Masʿūd said: “such as the cloak and the outer garment.” He meant the kind of head-cover (miqnaʿah) worn by Arab women that drapes over their clothes, and the lower edges of those clothes that inevitably show; she incurs no blame for that because she cannot hide it. The same is true of whatever shows of a woman’s lower wrap (izār) and anything else that cannot be concealed. Al-Ḥasan, Ibn Sīrīn, Abū al-Jawzāʾ, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, and others adopted Ibn Masʿūd’s view.

Al-Aʿmash related from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the verse, “and they should not display their adornment except what is apparent thereof” (24:31), that it refers to “her face, her hands, and the ring.” A similar explanation is reported from Ibn ʿUmar, ʿAṭāʾ, ʿIkrimah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, and others.

This may also be read as an exposition of the adornment they were forbidden to reveal, as Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī narrated from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from ʿAbdullāh, regarding the Almighty’s words, “and they should not display their adornment”: the adornment is “the earring, the armlet, the anklet, and the necklace.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ added: It is possible that Ibn ʿAbbās and those who followed him explained “what is apparent thereof” as the face and the hands, and this is the view most commonly held by the majority. It is supported by the ḥadīth recorded by Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan: Yaʿqūb ibn Kacb al-Anṭākī and Muʾammal ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḥarrānī both narrated to us, saying: al-Walīd narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn Bashīr, from Qatādah, from Khālid ibn Durayk, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—that Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr entered upon the Prophet ﷺ wearing thin clothing, so he turned away from her and said, “O Asmāʾ, once a woman reaches menstruation it is not proper for anything to be seen of her except this,” and he pointed to his face and his hands.

Yet Abū Dāwūd and Abū Ḥātim remarked: it is a mursal report, for Khālid ibn Durayk did not hear from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her.

I say: Ibn Jurayj cited all—or most—of these reports and statements, complete with their chains of transmission, in