has no bearing on the matter before us, as is perfectly clear, for the only text involved is the verse in al-Ahzab: “When you ask them for anything, ask them from behind a curtain” (Qur’an 33:53). We have already quoted Ibn Taymiyyah, who explained that this verse concerns what takes place inside the home.

The other category deals with a woman when she leaves her house—namely the jilbab—and the texts about it are likewise of two kinds:

1. Reports that merely describe how women wore the jilbab in the Prophet’s time. Whenever such a report explicitly mentions covering the face—like Aishah’s hadith about the Incident of the Slander and similar narrations I cited in the chapter “The Legitimacy of Covering the Face”—it is irrelevant to our discussion, because it only records an action; a mere practice cannot shift the original permissibility to prohibition. This is obvious to any fair-minded, knowledgeable jurist, even if some doctorate-holders have overlooked it.

2. Texts that introduce binding legislation contrary to previous custom. The only examples are the verse about “drawing the jilbabs close” and the verse about “letting the khimar (head-cover) fall over the neckline.” Neither of these verses—linguistically or legally—offers the slightest proof that exposing the face and hands is forbidden, as has already been demonstrated conclusively.

What further confirms this for every unbiased observer, free of caprice and sectarian partisanship, is that those very scholars who accept the authenticity of this hadith nevertheless agree with us that a woman may wear a niqab that leaves her two eyes—and at times even a bit below them—uncovered. Have they thereby contravened… ⦗123⦘