Head Covering Of Women
Peace! Hassan, please watch Response to 23 Questions Series for “Pardah” from the beginning. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxm5Jk_0wW4 Here is how Ghamidi Sahab explains the verse in his tafsir: https://www.javedahmedghamidi.org/#!/quran?chapter=24&paragraph=16&type=Ghamidi The خمار over the جيب (the area between the neck and the chest) was not to hide cleavage. It was to hide any ornaments there (for example, a necklace). And no, the case cannot be made that Allah wanted women to cover their hair because that isn’t even the purpose of the verse. The verse simply says, “(to conceal your ornaments) put some of your خمر (plural of خمار) on your جيوب (plural of جيب).” Feel free to inquire further until you are satisfied. 😄
Peace! Sir, with all due respect, I feel like you are saying that head covering is mandatory unless otherwise proven, which is an assumption with no support from the Quran, because the Quran doesn’t ask anyone to cover their hair anywhere. Additionally, we don’t look at Ahadith to check whether something is obligatory or not and even if we did, there is no Hadith which says that the head covering is obligatory. The burden of proof is on the one who thinks it is obligatory, not the one who thinks it is not. You can’t say that this woman companion in this Hadith is wearing a headcovering and, therefore, it is obligatory. You have to bring the explicit words of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that a headcovering is obligatory. Not that it is good and that it is better to do it, but that it is obligatory (واجب or فرض etc.) I have not come across these words, Bhai, if you can share a Hadith in which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says that it is mandatory upon a woman to cover her hair, then please do share it with me. 😄 Yes, there are scholars who say that the head covering is not obligatory. Ibn Ashur mentions in his tafsir, التحرير والتنوير, a minority opinion: وفَسَّرَ جَمْعٌ مِنَ المُفَسِّرِينَ الزِّينَةَ بِالجَسَدِ كُلِّهِ، وفَسَّرَ ما ظَهَرَ بِالوَجْهِ والكَفَّيْنِ قِيلَ والقَدَمَيْنِ والشَّعْرِ “And a group of the Mufassiroon explained الزينة to mean the whole body and they explained الا ما ظهر منها to mean the face and the hands. The feet and the hair were also included by some of them. “ Muhammad Asad, in his tafsir, The Message of the Quran, did not hold the head covering as compulsory. Sheikh Khalid Abou El Fadl also does not think that the head covering is compulsory and he raises questions on it: https://www.searchforbeauty.org/2016/01/02/fatwa-on-hijab-the-hair-covering-of-women/ There are, of course, others but I have not read their views as of now, so I will not mention them. Dr. Farhad Shafti also does not think that a headcovering is mandatory, but he was a member of al-Mawrid at one point, so I guess he doesn’t count. 😅 Please do read that article and let me know what further reservations you have.
Khimar is not meant to cover cleavage but bosom when it is decorated with ornaments. if we take the former meaning, to cover cleavage, the verse further says that women need not to cover it before their mehram like father and brother, and of course one cannot take it. The verse is talking to the women who already cover their bodies. Quran needs not to start from the beginning. it was not some primitive society but a civilized one. The verse talks about the manners of covering when women have done Zeenat, makeup and wearing ornaments. In this perspective it says to cover your bosom with your pieces of cloth which is called Khimar. Khimar is the name of the piece of cloth which is not necessarily means it must always be on the heads. just like handkerchief. we call it Rumaal in urdu. which means piece of cloth for face. but we do not use it only for face. names are adopted for different reasons. So Khimar is name of the cloth which is asked to be put on bosom. This is the scope of the verse. Covering of head is our culture and it is a good one. We cannot extract meaning which is not in the verse. The rest is covered with guarding of your private parts. if a woman feels that she should cover her head too to stop unwanted gaze, she can cover her head too. but in fact, head is not as attractive a thing to cover. Covering of head is a gesture of respect and nobility set by our culture.