His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "Say to the believers to lower their gaze and to guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is All-Aware of what they do." "And say to the believing women to lower their gaze and to guard their private parts and not to reveal their adornment except that which appears thereof. And let them draw their veils over their chests."

His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "Say to the believers" is like His saying: 'Indeed, they.' So His saying: "to lower their gaze" is the response to the command. Al-Mazini said: The meaning is: 'Say to them: lower your gaze.' And it is possible that this is an objection, that the response is news from Allah, exalted and glorified is He, and there may be one who does not lower his gaze. It can be understood that the intended meaning is that they should be in the ruling of one who lowers his gaze. And His saying: "from their gaze" indicates that 'from' is for part of it. This is because the first glance is not controlled by a person, but he lowers his gaze after that. Thus, there is a part of it. This interpretation is supported by what has been narrated from him, blessings and peace be upon him, to Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him: "Do not follow one glance with another, for the first is for you, and the second is not for you." This is a hadith. And Jarir ibn Abdullah said: I asked the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, about the sudden glance, and he said: "Turn your gaze away." It is correct that 'from' can be for indicating the type, and it can also be for beginning the limit. The gaze is the greatest door to the heart and the most populated of the senses leading to it. According to this, many falls occur from that direction, and it is necessary to warn against it.

And "guarding the private parts" may mean: against adultery, and it may mean: covering the private parts. The more apparent meaning is that all is intended, and the wording is general. By this verse, scholars have prohibited entering the bathhouse without a waistcloth. Abu Al-Aliya said: Every private part mentioned in the Quran is from adultery except for these two verses, for it means covering.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: There is no basis for this specification in my view. And the rest of the verse is clear, and its apparent meaning is a threat.

And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "And say to the believing women" in this verse, Allah, exalted and glorified is He, commanded the women in this verse to lower their gaze from everything that is disliked from the perspective of the Shari'ah to look at. In the hadith of Umm Salama, she said: "I and Aisha, may Allah be pleased with them, were with the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, when the son of Umm Maktum entered. The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'Cover yourselves.' We said: 'He is blind.' The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'Are you both blind?" 'From' can carry what was mentioned in the first, and "guarding the private parts" encompasses immoral acts and covering the private parts and what is less than that in which there is guarding.

And Allah, the Most High, commanded that they should not reveal their adornments to the onlookers, except for what He has exempted from the onlookers in the rest of the verse. Then He exempted what appears of adornment. The people differed regarding the extent of that. Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The apparent adornment is clothing. And Sa'id ibn Jubair said: The face and clothing. And Sa'id ibn Jubair also, and 'Ata and al-Awza'i said: The face, the two hands, and clothing. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, and Qatadah, and al-Miswar ibn Makhramah said: The apparent adornment is kohl, miswak, and henna up to half the forearm, and earrings, and similar things. It is permissible for a woman to reveal these to anyone who enters upon her from among the people. Al-Tabari mentioned from Qatadah regarding the meaning of half the forearm a narration from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and he mentioned another from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him.

(p-375) The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: It appears to me from the wording of the verse that a woman is commanded not to reveal, and to strive in concealing all that is adornment. The exemption occurs in everything that overwhelms her, so it appears by necessity of movement in what is unavoidable, or fixing a matter, and similar things. What appears in this regard is excused. The majority of the matter is that the face and the two hands frequently appear, and it is apparent in prayer. It is good for a woman to cover her face except from a non-mahram. The wording of the verse allows that what is apparent from adornment for her to reveal, but what strengthens what we have said is caution and consideration of the corruption of the people. It should not be assumed that it is permissible for women to reveal adornment except in this regard, and Allah is the One who grants success to the truth by His mercy.

And the majority recited: "And let them draw their veils" with the lam being silent, which is for the command. Abu Amr recited - in the narration of Abbas from him -: "And let them draw their veils" with the lam being broken as is the origin; for the original of the lam of command is to be broken in "let them go" and "let them strike." Its being silent is like the silence of "arm" and "thigh."

And the reason for this verse is that the women at that time, when they covered their heads with a khimar, would let it hang down from behind their backs. Al-Niqash said: As the Nabateans do, so that the neck, throat, and ears remain uncovered. So Allah, the Most High, commanded that the khimar be drawn over the bosoms. The manner of that is for the woman to draw her khimar over her bosom, so it covers all that we have mentioned.

And Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: May Allah have mercy on the early emigrant women. When this verse was revealed, they took the thickest of their garments and tore them into khimars, and they drew them over their bosoms. Hafsa, the daughter of her brother Abdul Rahman, entered upon Aisha while she was covered with something that revealed her neck and what was there. (p-376) So she tore it from her and said: It is only to be drawn with that which is thick and covers.

And the well-known reading is to pronounce the ج in "their bosoms" with a dhamma. Some of the Kufans read it with a kasra due to the ya, as they read that in "houses" and "elders," as mentioned by al-Zahrawi.

And let them not display their adornment except to their husbands or their fathers or the fathers of their husbands or their sons or the sons of their husbands or their brothers or the sons of their brothers or the sons of their sisters or their women or what their right hands possess or the male attendants not having physical desire or the children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women.

The meaning of this verse is: And they do not intend to leave the concealment of the inner adornment, such as anklets and earrings, and they do not abandon the burden of modesty except with those who are mentioned. He began with the husbands, as their observation is upon greater matters than this. Then he mentioned the mahrams and equated them in revealing adornment, but their ranks differ in the prohibition according to what is in the souls of people. There is no doubt that the exposure of the father and brother to a woman is more cautious than that of her husband's son. The ranks of what is to be shown to them differ, so the father may see what cannot be shown to the son of her husband.

And His saying, 'or their women' means all the believing women, as if he said: or their kind. This includes believing female slaves, and excludes the women of the polytheists from the people of dhimma and others. Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, wrote to Abu Ubaidah, may Allah be pleased with him: I have been informed that the women of the people of dhimma enter the baths with the women of the Muslims, so prevent this and keep it away, for it is not permissible for a dhimmi woman to see the nakedness of a Muslim woman. He said: At that, Abu Ubaidah stood up and supplicated, saying: Any woman who enters the bath without an excuse, intending only to whiten her face, may Allah darken her face on the Day when faces are made white.

And His saying, 'or what their right hands possess' includes the believing female slaves, and includes the male slaves according to the opinion of a group of scholars, which is the apparent view of Aisha and Umm Salamah, may Allah be pleased with them. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, and a group of scholars said: A slave does not enter upon his mistress to see her hair and the like unless he is a fool. This group prohibited exposure by the ownership of the right hand, and permitted it to be from the male attendants who do not have physical desire. In some manuscripts, it is written 'or what your right hands possess,' which includes the slave of another.

And His saying: 'or the male attendants' refers to the attendants who enter to eat the leftovers, and they are men who have no physical desire for intercourse. This is a condition, and this description includes the eunuch, the insane, the effeminate, the old man, and the disabled who is disabled by his condition. This is the common case among these types, and there may be an effeminate person who should not be exposed to. Do you not see the hadith of 'Hit' and the prohibition of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, against exposing him to women when he described Badiyah, the daughter of Ghaylan ibn Mu'attab? And reflect on what has been narrated in the reports about the effeminate fool, and likewise the fools and the insane among those who should not be exposed. The one who has no physical desire among men is few.

'Irbah' means the need for sexual intercourse. Some of the commentators expressed this by saying: it is that which follows you and desires nothing but food and what it eats. 'Aasim and Ibn 'Aamir read 'ghayra' with the accusative case, which is in relation to the mention in 'at-tabi'een', or as an exception from 'at-tabi'een'. The others read 'ghayri' with the genitive case as an attribute to 'at-tabi'een'. The statement in it is like the statement in 'ghayri al-maghdubi 'alayhim' [Al-Fatiha: 7].

And His saying, 'or the child' is a noun of a kind meaning the plural. It is said: 'tifl' is one who has not yet reached puberty. And 'yazharu' means they will come to know through intercourse. The majority hold that the waw in 'awratin' is to be pronounced as a consonant. It has been narrated from Ibn 'Aamir that the waw is pronounced with a vowel. Al-Zujaj said: the majority is to pronounce the waw as a consonant, like 'jawzat' and 'bayzat', due to the heaviness of the vowel on waw and ya. And whoever reads with the vowel does so based on the original form in 'fa'lah' and 'fa'laat'.