The Ruling on the Mursal Hadith

The Shaykh : The mursal hadith with a sound chain of narration is considered proof by the jurists Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i, subject to a condition I will mention, and by Malik without any condition, and by Ahmad in one narration. As for the condition, it is that the hadith be connected through another route, even if that chain is weak. This other route is found in al-Bayhaqi, with a chain that, as we said, some scholars graded as good. So why do we reject this hadith? And in the end, the one you are referring to says that the hadith is disturbed (mutazarrib). The disturbance is in the narration we rejected regarding al-Mawdudi, and we were rewarded, if Allah wills, first, because we drew the readers' attention to the fact that al-Mawdudi, based on a mursal narration reported by Ibn Jurayj, claimed that the Messenger of Allah pointed to the forearm instead of the hand. This is a disturbed, discarded narration with no value, especially when compared to these three chains: the chain from Aisha, with its defects; the chain from Asma, with its defects; and the chain from Qatadah, which is sound, as we said, though mursal. This collection of evidence was refuted by a specific understanding of the saying of Allah the Exalted: Here, too, we encounter a very strange issue. Ibn Abbas and Ibn Umar, among the great Companions, interpret "except what is apparent of it" as the face and the forearms, yet they do not find a sound report from the Companions to support their view that the woman's face must be covered. Then there is something here that truly requires us to pause and reflect: they do not merely argue, but they claim, that the face must be covered with something other than the jilbab. If they had claimed this, we could have raised a major objection against them that they would be unable to refute. They argue using the verse "let them draw their jilbab over their faces," saying that this verse indicates that Allah commanded all the women of the believers to draw their jilbab over their faces. How do you imagine, people, that this jilbab would fall?