*What have we done that our weddings have become spectacles instead of completing our faith?*
That Nikah (marriage contract) which the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) had declared an act of worship, we have turned it into a production of show, indecency, and extravagance. My heart wants to ask, which religion do we follow? The one that teaches us modesty, or the one that incites us to stage, lights, modeling, and obscenity?
The bride's dress is such that the veil screams, "I have been buried." The body is made an exhibition in the name of adornment, and then the surprise is that the same bride is first seen by a non-Mahram (marriageable) camera. That photographer who zooms in on the bride's face even before the men of the house, no father asks, no brother throbs with jealousy, and the husband stands there as a director, "Brother, take more solo pictures of the bride."
Wow, what jealousy, what great progress!
Now, instead of protecting honor, honor is being marketed.
Beauty parlors where girls are not made brides, but are sold as brands. A month before the wedding, girls are as if recruited into a military camp. Parlor instructors are appointed, and drills begin: imitation maps of eyebrows, plastering of foundation, artificial diamonds in the eyes, expensive rouge on the cheeks. In the end, the bride is packed as if she is a doll delivered from a packaging company, not a home. And then, even after paying thousands of rupees, the only prayer is that the photo comes out well. It is not the husband's heart that has to be won, but the heart of social media. Man also forgets that acceptance in the sight of Allah is not obtained by makeup, but by modesty.
Men of the house, be careful! Father, you are the heir to the veil, then how can you remain silent after seeing your daughter's exhibition?
Brother, you are the name of honor, but you are dancing in the Barat (wedding procession) with the mobile flash on? And husband, you are the protector, but you are making your bride's pictures and making her an advertisement for social media? With what face will you say that this is my honor? When honor itself is standing naked in the stage light with your permission?
O daughters: Does it befit you to go out adorned in such a way that the angels are ashamed?
Who told you that the wedding night is a beauty contest?
Beauty parlor bills, photo shoots, makeup kits, all this is not part of faith.
This is just show, deception, and hypocrisy, and deeds that lead to Hell.
We pray, "O Allah, bless the marriage," but at the beginning of the marriage, we arrange such gatherings that even Satan claps with joy. We want homes to be inhabited, but the ceremony begins with disobedience to Allah. We want sons and daughters to be happy, but we turn their Nikah into an obscene ceremony. Then, when we have to cry, we say, "Fate was bad." But at that time, the sheet of shame and modesty is taken off and thrown away when it is time to change fate, when it is time to please Allah. At that time, indulgence, and then later crying, drown somewhere. Those who tear shame and modesty to shreds, sometimes come down and see the real surface of the earth. How many girls, after spending a few years, are then made an adda (place) of indulgence. It was not fate, but lifestyle that was bad.
Then the result was that divorces are increasing in society, but the wise call it the loss of technology. The truth is that we have not kept marriage sacred.
We have made Nikah an event and life an adda (place) of show.
The real purpose and the strong message of Islam was and is: make marriages easy, revive the veil, kill useless customs, otherwise customs will kill your homes. We will then have to adopt the same path of the Quran and Sunnah, on which the Ahl al-Bayt and Sahaba (RA) walked, where modesty was the crown, honor was the soldier, and Nikah was light. The richest person in the entire universe, the cause of the existence of the universe, was the Prophet of God (PBUH), but I have not read anywhere in his blessed life that he arranged so many weddings and did for his daughters, but the pages of history are witness that no one can even say that food was also disrespected. Then, on whose mission are you living? The Prophet of Islam did not have such a system, you have to consider.
O Allah: Save us from the fire of show,
Draw us back to Your religion,
Grant us such weddings that bring Your mercy, not the means of Your wrath, Ameen, O Lord of the Worlds, by the grace of the Noble Prophet (PBUH).
*✍️Mutallem Al-Jamiatul Ashrafia✍️*