I say: Even if he actually had the truth on his side, that stance would be tolerable; but what of a man who is mistaken, obstinate, and misleading—if not, indeed, pronouncing takfīr (excommunication)? Al-Tuwayjiri writes in his book (p. 249):

“Whoever permits women to unveil—meaning the unveiling of the face alone—and supports that view with the same proofs brought by al-Albani has thrown the gates of immodesty wide open and emboldened women to commit the reprehensible acts that unveiled women perpetrate today!”

In another place (p. 233) he says that this leads “to atheism regarding the verses of Allah!”

Such are his words—may Allah rectify and guide him. What, then, will he say of Ibn Muflih, al-Nawawi, Qadi ‘Iyad, the Maqdisi scholars, and those before them among the majority with whom I agree?

Fifth: Al-Tuwayjiri and his fellow rigorists unanimously twist authentic hadiths so they will not contradict their own opinion—just as they did with the hadith of the Khath‘amite woman. They have adopted a host of laughable yet pathetic stratagems to nullify its evidence; I refuted them there, and one such attempt will appear later in this book (p. 64) together with its rebuttal. Still, a group among them persists, claiming that she was in a state of ihram—even though they know that ihram does not stop a woman from letting her face veil fall! At times al-Tuwayjiri admits that she was unveiled, yet he neutralizes the hadith’s force by saying:

“There is no proof that she kept her face uncovered continuously.”

In other words, he wishes to argue that a gust of wind lifted her covering and that al-Fadl ibn ‘Abbas happened to see her in that very instant!