hijab

my story.

I have been brought up in a little bit above average islamic home. Right from a tender age, I was made to realise that a female Muslim is not complete without the hijab to cover her while leaving the house.
I have been tutored that the hijab is compulsory and all female Muslims are expected to be in the hijab. However, we were not taught about how long the hijab should be. Should it just cover the head?  Should it be below the chest?  Below the knee or it should be drawn all over the body?  All we were taught was to use hijab as long as should cover our chest.
We were adapted to this and this had made me to look at people with longer hijab than I was as extremists, dirty people and old-fashioned. I remembered saying to my siblings with whom I shared the same ideology that.
"even after marriage, no matter what, I can't allow my hijab to extend below my knee. It's a matter of being decent and covering the body". They all agreed with me since we shared the same idea.

My view about the hijab didn't affect my decency and dignity nor my self esteem. They have to be protected. A Muslim must not intermingle or have unnecessary friendship with opposite sex. No dating no boyfriend. Those are my principles. I have to please my Lord and I have to be an ideal muslimah.
I remained like this until one of my friends who was known with her small scarf tied on her head visited me with the khimar (the long flowing hijab)  in my school.
I was astonished and was like wow!  Maa sha Allah. So you finally wear this?  She said yes even though her parents did not allow it.
This statement struck me like an iron. It made me feel as if I have been following my own whims by not putting on the correct hijab because before that time, I had gone to a lecture where the verse which talked about the hijab in the Quran (suratul ahzab verse 59) was read to us. However, I didn't see anything wrong with my own hijab. So I paid little attention to the lecture. After all, the people being addressed are those not putting on the hijab at all.

After the girl who visited my school was gone. I started doubting my own form of using the hijab. But I bothered less since there are so many things to worry about.
I was the type of muslimah who depended mostly on what had been taught from home. I also received some lessons about my deen from my primary schools and some from the various madaaris I have attended. I didn't bother to develop myself.
All I know was that the hijab should be worn and no one has the right to take away my hijab from me because it's an order from Allah (swt).
I also knew that my hijab must not be removed except in the house when alone or only in the presence of those I can not marry  as mentioned in the Quran.
All these I abided to, but putting on the correct hijab, I found it difficult. Maybe because of my ego or because I lacked adequate knowledge about the hijab.

I remained this way till I got admission to the university. Fortunately, I and My khimari friend got admission to study the same course, law and we continued our friendship. A girl, Shakirah with the same length of hijab with me joined our friendship. The trio of us became very famous, known and seen together. We tried to help each other academically and religious wise.  Alhamdulillah, none of us can be referred to as a dullard. However, Shakirah was exceptional. She was outstanding and much brilliant than the rest of us. Not only that, she was more keen to the religion than us. She was always trying to search for the knowledge of the deen. She always want to be better.

The interesting part was that, despite her little knowledge about the deen, she never hesitate to correct what was wrong in people, she is very straight forward even to her friends. I loved this characteristics in her and this made me to be closer to her than My khimari friend,  even though we only met at college.
this friendship continued smoothly until an incident occurred. This incident, I won't like to discuss here had effect on My khimari friend. It affected her academically, psychologically and religiously.  We tried to cheer  her up and encourage her not to be down but all our effort had little or no effect on her. So,  even though we still interact with her, she  created her own path which she thread away from us.