Bashfulness of Modesty (al-Haya)Is part of Faith.
By: Muhammad Mahmud Mutwali
Bashfulness or modesty (al-Haya) is a constellation of most merits and good manners and is an outcome of one’s strong faith in Allah. The Most Powerful, the Exalted. No people can do without having this quality which is the incentive to doing good deeds for the sake of the present life and for the Hereafter. The Glorious Qur’an and the Noble Sunnah (the Prophetic example) exhort people to be modest Bashfulness or modesty is the fruit of knowing Allah, seeking to please Him and abstaining from whatever Allah prohibits. The researcher defines (al-Haya) linguistically and gives its common meaning and concludes that (al-Haya) is good manners which is exhorted by all Divine messages which had disclosed the vileness of its negative morality, obscenity and indecency. Obscenity and indecency are undesirable bad morals which are censured. Unbashful persons are dispraised and their propogation and show off of bad morals should be checked. They should be punished, reclaimed and guided towards the right path.
The researcher has distinguished between bashfulness some negative morals which are sometimes mixed with bashfulness, such as cowardice and hypocrisy.
“al-Haya’ is classified into acquired” and “instinctive” bashfulness. Then, the researcher proceeds to explain what helps in the acquisition of bushfulness divisions: Bashfulness with Allah, with people with oneself and bashfulness of Allah, of his Prophet and of people.
In attributing bashfulness to Allah the present researcher explained its meaning according to scholars and in describing the bashfulness of people, he concentrated on woman; her bashfulness, self-respect and pudency- Bashfulness, which is decorum and a crown that adornes and beautifies a woman exalts her position and makes her abstain from whatever draws on herself wrath from Allah.