Head Covering For Women During Salah
For something to be considered as obligatory, it should be initiated by the Prophet himself (sws) and should be transmitted through ijma and tawatur of Muslims. Quran and Sunnah are both transmitted through these means and hence are the most credible and only sources of religion. Just the way directives of Quran make it very clear as to what is the real prohibition i.e. ‘fawahish’ taking its extreme form in ‘zina’, all such directives of norms of gender interaction are given to prevent the means leading to such act or acts. If a Muslim, after knowing this directive of Quran, and knowing very well the reason behind these directives, intentionally ignores them, and even if it doesn’t lead to Zina, it does lead to ‘istakbaar’ in front of Allah. Same is the case with Sunnah. Sunnah initiated and sanctioned by the Prophet Muhammad (sws) relates only with matters of ibadah, customs, etiquettes and other practical matters only (‘amaal’). One can extract the Sunnah from the same ijma and tawatur, and it is the same ijma and tawatur which tells the difference in the nature of directives i.e. which ones are obligatory and which ones are optional. How to determine that? the following response elaborates this matter from a principle stand point. Discussion 50126 • Reply 50134 Whatever is mentioned in Ahadith is either an elaboration of the same Sunnah or its application, uswa of the prophet (sws) or matters or encouragement or that of ‘adaab’. They can never take precedence over Quran and Sunnah and hence can never be considered as being an obligatory matter w.r.t religion. It is about understanding and placement of directives w.r.t their nature, their mode of transmission and how they fit in within the overall framework of religion as given by the Quran and Sunnah themselves. An obligatory directive can never be solely transmitted through a Hadith, it goes both against the logic and against the very nature of religion itself. To understand what is Hadith and it’s status in overall framework of religion , please refer to the following threads: Discussion 58889 Discussion 56414