Hijab — Page 32
32 obeying it. The girl, who had heard the conversation from inside, came out saying that if it is the instruction of the Holy Prophet sa , then by all means the boy may see her face. Hazrat Musleh Mau‘ūd ra says that if there was no instruction of covering the face, then why did the Holy Prophet sa say as he did. Everyone would have known how this girl looked. Once the Holy Prophet sa was observing I‘tikaf and was going to drop Hazrat Safiyyah ra back home at night. Two men happened to come from the opposite direction. On seeing them, the Holy Prophet sa asked Hazrat Safiyyah ra to lift her veil and said to the men, “Have a look at her. It is none other than my wife Safiyyah ra. This is to save you from Satan’s onslaught and from starting to make false accusations. ” This also proves that covering the face is part of Purda. Then Hazrat Musleh Mau‘ūd ra says, ‘Those people who say that there is no instruction of covering the face in Islam, we ask them that the Holy Qurān says to hide beauty, and the most beautiful thing is the face, and if there is no command to cover it, then what is the beauty that we are commanded to cover. We agree to the extent that the face should be covered in such a way that it does not have a detrimental effect on health. The veil, for instance, should be of a thin material or it can be made like the Niqab used by the Arab women, in which the eyes and nostrils are exposed, but the face cannot be left uncovered. ’ (Tafsir Kabir Vol 6, p 301) Older women, who grow weak with age and have no desire or need of marriage, are permitted to relax the rules of Purda, but they need not go about decked up and wearing makeup unnecessarily. Purda is to be observed until a specific age and after that, the injunctions are relaxed. In our country, Purda has been misused to the extent that young women are discarding it and older women are being kept at home forcibly. A woman’s face is