Discussion on Niqab based on The Books of Fiqh

Here we will look at the schools of thought in chronological order. The first school to be established was the Hanafi school (80-150H), followed at Madinah by the Maliki school (93-179H), then the Shafi'i school (150-204H), and then the Hanbali school.

The Hanafi View

One of the great Hanafi text books is Bad' al-Sana'ifi Tartib al-Shar'i ("The best structural origin in the arrangement of the Syariah") by al-Kasani, who was nicknamed the 'King of Scholars'. In volume 5 of this work (Kitab al-Istihsan, also known as "The Forbidden and the Permitted", which precedes the Books of Sales), he discussed the question of awrah in detail -- what parts of the body may be exposed and under what circumstances -- (e.g. in the case of medical treatment, a marriage proposal, etc.). What interests us here is the sixth occasion listed:

They are the 'strange, i.e. unrelated, women'. It is forbidden to look at the entire body of a strange women, with the exception of the face and the hands. Allah Most High said: "Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze...(Surah an-Nur:30). But the places of the apparent adornments which are the face and the two hands were exempted by the phrase "except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof". What is meant by the "adornment" is the site of the adornment. The site of the apparent adornments are the face and the hands.When buying and selling, or takin and giving, the woman usually needs to uncover her face and palms, so she is allowed to keep them uncovered. Abu Hanifah is reported to have allowed the uncovering of the feet too, as is reported by Imam al-Hasan.

As for the woman, she is forbidden to look at what is between the navel and the knees of a man. She is allowed to look at all other parts, provided there is no fear of physical passion.

The Maliki View

Here we will refer to Ibn Rushd's "Introduction and Explanations of material which needed to be clarified" in al-Mudawwanah -- the compiled answers of Imam Malik -- which are publishe in the margins of al-Mudawwanah. In volume 1, page 109, Ibn Rushd said:

Section: What the woman must cover during her prayer. Allah Most High said: "and say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty, that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers..." (Surah an-Nur:31)

And He said: "O Prophet! Tell your wives and daughters and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is the most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested . . ." (Surah al-Ahzab: 59)

Once the believing women has been ordered to cover herself before strangers and not expose anything before these strangers other than the "ordinarily-apparent" adornments -- which are the face and two hands, as mentioned by the scholars of tafsir -- so she is dutybound to observe this (extent of covering) in her prayers too.

The same definition is mentioned in al-Sharh al-Kabir, with the commentary of al-Dusuqi (vol. I, p. 215 ff)

The Shafi'i View

One of the great exponents of the Shafi'i school is Imam al-Nawawi, in his explanaory notes on Sharh al-Muhaththab (vol. 3 p. 173), al-Nawawi wrote:

As for the free woman, her awrah is her whole body except the face an the two hands, for Allah Most High said: ". . . they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof. . ." (Surah an-Nur: 31). Ibn `Abbas said: "That which must appear is the face an two hands. And the Prophet(s) forbade the woman in ihram to put on face veil or gloves. If the face and two hands were part of awrah, he would not have forbidden them to cover them. At the same time, she may need to uncover them for such day-to-day matters as buying, selling, giving, taking, etc. So these two areas were made exception from `awrah."

In his explanation of the above statement, al-Nawawi said:

The awrah of the free woman is her whole body except the face and the two hands up to the wrist. Some of our khurasan scholars are of the view that the soles of the feet are not awrah. Al-Muzani, one of the great students of al-Shafi'i said: "The two feet are not awrah either."

Al-Nawawi's approach is a comparative one. He mentions the Shafi'i views, then mentions the opinions of other schoos. Here he said:

I mentioned what is well-establised of the Shafi'i school, that the awrah of the woman is everything except the face and the two hands up to the wrists. Malik is of the same view and so are other groups of scholars. This is one of the views of Ibn Hanbal, Abu Hanifah, al-Thawri and al-Muzani also include the two feet as being excepted from awrah. However, in another opinion, Ibn Hanbal states that it is that face only which is not awrah.

In describing the type of cover to be worn, al-Nawawi said:

Anything which conceals the color of the skin is good for that purpose, even if it indicates the size of parts of the body such as the knee or the hips. The covering may be made of cloth, skin, paper, women grass or any other material which conceals the color of the skin. There is no difference of opinion in this matter.

It must be understood that the discussion here concerns the quality of the cover which is acceptable during prayer. As far as everyday life out of doors is concerned, the clothes must be loose enough to conceal the size of various parts of the body: any tight clothes which indicate the size of the limbs and parts of the body as if the person were naked must be avoided. It may not be easy to avoid indicating some parts of the body but modesty is the main quality which must distinguish the attire of men and women. Tight clothes may conceal the color of the skin, but are sometimes so obscene that it appears as if the person is naked. This is what is not acceptable. One day the Prophet(s) gave a gift of a piece of thin cloth to one of his companions. When he did not see the man wearing it, he asked what happened to it, and was told that it had been given to that man's wife. The Prophet(s) told him, "Let your wife add a lining to it, for it is not acceptable to dress in something which reveals the skin or bones of the Muslim."

The Hanbali View

Here, we will examine one of the standard Hanbali comparative works, al-Mughni by Ibn Qudamah. This scholar dealt with the question of the woman's awrah in two places. In the Book of Prayer in volume 1, section "Covering the 'awrah'', and in the Book of Marriage in volume 6, section "Whoever intends to marry a woman should look at her".

In volume 1, page 577, he said:
Any man who has (a garment) sufficient to cover the area between the nave and the knee is enough.


Then he mentioned the quality of the cover:
What is obligatory is to cover it with something which conceals the color of the skin. It is not good to offer prayers in a garment which is so thin that it is possible to discern the color of the skin beneath it. If it conceals the color of the skin but describes the shape of the body, it may be acceptable, for it may be difficult to avoid that even though the cloth may be thick enough.

Once again, it must be understood that the dress must be loose enough to avoid appearing as if semi-naked in tight clothes. The exception here is that whatever we put on, there are still certain parts of the body which cannot be totally hidden behind clothes.

The proper discussion of woman's awrah comes on page 601:

There are no differences between Hanbali scholars it is permissible for the woman to uncover her face in prayer, and she is not allowed to uncover anything apart from the face and the two hands. But there are two views concerning the hands, on which point the people of knowledge differ. Most of them agree that she is allowed to pray with the face uncovered but must cover her head whilst praying. If she prays with her head uncovered, then she must repeat such prayers.

Abu Hanifah said that the two feet are not part of the awrah.
Here, Ibn Qudamah repeated nearly all of what al-Nawawi said earlier, but added:

Some of our (i.e., Hanbali) scholars said: "All the body of the woman from head to toe, is awrah, for it is reported that the Messenger of Allah (s) said: 'The woman is awrah (reported by al-Tirmidhi, who said it is a hasan sahih hadith)'. But it is permitted for her to uncover her face and two hands, due to the difficulty of covering them."

In the Book of marriage, (section "It is allowed for the person who wishes to marry a woman to look at her, without being in privacy with her"), Ibn Qudamah mentioned the hadith which allow a man to see a woman he wishes to marry. But in defining what one is allowed to look at, he said:

There is no difference between the scholars on the permissibility of looking at her face, for it is not awrah.

 In the section on "Strangers who are allowed to look at the woman" (p. 558), he mentioned medical staff, witnessess and those who are carrying out any transaction with her in making agreements, buying selling and other such transactions of daily life.

In discussing the age of womanhood (p. 561), Ibn Qudamah quoted the two hadith of Asma' and Aisyah's niece, in which the Messenger of Allah (s) said that once the girl reaches the age of menstruation, she is not allowed to uncover anything apart from her face and the two hands up to the wrist. But here he also included almost half of the arm.

Concerning the rules relating to the awrah between women, he said:

They are, among themselves, like males. They are allowed to see all the body except what is between the navel and the knee. Here, there is no difference in that between males, Muslim or non-Muslim. Ahmad said: "Some scholars say that she is not allowed to remove her head covering in the presence of a Jewish and Christian woman, but in my opinion they are prohibited only from looking at the vulva."

However, there is another opinion of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, that she is not allowed to remove her head covering in front of non-Muslim women because Allah said, "They should not display their beauty except to . . . their women . . .", i.e., believing women (Surah an-Nur:31). But the former view is more appropriate, because non-Muslim women (Jews and others) used to enter the houses of the wives of the Prophet (s) without the latter observing hijab in their presence -- nor were they ordered to observe it. Aisyah mentioned a Jewish women who came to ask her something, and Asma' mentioned her unbelieving mother visiting her. She asked the Prophet (s), "Am I allowed to entertain her?" He said, "Yes." From a rational point of view, the reason for segregation between male and female does not exist between female and female, Muslim or non-Muslim. So, it must be the case that there is no segregation (hijab) between them, just as there is no segregation between males, Muslim or non-Muslim. Furthermore, exclusion must be established by a clear text or analogy, but there is neither. As for the phrase "their women", it may refer simply to women in general.

Source: Hijaab or Niqaab - An Islamic Critiques of the face-veil
by Syed Mutawalli Ad-Darsh