and it is a well-known mineral used to treat the eye for ophthalmia and other conditions. It is mixed with eye medicine, and people used it in earlier times, before the advent of modern medicine. There is nothing wrong with it, because it has no colour; its purpose is solely medical treatment. Likewise, eye drops are permissible. Even if it were assumed that they dilate the eye and remove its redness, there is no problem, because they do not produce the beautifying effect achieved by kohl.

His statement, “and the like,” means anything that has no visible colour, such as aloe, which is well known as a treatment for the eye. However, it must be used in a known measure, and one must take care not to use too much of it, for an excess may perhaps blind the eye.

His statement, “Nor a niqab,” means that wearing a niqab is not forbidden to her, because the niqab is not an adornment; rather, it is ordinary clothing, like gloves.

The author explicitly states that it is not forbidden because some scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—say that she may not wear a niqab, drawing an analogy with a woman in ihram. But this analogy is unsound, because there is no common effective cause between the two. Thus, certain things are forbidden to a woman in ihram that are not forbidden to a woman observing mourning, while other things are forbidden to a woman observing mourning that are not forbidden to a woman in ihram. A woman in ihram may wear jewellery, apply kohl, and wear beautiful clothing, provided that she is not before men, and so forth; whereas a woman observing mourning may not do so. Likewise, a woman observing mourning may trim her nails, clean herself, and cut the hair she is instructed to remove, and the like, whereas a woman in ihram does not do these things. In short, this is an analogy despite a great and decisive difference.

As for the burqa, it is not like the niqab, because the burqa is considered a form of