foot. And no—heed is to be paid to those who claim that a woman may unveil her face, for their view is internally inconsistent.

How can they allow a woman to show her face while obligating her, at the same time, to cover her feet? Which is the greater source of temptation and the path more likely to lead to fornication: that a woman reveal her face or that she expose her feet? Any rational person who understands what he is saying will admit that uncovering the face is nearer to fornication and more provocative of temptation.

Another corollary of this ruling is that a woman must not go out wearing perfume. If she goes out perfumed, she has provided both the means and the occasion for temptation: people will be attracted to her, and she herself will be lured as she walks through the marketplaces fragranced. We ask Allah for well-being. No one may ever permit his household to do that; he must look after them—whether wife, daughter, sister, mother, or anyone else—and he must not allow them to leave the house except in the manner laid down by the Sharīʿah.

The second category of chastity is chastity with respect to the appetite of the stomach—that is, abstaining from what lies in other people’s hands. Allah says, “The ignorant think them rich because of their restraint” (al-Baqarah 2:273), meaning because they refrain from asking others. A person should not ask anyone for anything, for begging entails humiliation: the beggar’s hand is the lower hand, while the giver’s hand is the upper. Thus it is not permissible to ask except for what is indispensable—such as when a person is in dire straits or on the verge of necessity; in that case there is no harm in asking. Otherwise, without a pressing need or necessity, begging is forbidden. Numerous hadiths warn against it, to the point that the Prophet ﷺ informed us that the beggar will come