then he goes on at length in support of that view. He next writes (p. 377): “Islam allows a woman to uncover her face only in cases of need or necessity.” This is his own explicit statement that the face may not be uncovered except for a need. It contradicts his earlier claim that the hadith is restricted merely by customary practice, and it also conflicts with his limitation—derived from another hadith—of allowing the exposure of half the fore-arm only for need or necessity. From the passages I have just quoted, both from al-Hijab and from his Taʿqib, it is clear that he regards both the face and half the fore-arm as ʿawra, and that nothing of either may be shown except for a need or a necessity, whereas in the Taʿqib he distinguishes between the two limbs. His position is nothing but a clinging to the hadith whose weakness I have demonstrated in my critique; had he discarded it once he realized it is not authentic, he would have lost nothing at all, since he in any case limits it to need and necessity and on that basis even permits exposing more than that, as was shown earlier. As for the ustadh’s attempt to prove the difference he claims between half the fore-arm and the hands by the difference in wording of the two hadiths—the first saying “la yahillu” (it is not lawful) and the second “lam yasluh” (it is not proper)—his argument is extremely weak; I do not know how he could adopt it. It may be refuted from several angles: 1. Were his claim sound, the two hadiths would clearly contradict each other regarding that which is excluded, namely the woman’s body. The first explicitly forbids uncovering it except for what is exempted, whereas the second—if we understand “lam yasluh” to mean something other than “la yahillu,” or, in other words, as less forceful in conveying prohibition—would produce the contradiction we have mentioned, and no one accepts that. 2. In our view there is no difference between “la yahillu” and “la yasluh”; both denote prohibition. Corruption (fasad) is the opposite of rectitude (salah): whatever is not proper is corrupt, and whoever does it is a corrupter. Allah condemned a people, saying: “alladhina yufsidoona fi-l-ard wa la yuslihoon” (those who spread corruption on earth and do not set things right). This demonstrates that the phrase “la yasluh”