Laj Finger (Lateefat Adewumi) and the Niqabyte Cobbler.

The Niqabi cobbler; sister Aminah Adegoke called me and we talked at length.

She made lots of explanations and clarifications which I'll highlight here. And in shaa Allah, this will be my last post concerning the issue.

Firstly; She works from home. The shop where her goods was being displayed is in her house. She lives upstairs while her shop is downstairs. She just had to go down stairs whenever she had work to do which isn't affecting her responsibilities as a wife. Let's get hold of facts before concluding.

Secondly; She doesn't interact with male customers, her husband does on her behalf.

Thirdly; A BBC staff passed by her shop and was amazed by her wonderful expertise. He proposed an interview and with the full permission of her husband, she agreed. Now she's regretting her action. Contrary to a brother's opinion that she felt she has done the right thing, no, she didn't feel she has done the right thing. In fact, she's presently embittered with the turn of event.

Fourthly; Her aim was never to mislead anyone. Her intention was to motivate women to pursue their dreams and aspirations despite the hijab or face veil in accordance to the dictates of Islam. Now, she's sorry should her actions had caused any inconvenience. In Islam, actions shall be judged according to intention. We pray Allah reward her good intentions and forgive her where she erred.

Fifthly; About the turning or twisting, she swore by her Rabb that it wasn't intended. She said her name was being called, she turned around to answer and that was how that place was captured. She admitted the mistake of not telling BBC to cut that place out. In fact, she admitted with tears that the whole video was a mistake. She was pained because she was trolled like a common criminal. She was devastated that her responsible and supportive husband was backlashed. She told me a particular comment that really made her shed hot tears was a brother's comment who said; "hustle o so that your wife and daughters won't become a shoemaker" Subhana'llah. Thats mockery. That's not correction. What is wrong in a woman being a cobbler? She swore that her acquiring the skills of shoe making wasn't because she was starving. She has a distance marital relationship. While her husband was away, instead of sitting idle, she decided to learn a skill. She established a workshop right there in her house and works from home. May Allah forgive the naysayers.

Sixthly; She's a niqabi who doesn't wear the hand glove and she couldn't form what she was not because of a video. She agreed she should have, at least for the reason that the video would be aired for the WORLD to see. But wearing a glove was not even achievable in the video because she was making use of her hands to work on some shoes in the video. She couldn't possibly gum shoes or use the hammer with a glove on. But all the same, she admitted her mistake. And now with the criticism, she told me she'd ordered for hand gloves, not to please the critics but she drew some lessons from the criticism which is that a niqabi should cover all, including her hands. Thanks to the critics, she's getting better while they'll be accruing sins on themselves if they do not stop the backlash.

Seventhly; She wasn't compelled by BBC. She didn't invite them either. She has a good intention. We all seldom think we're on the right track, only to realise we had made a mistake after the deed has been done. We all err, only Allah is flawless. We owe her the responsibility of constructive correction instead of destructive criticism. She said a lot. She wanted to quit shoemaking. But I told her that her work isn't the problem. She just needed to be careful next time. She should be more careful with her awrah and never let the negativity make her quit. She was in tears wallahi. Even the most corrupt Nigerian politician wouldn't be condemned the way our brothers condemned this striving sister and her husband.

May Allah forgive us all where we err. I won't say any other thing concerning this issue again. If you want to reach her, her Facebook name is umm adnan, I don't know why I can't tag her to this post. May Allah uphold her upon goodness.

I learnt a lot from this. I learnt that people cannot make milk, but they can pour milk away. Aye o le fun wara, sugbon won le da wara nu. A sister lost her husband on the 25th of this month. The responsibility of upholding the home has become hers. How many of our brothers are ready to marry widows, yet they condemn a working woman. They don't even want to know if she's working from home. They just jump into conclusions. A lot of niqabi widows have turned beggars. Even some whose husbands are still living have turned beggars simply because they have irresponsible husbands. Lets us start addressing this issue.

I learnt that we should correct people's mistakes with good manners the same way we should call people into Islam with good manners. You can't condemn people to hell and expect them to listen or accept your admonition. Knowledge without good virtues is vanity.

I learnt that we shouldn't jump into conclusions on any matter. We should get hold of facts before concluding and let us also endeavour to give our Muslim brothers seventy excuses as taught by our beloved prophet saw. May Allah forgive us all. I won't say any other thing on this. I just feel like exonerating my sister in Islam. She admits she has made a mistake. Crucifying her won't undo what has already been done. The video was the mistake she made. She didn't make mistakes by actualising her dreams. Let the naysayers drink cold water to cool their temper. We ain't misled by the video. We have picked the lessons and trashed the errors.

Peace out... 

Laj fingers