Another view is that such looking is not permissible. This is the apparent position of Ahmad’s school, since every part of her is ‘awrah, even her fingernail. It is also Mālik’s position.

The reality is that Allah has distinguished two kinds of adornment: outward adornment and concealed adornment. He permitted a woman to display her outward adornment to men other than her husband and her permanently unmarriageable relatives.

Before the verse of veiling was revealed, women used to go out without a jilbāb (outer garment), so a man could see a woman’s face and hands. At that time, she was permitted to uncover her face and hands, and looking at her was permissible because she was permitted to uncover them. Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed the verse of veiling:

“O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers to draw their outer garments over themselves.”

He required women to be veiled from men. This was when the Prophet married Zaynab bint Jahsh: he lowered the curtain and forbade the women to look. Later, when he chose Safiyyah bint Huyayy for himself in the year of Khaybar, they said, “If he veils her, she is one of the Mothers of the Believers; otherwise, she is among those whom his right hand possesses.” He then veiled her.

Thus, when Allah commanded that they be asked for anything only from behind a screen, and commanded the Prophet’s wives, daughters, and the women of the believers to draw their outer garments over themselves—the jilbāb is a sheet-like wrap, which Ibn Mas‘ūd and others call a ridā’ (cloak), and ordinary people call an izār (wrap). It is a large wrap that covers her head and the rest of her body. Abū ‘Ubayd and others have related that she draws it down from above her head, exposing nothing but