Why do we cover our body ?
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Salaam Burhan,
The human, being a sexual creature, is apt to get aroused wether they are conditioned to appreciate nudism or not. Babies, children, young adults, and adults alike get aroused. In society women can be a source of arousal even if they are clothed, even if they wear hijab. Same as men. Different aspects of a woman turn a man on, her eyes, the way she looks at you, her lips, her butt, her breats, her hips, legs, the way she moves, etc. Likewise women are turned on by a man with a nice chest, smile, eyes, butt, etc.
In some religions, Christianity and Earth-based followings, clothing is there because it protects against the enviroment, not the shame of one's body which God created perfect or which is completely natural. They will worship before God/the gods naked to come to their superiors open. It is also a rejection of the traditions of the world which teach that the body is a bad thing, that must be covered because it is shameful.
However, we see that whether the body is covered or not people will feel shame or aversion towards it. Babies can be conditioned early on and social interactions (positive or negative events) can lead to a healthy upbringing or a bad upbringing. The child who is told that playing with him or herself is evil and has their hand slapped away from them in the living room with other family a # of times and in different contexts will grow up fearful of touching themselves and when they do see it as evil.
Take care.
Joe
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Salaam TheNabi,
Babies, children, young adults, and adults alike get aroused.
Babies get aroused, sexually! Wow, You should get that published in a medical journal.
In society women can be a source of arousal even if they are clothed, even if they wear hijab.
Thats what I meant by everyone is conditioned differently - but wearing clothes is the safe option, also God imposes self-conditioning ie lowering the gaze.
also a rejection of the traditions of the world which teach that the body is a bad thing, that must be covered because it is shameful.
shameful doesn't mean evil - it can also be understood in terms of embarrasment.
Humans become aware of their private parts around age 1 and then slowly develop a sense of shame and feel embarrassed if they are naked. This comes naturally like all other emotions. This is what Adam felt in the garden. Some people overcome that feeling have no problems being naked infront of others - and some don't. But whatever the person covering your privates in public is better than not doing so as a sign of respect for people who are not conditioned in the same way as you.
Take care.
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Peace be upon you Burhan,
Humans become aware of their private parts around age 1 and then slowly develop a sense of shame and feel embarrassed if they are naked. This comes naturally like all other emotions. This is what Adam felt in the garden.
Fantastic!
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Salaam Burhan,
Babies get aroused, sexually! Wow, You should get that published in a medical journal.
Well, the problem here is that even sexologists are not aware of whether this should be considered masturbation since babies playing with their genitals lacks the associated sexual connotations older individuals have in regards to genital pleasuring. Babies play with their genitals because it feels good and such sexual associations are later learned. It is erotic however and sensual. I never claimed that it was sexual. Yes, babies, like adults get aroused because the skin is a pleasure center. Associations to different events come later as I've said before. I'm sure you can understand this.
Thats what I meant by everyone is conditioned differently - but wearing clothes is the safe option, also God imposes self-conditioning ie lowering the gaze.
Why is wearing clothes a safe option? Safe for what, the weather? Yes, when we are called to lower the gaze we are called to not commit to fornication and adultery in the heart. Otherwise we will be looking down almost all of our lives, not really knowing who is who unless like the blind we become finely attuned to our sense of hearing.
shameful doesn't mean evil - it can also be understood in terms of embarrasment.
Agreed.
Humans become aware of their private parts around age 1 and then slowly develop a sense of shame and feel embarrassed if they are naked. This comes naturally like all other emotions.
Agreed.
This is what Adam felt in the garden. Some people overcome that feeling have no problems being naked infront of others - and some don't. But whatever the person covering your privates in public is better than not doing so as a sign of respect for people who are not conditioned in the same way as you.
I agree, it should be a sign of respect to cover in front of others who feel covering is modest and vice versa. I'm sure you do not take respect to the others in that account, but you should, or maybe you simply failed to mention it?
I'm not sure what adam felt in the garden was akin to nudity, but it certainly was to one of embarrasment. You see, in my opinion, adam had become aware that they were naked before God, i.e. all of their thoughts and deeds were clearly apparent to God. God had no problem with adam being naked from the fore, nor did God command adam to cover. When adam had done a wrong against itself, it tried to cover this deed, it did not want to be naked before God, but God could see adam's fault. God then said that the best garment was that of righteousness. Thus adam should cover itself with the goodness that God has called for. This was best.
Take care.
Joe
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Peace be upon you,
Excellent discussion Joe and Burhan, I think we all are on the "same page".
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peace Joe,
I'm not sure what adam felt in the garden was akin to nudity, but it certainly was to one of embarrasment. You see, in my opinion, adam had become aware that they were naked before God, i.e. all of their thoughts and deeds were clearly apparent to God. God had no problem with adam being naked from the fore, nor did God command adam to cover. When adam had done a wrong against itself, it tried to cover this deed, it did not want to be naked before God, but God could see adam's fault. God then said that the best garment was that of righteousness. Thus adam should cover itself with the goodness that God has called for. This was best.
Nice.
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Peace be upon you SA,
I think the "shame" is that the human is falling from the God. What I mean is this, we were meant to be spiritual servants of the God having a physical experience, but man has become twisted and thinks he is a physical being having a spiritual experience. Therefore everything man thinks about is "physical" and the God is sending us a message to take us away from that physical "life of this world" mentality.
Adam and his wife had all they needed, but they became greedy for more, so they fell from the "garden" and started to cover thier private parts, which they were not aware of before.
So while on the physical earth, we must cover our shame because MOST of mankind is are physically-based and the solution to that is to cover our private parts.
That is my current understanding unless I can hear a better argument.
What do you mean by covering their private parts?
What does covering of the private parts have to do with that situation?
May our Lord increase our Knowledge and Faith.
Peace.
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Do you think that God can refer this as a state of mind. Which dresses up our mind in a proper way with proper knowledge ?
just a thought
peace
Afcourse, nice pondering.
Since our minds can be dressed, it is best to dress them with Righteousness.
May our Lord increase our Knowledge and Faith.
Peace.
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The Qur'an says 7.26
O CHILDREN of Adam! Indeed, We have bestowed upon you from on high garments to cover your nakedness, and as a thing of beauty but the garment of God-consciousness is the best of all. Herein lies a message from God, so that man? might take it to heart.
If we bear in mind questions of climate, around the world and around the year, nakedness should be more concern fromthe point of view of health and coomfort than fromthe point of view of shame as it is taken for grnted without proper foundation.
Also comfort is much greater in many occasions with clothing than without it. Sun may be scorching, wind may hit and even bring sand or dust with it, cold is cold... Who would feel more comfortable going around naked than dressed. In some occasions I do not doubt that being naked is comfortable, when we choose the plce and the time. But for most occasions we feel mor ecomfortable dressed.
Also the other part, feeling beautiful or nicer... That is obviusly true and there is nothing wrong with it We all want to have the best presence, appearance, although without too much trouble too. If we must send hours i front of the mirror, the thing becomes burden. But clothes and aparel ar things that we legitimately use because we want to look good, and God considers that proper for us.
The shame as to the sexual parts I am not at all sure that the Qur'an means that rgarding the tree adam should not come near to.
Again we seem to be speaking about the bible, not about the Qur'an.
I think that the thing abut the garden and the tree has a completely diffrent meaning, but what is the use of it? We are too much conditionned by the Adam and Eve legend.
Salaam
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If one likes to fight the temptation of Satan it is courteous of others to cover themselves for your sake or for you to cover yourself in return for them. Otherwise it might be that you have to stare down in the floor or look another way, unless you have reached so far that Satan no longer has that sort of influence on you.
If someone finds you naked it is courteous to apologize for forcing them to control their emotions. Many Satan abstainers might not even like to see a naked person of their own gender, especially if they have abstained sex for a long time.
It is for that reason you cover your body, i.e. to avoid Satan from giving you impulses. If you think of sex when you see the opposite sex you go against the adultery commandment in the Torah as they are there to prevent you from succumbing to Satan.
Note I did not translate Satan, but Satan refers to the autonomous system in your Body which will entice you to certain behavior and deeds, i.e. the instinctive drive. It is which is your contradiction in life and main problem. If people were more concerned about Satan than arguing which religious "mumbo-jumbo" is true then they may had been better off. Quran teaches "Contemplate its application and not its strictness" when referring to the commandments.
Be safe
Amenuel -
i don't know about being courteous because my religious mumbo-jumbo staes you are only held responsible for yourselves (own souls).
but why in relation to other people? there are nude beaches, where it would be akward if you did wear clothes.
"court-e-see" kinda depends on whose court your in? -
Therefore it can be courteous to at least help others not be instinctive beasts and also you give others signals that you do not need to show your Body.
I know many people will not be spiritually enlightened sufficiently to share the same idea so you simply will have to look another way as you meet them if you feel that looking at them will stimulate the sex instinct into something undesirable. We cannot force them to cover themselves although if sufficient amounts of people will show disproval they might change.
We cannot force people to grow spiritually.
Be safe
Amenuel -
peace to all,
just now a question poped in my head about dress thing. I was thinking, what is the main purpose of wearing dress or covering our body ? Is it to protect our body parts from getting hurt or like protecting our skin or certain parts which needs extra care to be healthy, like not getting infection or scars ?
OR is it about shame ?
If shame than why did God gave us something that we should feel ashamed of ? Of why should we be ashamed of God's creation ?
peace
i guess only people who get leered at for being attractive can understand this
unless you're an attention seeking person, there's no reason to dress lightly, or like a slut as i call it
the reason to dress is primarily for geographical reasons, then because of others
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You are an "attention-seeker" because you are addicted to the hormone rush involved through the instinct. Satan is the problem.
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Many tribal people's in hot countries wear absolutely minimal clothing and these peoples are often more spiritually focusedl than those who are raised in developed religion based societies, fully clothed. Clothing or lack of it has no bearing on spirituality and righteousness. I thinks it is culture that establishes morality and appropriate sexual behaviour. While there are individual preferences, different parts of the body are considered erotic in different cultures and beauty is also culturally influenced. Tribal people's have harsh punishments for those who break the rules and though they may not wear clothes, I think there is probably less rape and sexual molestation in their societies than in ours.
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The Qur'an says 7.26
O CHILDREN of Adam! Indeed, We have bestowed upon you from on high garments to cover your nakedness, and as a thing of beauty but the garment of God-consciousness is the best of all. Herein lies a message from God, so that man? might take it to heart.
If we bear in mind questions of climate, around the world and around the year, nakedness should be more concern fromthe point of view of health and coomfort than fromthe point of view of shame as it is taken for grnted without proper foundation.
the foundation is biology
The shame as to the sexual parts I am not at all sure that the Qur'an means that rgarding the tree adam should not come near to.
but in the quran it says to subdue the eyes to not look at the private parts or something along that line
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i don't know about being courteous because my religious mumbo-jumbo staes you are only held responsible for yourselves (own souls).
but why in relation to other people? there are nude beaches, where it would be akward if you did wear clothes.
"court-e-see" kinda depends on whose court your in?there are nude beaches in countries that do not apply the rule of the quran on the land
