Journal of Islamic Studies > Volume 27, No. 2, 2015

Refuting the Khath'amiyya's Hadith as Justification of the Permissibility of Uncovering Woman's Face / Nemat Mohammad AlJafary

The controversy over the covering of a woman's face is not new. Related arguments for and against covering have their own supporting evidences. The advocates of uncovering rely on the absence of a definite statement for covering, and they take as evidence a Hadith mentioning a Kath'amy woman with her face uncovered in the presence of Prophet Mohammad during hajj; the Prophet made no remarks, but he only disapproved of Al-Fadhl Ibn-Abbaass's action of looking at her. Having investigated the Hadith in question in terms of word meanings and explanations, the research reveals that the woman was actually covered, but the looks of Al-Fadhl were directed to her figure, and so there was no need to tell her anything. Words expressing the beauty of her face are not mentioned in all narratives; the majority of narratives do not include those words. Even the Zuhry narrative, which is mentioned by the pro-uncovering advocates, does not include those words and does not mention that the woman's face was not covered. The Arabic word "wadhee'ah" describing the woman refers to whiteness, beauty and niceness of figure. To decide whether she possessed those qualities could be done without having to see the face; seeing the feet was sufficient, and hence to claim emphatically that her face was uncovered is unacceptable.