The eleventh ruling: A person in pilgrimage consecration is prohibited from covering his face. Scholars have differed on this issue. Al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, according to one report from him, permit it, whereas Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and Ahmad, according to another report, prohibit it. Six Companions held it to be permissible: ʿUthmān, ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn ʿAwf, Zayd ibn Thābit, Ibn al-Zubayr (1), Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās, and Jābir (2). There is also a third, anomalous opinion: if he is alive, he may cover his face, but if he is dead, his face must not be covered. This was the view of Ibn Hazm (3), and it accords with his literalist approach.
Those who permit it adduced the statements of these Companions, the presumption of permissibility, and the implication of the Prophet’s words, “And do not cover his head.” They answered the wording, “And do not cover his face,” by arguing that this phrase is not reliably transmitted in the hadith. Shuʿbah said (4): “Abū Bishr narrated it to me. Then, ten years later, I asked him about it, and he related the hadith as before, except that he said, ‘Do not cover his head or his face.’” They said that this indicates the weakness of that phrase (5). They further said that this hadith has also been narrated (6) with the wording: “Cover his face, but do not cover his head” (7).