Conclusion

At this closing juncture I must draw the reader’s attention to the fact that being excessively strict in matters of religion is an evil that yields no good. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Good comes only from good.” Agreed upon. In the same way, harshness is an evil that brings nothing but evil. Hence the hadiths that warn against it are many and varied in wording. He ﷺ said:

(Authentic) First: “This religion is ease, and no one makes it severe upon himself except that it overwhelms him. So keep to the middle course and draw near…” Reported by al-Bukhari (no. 39).

(Authentic) Second: “Beware of excess in religion, for those before you were only destroyed because of excess in religion.” Reported by the authors of the sound collections— Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, al-Ḍiyāʾ, and others— and authenticated in al-Ṣaḥīḥah (1283).

(Authentic) Third: “Do not be harsh with yourselves, for those before you perished only because of their harshness toward themselves; you will still find their remnants in hermitages and monasteries.” Recorded by al-Bukhari in al-Tārīkh and elsewhere, and authenticated in al-Ṣaḥīḥah (3124).

Given all this, the esteemed readers will surely have noticed that very harshness embodied in the statements and opinions we have related, such as their dictum “ḥattā ẓufrihā” (even her fingernail), in their rulings on prayer as well, and in the strained efforts they expend to reject the decisive proofs that the practice of uncovering the face prevailed in the generations whose virtue is attested, corroborated by the testimony of distinguished Companions. ⦗146⦘