For those of you who don't know me personally, I have been working in Saudi Arabia for the past few months. It is extremely interesting and I am actually enjoying myself here. Yesterday at lunch, my colleague Ahmad told me that men in Saudi Arabia are not to wear gold. Hence their wedding rings are usually silver (and their wives wear gold.. lots of gold). I started looking around and indeed noticed that most men did not wear ANY jewelry (although they do like their watches and pens).
So last night I decided to lookup the official rationale behind this custom, and stumbled upon this:
So last night I decided to lookup the official rationale behind this custom, and stumbled upon this:
"Allaah, may He be glorified, has created mankind and made
them of two genders, male and female, and He has given each of them its own
characteristics which are suited to the role that each of them has to play in
this life. Men have roles and tasks that women cannot do, and women have roles
and tasks that men cannot do.
It is well known that gold is something with which people
adorn and beautify themselves, but a man is not meant to do this, i.e., he is
not a person who may be perfected by means of adding something, rather a man is
perfect in and of himself, because of his manhood. A woman needs to adorn
herself so as to make herself attractive to her husband, thus creating a bond
between her and her husband. Hence it permissible for a woman to adorn herself
with gold and other things, so that the man will be attracted to her and seek
her, and the purpose of marriage will be achieved, which is the propagation of
the human species. Being brought up with adornments and softness is only
appropriate for women; as for men, it is something blameworthy in their case.
Because gold and adorning oneself with it are things that
are suited to the nature of women and the role for which they have been
created, it is obviously wise for it to be forbidden for men to imitate women
in that. One of the strange things that we see nowadays is many young men
adorning themselves by wearing gold chains and the like, and they even put
makeup on their faces. This is contrary to the fitrah (sound human nature) and
to the masculinity and resolve which should be the characteristics of men.
Hence you will not find any wise and serious man doing that, rather they are
either perverts or those who are lacking in character, time-wasters who are
trying to fill the gaps in their character or fill their time by doing that.
And Allaah knows best."
I will refrain from commenting any of the content in the text, concentrating on the most important messages:
- their are things that women can do in Saudi Arabia that men are not allowed to do!
- women shall be covered in gold, in order to make themselves even prettier to their man,
and I say: Hell yeah! Bring on the Gold... I have a lot of embellishing to do!! ;-)
