because such a restriction would cause hardship. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, commenting on the hadith, writes: “ʿUmar felt an aversion to strangers looking at the Prophet’s household, so he openly said to him, ‘Screen your wives.’ He pressed the matter until the verse of hijab was revealed. After that he wished that they would not show their persons at all, even while veiled, and he went to extremes in this; but he was stopped, and they were allowed to go out for their needs so as to remove hardship and difficulty.” Qadi Iyad adds: “The obligation of hijab is one of the rulings specific to them—that is, the Mothers of the Believers. It is obligatory for them, without disagreement, with respect to the face and the hands; they may not uncover these in testimony or otherwise, nor may they show the outlines of their persons even when covered, except when necessity, such as going out to relieve themselves, demands it.” Ibn Hajar continues (8:530): “He then argued from what is in the Muwatta: when Hafsa died, the women screened her so that her person would not be seen, and Zaynab bint Jahsh had a canopy placed over her bier to conceal her person.” What he cited does not prove that such concealment was obligatory for them, for after the Prophet’s death they performed Hajj and circumambulated the Kaʿba, and the Companions and those after them heard hadith from them while their bodies—but not their persons—were covered. In the chapter on Hajj we already quoted Ibn Jurayj’s question to Ataʾ about ʿAisha’s tawaf: “Was that before or after the hijab?” He replied, “I witnessed it after the hijab.” (2) Reported by al-Bukhari, 8:365–388 (Fath al-Bari); Muslim, 8:113–118; Ahmad, 6:194–197; Ibn Jarir, 18:62–66; and Abu al-Qasim al-Hanaʾi, al-Fawaʾid, 9:142/2, who judged it sound. The other version, with the additional wording, is likewise his.