Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth 173 · 14 Jul 2020 › Segment 6 of 42
What parts of the body count as 'awrah for men and women?
salat salaah namaz salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat shari'ah shariat sharee'ah maaliki malikite malikiyyah maliki school muftis madina al-madinah madeenah yathrib ulama ulema ulamaa sheikh shaikh sheik shuyukh shaykhs awra satr salam as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam peace greetingThe 'awrah of men and women: the core and the extended 'awrah in the school of Madinah
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This segment33:22 to 38:24 · 5 min 02 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenMufti Abu Layth follows the school of Madinah: the core 'awrah is the private parts (for women, from below the navel to the thighs), and uncovering the rest in prayer does not invalidate it.
In more detail
After briefly saying he may know a UK shaykh a viewer asked about, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on the 'awrah of men and women. He explains that the school of Madinah distinguished a core 'awrah from an extended 'awrah: both are covered, but uncovering the extended 'awrah can be excused and does not invalidate the prayer, while uncovering the core does. For a woman the core is her private parts, from beneath the navel to the thighs; he notes with curiosity that some included the abdomen but not the breasts, and mentions, with doubts about its truth, a story linking the exposed midriff of the sari to a ruler's fetish. He says the school of Madinah's understanding is the one he would go with, and that for men the core 'awrah is the genitals and the rear, with disagreement over the thighs.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedWhat is the 'awrah for men and women?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says he goes with the school of Madinah's understanding that a woman's core 'awrah is her private parts and the area from beneath the navel to the thighs, the rest being extended 'awrah whose uncovering in prayer does not invalidate it.
“that would be my understanding that I would go with the the understanding that the school of Medina presents that the core aura is really the woman's kind of private parts”
Category: ruling
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine33:22 to 38:24 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
spirit of the Sharia and the objectives the Mikasa like he's speaking about the Mikasa do without using the word Mikasa I don't understand why he was doing that maybe that's just how he learnt it but yeah what seem her saying la loves thuds Waseem how are you doing man how are you doing ghost ghost salaam aleikum waleikum assalam right so do you know of sharehouse ronald Huck Owaisi or dr.
Arthur Hussain as hurry share a sorrow Huck I think I know a chef a serrano hot from the UK if it's the same or not our beloved this is him as well our below it but then there's another share a Syrah Oaxaca from Bradford some way that I I think I have him on what's up but I don't know if it's the same one I don't know if that's what they call him Owaisi or not arrived what is the aura for men and women doing it doing it her aura for men
and women you see the school of Medina disagreed with other schools about this now according to the school of Medina what they said was for women you see an men they had what is called a core aura which is the core part and then they had something called an extended aura so the extension like by extension and the extended era was less I mean they were both important to cover but it was kind of more negotiable understood or it was
not negotiable isn't word but it's more I don't know if the term is hardened or like if something if it was uncovered it wouldn't you know it could be excused under of the circumstances and especially in matters of salah it would provide a it would it would be the salah wouldn't be invalidated and things like this whereas the core aura would invalidate the salah now it's interesting because the Maliki a the school of Medina they say for for women
the core aura is really her kind of private parts and it's just like from the navel to like the thighs as well and that so that and what's in between there is her kora the other parts of her body for the most part are not odd the extended era and some of them included the abdomen in the I didn't really get that why the abdomen because they included the abdomen but excluded the breasts and I was intrigued why that went you know like I was I was like yeah
he Raquelle hoorah but then it made me think I don't know if it's true but people said that oh you know like in India when they the common kind of clothes where they would expose that the abdomen women will under the sari for example now I heard I don't know if that's true that that trend was initiated like centuries ago when some ruler or some people in power had this fetish for the abdomen and it kind of originated there I don't know if that's true but I heard that from some people
that that's how this sorry Dre dress the way it's designed but it may just be made up but that but it got me thinking why some of the scholars thought the abdomen was more of a core aura to cover than the actual breasts so that's quite hmm it's like what's going on in their minds let's yeah but so and that would be my understanding that I would go with
the the understanding that the school of Medina presents that the core aura is really the woman's kind of private parts and just you know a certain area that surrounds that so they usually say like from beneath the navel to the kind of thighs that area and everything else is the extended aura so that means that the woman still covers it of course but if it was uncovered in salal something like this and she covered it back it wouldn't then invalidate the prayer and for the men they say it's just the private part
so it's just his his kind of genitals and and behind as well so they say the actual so the actual what they write in the books is the the kind of Maha Jane in the soul attack is tain they will say which is the rectum and the scrotum area and the genitals that see that's what men the cool aura that must be covered and everything and the other things but by extension like so young around that area to some extent because then they disagree some say the thighs some say
Paragraphs overlapping 33:22 to 38:24. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-07-14-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/6/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, July 14). What parts of the body count as 'awrah for men and women? [Video, segment 2020-07-14-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/6/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "What parts of the body count as 'awrah for men and women?" Video, segment 2020-07-14-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded July 14, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/6/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-07-14-S06, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What parts of the body count as 'awrah for men and women?}}, year = {2020}, month = {7}, date = {2020-07-14}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/6/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/6/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-07-14-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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