What is the ruling on wearing the niqab in our present time?

The Shaykh : And where was it read? Where was it read?

The questioner : We thank you for the meeting.

The Shaykh : Give it to me, O Shaykh. No, no, until it is clear, until it is brought.

The questioner : And these, O Shaykh, may Allah keep you safe, are a set of questions from the general public.

The Shaykh : He says: Such-and-such was asked, and that is me. The gist is that recently a phenomenon has spread among women in a striking manner, which is called the niqab. The strange thing about this phenomenon is not wearing the niqab, but the way women wear it. At first, only the eyes were visible from the face. Then the niqab began to widen little by little, so that a part of the face became visible along with the eyes, which brings about fitnah (trial, discord or temptation). This is especially so because many women apply kohl when wearing it. When the women are questioned about this matter, they argue that Your Eminence has issued a fatwa that the default ruling is permissibility. We ask you to clarify this issue in detail, and may Allah reward you with good. So he answered.
The one asked answered by saying: There is no doubt that the niqab was known in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and that women used to do it, as indicated by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding a woman when she enters ihram (the consecrated state of pilgrimage), that she does not wear the niqab. This indicates that it was their custom to wear the niqab. But in our time, we do not issue a fatwa permitting it; rather, we see that it should be prohibited. We do not issue a fatwa permitting it; rather, we see that it should be prohibited. Some scholars thought that the meaning of our saying "we do not issue a fatwa permitting it" is that we issue a fatwa that it is not permissible. The difference between the two expressions is clear. If we said "we issue a fatwa that it is not permissible," that would be a contradiction of the Sunnah. If we say "we do not issue a fatwa permitting it," it means that we do not issue a fatwa of permissibility due to the harms that result from it. We did not say that we issue a fatwa that it is not permissible; rather, we say we do not issue a fatwa. I withhold the fatwa of permissibility, even if it is permissible by the Shari'ah, but I withhold the fatwa of permissibility due to the harms that result from it. This is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) who withheld demolishing the Ka'bah that Quraysh had built, which had taken a large part of it out of the foundations of Ibrahim. He said to 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her): "If it were not that your people are recent in their disbelief, I would have demolished the Ka'bah and rebuilt it on the foundations of Ibrahim." So the Ka'bah standing now is not on the foundations of Ibrahim; it is incomplete. But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) left it as it was out of fear of fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) and evil. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) prevented a man from taking back his wife if he had divorced her three times. He prevented a man from taking back his wife if he had divorced her three times. The meaning of "three times" is without separation. He prevented him from taking her back, even though he had the right to take her back. For example, if he said, "You are divorced three times," or if he said, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced," as chosen by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him). So 'Umar prevented the divorcer from taking back his wife whom he had divorced with this formula. This was a matter of policy. He said: "I see that people have become hasty in a matter in which they used to be deliberate. If we were to allow it for them, we would allow it." And the divorce in the beginning, the divorce of three, in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and the time of Abu Bakr and two years of 'Umar's caliphate, the divorce of three was one. So 'Umar prevented the man from returning to his wife, even though it was his right, because people had gone too far in it, and the divorce of three is forbidden. So I say: I do not issue a fatwa permitting it, and I do not say I issue a fatwa that it is not permissible. What is the difference between the two expressions? Why? He said: Rather, we see that it should be prohibited. Or do we see that it is forbidden?
Prohibited, and there is a difference between prohibition and being forbidden. Rather, we see that it should be prohibited. And that is because it is a means to expanding into what is not permissible. This is a matter, as the viewer who asked said, at first the woman shows a small part of the eye, and after a week or a month or a year she shows the whole eye, and after that the eye and the eyebrow, and after that the eye and the eyebrow and the forehead and the cheek, and after that the nose comes, the lips come, the whole face comes. This method is a chain. And this is something tested and observed: that people fall into forbidden things at first. It is easy, then they gradually progress. So for this reason, we have not issued a fatwa for any woman, near or far, permitting the niqab or the burqu' in our times. Rather, we see that it should be strictly prohibited, and that the woman should fear her Lord in this matter, and not wear the niqab, because that opens a door of evil that cannot be closed afterwards. I say, meaning, it is obligatory for us, the students of knowledge, to be precise in the meanings of words, and not to mix this with that. So there is a difference between image-making and using images or acquiring images. I exclude. What is this tadlis (concealment of a defect in a chain)? And I did not teach you this. Okay. What came, what followed. Come, come.