http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5§ion=0&article=75560&d=5&m=9&y=2006
Friday, 1, September, 2006 (08, Sha`ban, 1427)
Is the Veil Obligatory?
Adil Salahi, Arab News
Q. You have said more than once that women are allowed to go out
with their faces and hands uncovered. If so, may I ask whether some women in
Saudi Arabia wear the veil covering their faces and gloves covering their hands
on the basis of tradition?
M. O. A. Sulaiman
A. This column is intended to answer questions in the light of
Islam. It is not intended to go into the reasons and motives of people's
actions and their background. When we want to arrive at the Islamic ruling
concerning any action, we have to look at evidence from the Qur'an and the
Sunnah. We must also realize that everything is permissible, or halal, unless
we have clear evidence to make it otherwise. Such evidence comes in the form of
a statement either in the Qur'an or in the authentic Sunnah. No other evidence
is admissible as a basis for a ruling.
The veil, which normally signifies a dress code that requires women
to cover their faces and hands, in addition to the rest of their bodies, is not
limited to Saudi women. It is seen almost everywhere, including European and
American countries. Moreover, most Saudi women do not conform to the veil when
they travel abroad. Women who wear the veil do so either out of conviction that
it is an Islamic requirement, or they are compelled to wear it by the force of
tradition or family pressure. There is no doubt that some scholars today
maintain that it is obligatory. However, these are a small number compared to
the vast majority of scholars in the Muslim world who maintain that neither the
face nor the hands are included in the parts of her body that a woman must
cover.
Why do we have such a divergence of views? The answer is simple.
The scholars who support the veil maintain a very restrictive reading of the
Qur'anic statement that deals with women's appearance, which occurs in Verse 31
of Surah 24. Scholars have always differed on numerous questions, and their
differences did not cause any problems. What we need to understand is that when
such differences occur, a person needs to know the basis of each point of view
and choose the one that he finds better founded on more solid evidence.
When we speak about the veil, i.e. a woman covering her face in
public, we find no clear-cut statement in the Qur'an or the Sunnah to support
it. On the other hand, we find much clearer evidence to confirm the other view
that a woman should cover all her body, with the exception of her face and
hands, when she goes out or in the presence of men whom she can marry
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