Sunan Abī Dāwūd Ḥadīth [4101] – When the Verse About Ḥijāb was Revealed…

The command of ḥijāb

Allāh says: “O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their jalābīb over their bodies.”

Here Allāh tells His Messenger to command the believing women – especially his wives and daughters, because of their position of honor – to draw their jalābīb over their bodies, so that they will be distinct in their appearance from the women of the jāhiliyyah and from slave women.

The jilbāb is a ridā’, worn over the khimār.

This was the view of ibn Mas’ūd, ‘Ubaydah, Qatādah, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Sa’īd bin Jubayr, Ibrāhīm an-Nakh’ī, ‘Aṭā’ al-Khurāsānī and others.

It is like the izār used today.

Al-Jawharī said: ‘The jilbāb is the outer wrapper.’

Alī bin Abī Talḥah reported that ibn Abbās said that: ‘Allāh commanded the believing women, when they went out of their houses for some need, to cover their faces from above their heads with the jilbāb, leaving only one eye showing.’

Muḥammad bin Sīrīn said: I asked ‘Ubaydah as-Salmānī about the Āyah: “To draw their jalābīb over their bodies” – He covered his face and head, with just his left eye showing.

“That will be better that they should be known so as not to be annoyed” – means, if they do that, it will be known that they are free, and that they are not servants or whores.

“And Allāh is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” – means, with regard to what happened previously during the days of jāhiliyyah, when they did not have any knowledge about this.

• Reference: [33: 59-62 (8/44-46), Tafsīr ibn Kathīr, Dārussalām (Eng)]

“O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters, and the believing women…”: This verse is the one that is known as the verse of ḥijāb, in which Allāh instructs His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) to instruct women in general to observe ḥijāb, starting with his wives and daughters, because the instruction is more emphatic in their case than that of other women, and because the one who instructs other to do something should start with his family before anyone else, as in the verse in which Allāh says: “O you who believe, guard yourselves and your families against a fire whose fuel is men and stones…” (66: 6)

“To put on their jalābīb [when they go out]”: The jilbāb (singular of jalābīb) is an outer garment that is worn over the head cover, upper garment and so on; women should cover their faces and chests.

Then Allāh mentions the wisdom behind that: “this will make it more likely that they will be recognized [as chaste women] and will not be harassed” – this indicates that they could be harassed if they did not observe ḥijāb, because if they did not observe ḥijāb, it may be thought that they were not chaste, so men in whose hearts is a disease could harass them. Moreover, people might look down on them and assume that they were slave women, and anyone with evil intent might think little of them. Ḥijāb deters those who have evil intentions towards them.

“And Allāh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”: As He has forgiven you for what you did in the past, and He has bestowed mercy upon you by explaining the rulings to you, clarifying what is lawful and what is prohibited. So these rulings block the means of evil on the part of women.

• Reference: [33: 59-62 (8/58-59), Tafsīr as-Sa’dī, International Islamic Publishing House (Eng)]

• Al-Musnad al-Jāmi’ (17609 (20/660))
• Tuḥfatul Ashrāf (18281 (12/158))
• Tafsīr ‘Abdur-Razzaq aṣ-Ṣan’ānī (2377 (3/51))
• Tafsīr al-Durr al-Manthūr [Suyūṭī] (6/659)
• Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Aẓīm [Ibn Abī Ḥātim ar-Rāzī] (17785 (9/3154))
• Tafsīr ibn Kathīr ([Aḥzāb 33: 59] 6/425)
• ‘Umdatul Tafsīr [Aḥmad Shākir] (3/74)
• Talkhīṣ al-Jāmi’ al-Kāmil (15547 (6/209))

Grade:

• Ṣaḥīḥ by Shaykh al-Albānī (Sunan Abī Dāwūd (4101 (1/733))
• Ṣaḥīḥ by Majlis ‘Ilmi Dar ad-Da’wah, New Delhi (Sunan Abī Dawūd (4101 (1/179))
• Ḥasan by Shaykh Dr. Ḍiyā’-ur-Raḥmān al-‘Aẓamī (Talkhīṣ al-Jāmi’ al-Kāmil)
• Ḥasan sanad by Shaykh ‘Abdul-‘Azīz bin Bāz (Majmu al-Fatāwā – ibn Bāz (4/243))
• Isnād ḥasan by Ḥāfiẓ Zubayr ‘Alī Za’ī (Sunan Abī Dāwūd (4101 (1/812) & Tafsīr ibn Kathīr)
• Isnād Qawī by Shaykh Shu’ayb al-Arna’ūṭ (Sunan Abī Dāwūd (4101 (6/197))