Yasir Qadhi – Ask Shaykh YQ #101 – Can a Woman Take Her Ḥijāb Off In Front of a Potential Spouse

			The next question that we have is that actually in a recent lecture I gave, I mentioned in passing,
that a lady may show her hair to a man who is interested in proposing to her and I just passed. I
just mentioned this in passing, and then moved on. And I received no exaggeration, at least a dozen
comments and emails and tweets and whatnot. Like people were very confused. And they wanted to
verify did I actually say this or not? So I am asking this question on their behalf multiple people.
And so the question is, what may a lady show to a man who is interested in proposing to who comes to
propose to her? And obviously this is before the nicca and in the presence of Muslims is that may
		

			she uncover her hair and show her without her hijab? Or must you wear the hijab? That is the
question.
		

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			The majority position when it comes to this issue, is that the one who proposes the man who comes to
propose for a lady's hand or the man who comes interested in a lady's hand, does not occupy any
different status than any other non relative, any other non Muharram. And hence, three of the four
schools. The The shaffir is the Maliki's and the henna fees. They say that under no circumstance, I
think there's one position in the Malik is the silver or the shaft varies. But generally speaking,
the the default of these three methods is that that lady, a lady who is interested in a man and a
man interested a lady that before the *, nothing changes, and therefore, she is not allowed to
		

			take off her hijab, in the we're talking about obviously, there is no privacy, we're talking about
this clearly. They're not alone. They are sitting, let's say in her parents house, and he comes to
propose or he comes to talk to her in a public place. And of course, a Bible by unanimous consensus,
really, we should say, or the all of the schools say that the the, the husband to be and the wife to
be, they should, you know, visit or see one another in the presence of their moms. This is something
that is encouraged by all the scholars that obviously this is something that is now the other
opinion or the other cultural habit of not knowing your wife at all, you don't even know what she
		

			looks like until the marriage night. That is something that is gone. Nobody does that anymore. But
there were cultural limitations back in the day, that actually it was not uncommon for a person to
get married without even knowing how the spouse looks. The student came and encouraged that the
spouse should see one another and make sure that there is compatibility because this is a lifelong
commitment. So there is no major controversy over this the issue comes that may she take her hijab
off or not. So as I said, the default position of the shaft series, and the Maliki's and the HANA
fees is that no, she should not and she may not she is not allowed to do that. In the Humber the
		

			school, the mature position, or the well known position that Mr. McMahon explicitly also said is
that actually she may take off her job if she chooses to do so. And they have a position that
advocates that she may appear in front of her maharam there must be a Madam President, her father,
her brother, her other relatives are there she may appear in front of the man interested in her the
way that she appears in front of her own Muharram so how she dresses in front of her father in front
of her brother. In other words, she's dressing basically normal clothes but maybe her hair is
uncovered. You know, maybe you know it's not the full jilbab is not on her she is wearing let's say
		

			a loose blouse, a loose skirt, or a loose shirt and loose pants how she would appear in front of her
own bottoms. Mr. Mohammed basically said it is allowed for her allowed, not required, not necessary,
she cannot be forced is her choice, her prerogative if she wants to do so that she may appear in
front of the fiance to be in such a manner and they base this on a number of evidences primarily to
the first of them is the Hadith and Budo then was telling my my friend and others narrated by Jabba
Abdullah radi Allahu taala and that he said that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said if one
of you proposes for a lady then if he wishes to or sorry, if one of you proposes to a lady, if he is
		

			able to he should look at her in a manner that will allow her to then want to give the proposal
okay. So in this thought ah and young Buddha dilemma drew who
		

			Annika he has a new file, if he can see that, which will make him want to propose for her, then let
him do that. So jabiru said, are they allowed to add on that I propose to a lady from the unsought.
And I would look at her, basically, now this sounds very, very scary and very freaky to us,
translated, but it translates that I would hide and look at her without the knowledge of her
basically, until finally I saw her and I wanted to propose that I proposed and ended up marrying
her. Now, what this means is that he would not I would have been a spy inside her house, what it
means is that he would wait outside the house, and when she would come out, and she would not know
		

			that there's a man, you know, that's basically interested in her. So he would look at her. And
obviously, in our times, this is raising alarm bells and spying and whatnot. So the point is that
the HANA biller, the humble scholars have taken this incident. And they have said that it is allowed
to look at her the way that she would be. So for example, if she were to just come out of her house,
and let's say I don't feed the chickens, whatever it might be, or hang the laundry, for example,
right. So she's not, you know, dressed in the full jilbab, or whatnot. And job below the law. One
was basically looking at her the way that she might appear in front of her parents or whatnot. And
		

			there's also an incident of unbelievable hubbub of the law, one in which he proposed to the daughter
of Id have you thought about the law one. And he basically also, you know, looked at more than just
basically the job and whatnot. And so the interpret this, so he looked at that which might not
normally be apparent when she goes outside, and that which might be apparent only in front of the
Muslims, right. So this is an incident that is then taken that the fact that our mobile hip hop did
this and our you know, the law approved, or he knew that this is happening. And so they know that
this is something that is allowed for them to do. So based on these and other evidences, the the
		

			Matura, the well known position of the Humphrey School, is that when the man comes to propose, or
he's interested in proposing that the lady may choose to opt, it's again, not mandatory, she doesn't
have to do this, she may appear in front of him, the way that she appears in front of her father and
her brother, however, she dresses normally. So that is a decent covering, most of her body is
covered, it's loose, you know, clothing, obviously, because in our society, it is not allowed for a
lady to appear in front different items, and suggestive clothing, and extremely tight or skimpy
garments, this is not allowed. So she has to dress with some dignity in front of her father and
		

			brothers. And so that same level, she has to display if she wants to, in front of somebody, in order
to basically, you know, if he wants to marry, and she wants him to marry her, so she can then dress
up and do this. Now. In fact, some of my own teachers, actually, they they said, and I remember this
clearly went back and forth in this issue, some of our students, you know, they wanted to confirm,
they heard this from our chef, that he literally said that she is allowed to even beautify herself,
the way that it would be acceptable and normal. In other words, not in a extremely vulgar manner.
But you know, just the basic makeup and whatnot, if she wished to do so she may do so in other
		

			words, if she wishes to, you know, show herself to be who she is,
		

			regularly speaking with a little bit of makeup and whatnot, and you know, her hair and whatnot, this
is allowed for her if, if she wants to do so now, again, this is the minority opinion, it is the
humbly or one of the positions of the comedy school, the other three generally do not allow this,
nonetheless, the texts of the Hadith, and also the incidents are a number of incidents in the lives
of the Sahaba that indicate that this was understood and known to them. And so that's why I said it
in passing, without going into all these details, but now that people ask so then this is the
position that I hold it is the de facto given and most humbly schools to this day is by scholars of
		

			this day as well. And there are evidences in the Quran and the Sunnah in this regard. Nonetheless,
if somebody chooses to follow the majority position, that is their prerogative and Yanni Allah azza
wa jal knows best