# Is the face part of a woman's 'awrah in the Maliki school?

*Is a woman's face 'awrah in the Maliki school?*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hcscudhd8bu/s/1/
- Date: 2014-05-09 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Mufti Abu Layth & Ustadh AbdusShakur Brooks: A discussion on Maliki Fiqh (0:00–6:22)
- Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcscudhD8bU&t=0s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hcscudhd8bu/

**Topics:** Hijab and niqab; The Maliki school

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** One speaker argues that neither the Maliki nor the Hanafi school counts the face as 'awrah, so covering it is at most a precaution against fitnah.

## Longer summary

In a recorded conversation, Mufti Abu Layth and his guest, Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks, discuss face covering; the captions are poor and it is often unclear which of the two is speaking. One speaker asks whether the other distinguishes between two terms used in the Maliki commentaries (the words are lost in the captions); the reply is that the face veil is usually discussed under 'awrah and in the chapter on prayer, with some saying a woman should cover if there is fitnah. One speaker says that by default neither the Maliki nor the Hanafi madhhab counts the face as 'awrah, that covering it is not proven by the Quran and Sunnah, and that the condition 'if there is fitnah' shows it is a safeguarding measure. That speaker cites the hadith in Sahih Muslim of the Prophet turning a young man's face away from a woman he kept looking at, arguing that had covering been obligatory the Prophet would have said so, before the connection drops.

## Sources and names cited

- Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)
- niqab (face veil)
- 'awrah
- fitnah
- report: al-fadl ibn abbas kept looking at a woman and the prophet turned his face away (cited as in Sahih Muslim)
- Sahih Muslim

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:00–6:22)

[0:00] the question I was gonna ask you you know in you know in uh in Dr dear's quote Yeah uh in or even yeah yeah the difference between and right have you paid attention to any of the differences between the usage of the term okay I mean what what are you what would you be kind of alluding to what type of differences are we speaking about no like do do you distinguish between the two of them from in the Maliki books for example if you go into if you go into basically any commentary

[0:39] whether it's whether it's whether it's even um what's the other one the one of okay if you you you you see comes a few pages later M go back when you go back you see the what book are you referring to yeah so when you go when you go four four five pages back in in yeah any commentary any commentary because the m is going to be disgusted disussed and then when you turn a couple Pages then you're going to

[1:18] get okay so what what distinction are you kind of highlighting ask no I'm asking I'm asking you like the distinction have you ever came up do you do you recognize any distinction between the two I mean the the thing is that usually where you will get uh they will discuss the Mas of in as like what they call you know where you will be kind of uh uh where the woman would be kind of covering over her nose and kind of leaving the eyes and the the kind of nikab as we have it now they will usually discuss that in either like the

[1:56] old section or especially in the Salah as the the and the and other people have kind of highlighted now then where people have said um things like if there is FNA which some have kind of highlighted that and they've said or you know if there was and stuff like this if that's the distinction that you mean is that the distinction that you mean or no I'm referring to the distinction of the fact you see when you look at the for example

[2:38] mentions right okay he mentions that and then he mentions that it's a right but the goes I mean they they both mention it as yeah now now why are they mentioning that as is important like what okay the of that before even the Maliki started to bring this have you came across anywhere else where this ill is coming and why it's explained why are I mean I tell you who mentions it very well is also in his he goes over the I mean the whole book is just based on a and the whole

[3:18] thing about looking and And he as well I mean he'll go over all of these type of things and highlight these opinions and explain the same type of thing it's that you see by default you see that Maliki ma by default doesn't recognize the face as part of the a now neither does the Han by default U now there's some differences amongst the how they see things in the Han but these two Ms see that by default the woman's face is not part of the now what that means is that by Quran and

[3:56] Sunnah it is not proven that she has to cover the face and in fact it's actually perhaps even proven the contrary uh now where people then speak about s like if there was F now in that case a woman should cover the face now many have said that many have uh they've said that look if there's FNA and stuff like this and and obviously these are now safeguarding measures the the fact that they even highlight to if there is FNA demonstrate that they are recognizing that by the this is not part of it yeah

[4:35] everybody yeah I would say that's that see that's exactly what it is now so they say which means right so technically speaking we we we wouldn't say if there is FNA we would say if there's then even if there's then that FNA would occur but they don't say that if there's yeah is referring to not because you're only fearing it you're not you're not saying it is we don't say you see if that's the case then you see that would contradict the Hadith in sah Muslim about when the

[5:13] prophet Sall alaihi wasallam is uh with and he's staring at the woman and he keeps eyeing her up and down up and down he mentions in the and and he keeps going up and down looking at it and the prophet just moves his face and when they go he says and he questions the prophet why did you do that and he says well I just feared that maybe the Shan you know I saw shab and a shaba and maybe that the Shan would kind of play tricks with their minds now if this was an obligation then the prophet would have clarified the point that this is actually Haram that since there's

[5:51] even of or that you know like this element of this like building on this van I'm not I suppose unless you mean uh hello can you hear me hello hello

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment hcscudhD8bU/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hcscudhd8bu/s/1/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.