# Does the Quran actually tell women to cover their hair, or only their chest?

*The verse of Surah al-Nur: covering the jayb, the khimar and the head*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/trr4o2jzizc/s/1/
- Date: 2019-11-03 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Verse in Surah Al-Nur about the Hijab | Mufti Abu Layth (0:04–9:10)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRR4o2JZIZc&t=4s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/trr4o2jzizc/

**Topics:** Hijab and niqab; Contested verses

**Question as asked:** The verse in Surah al-Nur on the subject of hijab speaks more about covering the jayb than covering the head, does it not?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** There is nothing explicit in the Quran or Sunnah about covering the head; the verse of al-Nur tells women to cover the jayb (the chest opening) with the khimar they already wore, and whether the khimar itself is obligatory or circumstantial is an open question. Covering the hair became the settled teaching within a generation of the companions.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing explicit in the Quran or the established Sunnah about covering the head: hijab is a modern term, the verse of al-Nur commands covering the jayb with the khimar women already wore, and whether the khimar itself is an obligation or a circumstance of the time is an open question.

**Evidence, his words at 1:22:** “is there anything in the Quran and Sunnah that clearly speaks about the head covering the truth is there isn't there's nothing explicit in the or are nor in the Sun neither speaks about the head covering” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRR4o2JZIZc&t=82s)

## Longer summary

A viewer notes that the verse of Surah al-Nur on hijab speaks more about covering the jayb than covering the head. Mufti Abu Layth says he has covered this before and will again, but explains that hijab is a modern term: in the Quran it means a barrier, the head covering is called the khimar in Arabic, and calling the head covering hijab dates from about the twentieth century. He says there is nothing explicit in the Quran or the Sunnah about covering the head; the verse in al-Nur tells women to draw their khimars over their jayb, the slit of the dress that exposed the chest, and he demonstrates with a towel how the khimar that Arab women already wore was to be brought round from the back to cover the bosom. He asks whether the khimar is itself an obligation or circumstantial, and gives the analogy of telling people to cover their expensive watches with their sleeves: centuries later, would that mean sleeves were required, or could one equally put the watch in a pocket? He adds that early Islam had a culture of women, and men, covering the head in the desert, that it was common though not necessarily universal, that there was debate among the tabi'in, with Imam Malik saying a woman need not cover her head in front of certain people such as a father-in-law, son-in-law and certain servants, and that within a generation it became the teaching that all women must cover their hair, which has been the culture for about a thousand years.

## Sources and names cited

- Quran 24:31 (let them draw their khimars over their jayb): https://quran.com/24/31
- hijab
- khimar (head covering)
- jayb (the chest opening of a garment)
- Imam Malik
- reading a command in the circumstances it addressed

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:04–9:10)

[0:04] sauron verse in surah 2 more on the subject of hijab speak more about covering the jape then covering the head see I have covered this previously ah pun intended huh covered hijab you see that not going into too much detail but I have done this in the past I've covered it in much detail and I will again to some extent in the future but hijab if you're going to just look at the Quran and this one now you will not

[0:43] find anything on resi because this first of all the term head hey job in and of itself is a modern term okay hey job meant a barrier so in the Quran when the term hijab is used it doesn't mean the head covering which we today are calling hijab people for most of Islamic history never would have known that that you meant hey jab by that so if you could time travel a few hundred years in the past and you said to some scholar about the hijab I mean unless they could just gather by the context what you're saying

[1:22] that word does not mean the head covering the head covering is called the hem are in Arabic this is a recent modern term so the twentieth century probably so it's very recent call referring to the head covering as the HR that said is there anything in the Quran and Sunnah that clearly speaks about the head covering the truth is there isn't there's nothing explicit in the or are nor in the Sun neither speaks about the

[1:57] head covering so you have got right so there is nothing explicit in the Quran asana you've got the verse in or in surah noor which speaks about covering the j the bosoms the kind of chest area for women because the jab meant a kind of the slit so it was because that's we which is then also used for pocket because a was in

[2:35] essence a kind of slit you slit and then you create a pocket so similarly so the dress was kind of created with a large cutout here so you could kind of and then that would you could see a considerable amount of cleavage so the Orang speaks about covering the bosom the covering the chest area and it mentions the term use your the homer muhammara hina so the women a lot of the arab women did used to where he marked

[3:12] so the way they would presumably is a towel from to use this towel i've got a towel here today so presumably women would cover it like this so they would do that kind of like wrap it like that so this was about bringing this over and covering the the kind of chest area with it so just ruin

[3:48] my head right so this so the point was about bringing this round what was just kind of just hanging at the back there now the question is that was because allah says you know fully that for Yathrib nabi home arena now let them kind of use their Hummer and cover the bosoms does this mean that having a Hummer or having the Hummer or the Samar is singular Hummer is plural not to be confused with comma which

[4:26] means alcohol otherwise that would be a totally different if you say huh should cover their bosoms in alcohol daddy who cannot what is going on like okay that's a complete misreading of the verse this is why Arabic more important so this so you have Homer Homer Homer not hammer right so the Homer is the Homer in and

[5:05] of itself an obligation or is this just circumstantial saris circumstantial just circumstances as in I gave the example before imagine I was to say that let's just say as an analogy totally different not to do with a job let's just say as an example if we were going through a place and I said right people hide your jewelry you know this is me it's a it's a tricky let's just say there's a lot of thieves around and if I was to say right

[5:43] guys anybody wearing expensive watches cover them with your sleeves right cover them with your sleeves would this mean so let's say now somebody gets hold of my statement 200 years from today or 500 years from today would they understand that I was saying it was it was necessary to have sleeves to we're always clothing with sleeves so you could cover the watches or could one equally take the watch off and put it in

[6:20] their pocket right so what is so this in this analogy the kind of tools are clay here in how you're analyzing attacks are the same thing here that when a lie saying cover the bosom bosoms the homeowner what if is a law saying hey make sure you have home oh oh is he just saying cover this up what if you could cover in the future with different mechanisms not make sounds a bit high-tech t but different methods

[6:58] like what if now you could use buttons and other things and I don't all get creative so that is an interesting discussion so really in the Quran was Sunnah they definitely isn't anything clear and established about covering the hey that's it and in the early generations of Islam I think it's not that there's definitely a culture in the early like amongst the Companions and early Islam where women generally walk home or and they would what is it they would even because the men would cover the hair as well because they lived in a

[7:36] desert they would cover their face sometimes because of traveling in the sand and doing things like that so the question is that yes in early Islam there was this kind of cultural thing it was there it was definitely common I'm not sure everybody did it and you can see some debate into the time of the turban in an early the the battle turbine so people saying things like like Imam Malik that the woman doesn't have to always cover her head in front of certain people she could uncover it

[8:16] it wasn't I'm like father-in-law son-in-law and also things like even certain servants that she could uncover in front of and which is interesting so you have this kind of it's not settled in stone yet but then within a generation it becomes the the law if you like so it becomes the teaching that all women must cover their hair and for about a thousand years it's been you know the culture so that's what I would say

[8:54] so I hope that gives some explanation so I have been asked on a few occasions what do you say in this day and age they have have been certain scholars that have said look it's not it's not an obligation to cover the hair for women you've got people like a llama Java how many of you said that you've got a few other contemporary scholars who have said things like that and I feel that they have a valid position they do have a valid position I would say look each - they're wrong you know if these women

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment TRR4o2JZIZc/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/trr4o2jzizc/s/1/

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