The Message of Hijāb
All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him and seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our selves and from our bad deeds. Whoever Allah guides none can lead astray, and whoever Allah leads astray none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, Who has no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and messenger, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them with righteousness.
To proceed, Allah Almighty sent Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) with guidance and with the true religion to bring people from darkness to light - by their Lord’s permission - towards the path of the All-Mighty, Praiseworthy. Allah Almighty sent him for the establishment of His worship through full submission and humility, by obeying His commands and avoiding His prohibitions, and giving precedence to it over personal whims and desires. Allah sent him with a perfect noble character, a caller to noble morals by all possible means, and an eradicator of evil morals and a warner against them by all possible means. Hence, the Shariah of Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) is complete from all aspects. It does not require anyone to complete it or organize it, as it is from the One Who is All-Wise and All-Aware, the One Who knows what is suitable for His slaves, and Who is Merciful to them.
Modesty is among the noble morals that Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was sent with and which he considered to be part of faith and one of its branches. No one denies that it is part of the Shariah-based modesty that a woman should be modestly dressed and adopt morals that keep her away from temptations and suspicious situations.
There is no doubt that by covering her face and body, a woman is showing great modesty as it keeps her safe from temptation.
People in this blessed country - the country of revelation, divine message, modesty, and decency - were on the path of integrity in this regard. Women used to go out in their full Hijāb, wearing Abayas and the like, far from intermixing with foreign men. Fortunately, this is still the case in many cities of the Kingdom, praise be to Allah.
However, with all the talk about Hijāb and with all those who do not adhere to it and who see nothing wrong with revealing the face, some people started to be skeptical about Hijāb and about covering the face; whether it is obligatory, recommended, or only something that has to do with customs and traditions and that has no specific ruling of whether it is obligatory or recommended.
So, to remove such doubts and reveal the truth, I decided to write about the ruling of Hijāb, hoping that Allah Almighty will make it a cause for clarifying the truth and will make us among the guided and guiding ones, who see the truth and follow it and see falsehood and avoid it.
Muslims should know that it is obligatory upon a woman to cover herself and her face in the presence of foreign men as indicated by the Book of Allah Almighty, the Sunnah of His Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him), and by the sound and coherent analogy.
First Evidence: Allah Almighty says: {And tell the believing women to lower their gazes and guard their private parts, and not to reveal their adornments except what appears thereof. And let them draw their veils over their chests, and not to reveal their adornments except to their husbands, their fathers, their fathers-in-law, their sons, their stepsons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, their women, those [bondwomen] owned by their right hands, male attendants who have no [sexual] urge, or children who are still unaware of women’s nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet in a way that their hidden adornment is known. And turn to Allah in repentance all together, O believers, that you may be successful.} [Al-Nūr: 31]
This verse indicates the obligation of Hijāb upon a woman in the presence of foreign men due to a number of aspects:
1. Allah Almighty has commanded the believing women to guard their private parts, and this command includes guarding the private parts and adopting all means of doing that. No rational person would doubt that covering the face is one of those means,
because uncovering it is a cause for looking at her, enjoying her beauty, finding pleasure in that, and consequently seeking to contact and reach her.
There is a Hadīth that states: “The eyes commit fornication and their fornication is looking (at what is forbidden)… and the private part confirms that or denies it.” If covering the face is one of the means of guarding chastity, then it is enjoined, because the means take the same ruling of the ends.
2. Allah Almighty says: {And let them draw their Khimār [veils] over their chests.} [Al-Nūr: 31] Khimār is what a woman covers her head with. So, if a woman is commanded to draw her Khimār over her chest, then she is commanded to cover her face, either because that is implied or by analogy. Moreover, if it is obligatory to cover the neck and chest, therefore covering the face is obligatory for an even stronger reason because it is the main sign of beauty and attraction. Those who seek physical beauty ask about nothing but the face; if it is beautiful, they will not regard anything else to be significant. So, if a woman is said to be beautiful, this will only be interpreted as referring to her beautiful face. Hence, the face is the main sign of beauty. If that is the case, then how could it be understood that this wise Shariah would command covering the neck and chest and permit revealing the face?!
3. Allah Almighty has totally forbidden the exposure of adornment except that which is apparent, i.e. that which one cannot help showing like the outside of one’s garment. Hence Allah says: {except what appears thereof} [Al-Nūr: 31] and He did not say: “Except what they show thereof”. Then He again forbids showing the adornment except to those for whom He makes an exception. This indicates that the second adornment mentioned is something other than the first one. The first adornment is the external one which appears to everyone and cannot be hidden. The second adornment is the internal one. If it were permissible to show this internal adornment to everyone, there would be no point in generalization made in the first instance and the exception made in the second one.