A maḥram is someone whom a woman can never lawfully marry. For that reason Ibn ʿUmar said, “A woman’s journey in the company of her slave is a waste and a risk” 1.
The verse therefore grants a concession for a woman to reveal her adornment before her maḥrams and certain others, whereas the ḥadith on travel names only the maḥrams. In the verse He also says, “or their women, or those whom their right hands possess,” and “those who have no desire” 2—yet she is not to travel with any of these.
Concerning His words, “or their women,” it was said that this excludes idolatrous women; therefore a polytheist woman may neither act as a midwife for a Muslim woman nor accompany her into the public bath 3.
Even so, Jewish women would visit ʿĀʾishah and other wives of the Prophet; they would see her face and hands, unlike the men. This pertains to the outward adornment that dhimmī women may see, yet dhimmī women are not permitted to look at
(1) I say: It has also been reported from Ibn Abbas as a marfu hadith, but this report is not authentic, as I have explained in *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Daifah wa al-Mawduah* (no. 3701).
(2) Surah al-Nur, verse 31.
(3) I say: This interpretation of *nisa’ihinna*—namely, that it refers to Muslim women rather than non-Muslim women—is the correct one. No other interpretation has been transmitted from the early scholars, as can be seen in *al-Durr al-Manthur*, *Tafsir Ibn Jarir*, *Zad al-Masir* by Ibn al-Jawzi, vol. 6, p. 32 (Islamic Office edition), and *Ibn Kathir*. As for the interpretation offered by some distinguished contemporary scholars—that the phrase refers to morally upright women, whether Muslim or non-Muslim—it is a novel interpretation, since it conflicts with the interpretation of the early scholars and is not the meaning that naturally follows from the Arabic construction in which Allah attributes the women to the Muslim women. Reflect upon this.