The sacred nature of women

William Blake says "The nakedness of a woman is the work of God."

Chastity and purity have always been the great virtues that come naturally to women but which men must learn. The Qur'an uses Mary, the mother of Christ, as a great paragon of chastity and purity of the heart and describes her as an ideal. And purity of the heart and describes her as an ideal for men and women. "And God has made an exemplar for those who believe of Mary who graded her chastity, so We breathed some of Our spirit into her, and she confirmed the pronouncements and the scriptures of her Lord, and was among the pious."

It is from women then, that men learn chastity and purity, which in turn protect the sacred nature of women, alluded to in the Arabic word for women, "hurmah", which means "what is sacred."

Now, the failure of men in imitating women in their natural virtue has resulted in women rejecting the double standard of men and imitating men in their natural vice. The spiritual power of women is great, but so too is the power of their physical attraction to men. It is this power that causes vile men to want to dominate women, and virtuous men to honor and protect them. But the physical power of the female form over men is a sensory power that veils men from their metaphysical meaning. Her sensual form prevents the man lost in carnality from knowing her spiritual reality, that she is the source of mercy in the world. The Arabic and Hebrew word for womb (rahm) is derived from the word for mercy (rahma). And the womb is also an expression of the creative power of god in man. In degrading women, we degrade the highest qualities of our human nature; in elevating her, we elevate our highest nature. When her natural virtues: compassion, kindness, caring, selflessness and love-predominate in men, men are able to overcome their natural vices and realize their fully humanity. When however those virtues are absent, men descend to the lowest of the low and are worse then beasts. In unveiling the outward beauty of a woman, we become veiled from her inward beauty.

As a poet from the distant past, Jami, who is the equal of Rudi in the Persian tradition said: I said to my rose-cheeked lovely, "Oh you with bud-like mouth, why keep hiding your face like flirting girls?" She laughed and said, "Unlike the beauties of your world, in the veil I am seen but without it I am hidden."

Hamza Yusuf