Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuAll Praise be to Allah who is the Lord of the Worlds, and may Endless Blessings be showered upon His Most Beloved, and Final Messenger of Islam, Hadrat Muhammad Mustafa Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa SallamJazak'allah for your question. And apologies for the delay in answering. There were a few domestic committments which I had to make, and also the approach of the Month of Ramadhan, which led to this delay.
Regarding the rules pertaining to the veiling of women from men. Allah the Almighty says:
'And stay in your houses and be not unveiled, like that of the unveiling of the days of ignorance, and establish the prayer and pay zakat, and obey the commands of Allah'
(al Qur'an 33;33)
From this we learn that covering up, or
'hijab' is obligatory upon women, and it is forbidden for them to leave their homes without any valid reason.
Allah the Almighty further states:
'Oh Prophet! Tell your wives and daughters and the Muslim women that they should keep a part of their headgear covered, over their faces'.(al Qur'an 33;59)
From this verse we understand that the '
purdah' was obligatory upon the wives and the daughters of the Beloved Messenger of Allah
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam, even though they were the paragon of piety and beauty. How is it then possible to use such personalities, in an argument for having a 'room mate of the opposite sex', which is forbidden from the above verses?
It is further stated in the Qur'an al kareem :
'Oh wives of the Prophet! You are not like other women'
(al Qur'an 33;32)
and:
'Oh wives of the Prophet, whoso of you dares to do open indecency (against modesty) shall have double punishment...)(al Qur'an 33;30)
There are many verses like these that prove that women should not in any way have direct relations with a person whom is either a friend, a room mate, or any new person save those people who are directly related to her like her brother, father, uncles, grandfathers, nephews etc. The scholars have produced lists of such people and that is what the mass of Muslims follow.
There is a
hadith in the Book of
Tirmidhi which states:
'It is narrated by Hadrat Umm Salmah
Radi Allahu anha, that she was sat with Hadrat Memunah
Radi Allahu anha, at which stage a Companion of the Beloved Messenger of Allah
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam named Ibne Umm-e-Maktum
Radi Allahu anhu came and approached the Beloved Messenger of Allah
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam. At this stage the Messenger of Allah
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam asked them to cover up. Hadrat Umme Salmah
Radi Allahu anha asked:
'Is he not blind? He can not recognise us, nor can he see us.'
The Beloved Messenger of Allah
Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam replied:
'are any two of you blinded also? Do you not see him?'
This hadith proves that not only men have to remain modest amongst women whom they are not connected to, but rather the women also have a duty to remain in '
pardah'.
From the times of the Ennobled Companions, until today, the meaning of the above verses have remained unanimous, thus the ahadith prove this also. Women would normally cover their faces, and the trend of women having to show their faces had ended ....
May Allah the Almighty help us to understand the verses of the Qur'an al kareem in relation to purdah, and may He help us to know what limits are allowed for women and what arnt'. May He also forgive us for using the wrong kind of proof for something which is disallowed in the first place, that may make our lives in this world, and the hereafter, a misery. (Amin)Wallahu A'lamu BiththawaabM. Waseem Ashrafi
