Hijab & Niqab Poetry & Fiction Relationships

Umm and Ummah

2472441512_bd07882570_oby Aasiyah Abdul Musawwir

Arabic, you are the tongue
of my spirit
And Wallahi,
it is no coincidence that
umm, “mother,”
and Ummah, “community,”
come from the same root.

I talk a lot about this hijab…

You ask me if it is mandated –

I will tell you it is
essential,
life-giving,
the umbilical chord
sustaining my connection
to a spiritual line of wombs
that
swung the sword
rocked the podium
graced the pen
and raised a generation of
“knights by day,
and monks by night.”

Because ‘the rope
of the believers’
is a thirty inch
wrap-around
with yellow flowers
embroidered into the edges.

This rope –
this scarf
is Asmaa’s sash
and it has met the rocky pathways
gracefully bearing sustenance.

I am holding on Ya Allah
I am holding because
Maryam is on the other end
grasping as she did the trunk of a palm tree
calling out your name

I am holding because
Aasiyah smiles towards the heavens
Even as her wrists are twisted in this rope
And the men are approaching with a boulder
Hold tight to the rope
and pray Aasiyah
Just pray…

I am holding because
Khadijah’s fingers grace the fringes
tenderly
the fingers that tousled a beloved head of hair
as he cried
‘Dathiruni dathiruni!’

Umm and Ummah

This hijab
declares proud lineage

not of blood –
but of light.

About the author

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