3 – “The ʿawrah (private area) of a man before another man … and the ʿawrah of a woman before another woman is the same as the ʿawrah of a woman before a man.” (p. 38) — recorded in al-Daʿīfah, 3923.

The Shaykh then explained its meaning and, on p. 41, quoted al-Nawawī as saying: “The ʿawrah of a man with another man is the part between the navel and the knee, and the same applies to a woman with another woman.”

The Shaykh endorsed this view and even praised it in the index of his book, simply following his school of law. Other imitators then repeated it, such as Muḥammad Kalkal, who entitled his work “Fiqh al-Naẓar” (p. 138) — though it contains neither true fiqh nor careful naẓar; see note 1 (p. 128).

One can only marvel — every Muslim whom Allah has rescued from blind adherence to a single madhhab is left perplexed — that they should claim a woman’s ʿawrah before another woman is merely the area between her navel and her knee. Not only does this notion lack any basis in the Quran or the Sunnah; it is actually contrary to His words, the Exalted,