knows that it does not refer solely to the face and hands. The same is indicated by his statement ﷺ in hadith 97: “Even if she does not know.”
This is further supported by the practice of the Companions—whose practice accorded with his Sunnah ﷺ—including Muhammad ibn Maslamah and Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah. Each of them concealed himself from his prospective bride in order to see what might induce him to marry her. Would any sensible person think that they hid themselves merely to look at her face and hands? Likewise, Umar ibn al-Khattab uncovered the calves of Umm Kulthum, the daughter of ‘Ali—may Allah be pleased with them both.
Thus, three senior Companions, one of whom was a Rightly Guided Caliph, permitted looking at more than the face and hands. As far as I know, none of the Companions opposed them. I therefore do not know how he could have considered it permissible to contradict them in light of these authentic hadiths. I have always known men like the Shaykh to raise a great outcry against anyone who opposes even one of the Companions in adherence to an authentic Sunnah, even when the report attributed to that Companion is not established—as they did in the matter of the number of rak‘ahs of Tarawih.
How strange, then, that the Shaykh—may Allah forgive us and him—said at the end of his discussion: “Allah the Exalted said: ‘If you differ over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best way and best in outcome.’” We therefore call upon ourselves and him to apply this verse properly and refer this matter back to the Sunnah, now that it has become clear. Allah alone is the One whose help is sought; there is no power or strength except through Allah.
That said, despite the authenticity of the hadiths on this matter and the position of the vast majority of scholars in support of it—in contrast to the view mentioned earlier—many Muslims in later times have turned away from acting upon it. They do not allow a suitor to look at their daughters, even within the narrow limits recognized by the more restrictive view. They claim that this is out of scrupulousness. Yet one of the strangest examples of such cold, misplaced scrupulousness is that some of them allow their daughters to go out into the street unveiled, without proper Islamic hijab, but then refuse to let a suitor see her at home, among her family, wearing her outdoor clothes!
On the other hand, there are some careless fathers who have no protective jealousy concerning their daughters. Imitating their European masters, they allow a photographer to photograph them while they are unveiled in a manner that is not