that, as a rule, his community shares his rulings concerning obligations and prohibitions, just as the other verse indicates that they share his rulings concerning permissibility.

His words:

“Tell your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers to draw their outer garments around themselves,”

are evidence that the command to observe hijab was directed only to free women, not slave women. For He specifically mentioned his wives and daughters, without saying, “those whom your right hand possesses, your slave women, and the slave women of your wives and daughters.” He then said:

“and the women of the believers.”

Slave women are not included among “the women of the believers,” just as those whom their right hands possess were not included in His words “their women,” but were mentioned separately alongside them in the verses of Sūrat al-Nūr and Sūrat al-Ahzāb. It may, however, be said that this argument rests only on the view that “those whom the right hand possesses” refers exclusively to females. On the view that it refers to both sexes, or to males, the argument requires further consideration.

Moreover, His words:

“For those who swear to abstain from their wives,”

and His words:

“Those among you who declare their wives unlawful to them as their mothers,”

refer only to women married with a dower, not to women owned as slaves. The same applies here. Thus, the verse concerning outer garments relates to cloaks worn when going outside the home, whereas the verse concerning the screen relates to conversation within the home. Taken together with the report in the Sahīh—

“When he chose Safiyyah bint Huyayy, they said, ‘If he screens her, she is one of the Mothers of the Believers; otherwise, she is among those whom his right hand possesses’”—

this indicates that hijab was specific to free women. The hadith also provides evidence that the status of Mothers of the Believers belongs to his wives, not his concubines.