and repent to Allah, all together, O believers, so that you may prosper.1 Thus Allah—glorified be He—commanded both men and women to lower their gaze and safeguard their private parts, and He enjoined all of them to repent.

He singled women out with the further duty of remaining concealed and of not displaying their adornment except to their husbands and to those persons whom Allah has exempted in the verse. As for what may be shown of adornment, it is the outer garments; there is no blame in revealing these so long as no other objectionable matter is involved, for a woman cannot help but show them. This is the view of Ibn Masʿūd and others, and it is the well-known position reported from Aḥmad.

Ibn ʿAbbās, however, held that the face and hands are part of the outward adornment. This is the second narration from Aḥmad and the opinion of a group of scholars such as al-Shāfiʿī and others.

Allah, exalted is He, also instructed women to let their cloaks fall over them so that they would not be recognized2 and thus not harmed, which supports the first opinion. ʿUbaydah al-Salmānī and others have mentioned that the believing women used to draw their cloaks over their heads, leaving nothing visible except the eyes so that they could see the road.

It is established in the authentic collections that a woman in the state of consecration for pilgrimage is forbidden to wear a face-veil or gloves, which shows that the face-veil and gloves were well known.