ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Hijab Islamic Veil The Religious Edicts On These Issues We have seen through these lessons that according to the precise and moderate precepts of Islam, in regard to the relations of a man and a woman based upon the reliable sources and practices of the Holy Prophet and infallible Imams, it is documented that it is not obligatory to cover the face and hands as well as the face that they strengthen the permissibility for men or women to look at each other upon the condition that it is not for lust (unless they are husband and wife) nor fear of deviation.

Now we will briefly refer to the edicts of the religious jurisprudents because it is important to know how they have interpreted this issue from the beginning of Islam to the present.1 To begin with, what is the opinion of religious jurisprudents as to the covering of the face and hands and secondly, what edicts have they issued in regard to looking?

The last section of this lesson was added later by Shaheed Mutahhari and is not on the tapes but because of the importance of the issues referred to, it has been translated and appears here. As to the fact that it is not obligatory to cover the face and hands, there appears to be no difference of opinion among all of the religious jursiprudents, Shi'ite or Sunni. There was only one Sunni who disagreed.

He was Abu Bakr ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hisham and it is not clear if his opinion related solely to the ritual prayer or if it included those people who were not mahram, as well. There is no difference of opinion as to the face but some differences have appeared with regard to the hands to the wrist and the feet to the ankles as to whether or not they are included among the exceptions. Before mentioning what they have said, two points should be noted.

First, the issue of covering is dealt with in two places in jursiprudence. One is in relation to the fact that it is obligatory in the ritual prayer for women to cover all of their body, whether or not a non-mahram is present. Here the question arises whether or not the face and hands must also be covered. The second place the issue is discussed is in relation to marriage and to what extent a suitor has the right to look at the woman he may decide to seek permission to marry.

Here, there is most often a general discussion about covering and the permissibility or impermissibility of looking.