—all of whom had met the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. She said:

“The Messenger of Allah addressed us and said, ‘O company of women, do you not have silver with which to adorn yourselves? Indeed, there is no woman among you who wears gold and displays it except that she will be punished with it.’”

Manṣūr continued: “I related this to Mujāhid, and he said, ‘I met those women myself, and one of them would even sew a button on the end of her sleeve to conceal her ring.’

My purpose in quoting this report is not the marfūʿ statement—clear though it is—for the chain contains an unnamed woman; rather, I rely on Mujāhid’s remark, ‘to conceal her ring,’ which is a decisive text for the point I have made. Praise be to Allah for His guidance. I later found Mujāhid’s words with another authentic chain in the Musnad of Abū Yaʿlā, 6989.

Moreover, Allah, exalted is He, has explained the wisdom behind the command to draw the jilbāb (outer cloak) down, saying, “That is more suitable so that they will be recognized and not abused” (al-Aḥzāb 59). When a woman envelops herself in the jilbāb she is recognized as one of the virtuous, chaste, and honorable women, and the shameless refrain from addressing her with indecent talk. By contrast, if she goes out careless and uncovered, she arouses the hopes of the shameless and exposes herself to their harassment—as every age and place bears witness. Thus Allah commanded all believing women to observe the hijab, closing every avenue that leads to evil.

Ibn Saʿd also relates (8/176): “Muḥammad b. ʿUmar told us, from Ibn Abī Sabrah, from Abū Ṣakhr, from Ibn Kʿab al-Quraẓī, who said: ‘A man from among the hypocrites used to accost and harm the believing women. When he was rebuked, he would say, “I thought she was a slave girl.” So Allah commanded them to differ from the dress of the slave girls and to draw…’”