I ask you to reconcile the evidence that the thigh is an awrah (part of the body that must be covered) with the evidence that his thigh (peace and blessings be upon him) was exposed.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : We want you to reconcile, may Allah reward you, between specific hadiths, between the hadith of him (peace and blessings be upon him) when Abu Bakr entered upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and he had exposed his thigh.

The Shaykh : And he had?

The questioner : Exposed his thigh, and also the hadith of Anas who was riding behind the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "I used to look at the whiteness of the thigh of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)," and between the hadith, also: ?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : First: if we assume that the exposure was unintentional, then the question is not valid from the start, is it not so?

The questioner : I did not understand the question!

The Shaykh : I say: if the exposure of the thigh was not intentional, as one of us might expose his leg today, then the question is not valid from the start. And if it was intentional, then the answer is easy: by observing two jurisprudential rules: first, "the statement takes precedence over the action in case of conflict," and "the present takes precedence over the permissive" also. Here we can apply both rules if we assume that the exposure was intentional, meaning: that the exposure was before the prohibition of the thigh and its designation as an awrah (part of the body that must be covered). We all know that the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) did not descend all at once with its rulings, but it descended in stages according to the wisdom of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). The greatest example of this, known to students of knowledge, is the final prohibition of intoxicants. The succession of rulings imposes on us to observe that before the revelation descended upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), everything was on the original state. First, they were commanded to establish the oneness of Allah, then the rulings began to come one after another. And I say on this occasion: every text that contains a prohibition of something, we should observe that this thing was permissible before its prohibition. And at that time, whether we find an explicit text indicating the permissibility of that prohibited thing, or we do not find such a text, merely observing the prohibition implies that it was permissible before the prohibition. So when it is established in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) that the thigh is an awrah (part of the body that must be covered), and an incident or more than one incident occurred where the thigh of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was seen, that should be attributed to one of two things as I said earlier: either it was not intentional, or it was before his saying: . This is the answer in our belief.

The questioner : And some scholars went to weakening the hadith, meaning, even if the hadith is...

The Shaykh: No.

The questioner : It is not weak.

The Shaykh : No, absolutely not, but some of them, this is reasonable, meaning from the perspective of jurisprudential consideration, on the assumption that prohibition has degrees: some divide the awrah (part of the body that must be covered) into major and minor. The major awrah (part of the body that must be covered): the front and back, and what is below that to the knees and to the navel, it is an awrah (part of the body that must be covered), but it is a minor awrah (part of the body that must be covered). Therefore, this division is acceptable if we agree that the original state is that a Muslim does not expose this minor awrah (part of the body that must be covered). This is what I have. If you have any observation or - also - we would like to hear them!

The questioner : Some of them go to the view that based on this division you mentioned, when the effort is dropped, such as being in his family, or between, as came in the hadith when Abu Bakr and 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) were in the well of Arees.

The Shaykh : And this is what he referred to earlier.

The questioner : When 'Uthman entered, he said: : so this contains an indication to something like this, which is that the minor awrah (part of the body that must be covered) you referred to, in the situation where there is no effort between two people or between those present, there is no harm in exposing it, if added to that, if the original state of its exposure is that the exposure is not intended. This is some of what...

The Shaykh : You said if the original state, what?

The questioner : If the original state also, look at the original state you referred to, which is that the awrah (part of the body that must be covered) is two types.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, regarding many Muslim homes.

The Shaykh : Do you not have anything?

The questioner : I thought of something, professor, and it is: that this reconciliation, according to what came in the texts in this manner, but we do not know, may Allah reward you, if there is a type of abrogation in this!

The Shaykh : A type of what?
The student : A type of abrogation.

The Shaykh : Abrogation?
The student : Yes, because when we say what you mentioned earlier, we have invalidated a hadith in this, so a type of abrogation occurred in this, so here I have a problem, so I wanted to benefit from you.

The Shaykh : Well, you know that the hadiths that fall under the chapter of prohibitions are in the dozens, if not hundreds, what do you do with them?
The student : Reconciling them, reconciling between them.

The Shaykh : We have presented what we think is the way of reconciliation, is there another reconciliation?
The student : May Allah reward you with good, no, there is no reconciliation except to say: that the thigh is not an awrah (part of the body that must be covered).

The Shaykh : I thought you had something else, meaning, otherwise the matter you seek advice on is settled.