Commentary

The previous verses have maintained that causing pain to any Muslim, man or woman, is forbidden and is a major sin, and in particular, inflicting pain on the Holy Prophet ﷺ is an act of infidelity, liable to Allah's curse. Now, there were two kinds of pain caused by the hypocrites to all Muslims and to the Holy Prophet ﷺ . Preventive measures against these have been provided in the verses cited above. As a corollary, stated there are a few additional injunctions in a certain congruity to be unfolded later on. One of these two kinds of pain caused was at the hands of vagabonds from among the general run of hypocrites who used to molest bondwomen from Muslim homes when they came out to take care of family chores. Then on occasions, they would mistreat free women under the impression that they were bondwomen because of which pain was caused to Muslims at large and to the Holy Prophet ﷺ .

On the other hand, the Shari’ ah of Islam has maintained a difference between free women and bondwomen in the matter of Hijab. The limits of Hijab prescribed for bondwomen are the limits observed by the free women before their mahrams (marriage with whom is forbidden), for example, as leaving the face open before their mahrams is permissible for free women, the same was permissible for bondwomen even when they went out of their homes, because their very job was to serve their masters, an occupation that took them out of the home repeatedly which made it difficult for them to keep their face and hands hidden. This is contrary to the case of free women who, even if they have to go out for some need, would be doing so rarely, an eventuality in which the observance of full Hijab should not be difficult. Therefore, the command given to free women was that the long sheet with which they cover themselves when going out should be pulled from over their head downwards before their face, so that it does not get exposed before male strangers. Two things were accomplished thereby. It made their own Hijab come out perfect while covering their faces served another purpose of distinguishing them from bondwomen, because of which they automatically became safe from being teased by wicked people. As for the arrangements made to keep bondwomen protected, the hypocrites were served with a warning to the effect that, should they fail to abstain from their low behavior, (the torment of the Hereafter aside) Allah Ta’ ala would have them punished at the hands of His Prophet ﷺ and Muslims in this world as well.

The words used in the command about the Hijab of free women in the verse under study (59) appear as follows: يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِن جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ in which the word: يُدْنِينَ (yudnina) has been derived from: اِذنَا (idna) which literally means to draw, pull or make come closer. The second word: عَلَيْهِنَّ (` alaihinn) means 'on' or 'over themselves' (hanging as a screen for the face). The third word: جَلَابِيبِ (jalabib) in: جِلبَاب (jalabibihinn) is the plural form of: جِلبَاب (jilbab) which is the name of a particular long sheet. Sayyidna Ibn Masud identified the form of this sheet as the one that is worn over the scarf (Ibn Kathir) and Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ` ؓ described its form in the words given below:

اَمَرَ اللہُ نِسَاَء المُؤمِنِینَ اِذَا خَرَجنِ مَن بُیُتِھِنَّ فِی حَاجَۃِ اَن یُّغَطِّینِ وُجُوھَھُنَّ مِن فَوقِ رُؤسِھِنَّ بالجَلَابِیبِ وَیُبدِینَ عَیناً وَاحِدَۃَ (ابن کثیر)

"Allah Ta’ ala commanded women of the believers that, when they go out of their homes to take care of some need, they hide their faces with the long sheet (hanging down) from over their heads leaving only one eye open (to see the way)." - (Ibn Kathir)

And Imam Muhammad Ibn Sirin says: 'When I asked ` Ubaidah Salmani ؓ about the meaning of this verse and the nature of Hijab, he demonstrated it by hiding his face with the long sheet pulled from the top of his head and left to hang in front of it - and thus, by keeping only his left eye open to see, he explained the words: idna': (bring close) and: jilbab (long sheet or shawl) practically .'

'To have the long sheet come from over the head and hand on, or in front of, the face' which appears in the statement of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas and ` Ubaidah Salmani is the explanation (Tafsir) of the Qur'anic word: عَلَيْهِنَّ (alaihinn: over them), that is, the sense of bringing the sheet close over them is to let the sheet come from over the head and hang on, or in front of, the face.

This verse commands the hiding of the face with ample clarity which comprehensively supports what has been stated under the commentary on the first verse of Hijab appearing earlier. There it was said that, though the face and the palms of the hands are not included under satr as such but, under the apprehension of fitnah, hiding these too is necessary. Only situations of compulsion stand exempted.

A necessary point of clarification

This verse instructs free women to observe Hijab in a particular manner, that is, they should hide their face by bringing the sheet from over the head to hang on, or in front of, the face so that they could be recognized as distinct from bondwomen in general, and thus could stay protected from the fitnah of wicked people. The statement referred to immediately earlier has already made it very clear that it never means that Islam has allowed some difference to exist between free women and bondwomen in the matter of providing protection to the chastity and honor, and has protected free women and left bondwomen (to fend for themselves). Instead, the truth of the matter is that this difference was made by these wicked and low people themselves, as they simply did not dare act high-handedly against free women, but chose to tease bondwomen. The Shari’ ah of Islam took a functional advantage from this difference put into practice by them by ordering the free women to distinguish themselves, so that the majority of women becomes automatically protected through their own standing conduct in this matter. As far as the matter of bondwomen is concerned, the protection of their chastity and honor is as much necessary in Islam as that of free women. But, it could not be carried out except by using the legal authority. So, the next verse spells out that those who violate the law will not be forgiven - in fact, as and where they are found, they will be caught and killed. This is what provided a security shield for the chastity and honor of bondwomen as well.

This submission makes it clear that the interpretation offered in this verse by ` Allamah Ibn Hazm and others - as different from the majority of scholars and in an effort to escape the doubt mentioned above - is something just no necessary. A doubt could have come up only when no arrangement was made for the protection of bondwomen.