Hijab: Difference between revisions

The Quran contains verses which mention the ''jilbab'' (overgarment or cloak), ''khimar'' (piece of cloth that covers the head, and ''hijab'' (screen to shield Muhammad's wives from the gaze of visitors to his home). Bucur summarises that Q. 33:53 was a command concerning Muhammad's wives to separate the public and private space; Q. 33:59 was a command for free believing women to preserve their bodily integrity from harrassment; and Q. 24:30-31 was a command to all Muslim women for modesty purposes.<ref>Elizabeth Bucar, ''The Islamic Veil'', p. 45</ref>

Traditions about the occasion of revelation for this verse are mentioned in a number of hadiths, and are covered later in this article.

Bucar explains that Quran commentators agreed that the occasion of revelation for this verse was that the hypocrites (al-mutafiqun) in Medina (who are mentioned in the next verse, {{Quran|33|60}}) were physically harrassing slave women in public spaces. This context is mentioned for example in Tafsir al-Jalalayn regarding the verse. The jilbab thus made free believing women visibly distinct. It was a responsibility placed on them by the Quran to mitigate the immoral behaviour of certain men. Bucar says that the meaning of jilbab is unclear, but most scholars believed it to be a type of outer covering.<ref>Elizabeth Bucar, ''The Islamic Veil'', pp. 38-40</ref>

Bucar notes that unlike the above two verses, only late traditions provide an occasion of revelation for Q. 24:30-31. Believing women are told to draw their ''Khumar'' (singular: ''Khimar'') over their bosoms (''juyub''). Bacur comments that the word khimar, which some Quran commentators glossed as a veil, mainly meant a kerchief worn on the head, and that the root of the word juyub meant a space between, so probably meant cleavage. Thus she argues that the purpose of this part of the verse is that the cleavage must be covered.<ref name="Bucar40-45">Elizabeth Bucar, ''The Islamic Veil'', pp. 40-45</ref> In the same year (2012) a PhD thesis by Sheikh Mustapha Mohamed Rashed at al-Azhar University similarly concluded that the verse only commands that the bosom be covered.<ref>[https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2012/06/45564/hijab-is-not-an-islamic-duty-scholar Hijab is Not an Islamic Duty: Muslim Scholar] - Morocco World News, 24 June 2012</ref>

Bacur notes that there was similarly no consensus on the meaning of the word 'awra in the verse. For men, hadiths made clear that a man's 'awra was from his navel to his knees. As for a woman's 'awra, there is an isolated hadith collected by al-Tirmidhi quoted in the next section on hadiths below. For some scholars it referred to a woman's bosom, neck and head, for others everything except her face and hands, or for others just the genital region (as with men).<ref name="Bucar40-45" />

Bucar observes that there are no explicit references in hadiths to women being required to cover the face or hair (a popular translation of {{Bukhari|6|60|282}} mentions women covering their faces, but this is not clear in the Arabic text). Bucar observes that hadiths distinguish a time before and after the revelation of the hijab verse concerning Muhammad's wives, particularly narrations about the event of the slander (al-ifk) in which 'Aisha was accused of adultery. By the time of these narrations, ''hijab'' had come to be transformed from a literal screen in the home of Muhammad's wives to a complex ideology of segregation, privacy and social status, perhaps reflecting post-Muhammad cultural practices of specific Muslim communities.<ref>Elizabeth Bucar, ''The Islamic Veil'', pp. 47-48</ref>

{{Quote|{{Abu Dawud|33|4092}}|Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin:

Some observe that a eunuch could not pose any threat to the chastity or safety of Muhammad's wives, which distinguishes the purpose of hijab in Q. 33:53 from that of jilbab or khamir for protection or modesty in the other verses discussed above.

She writes that "Early ''fiqh'' discussed veiling in the context of prayer, and in general saw veiling as an issue of social status and physical safety". Later, it was not a central concern of medieval legal scholars, though their reasoning remains relevant to modern discussions about veiling. Regarding the concept of 'awra mentioned in Q. 24:31 and discussed above, the majority view was that it excluded a woman's hands and face (the main Maliki and Hanafi view), though a minority view was that everything should be covered except her eyes despite no mention of this in the Quran, while hadiths indicate this was not common practice for early Muslim communities. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE) who inspired modern day Salafism said that her face should be covered in public, which became the standard Shafi'i and Hanbali legal position. Legal scholars also commonly linked 'awra with the concept of fitnah mentioned in separately in the Quran. Bucar quotes the prominent jurist al-Nawawi (d. 1278) as an exemplar of this view, which is a motivation argued by some emerging Islamic governments in modern times:

{{Quote|al-Nawawi quoted by Elizabeth Bacur (transl. El Fadl)<ref>Elizabeth Bucar, ''The Islamic Veil'', pp. 56</ref>|Since God made men desire women, and desire looking at them and enjoying them, women are like the devil in that they seduce men towards the commission of evil, while making evil look attractive [to men]. We deduct from this that women should not go out in the midst of men except for a necessity.}}