so they set out for the pilgrimage, and he assigned ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf to accompany them. ʿUthmān would proclaim, “Hear me well! No one is to come near them and no one is to look at them while they are in the howdahs atop the camels. When they dismount, he settles them at the mouth of the mountain pass, while ʿUthmān and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān remain at its rear, and thus no one climbs up to them.”

These reports are clear proof that covering the face was known in his ﷺ time, that his wives practised it, and that virtuous women after them followed their example. Here are two illustrations:

1- ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal said:
“We used to visit Ḥafṣah bint Sirīn1, and she had drawn the jilbāb (outer cloak) like this, veiling her face with it. We would say to her, ‘May Allah have mercy on you; Allah the Exalted has said: As for elderly women who no longer expect marriage, there is no blame upon them if they put aside their garments2, provided they do not display their adornment’ (Q 24:60).”