Hadrat Maulânâ Thânwî rahimahullâh explains that before the partition of India there was a person who took his modern wife to enjoy the mountainous air of Shimlah. Just as we in Pakistan have Murri, there is Shimlah in India. In those days, the British had their bungalows there. It was summer and two guards were sitting on their horses with guns in their hands and guarding a bungalow of a British officer. This person was dressed in modern western attire with a tie, had his young wife dressed in fashionable clothes with plenty of make-up because this was a “modern era,” we are educated people and we are progressive people. Allâh forbid – the ancient era of Rasûlullâh r is long gone. Now listen to the punishment of not observing purdah of this progressive age as related by Hakîm al-Ummah Thânwî rahimahullâh and which I am conveying to you in this musjid.

One year had passed since these two guards had come from London. The fire of passion was burning in them. Now tell me, what would their condition be when this woman was exposed before them? O you transgressors! It is for this reason that I tell you to show mercy to yourselves. You can still take benefit from this talk of mine. If you still find no benefit in it, give up coming to this khânqâh. You will purchase a kilo of meat and conceal it [on your way home] lest it is taken away by someone. You will purchase a litre of milk but conceal it from the cat lest it drinks the milk. If you have a thousand rupees in your pocket, you will keep your hand in your pocket lest it gets stolen by pickpockets. You do all this despite all these items not having the ability to go away on their own. The money does not have the ability to leave your pocket and go into the hand of the pickpocket. The milk does not have the ability to go away to the cat. The meat does not have the ability to fly away. However, a woman has the ability to go away somewhere on her own. We constantly read in the newspapers of women who fell in love with someone and eloped with him, having run away from her parents.

O you who place value to one litre of milk!

O you who place value to one kilo of meat!

O you who place your hand in your pocket in order to safeguard your money!

Don’t you feel ashamed at sending your daughter-in-law and daughters alone out of the house?

I lived in Nâzimâbâd for twenty years. A friend of mine who was a principal in a college there related an incident to me. He said, “A person came to me and said, ‘My daughter has not come home for the past three days. Check in your register whether she was marked present or not?’ I said to him, ‘Your daughter was present for all the subjects. If she does not go home after college, we are not responsible.’ The father said, ‘Ok, ok. No one must reprimand her. As long as she is not absent from college, I have no problem. She can be anywhere else, she can be living with a boy, I have no objection.’ After relating this incident to me, the principal began crying because he was an adherent of the Sharî‘ah, regular in salâh, and a pious man.

Therefore, if I talk about the illness of false love and a person does not like what I say, instead of benefiting from me he makes objections to my repeating the same subject matter, then I say to him: Go to Muftî Rashîd Ahmad Sâhib, go to Maulânâ Sub-hân Mahmûd Sâhib, go to Maulânâ Taqî ‘Uthmânî Sâhib, go to Maulânâ Muftî Walî Hasan Sâhib – in short, many elders are conducting assemblies, and he may attend them and leave Akhtar. Such a person will not even benefit by coming here. If a person is suffering from cholera, I will give him an injection for his cholera. Therefore, anyone having no affinity with me should not attend my assembly. Hakîm al-Ummah Thânwî rahimahullâh said that two people always benefit from the pious:

(1) The person who has intense love for that personality and every single thing which he says therefore appeals to him.

(2) He is extremely intelligent and gauges the fine points from everything that is said. If a person is stupid or not a true lover [of the shaykh], who does not have good thoughts [about the shaykh] – such people cannot benefit from the shaykh.

I am announcing again: Give up your thoughts of rectifying me. A sick person does not have the right to rectify the doctor. If you find my talks good and beneficial, you are most welcome. I will make du‘â’ for you in ‘Arafât, Minâ, Muzdalifah, in front of the blessed grave of Rasûlullâh r, in front of the House of Allâh [Ka‘bah], I will say, “O Allâh! Do not deprive the person who comes to my khânqâh. Make him Your devoted servant.”

Value my du‘âs, moans and sighs. That woman is most unworthy and foolish who phones me and tells me that I am humiliating and disgracing women when I talk about the consequences of false beauty. If that woman is not present here today, the women who are here must convey this message to her that she must never come here in future. I always speak on this subject which has spread like cholera and through which the children of the ummah are being destroyed.

Ah! If only some Maulânâ or some pious person had taught that couple who had went to Shimlah by saying, “O son! Do not take your wife without purdah out of the house. It must not happen that the honour of your wife is snatched away.” Consequently, those two guards threatened that “modern” husband with their guns, dragged his uncovered wife, and raped her right in front of her husband. This is mentioned by Hadrat Thânwî rahimahullâh. You want to become modern? You want to take your wives without purdah and display their nakedness in the shopping centres? Look at the consequence of this evil: the modern husband wearing a tie is standing and watching while his wife is being raped. He is watching what is happening but has no power to do anything because they had guns with them.

If this woman was wearing a burqa‘, this would not have happened. Till today, no woman in burqa‘ was raped. If she was, it was because she was not in purdah before that. Had she been in purdah, she would have been safeguarded. It is for this reason that Allâh Ta’ala issued an order to His servants warning them against casting glances towards another person’s wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, aunt, sister, and mother. This is what is known as the dignity of the woman. There is no dignity in my giving up this topic while you walk around like a stallion. If you really desire your reformation, you will have to listen to what I say. Tell me! Where does a woman’s dignity lie, in piety or in disobeying Allâh Ta’ala where she displays her beauty to such an extent that people are trapped into falling in love with her?

Women who remain in purdah, who perform salâh and keep fast, we personally ask them to supplicate in our favour. All praise is due to Allâh that there are many Allâh-fearing women in this gathering whose supplications we yearn for. They will even bear witness that when any of them phones me, I request her to remember me in her supplications. If I had no respect in my heart for those mothers and sisters, why would I request them to supplicate for me? What I really desire is that no one should steal the honour of your daughters. Keep them in purdah and make them wear the burqa‘. It is part of the destructiveness of non-purdah that people entice women, rape them and destroy their lives. It is for this reason we are commanded that when we leave the house, we must wear purdah. If you have to go to a wedding, wear simple clothes so that no eyes fall on your beauty. Your beauty is for your husband.

I always tell my friends that when they see any handsome boy, they must immediately say, “O Allâh! Let his beauty be a blessing for his wife.” Tell me! Is it not permissible for a wife to kiss her young handsome husband? In like manner, if your eyes unwittingly fall on a beautiful woman, say, “O Allâh! Let her beauty be a blessing for her husband.”