Al-Harith ibn al-Harith al-Ghamidi reported:
“I said to my father while we were at Mina, ‘What is this crowd?’ He answered, ‘These people have gathered around a ṣābiʾ of theirs (someone who has abandoned their religion).’ So we went down—according to another version: we looked on from above—and there was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ calling the people to tawḥīd (the oneness of Allah) and faith in Him, while they rebutted his words and abused him. This went on until midday, when the crowd dispersed. Then a woman approached, her upper chest uncovered and weeping, carrying a cup of water and a cloth. He took them from her, drank, and performed ablution. After that he raised his head toward her and said, ‘My daughter, cover your chest and do not fear that your father will be overcome or disgraced.’ I asked, ‘Who is she?’ They replied, ‘This is Zaynab, his daughter.’” 1
nor more ready to affirm the Book of Allah and believe in the newly-revealed verses. When Surat al-Nur was sent down – “and let them draw their head-covers over their bosoms” – their husbands returned and recited to them what Allah had revealed. Each man recited it to his wife, his daughter, his sister, and every female relative. Not one woman among them failed to rise at once, take her striped cloak, and wrap it around herself in obedience and faith in the Book of Allah. The next morning they stood behind the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for the dawn prayer, fully wrapped, as though black crows were perched upon their heads.
Ibn Kathir cited this report, as did Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari 8/490 with the additional wording just mentioned. In its chain is al-Zinji b. Khalid – whose given name is Muslim – and he is weak, but he is supported by another chain in Ibn Marduwayh’s Tafsir, as noted by al-Zayla‘i in his Takhrij al-Kashshaf, p. 435 (manuscript).
The hadith is virtually explicit that they stood behind him ﷺ with their faces uncovered, for i‘tijar means wrapping the cloth around the head. Al-Sihah states: “al-mi‘jar is what a woman binds on her head; it is said: i‘tajarat al-mar’ah (the woman wrapped her head-cover).”
(1) Reported by al-Tabarani, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir 1/245/2; by Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Dimashq 4/46–1/243–1 (the extra wording is his). Al-Bukhari also narrated it in his Tarikh in abridged form, and Abu Zur‘ah said: “This hadith is sahih.”