Title: While Attending a Baptist University... Question: First and foremost I find your site very knowledgeable and well written out. Your answers are clear and concise. Mashallah . Keep up the good work and inshallah may ALLAH-Tala bless you more with deeni knowledge. My question to you: I am a senior at a Baptist University, I had previously been to a state university where I had been a member of the MSA. Due to other reasons I am attending this Christian university. It is compulsory as part of University requirements to attend Christian congregation. Are we allowed to go for these gathering? The last gathering I went for, students were describing their joy of "accepting" Christianity. One of the students was a Muslim whose mother had been an American married to a Muslim and she felt Islam was not her religion and is happier being a Christian. I was very hurt at what she said about Islam, when I told fellow Muslims they were annoyed I did not stand up to defend Islam. Was I wrong not to? I was hurting a lot in my heart but felt I was one among so many and she has made a choice to accept another faith. Should I have said something? My second question; I have been tempted to start wearing hijab for a very long time, as I go to a predominantly Christian school, will I be told to leave the school? Thank you so much for any input that you would be kind enough to help me with. I have been feeling very low as I feel ashamed for not standing up for my religion. But often when non-believers question me I explain Islam to them, to the best of my knowledge. And I respect people's decision to choose their own faith as I expect them to respect my faith too. Jazakallah Allah Haifiz . Answer: Attending a Christian congregation is not prohibited, as long as the person attending such a congregation does not participate in any such activity which is explicitly prohibited in the Shari`ah . Under the circumstances that you have mentioned, you may not be left with any option but to attend the said congregation. However, you should excuse yourself from participating in any such activity, which in your opinion is against the tenets of the Islamic Shari`ah or which clearly hinder you from participating in an activity, which the Shari`ah has made obligatory upon you. As far as whether a Muslim should always strongly react to other's criticisms and ridicules against Islam and whatever it stands for or not, I am afraid I do not agree with the opinion expressed by your friends, which, incidentally, is also representative of the opinion held by Muslims, in general. Muslims, all around the world, generally consider it their prime responsibility to strongly react to all negative comments against Islam, without even considering the repercussions of such reactions on the addressees as well as on the image that they would make of Islam. We should always remember that the best response to ridicule - as is also the case with abusive and offensive remarks - is silence. In fact, if you consider the psyche of the ridiculing mind a little closely, you shall see that a response is never likely to have a positive effect on such a mind. Most criticisms belong to the same category as well. This is precisely the reason why the Qur'an has directed the Prophet (pbuh) to opt for avoidance in the face of ridicule. The Qur'an says: And He [i.e. God] has already instructed you in the book that when you hear God's revelations being denied or ridiculed, you must not sit with them, until they engage in another discourse. ( Al-Nisaa 4: 140) I firmly believe that a response should only be given to an honest criticism if one truly feels that the addressees can, with some effort, be convinced and given satisfactory answers for their criticisms. This implies that the individual, who is contemplating a response, possesses the required knowledge and the ability to give appropriate answers to the criticisms of others, on the one hand, and that the addressees are prepared to listen to him, on the other. No efforts to effectively answer any criticisms are likely to produce the desired results, unless both these requirements are fully satisfied. Moreover, it should also be kept in mind that a particular individual, while he is in a group, which has a negative bent of mind toward a given idea, is least likely to be convinced about that idea, irrespective of how convincing the arguments may be. In view of this fact, I would suggest that even if the two mentioned conditions are satisfied, a person should only be given a response to his criticisms in seclusion and that too only after developing good friendly relations with him/her. In view of the above stipulations and in view of the situation that you have described in your letter, I really feel that your silence in response to the ridicules and criticisms of the group was not only very wise, but was also according to God's instructions to His prophet. I would only like to add that if you are faced with such a situation in future, you should not just remain silent but should also avoid standing/sitting with them, till such time that they change the topic, as the Prophet (pbuh) has been directed to do, in the cited verse. You ask: I have been tempted to start wearing hijab for a very long time, as I go to a predominantly Christian school, will I be told to leave the school? If you feel that wearing a hijab is a part of God's directives to you, then you should wear it, irrespective of the environment that you live in. As far as whether the school administration shall take any disciplinary action against you or not, this would really depend on the rules of the school. However, in my opinion, your decision of wearing the hijab (or otherwise) should depend solely on your understanding of the directives of the Shari`ah , in this regard. If, according to your understanding, the Shari`ah has directed you to wear a hijab , you should wear it, under all circumstances, irrespective of the cost that you may have to pay for it. I hope this helps. September 6, 2000