# Is the niqab required, and is it right to make women take it off? *The Chechen mufti urging women to remove the niqab: no basis, but no force* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/he3wjiqoxaa/s/1/ - Date: 2021-01-05 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Chechnya's grand mufti having women remove their niqab? | Mufti Abu Layth (0:00–6:31) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE3WjiQoxAA&t=0s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/he3wjiqoxaa/ **Topics:** Hijab and niqab; Women in Islam **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The face veil has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, being the opinion of some later scholars. Forcing a woman to remove it is still wrong; one may only advise. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the face veil has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, but force of any kind to remove it is wrong. **Evidence, his words at 6:04:** “that's my views on it that it has no basis but force of any kind is wrong” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE3WjiQoxAA&t=364s) ## Longer summary Asked to comment on a clip of the mufti of Chechnya urging women to remove their face veils, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the mufti is forcing them. He agrees with the mufti that the face veil is not from the Quran and Sunnah, while admitting it is not purely a Wahhabi innovation, since it has been in fiqh textbooks from early on. He says Hanafi and some Maliki scholars who spoke of face covering made clear it was not from the Quran and Sunnah but a measure against harm where women felt endangered, while the Shafi'is and some Hanbalis held it obligatory by extrapolation. He says such fears of bandits centuries ago do not apply in London, Paris or New York today. He disagrees with forcing women to remove it: one may advise and educate that it is the opinion of some men, not the Quran and Sunnah, but forcibly removing it would violate a person's civil rights, since covering harms no one. ## Sources and names cited - niqab (face veil) - Wahhabi - Hanafi school - Maliki school - Shafi'i school - Hanbali school ## Transcript (machine tier, 0:00–6:31) [0:19] [Music] but i don't think he's forcing them although he is kind of urging them as you can see remove the face veil so this kicked up a bit of controversy online so he's saying that look there is nothing in the kitabo sun to prove this face veil thing and it is a wahabi um [0:56] introduction or wahhabi innovation so now although i admit it's not purely a wahhabi thing it has been in the fairy textbooks since the beginning however he is absolutely correct in saying that it is not from the quran sunnah that part is absolutely true so although the hanafi madhhab uh does also speak of things like face coverings um but they make it very clear this is not from the kitab was sunnah this is from and some maliki's who spoke of it as well made it very clear this was not from the [1:35] kitab or sunnah this was from where they were in certain places certain women felt endangered so it was more uh suddenly to kind of prevent a kind of harm in certain societies it was not uh from the kitab was sunnah so they make it very clear now some madhhabs like the shaffer ear and some of the hanabila did feel it was an obligation to cover the face now there's nothing in the quran sunnah that clearly proves that but they obviously extrapolated and and took certain [2:13] rulings for granted and that's the perspective so i so right now although i am in favor of preaching that making it very clear that look this face veil is nothing to do with the quran yes some scholars have said this throughout the centuries based on their day and age and based on their culture which you know if you lived a thousand years ago um you know in some i don't know some kind [2:52] of dangerous volatile territory uh yeah sure you know if you did that as some kind of tribal practice but if you fast forward to the 21st century you know in all honesty that's not really happening in the streets of london or birmingham or manchester or or paris or wherever it is new york these places you know nobody's going to be so god gobsmacked by the face of a of a woman you know even i mean she may be extremely beautiful but nobody's gonna just kind of jump out of a van pick her [3:30] up and run off with just because they've seen her face and those kind of things although you may have feared the bandits 800 years ago living in a desert somewhere today these things don't really happen like that in this part of the world you don't need to be so frightened and covered up and um like that so and so just to be clear on that secondly what this mufti the chechen mufti is saying so i do i agree although in part is he's just reducing it to the wahhabis the wahhabis today emphasize this point more than any other groups [4:09] so that's why he's probably using them as an example um but it is more than just the wahhabis who have said this but to force women to remove it should that be done right okay i don't agree with force okay that would be wrong equally because i think you shouldn't force people to do anything to do with clothing so if somebody did want to walk around dressed like that you know that's what you can do is advise them [4:47] if you're in that role if they ask or you're educating them that this is not actually from the quran that this was not what the prophet taught uh however if you want to although some men in the past did say this but that's all it is the opinion of some men now if you want it's not what god has said it's not what the prophet said but some scholars did say it so if you want to follow them and do this that's ultimately all you're doing is just following the opinion of a man probably lived about 1200 years ago but you're not following the quran sunnah by doing it [5:25] however if you do do it you shouldn't be nobody should force somebody to like they should never rip it off or something like that that would be equally a violation um and an encroachment on that person's personal civil rights to be able to exercise whatever the hell they want you know as long as it's not harming someone else and them covering themselves is not harming someone else so yeah so that's what i say all i i'm not sure if in this clip the chechnyan scholar is actually forcing them and the people that wrote the [6:04] you know the kind of the titles have listed it as he's forcing them i'm under the impression he's just kind of urging them but if it is forced that part is wrong cool i hope that makes some sense i've been asked to comment on that um so that's my views on it that it has no basis but force of any kind is wrong [6:30] all right people so what else is going down all right hmm some scholars were mad they said ridiculous stuff yeah you know i've been asked duke you're doing it you're doing it uh if they are also brainwashed that they need a nepap then why do they leave their houses yeah but you know what it is look i'm gonna be honest you know sometimes you can't like i don't blame the the women because really although even the women that wear nihab won't admit to this but really it's the men who've convinced ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment hE3WjiQoxAA/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/he3wjiqoxaa/s/1/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.