This is a poem I wrote my last year of high school (2002), the year when I started wearing the head cover (hijab). I actually began wearing it 30 days before 9/11/2001. Although I chose to not continue observing this after 3 years, it was important to me at the time and has become an important part of my past/history that I cherish and appreciate. The hijab has a special place in my heart because of the history and because the people in my life that observe it today. I will talk more about that and the sociological/anthropological experiment/project I pursued there after, later in my future blog posts. I shared this particular poem with Muslim audiences, a year later in college. I wanted to share it here as well…
The Gift of Purity
Shades encumbering this trust…
This faith, description unavailable
Emanating all affection to the All-Mighty
An Armor, a shield to guard the unguarded.
A garment as symbol of the faith.
Illuminating what is beneath…
A gift, a privilege, an honor..
A presentation of the presented.
Protecting, preserving, shielding…
An exquisite emblem of piety
Elegantly she poses,
Passing the pure gift granted by the Divine…
To every being she encounters..
Sharing her humility..
Sharing her affection…
Sharing her faith…
With all surrounding her.
Connecting her soul to the souls of others…innocently attaining liberty
Externally secured is this crown
As it is affixed internally.
Not once does she glance in the others’ eyes to sense their disdainful superiority.
Never shall she step into a vicinity..
Where all are trapped, scarred, raped from the world they are unfamiliar with.
She stands beside a cliff as the ocean tides attempt to wipe her away…
Yet the crown does not swiver.
She climbs upward a snow-covered mountain, as heavy breezes brush against her…
Yet the crown does not swiver.
She lays on the slope of an erupting volcano, as molten lava wraps around her attempting to incinerate.
Yet the crown does not swiver.
Forever will remain this gift within her.
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