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Compulsion Of Muslim Women To Cover Her Hair
I was told by a religious person that those who do not believe in the obligation of hijab are kafirs ie. the hide the truth knowingly. I share Ghamidi Sahab’s opinion on hijab does that make me a kafir? I don’t understand how Ghamidi Sahab interprets the head of a woman to be a part of the body parts that are exposed naturally. In fiqh books about the rules of awrah a large number of scholars like Ibn Qudammah RA, Imam Fakhruddin Razi RA ( In his tafsir) state that a free ( hurra) woman has to cover her hair while a slave woman can’t/ are not obligated . They state the narration where Umar, the Caliph beat a slave woman and pulled off her khimar from her head for emmulating free women ( apparently free women from higher classes covered everything frm head to toe while the slave woman was prevented from covering her hair and calves) The classical scholars said the awrah of a slave woman is from navel to the knee while for free women her whole body is her awrah. Now the verse in Surah Nur that talks about khimar addresses all believing women. But if we assume that this verse obligates covering of the head then are these scholars wrong in making seperate rules of headcovering for women of different classes. How could all of them do the same mistake? But if we assume that the khimar is not obligatory but the covering of the chest is then these scholars were right in interpreting this verse according to their traditional context , they didn’t see this verse as a ruling to cover hair so they made different rules of head covering for women of different classes. If this logic is correct then Ghamidi Sahab’s interpretation does resemble the interpretation of early scholars. Please comment on this.
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Compulsion Of Muslim Women To Cover Her Hair
updated 3 years, 1 month ago
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السلام عليكم
First of all, whenever religious people make a claim, ask them for evidence. Anyone can make a claim: people who believe that covering the head is mandatory are deliberately hiding the truth. What difference do these claims make? No one has any evidence to back them up. You can read Surah Al-Hujurat verses 11 and 12 to know what God says about always thinking on these lines. So no, you are not a kafir, الحمد لله.
Regarding why Ghamidi Sahab says that the head is a body part that is exposed naturally, it is probably observation. The head is not a body part which a woman (who is not religiously or culturally acquainted with head covering) would hasten to cover if a man comes in proximity. Regarding the word عورة, it is not an unknown word for the Arab and connotes either the private parts or anything from which one feels shame if it is exposed. Would you then consider the head عورة?
Yes, the classical scholarship differentiated between the عورة of free women and slave women due to verse 59 of Surah Al-Ahzab, but most of them did think that the hair are supposed to be covered by free women and that slave women are not allowed to do so (because then they would not be distinguishable and the aim of the verse of Surah Al-Ahzab would not be fulfilled, according to them). Also, you are right in pointing out that the verse in Surah Al-Nur pertains to all believing women and not just free women, but, like you said, some scholars did in fact believe that the عورة for slave women was different: from navel to knee. I don’t know how these scholars reconciled these two facts, though.
Regarding whether Ghamidi Sahab’s interpretation resembles the interpretation of previous scholarship, it doesn’t need to and the reality is that scholars still had different views back then. They did not agree on a single interpretation. So, for example, we get another view regarding women’s dressing in public from Abdullah bin Mas’ud and another entirely different one from Abdullah bin Abbas رضى الله عنهم even though they are both scholarly companions of the messenger of God صلى الله تعالى عليه وسلم. It seems like you haven’t listened to the detailed discussion on Hijab in the 23 Questions series. Here’s a link for the first episode:
https://youtu.be/Vxm5Jk_0wW4?t=1140
I hope this helps. First listen to the whole discussion, then ask further questions. 😁
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