He said: “O womenfolk! Is silver not sufficient for your adornment? Indeed, there is no woman among you who wears gold and flaunts it except that she will be punished for it.”

The answer is two-fold:

First: The report is rejected at its root because it is not reliable. In its isnād appears Rubaʿī’s wife, an unnamed woman who is unknown, as Ibn Ḥazm notes (10/83). For that reason I graded it weak in Mishkāt 4403.

Second: If the decisive factor were public display, there would be no difference between gold and silver, for both share that circumstance. Yet the wording of the ḥadīth clearly differentiates between them, and no one holds that a woman’s silver ring becomes forbidden merely because it is visible. Thus, basing the ruling on “display” is untenable. Accordingly, Abū ʾl-Ḥasan al-Sindī said:

“ ‘…and flaunts it’ might suggest that the dislike applies when she shows it off and boasts of it, but silver is exactly the same as gold in that respect. The apparent intent, then, is only to heighten the censure and reproach, while the real point is to declare the wearing of gold—meaning circular ornaments—unlawful for women, irrespective of display or pride.”