The discussion on the ruling regarding covering the face.

The Shaykh : The hadith of al-Khath'amiah.
The student : I say, may Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : And you, if Allah wills. May Allah reward you with good.
The student : ... You have tired us, just.

The Shaykh : No, no, may Allah bless you.
The student : ... Tired, to be exhausted.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. Praise be to Allah. We have sessions until the dawn. This is by the grace and blessing of Allah, especially when it is with sincere brothers.
The student : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : They gather with us upon the Sunnah and upon fighting religious innovation. If I were dead, I would be alive.
The student : By the saying of Allah - Exalted is His Majesty -: "Say to the believing women that they cast down upon themselves [part of] their outer garments." The casting down from the head is known. The jilbab is on the head.

The Shaykh : Correct.
The student : In what has appeared of the language of the Arabs and what has reached us of the words of the scholars, is the casting down not from the head to the face, but to the sides?

The Shaykh : Over the entire body.
The student : Over the entire body.

The Shaykh: Except the face and the hands.
The student: Except the face and the hands.

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed. Then I want to draw your attention to a common error. The casting down does not mean covering. If I say to you, "Cast down to me," it means "come closer to me." And when Allah says: , meaning: they should bring their jilbabs close. Because the women of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, like the women of Iraq, when you saw them, how they would move in the markets. She would have her jilbab on the top of her head, but her chest was exposed, her neck, her jewelry, and so on. So Allah - Mighty and Majestic - said: . The casting down, look, the casting down here in the verse, if we want to understand the command with some clarification and practical detail, the casting down is like this. The jilbab is like this. This is called casting down. This is called casting down. This is called casting down. Like this, like this, like this. This is casting down, and all of this is casting down.
The student : This is what we seek.

The Shaykh : This is what you seek. I wonder if the intended meaning of the verse is this? No one says this. No one says this is what is sought.
The student : Send prayers upon the Prophet.

The Shaykh : (peace and blessings be upon him).
The student : I say, let us move on to a second topic.

The Shaykh : The owner of the house is the one who owns it.
The student : I say, praise be to Allah...

The Shaykh : There is no god but Allah.
The student : ... in the same topic.

The Shaykh : My brother, the master of the house knows best what is in it.
The student : I say, may Allah bless you. Brothers want clarification.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : From this verse, and from the hadith of Aisha, and from the hadith of al-Khath'amiah, and from their saying that it is forbidden. But I do not want to argue, as you mentioned, and to be zealous. We want clarification so that our hearts may be at ease.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The student : So we are not zealous. Your sons are zealous. They are zealous about something you see in your eye. You see... and we say, and success is from Allah, even if she covered it, and even if she was beautiful, she became beautiful... but covering the face lowers the intensity. Some people, when they see a woman uncovered, their desire becomes strong.

The Shaykh : Correct. But this ugly woman who adorns herself, as you say, this is not permissible by the consensus of the Muslims. If a woman is of those who adopt the view that the face is not an awrah (part of the body that must be covered) and that it is permissible for her to go out with her face uncovered, only if she goes out adorned, it is forbidden for her to do so. The ugly woman, the old ugly woman, if she adorns her face, it is not permissible for her to uncover her face. The face must be in its natural state and in the fitrah (innate natural disposition) with which Allah - Mighty and Majestic - created it. So if she adorns herself as they do today with rouge and powder and so on, this is not permissible. We are talking about the face that Allah - Mighty and Majestic - created, only. And therefore, I say, we do not go beyond the topic, as our brother there just now brought the topic of the face into the issue of free mixing of men and women and working with men, and so on. We are not in that context. Is this disk that Allah created obligated for the woman to cover it when she goes out of her house? This is the situation. This is the research. Whoever has evidence, let him bring it to us, and we will be grateful to him. And whoever does not, let him not be zealous and let him not strain himself, because whoever says about the halal (lawful) that it is haram (forbidden) without evidence is like whoever says about the haram that it is halal without evidence. These are two rulings in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) that are equal. Just as it is not permissible to make something lawful except with evidence, so it is not permissible to make something forbidden except with evidence. We agree that covering the face is better, but we differ on what is obligatory? Is this obligatory or not? Until now, we have not heard... Yes, indeed.
The student : He agrees with everyone on the recommendation of covering the face, but he is not able to say it is obligatory.

The Shaykh : You have spoken well. He has no evidence, and I have no evidence either.
The student : O Shaykh, we have many questions, but as long as my brothers... Glory be to Allah, if... if the gathering is a Shaykh, may Allah bless you.

The questioner : You said that if she were in a state of ihram (the consecrated state of pilgrimage), it would be obligatory for her to cover her face, as Aisha did.

The Shaykh : I did not say that.
The student: All right.

The Shaykh : I do not understand you well. You said if covering the face were obligatory for the woman when fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) occurs, the Messenger - peace be upon him - would have ordered that al-Khath'amiah to cast down over her face.
The student : Fine, let us suppose she was in a state of ihram.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : And the woman in a state of ihram does not wear a face veil or gloves, due to the prohibition of the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him. So the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him -

The Shaykh : You have spoken, my brother. May Allah turn to you in repentance. You have spoken. I say the woman in a state of ihram does not wear a face veil or gloves, but she may cast down.

The questioner : But it is not obligatory for her to cast down. That is, the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - did not make it obligatory for her at that time to cast down, and therefore he did not make it obligatory for her.

The Shaykh : So this is my opinion. But what is your opinion? This is your opinion. You are repeating my words.
The student : No, my opinion is, O Shaykh, if you allow me, that the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - you say he delayed the explanation from the time of need, meaning he did not order her to cover her face.

The Shaykh : Do I say it this way?
The student : The Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - did not specify in that need which she required that she must cover her face. He did not specify this obligation. So we say if she was in a state of ihram and the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - had prohibited wearing a face veil, he did not see at that time and in that incident to say to her, "Cast down over your face," because she was in a state of ihram.

The Shaykh : For you, my dear, casting down is different from wearing a face veil. The woman in a state of ihram casts down and does not wear a face veil. It is permissible for her to cast down, whether men are present or not. You do not distinguish between casting down and wearing a face veil. I have decided in the book that it is not permissible for the woman in a state of ihram, due to his saying - peace be upon him -: , but the woman for whom it is not permissible to wear gloves is permissible for her to do like this, do you understand how? And the woman for whom it is not permissible to wear a face veil is permissible for her to do like this. Those who say that the face of the woman is an awrah and it is forbidden for her to uncover it must answer regarding the hadith of al-Khath'amiah that she was in a state of ihram, and the woman in a state of ihram is not permitted to wear a face veil. You are repeating their words, and this is a refuted argument. We do not say it was obligatory. If covering the face for the woman during fitnah in a particular way were obligatory, we do not say the Messenger was obligated to order her to wear a face veil. No, it was sufficient for him to order her to cast down, because casting down is permissible for the woman in a state of ihram. So there is a difference between casting down and wearing a face veil. If the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - did not do this, meaning he did not order her to cast down over her face, this is evidence of the permissibility of the woman uncovering her face. And if there were a man looking at her, here it is said what the scholars of usul al-fiqh (the principles of jurisprudence) say: "Delaying the explanation from the time of need is not permissible." This is an agreed-upon matter. And therefore, I hope, but we have discussed this issue. What is your answer to this problem? We do not hear an answer. Delaying the explanation from the time of need is not permissible. There is no disagreement among the scholars of usul al-fiqh on this. Why did the Messenger not order this woman? The women, and they were setting out for Hajj (the major pilgrimage), when a caravan passed by them, they cast down over their faces. People were riding, walking on their camels. This was scrupulousness on their part. But here Satan entered between the woman and the man. And yet the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - did not say, "Cast down over your face." Did the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - fall short? I gave you an example just now. If this incident happened today with one of you who sees that covering the face is an awrah, that the face is an awrah and that it is obligatory, what would he do? He would say to the woman, "Cover yourself," and not say to the man, "Avert your face"? He would say to the woman, "Cover yourself, cast down." So why did the Messenger not do this? Then you are wrong, and the Messenger is the one who is right. And this is the truth by which we declare our religion to Allah. Please.
The student : Regarding the evidence you mentioned.

The Shaykh : This is the owner of the house. He fears, meaning we will respond to our brother. We will give him another half hour. From 11 o'clock to 11 o'clock, if Allah wills.
The student : May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : Meaning the practice of the Companions.

The Shaykh : You have spoken perfectly on both points. Among the wives of the Companions, some covered their faces and some uncovered them. And I mentioned there many reports supporting both views and supporting what we say. Perfectly, it is permissible to cover the face, and that is better, and it is permissible to uncover it, and that is the lesser of the two. And there is in *Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd* a report with a sound chain from the wife of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) when they visited Abu Bakr in his house and they saw her hand was tattooed. Does this indicate that the woman's hand is an 'awrah? How did they know about the tattoo? And there are reports that people passed by Abu Dharr while he was in al-Rabizah when he was left there during the time of 'Uthman, and they passed by his house and they saw the wife of Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him), and she was black. How did they know that? And the woman who used to clean the mosque, do you remember this hadith? She died and was buried without the permission of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and without informing him. So when he missed her and did not find her, he asked about her. He said to them: So they excused themselves with an excuse, and he said: ; so he went and prayed over her. This black woman, how did they know she was black? If everything of her was covered as this man of ours who we are asking for says, how did they know she was black? It is not possible to know that a woman is black or brown or white in the way you imagined. There must be something that shows the woman. When she was cleaning, what? The mosque. Perhaps you imagine that she was wearing gloves, and then I ask how does one veil with gloves? Cleaning the mosque? All this is an unnecessary burden. There is no need for it. When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) admonished the women on the day of the festival: "Abdullah ibn 'Abbas saw the women waving their hands toward their ears and giving charity with their jewelry he saw their palms. It is not befitting for a person to be biased except for the truth. And they say in Syria an expression taken from a sound hadith: 'Excessive tightening leads to loosening'; meaning, look, Shaykh Nasser, when I do this, and then the reins of the matter slip, and so on.
The student : And there are, I think, scenes.

The Shaykh : Scenes. May Allah reward you. This 'Excessive tightening leads to loosening' is taken from a hadith, namely his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , so we stopped at the Sunnah. Do you want to cover your daughter's and your wife's face? That is better. If your daughter wants to uncover her face, do not be strict with her. She may uncover her hair, and this is what we are suffering from today in this age. Excessive tightening leads to loosening. And I hope that the women in this land remain enthusiastic and covering their faces, but beware of excessive tightening leading to loosening, and the signs are very clear. So you should strive to walk with the women in accordance with the permissible matter now. Loosen the reins.
The student : Today, some of the religious brothers, their wives go out beside them uncovered based on what they hear. And Allah, he goes out and his wife is beside him, and he is with his beard... and she is uncovered beside him.

The Shaykh : Uncovered from her 'awrah?
The student : From her face, displaying her adornment.

The Shaykh : Displaying her adornment.