The Meaning of Hijab and Niqab?

The questioner : O Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Please proceed.

The questioner : The difference between the niqab and the hijab, knowing that the niqab is the hijab.

The Shaykh : Knowing what?

The questioner : The niqab and the hijab, meaning, I read this and found a difference between the two, meaning the niqab is different from the hijab.

The Shaykh : Who does not distinguish between the two?

The questioner : Generally, most people say that this is hijab, meaning the woman wearing the niqab is exactly like the woman wearing the hijab.

The Shaykh : This is the covering of the face.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : The niqab is the covering of the face, whereas the hijab, if used in a general sense, includes the entire body except the face and hands, according to the well-known scholarly disagreement regarding them. So what did you find?

The questioner : Based on the fact that some people...

The Shaykh : No, answer my question; what did you find? What do you have to do with some people?

The questioner : Some people say that the hijab...

The Shaykh : What do you have to do with some people—may Allah bless you—I am asking you; what did you find? What is the difference between the hijab and the niqab in your finding?

The questioner : I found that the niqab means the eyes remain uncovered.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner : ...Your Excellency, and the hijab is the hijab, the eyes and the face and all of it; so there is a visible part here.

The Shaykh : Okay, does a visible part mean the eyes?

The questioner : The eyes.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : But what is common among people is that all of this is hijab; they consider it all hijab, meaning there is no distinction between this one wearing the niqab and that one wearing the hijab; no, they say hijab. And as we know, the hijab is the barrier between two things... to prevent seeing.

The Shaykh : Now, to clarify what you are saying, we have two women, one wearing the hijab and the other wearing the niqab. We set aside the one wearing the niqab because we know the niqab is what is tied under the eyes. What did the first one do? The one wearing the hijab?

The questioner : She covered the face and hands.

The Shaykh : What did she do?

The questioner : No, she covered everything.

The Shaykh : Everything? Impossible. Pay attention, pay attention to what you are saying; otherwise, you will fall—using a Syrian expression—into a "pothole," or what is it? When the car is moving.

Another questioner : Into a pothole.

The Shaykh : Yes, into a pothole. You call it a dip, yes.

The questioner : I am saying, O my master, what? Based on the fact that what is followed or common here...

The Shaykh : Keep the talk between you and me.

The questioner : The one wearing the hijab, not the one with an uncovered face.

The Shaykh: Keep it, keep it.

The questioner : The one wearing the hijab, not the one with an uncovered face and hands, but the one wearing the hijab is the one wearing the hijab, plain and simple.

The Shaykh : Keep, keep the talk with me, and be generous, take and give. Okay, the one wearing the hijab cannot be wearing the hijab over her entire body, and the meaning of your words is that she is wearing the hijab over her entire body. We have presented to you two women; we set aside the one wearing the niqab, and the one wearing the hijab as you wish. How do you imagine this woman wearing the hijab, with nothing of her showing at all, as she walks on her way? Tell me with knowledge?

The questioner : With my knowledge?

The Shaykh : Or with my knowledge?! With your knowledge! .

The questioner : What, you put something on.

The Shaykh : No, this is not hijab. This item has become an addition like that item. Here is a niqab and there is a scarf, and your search is about the hijab. Did you understand? ... Any committed Muslim woman is wearing the hijab, and it is obligatory for her to wear the hijab, but one exceeds the other. Either she exceeds her by wearing the niqab, which is the second woman we set aside, or she exceeds the one wearing the niqab by wearing a scarf; such that it covers even her eyes from the sight of men. But both this scarf and that niqab are not part of the concept of hijab. For when our Lord said: , He said: , He did not say "let them draw their jilbabs over their bodies and wear niqabs," or—if the expression is correct—"wear scarves." He did not say either of these things, but rather He said: . And now, you, as a man of legal responsibility, must have a wife, and perhaps you have a sister, or a daughter, or a neighbor you advise, and so on. How do you imagine this woman who is obligated to place the jilbab over her body in obedience to this noble verse? How does she do it? Now, if you wish, you can borrow the turban from the head of one of our brothers and assume it is a long hijab covering the body; show us how she walks on the road?

The questioner : That is impossible.

The Shaykh : Impossible. I like your straightforward answer; because it is proof that you do not fix yourself in one place as if you were cast in "concrete" and do not move, but rather you seek the truth. Good. And the matter—as you say—is impossible. And do you imagine in the end that our Lord would command our mothers, sisters, and daughters to do something impossible? So what is possible?

The questioner : What is possible.

The Shaykh : Do not be shy; if you know and have an answer, give it, otherwise you may hear the answer from someone else.

The questioner : We hear the answer from someone else.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : We hear the answer from someone else.

The Shaykh : No, I want to say, if you have it, say it; because in reality, you are the one who raised the issue, not me.

The questioner : I will tell Your Excellency, there are two matters.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : The first matter, which is... the story of the scarf, meaning something.

The Shaykh : Excuse me, I do not want you to repeat my words to me. The important thing is that we have finally reached the point that the hijab does not mean covering the woman's face completely, otherwise we would obscure her path; so she must uncover something.

The questioner : The niqab is better for her.

The Shaykh : No, this is not the search—may Allah guide us and you—say: Amen. I was pleased earlier with your straightforward answer, but now I am not pleased with your twisted answer. So I say: Since it has become clear to us that the jilbab does not cover the face, but rather the scarf or the niqab, and since that is the case, the illusion that was in your mind has collapsed and gone far away; because there is no difference then between the niqab and the jilbab that does not cover the face entirely. I can now depict for you, if you wish to hear from me and refuse to let me hear from you; in some Syrian countries, especially the people of the villages and the countryside, they wrap themselves in a large garment, then wrap it around their face like this, so that the jilbab becomes like a niqab on them. And this is what the most extreme people in forbidding the uncovering of the woman's face resorted to. The matter did not suit them when they noticed what I have been rambling about, that the hijab cannot cover the face, otherwise we would obscure the path for the woman. And so they permitted her—and using the Syrian expression: "May they have much good!"—they permitted her to uncover one eye; why? So she can see the road in front of her. And some of them increased the permission to both eyes. So whether this uncovering is by the jilbab directly or by the niqab, then in the end we say: the niqab is a known, prescribed matter, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And now, if you imagined earlier that the jilbab covers the face; do you think the woman in ihram covers the face as well? So what does this woman wearing the jilbab do while she is performing Hajj or 'Umrah? How do you imagine her walking?

The questioner : She uncovers her face.

The Shaykh : You want her to uncover her face, correct. So—peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Another questioner : Is Abu Badr present?

The Shaykh : How? Abu Badr is not here.

Another questioner : There are women who might come in.

The Shaykh : Women? No, they can come in. Squeeze in a little, please—
The conclusion we reach from this research, and the result we arrive at, is that arguing with the verse of the hijab, as many have imagined, both in the past and in the present, that it indicates covering the face, is a pure error. This is because, as we mentioned earlier, the jilbab does not even cover the eyes. Allah prescribed the hijab for women when they go out of their homes, and He also obligated them to wear the khimar. Neither the khimar nor the jilbab covers the face. Therefore, one must visualize the following. You know that the jilbab has conditions, among which is that it must be non-transparent and thick. It must be thick and non-transparent; that is, the jilbab is not suitable to serve as a substitute for a handkerchief. The handkerchief, as we see today, has transparency such that one can see through it, and this is fine if it is so. But the jilbab is not permissible to be like that, because it hangs down over the entire body and does not have this softness and flexibility that would reveal the shape of her limbs. Therefore, we cannot imagine from the verse of the jilbab an order to cover the face, as you may often hear. Because that would mean blinding the woman to her path. That is why what you heard was said: some of them permitted her to reveal one eye, and some permitted her to reveal both eyes together, and others expanded the ruling and said that it is permissible for a woman to reveal her face, the disk of her face, to inhale the air of her Lord and to enjoy seeing her path as it should be. However, it is better for her to cover her face by any possible means, such as a handkerchief, a niqab, or the glasses of today that blind the vision of the eye for the one looking at her. This is a niqab and more, because it is not known what the reality is behind the glasses. This is a discussion regarding what you mentioned earlier. Yes.

Another questioner : Is there a sound report regarding revealing the eye, given the virtues you mentioned about it?

The Shaykh : Yes, now. I did not address the athar (reports) earlier. There are two athar from them, from Ibn Abbas, and it is not sound because it is narrated by Ali ibn Abi Talhah from Ibn Abbas, and it is munqati' (disconnected). Below it is Abdullah ibn Salih, Abu Salih the Egyptian scribe, who is known for his weakness, and that one of his Coptic neighbors used to insert into his hadiths what was not part of his hadith. This is the athar of Ibn Abbas where he interpreted the previous verse as revealing the eyes. The other athar is sound but it is muqta' (cut off); that is, it is mawquf (stopped) at the level of the Tabi'un (successors), so it does not constitute a proof. Especially since what is narrated in "Tafsir Ibn Jarir al-Tabari" and others is that when he recited the verse and described this image, he said: she reveals one eye and covers the other; that is, as if he made this description an interpretation of the verse. From whom? From a Tabi'i of the hadith. I think his name is Ubaydah al-Salmani. If this had been mursal (missing the Companion link) and marfu' (traced to the Prophet) (peace and blessings be upon him), it would not have been a proof; so how is it when it is muqta' and mawquf upon him? I said: this is how the wording came in "Tafsir Ibn Jarir" and others. But Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned this athar in another wording that we did not find in any of the books of tafsir that concern themselves with narrating transmitted interpretations. He mentioned it with the wording: that the women in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do this...; and in that case, the matter differs completely between the narration in "Tafsir Ibn Jarir" whose chain is sound, and the narration mentioned by Ibn Taymiyyah for which we do not know a chain. This indicates that the women used to do that, and there is no harm in that, but it is not suitable to be an interpretation of the verse. And yet, the athar, as you know, is muqta' and not marfu'. This is all that came in the transmitted reports.
Please proceed.