Returning to the beginning, regarding whether the rulings of the Shari'ah change with changes in time and place.

The Shaykh : Likewise, we say that the rulings change with changes in time and place. This must be qualified by what has issued from the independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) of some Muslims, from some of the imams qualified to derive rulings. However, if there is an explicit text (nass) that no falsehood comes to it from before or from behind in any way, we do not say that we are changing it now based on the principle that rulings change with time and place. This opens a very dangerous door for playing with the Shari'ah, and for the Muslims to suffer what befell the first of the Jews and the Christians when they altered and changed it. Now, here we have the niqab, which we have been saved from its forms, that existed in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). People are people, and desire is desire, and so on. Despite that, the least that can be said is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted the woman to uncover, let us say now, her eyes and what is between them. So what do we call this, Professor? What is between her eyes? So now, why...

The questioner : The eyebrows.

The Shaykh : The eyebrows. All right, why do we now say it is not permissible except for a small opening? This reminds me when I was given the first tour, and perhaps it will not be the last, when we traveled through your country and we reached the Eastern Region. I do not know if you were present at that session in a room smaller than this one, with the upholstered chairs they call... A man, tall and giant, stood a little away from me; I do not know if he was one of the imams of the mosques. He raised the issue that you say the woman's face is not an 'awrah (part of the body that must be covered), and he argued with me using the well-known verse: I said to him: Does our Lord mean in this verse that she should cover her face? He said: Yes, and so they use it as evidence. I said: Now, apply it. You cover your face. I saw him stand up and cover his face; he actually did this. I said to him: Come to me. He said: I cannot. I said: You cannot take a few steps? So how can the woman whom you order to cover her face with her jilbab (outer garment) walk to attend to her affairs? He said: Here is the point. He said: We open a hole here. I said: Only one hole? He said: Yes, this is what was reported from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), one hole. All right, this was not the excessive effort in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And therefore, I see that the practical Sunnah is very, very important in clarifying the rulings of the Shari'ah, or in other words, to clarify the texts of the Shari'ah from the Book and the Sunnah. And if we neglect these established Sunnahs, which fall under the meaning of the scientific definition: "The Sunnah is his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying, his doing, and his approval," then he approved the women regarding this niqab and said explicitly: So now, from the perspective of blocking the means to harm (sadd al-dhara'i'), it is not permissible to say here, because the necessity for this blocking existed in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). It is not befitting for us to invent a new means to achieve what the Wise Lawgiver did not intend. And for this reason, I answered some of them: If you say it is obligatory for the woman to cover her face to block the means to harm, then a person can say: It is obligatory for men to cover their faces in front of women. This is a strange matter. But to block the means to harm, what is the difference between that and this, and the operative cause is the same? There is no difference except to say: This was the matter in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). The men, none of them were masked like the masked men from the Maghreb.
The questioner: The night raiders (Tawariq).

The Shaykh : The night raiders (Tawariq), except in rare cases, of course, in wars or battles or dust or the like. And the women are of the two known categories: those who wear the niqab and those who uncover their faces. So this reality is what we must strive to revive and renew, with what it contains of dispensations (rukhsah) and what it contains of etiquettes and recommended practices (mustahabb). In any case, your connection withThe Shaykh : Muhammad enables you to clarify his view, if Allah wills, about this perspective, and whether the matter is as Abu Nasr said, or as you reported with some precision in the subject, that the niqab, as a niqab, should not be except the handkerchief that also covers the eyes from the sight of people.

The questioner : There was a question here from one of the shaykhs of Sham...The Shaykh : Khalid

The Shaykh : Khalid... this is the one who was...

The questioner : He was saying that even the young boys should, meaning, cover their faces if there is a fear of fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) for them!

The Shaykh : Some scholars say this, yes.