I have come to know that this book of ours has, by Allah’s grace, had a wholesome impact on believing young women and on upright wives. Many of them accepted the conditions it lays down for the jilbab (outer garment) of the Muslim woman, and some even hastened to cover their faces as well, once they learned from the book that doing so is among the praiseworthy deeds and noble virtues. In this they emulate the finest women of the righteous early generations, foremost among them the Mothers of the Believers—may Allah be pleased with them all.

Even so, certain scholars and their students—particularly those given to strict imitation—though they admire the book, its scholarly style, the force of its argument, and the clarity of its proof, were unsettled by its explicit statement that a woman’s face is not ‘awrah (a part that must be concealed). One secondary-school teacher wrote to me about the matter, and others expressed the same in person here in Syria and in the Hijaz. These objectors fall into two groups:

The first consists of those who still maintain that the face is ‘awrah, not because they have studied the relevant evidences and traced them back to their primary sources, but simply out of loyalty to the school in which they were raised or the environment in which they live. Among them are people who champion this view with great fervor, moved by good intentions, Islamic zeal, and a protective sense of honor for the faith. I once sat with one of these honorable brothers for several hours discussing the issue. I had requested the meeting, hoping to find with him something to substantiate his view, but I found nothing of the sort. Everything I heard from him amounted only to misgivings he had about some of the proofs cited in the book—misgivings that kept him from accepting them and drawing the necessary conclusions. That very night I answered his objections as Allah enabled me; then I reflected