dBMgQIVtjAI7l5-rg This is the link we spread to our friends and acquaintance. Alhamdulillah, the responds are positive. We can see from the graph above that the respondents gave their cooperation to answer and giving their comments or opinion about tabarruj.

Discussion
Discussion on findings
Study implication
From this study, we found that many people have heard of tabarruj, but do not know what it is about. Although that many know it is haram, but they still commit tabarruj. Most of the respondents see tabarruj as not covering the aurah and displaying the jewelries mainly. The second highest perception is using to much perfume. The third highest point is the walking style. These show that many people are attracted to smell and walking style, besides body curves and skin. The voice as aurah is very uncommon among the people. This could be due to the non-stop debuting women singers from the industry. This has made them to think that there is nothing wrong in softening the voice when speaking with the males. It is also proven that among those who commit tabarruj, it is not mainly because they do not know the hukm, but to follow the trend instead. Only a few considered tabarruj as a way to seduce men and to appear attractive in front of others. Since most of trends come from the westerners (who are mainly comprised of the non-muslims) and the, indirectly, the root of this problem is the influence from the westerners. This shows how great they have manipulated the minds of the Muslims nowadays and how strong the

contaminations are until the muslims sights towards the implementation of the Islamic values is blocked by the trends and cultures created by them. However, it is a relief that most respondents agree that the prohibition of tabarruj is not discrimination towards women. This shows that people are not burdened by the shariah of Islam. This could convey that the Muslims are very sincere in practicing shariah in their lives not just to be known as Muslims. From this survey, it shows that most people agree that tabarruj is the sole cause of crime scenes happening nowadays. This directly tells that in order to create a surveillance society, ones must stop the unhealthy practice of tabarruj first. The, we can talk about ways of reducing the crime rate. The society mostly blames themselves for not knowing the hukm of tabarruj. This shows that Malaysian citizens are very aware of the need to know the hukm of tabarruj. Some blame the society and others put the blame on the parents. Only minorities blame the school syllabus.

Study Limitations and Future Research


1.

We lack variety of respondents roots. The respondents are limited to mostly Malaysians only because according to our questions, most of the respondents are Muslims from Malaysia. The survey form only revolves around the nearest people because we posted the link for the survey on Facebook and sent it by e-mails, that way; only our friends and family are informed about the survey form. We only have a few foreign

respondents that are the UTPs international students. Hence the view of the respondents on TABARUJ is solely based on the condition of Malaysias cultures, not from the view of other lifestyles. We would like to pursue this research in a broader perspective will involvement of respondents from all over the world in the future.

2.

There are ambiguities in the result of the responses. The total of respondents differs over every question. This shows that some did not answer some questions. Thus, we do not have a very precise and complete overall picture of the responses of this issue. In the future, we will ensure that every respondent never miss even a single question while giving their responses.

3.

There is no variety of religion background of the respondents. Based on the summary of the result, almost 99% of the respondents are Muslims. Hence, the opinions given may be based on mostly Islamic views. We look forward to seeing responses from people of other religions too in the future.

References

1. Tabarruj. (2011). Retrieved November 21, 2011, from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGx vbGFYZHdhTWYyeXFUeHZXWUVmVlE6MQ

2. Rosmawati Ismail, (March 2003). Faculty of Al Quran and As Sunnah Studies (Undergraduates Academic Project papers) in Malaysian Islamic Northern College. At Tabarruj Fi Nazar Al Islam. Retrieved from http://ddms.usim.edu.my/handle/123456789/3204?show=full

3. Al Quran and As - Sunnah

4. Wikipedia

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