“The garments referred to are the khimār and the jilbāb. She has been given a dispensation to go out without them and to appear before men…. This is also the view of Rabīʿah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. It is the stronger position, for the verse merely allows a woman to set aside a piece of clothing whose removal, were she adorned, could lead to her displaying her charms….” His remarks continue, and they are exceedingly valuable; were space not so limited I would have reproduced them in full, for I have found no one else who has stated them.
As for his opposition to the Sunnah, it is extensive. Among the proofs is the Prophet’s saying (sound): “Allah does not accept the prayer of a menstruating woman unless she is wearing a khimār.” (1)
This ḥadīth is authentic; it is cited in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl (196) through several chains, including those recorded by Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Ḥibbān in their respective Ṣaḥīḥs. (2)
(1) I suspect that the shaykh himself is the first to contravene this hadith through his interpretation of the word khimar (head-covering), for I am convinced he does not instruct his womenfolk to veil their faces during prayer—even when they are praying alone—whereas, according to our understanding of the khimar, he does tell them to cover their heads. Will anyone ask him about this and obtain a convincing reply? Or is he …? He simply cites anyone who agrees with him.
(2) The same was recorded by Ibn al-Jarud in al-Muntaqa, just as it appears in Sahih Abi Dawud (no. 648). What the index to al-Irwa (1/339) says—namely, that al-Zayla‘i regarded it as being wrongly attributed to the two Sahihs—is pure error on the part of the publisher who prepared the index. The book itself contains many similar mistakes, such as the entry in the index to volume four (p. 418) that states: “Covering the woman’s face is obligatory.” I fear such notes may have been inserted deliberately to market the book among Saudi shaykhs who hold the view that veiling the face is obligatory.