even to cover her head and hair. Some juristic schools went further still, declaring that her ‘awrah is the same as a man’s—from the navel to the knee—and they boldly asserted:

“It is therefore permissible for an unrelated man to look at a slave woman’s hair, arm, shin, chest, and breasts.”1

This view—apart from lacking any proof in the Qur’an or the Sunnah—conflicts with the general wording of His statement, “and the women of the believers” (Al-Aḥzāb 59). The phrase is universal, much like His words, “O you who believe, do not approach the prayer while you are intoxicated until you understand what you are saying, nor in a state of major impurity—except when traveling—until you have bathed. But if you are ill, or on a journey, or one of you has relieved himself, or you have had intercourse with women and you find no water, then perform tayammum…” (Al-Nisāʾ 43).

For this reason Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī said in his commentary Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ (7/250):

“The apparent sense of the phrase ‘and the women of the believers’ includes both free women and slave women. Temptation involving slave women is even greater because they move about more freely than free women. Therefore, excluding them from the general term ‘women’ would require clear, unequivocal evidence.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Qaṭṭān had reached the same conclusion earlier in Aḥkām al-Naẓar (fol. 24/2), as had others.

Most fitting, too, are the words of Ibn Ḥazm in Al-Muḥallā (3/218–219):

“As for distinguishing between a free woman and a slave woman, Allah’s religion is one, and their physical creation and natural disposition are the same. Everything applies equally to free women and slave women until a revealed text establishes a difference between them.”