Re: [IslamCity] Covering the Face
Assalamu alaikum,
Brother, as your sister in islam I urge you to take great caution when assuming by saying things about Allah.
Firstly, are you more knowledgeable about the book of Allah or are the sahaba more knowledgeable than you?
For suratul Ahzab, verse 59, in which Allah tells the Prophet sallallahu alayhe wa salam to tell his wives, daughters and wives of the Believers to draw over them their jalabeeb.
In Ibn Katheer's tafseer, it clearly explains that Ibn Masoud, Ibn Abbas, Obaidah, Qutadah, Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Saeed Bin Jubair, Umm Salama the Prophet's wife, all of these great sahaba and tabieen explained this format as the Abayah that the women go out with placing it from the top of their heads covering everything including the face.
It explains it clearly brother. As a matter of fact, in almost every Muslim nation, all women were covered from head to toe, in black. Even in Bosnia, my best friend is Bosnian, and she told me that her grandmother used to wear full hijab, niqab, until the communist era.
I am reading a book called "Awdatul Hijab" [The Return of the Hijab] by Sheikh Ismail al-Muqadim. It is in three large volumes. The first volume speaks about how women were dressed all the way till the early 1900's.This reduction and elimination of a woman's hijab is a recent phenomenon.
So brother, when you are saying that whoever says that covering the face is mandatory is lying about Allah, you are actually claiming that the sahaba, the wives of the Prophet sallallallahu alayhe wa salam, the tabieen, and most of our great scholars are lying about Allah.
I don't think so.
The strongest opinion is that covering the face is mandatory. I respect other scholars and what they say, but looking at the Quran, sunnah, tafseer, and the lives of the wives of the Prophet, the sahabiyaat, the tabieyaat, it shows that they all understood these verses to mean covering from head to toe.
As for silwar qamees, this is for inside the home, it is not sufficient for outside. I have many many good friends from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and they wear their silwas qamees in the homes, but never go out without their jilbaab. They diffrentiate between the religion and culture. They mention how many women in these regions are more concerned about culture and that is wrong.
Our identity first is Islam. Remember that.
Your sister in Islam
Umm Zainab
***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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[IslamCity] Covering the Face
Covering the Face Sex is divinely ordained. The obvious main purpose is propagation of the species. It also provides pleasure and companionship during the course of worldly life. But this source of pleasure has the potential to corrupt human society. Islam therefore confines it to the privacy of a society-approved marriage between a male and a female. And as one of the measures to protect society from the bad effects of unbridled sex, the Qur'aan prescribes a dress code for women. The Qur'aan repeatedly asserts that its verses are fully and variously explained for its easy understanding by people who ponder. And yet, we differ in our individual interpretation of some of the verses. In this particular subject matter, we differ whether the divine dress code for women allows for exposure of wearer's face or not. The Qur'aan informs us in verse 2.213 that we differ over the clear and well-explained verses just because of our mutual rivalry, enmity, hatred, or bias against one another. Allah tells us in the same verse that He guides those who believe, to the Truth of that wherein we differ. So let us shed these coloured glasses we are wearing, and try to find the pure Truth, behind those divine verses, as regards our subject matter here. We recognise any person by that person's face. The face, as such, acts as the divinely made 'Identity Card' of a person, male or female. Without a photo of the face, no passport or any other reliable identity card can be issued. So if anyone covers one's face, that person thus covers his/her identity. A fraud can be committed in this way. In an election, for example, it will facilitate bogus voting. The face therefore is a part of the human body that has, of necessity, to be kept exposed or uncovered. In the above perspective, let us now examine Qur'aanic verse 24.31. The portion of the said verse relevant for us here is: wa laa yubdeena zeenatahunna illaa maa zhahara minhaa. Translated, the same would be: "and not to reveal their beauty/charm/adornment except what appears thereof" The female face has no doubt its natural charm/beauty for the opposite sex. But it cannot, on that account, be banned from being seen at all in public. As we have seen herein above, Allah has so designed any human face that it serves also as the individual identity of that human being. So, Allah has allowed any human face, male or female, to be seen for its individual identity. And man cannot disallow what Allah Himself has allowed! And He has made provision for this allowance, in the above referred to verse 24.31 too! The female face squarely fits in the exception mentioned in the quote given above from the verse. The face, however, has to be without any special make-up, or adornment, done to make it more attractive. The question then arises as to why the face was not specifically mentioned in the exception under verse 24.31? The obvious answer is that the All-knowing Allah has purposely kept the scope of the exception wide enough to include any part of the female body, in exceptional circumstances as, for example, when a male doctor is called to make an emergency surgery on a part - including a private part - of the body, normally covered by a dress. However, on the basis of verse 33.53 read with verse 33.59, many Muslims seem inclined to agree with the view that a woman's face needs to be covered along with other parts of her body, in public. The background for the revelation of verse 33.53 was that the Prophet's invitees, for a meal at his house, used to linger on there, after the meal. Allah gave them a lesson in social etiquette on such occasions. One of the points of etiquette was that the guests were required to speak to the ladies of the house, if they had to, behind a huijaab (curtain, screen). This is the only place in the Qur'aan where this Arabic word has been used. Remember that the Prophet's home was the background in which the verse was revealed. Ladies at home are normally engaged in household work, when it is not practical for them to adhere to the stricter dress code prescribed under verses 33.59 24.31. They have therefore been exempted from observing the stricter dress code in the presence of their very close relatives, who may be residing in the same house. Since the ladies at home are not observing the stricter dress code, the guests in the Prophets house were asked to speak to them behind a screen, in verse 33.53! It would be improper, therefore, to justify a screen on the face of every woman in public places, on the basis of verse 33.53. As discussed earlier, a person's face serves as that person's identity. And nowhere in the Qur'aan is this Allah-given identity required to be concealed. And if we conceal it nevertheless, we would be acting against the divine scheme of things. Allah won't forgive us then, mind you! The Qur'aan, on the other hand, requires a woman to be able to be identified while she covers herself properly with her outer
