“He made woman herself an object of concealment, because when she appears, one feels embarrassed on her account, just as one feels embarrassed when an object of concealment is exposed.” The rest of the hadith further confirms this meaning: “When she goes out, Satan draws attention to her.” Shaykh ‘Ali al-Qari said in al-Mirqat (3/411): “That is, he beautifies her in the eyes of men. It is also said that he looks at her in order to tempt her and to tempt others through her.”

The basic meaning of drawing attention to something is that you place your hand over your brow and look, like one who shades himself from the sun in order to make out an object. It derives from elevation, as though one were looking at it from a high place, which enables one to perceive it more fully.” Al-Nihayah.

There can be no doubt that this drawing of attention applies to a woman even if her face is covered. Thus, whenever she goes out, she is an object of concealment in this general sense; the hadith therefore has no connection with whether a woman’s face is an object of concealment in the juristic sense. Reflect on this fairly. The majority of scholars hold that it is not.

I have explained this in my book The Jilbab of the Muslim Woman, which was recently printed under this title, “The Jilbab …,” instead of “The Hijab …,” as it was previously called, for a point I mentioned in the introduction. In it, I have sufficiently refuted the excessively strict, and I referred those who desire further detail to my separate book, which is an extensive and detailed refutation. In it, I examined their specious arguments and showed that they rest on weak evidence in terms of transmission, critical analysis, and social considerations. I gave it a title that summarizes its contents: The Decisive Refutation of Those Who Oppose the Scholars, Adopt Excessive Rigour and Partisanship, and Require Women to Cover Their Faces and Hands, Deeming This Obligatory and Not Being Content with the Scholars’ Saying That It Is Sunnah and Recommended.

May Allah, by His grace and generosity, make it easy for me to prepare its final copy and publish it.”