may therefore be understood as referring back to them. Supporting this is the report transmitted by Abū Dāwūd from ʿĀʾishah—then Ibn Kathīr cited the same ḥadīth—after which he said:

“This view is stronger from the standpoint of precaution and in light of the moral decay that now prevails; hence a woman should not display any of her adornment except what becomes visible of her face and her hands.”

Know, furthermore, that the scholars—according to Marātib al-Ijmāʿ—are unanimously agreed that the hair and entire body of a free woman, apart from her face and her hands, constitute ʿawrah. They differ, however, about the face and the hands, even down to the fingernails: are they ʿawrah or not?

From the exegesis of the noble verse you have seen that it points with precision to the fact that the face and the hands are not part of her ʿawrah, and the Sunnah likewise affirms this, as will be shown.

Among the relevant texts is his ﷺ saying, “The woman is ʿawrah.” This is the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd—its full wording being, “When she goes out, Satan peers at her.” Al-Tirmidhī recorded it through the chain of Hammām, from Qatādah, from Mawraq, from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from him, and said, “A fair (ḥasan) ḥadīth.” In another recension he wrote, “Fair and sound (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ).” (1)