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Hijab is the term used by the Muslim to understand the dress code of Muslim women . It refers to a dress which covers almost the whole body of a Muslim woman . Firstly , we need to look at the word Hijab in Quran ; what it means and what Almighty GOD has used it for . Literally , the Hijab means veil or yashmak. Other meanings for the word 'hijab' include, screen, cover(ing), mantle, curtain, drapes, partition, division, divider. It is used in the Quran 07 times in the verses namely 7:46, 33:53, 38:32, 41:5, 42:51, 17:45 & 19:17.None of these 'hijab' words are used in the Quran in reference to what the traditional Muslims call today 'hijab' as a dress code for the Muslim woman.
Knowing the fact now that Hijab is not authorized by Almighty GOD as women dress code in Quran , let us now move forward to know what HE , the Exalted , really said about this issue . We find in Quran , the very general rule for dressing for men and women in the following verse :
[007:026] O ye Children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your shame , as well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness,- that is the best. Such are among the Signs of God, that they may receive admonition!
Hence , the first and foremost rule/purpose for dressing is to cover our shame (saw-atikum) . It is unnecessary to describe what it means because as human being , we all exactly know what are the shameful parts of our body and how to cover it . This verse left us with one simple question , is head/hair is a shameful part of a human body ? The answer is very clear , NO . Therefore verse 7.26 excludes the head/hair to be covered by garment both for men and women .
Verse 24.31 is crucial in this subject of womens dressings :
[024:031] And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their modesty, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.
This verse is exclusively addressing believing womens issues . Several points to ponder here :
01- They are to guard their modesty (wayahfathna furoojahunna)- dress is a tool to achieve this purpose , at least as per the context of the verse here .
02- Not to display their beauties apart from what is apparent . Worthy to mention here that From the above verse it can be deduced that for the purposes of women's dress code two types of beauty are described:
a) What is apparent (this can be revealed in public)
b) What is hidden (this type must be covered in public, but could be revealed by a striking of feet or walk/stride which is revealing)
Such a striking of feet or walk could only reveal a limited number of parts of the body, e.g. the private parts, buttocks, thighs, breasts, hips, thus any part not revealed by such an action should not be considered part of hidden beauty and therefore part of apparent beauty. Of course, this means such things as face, hair, hands, feet etc would not clearly fall into the category of beauty that is meant to be hidden. Furthermore, the verse clearly brackets what beauty it is referring to by saying "...the child who has not yet understood the composition of women" implying it is relating to what is specific to a woman (i.e. what is different between man and woman) nothing else.
This understanding would also fit with The Quran's instruction on the body parts that are to be cleansed during daily ablution (hands, arms, face, head and feet), see 5:6, 4:43.
03- And the most important part of the verse is :
walyadribna bikhumurihinna AAala juyoobihinna
This verse is needed to be broken up into English from their original Arabic wordings for the convenience and to avoid misunderstanding (as some biased translation did) :
walyadribna =And let them draw
bikhumurihinna= with covers (not head covering/veil/burqa as mistranslated )
AAala = Over (not down across as mistranslated)
Juyoobihinna = their bosoms (not their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms, etc as mistranslated).
Now we can see that , Almighty GOD has instructed women to cover their bosoms with Khumur . Khumur is the plural of Khimar . The Arabic word khimar means cover. Any cover can be called a khimar such as a curtain, a dress, a table cloth that covers the top of a table is a khimar, a blanket can be called a khimar and so on. The word khamr, which is used in the Quran for intoxicants, has the same root as khimar. Both words mean that which covers. The khimar covers a window, a body, a table and so on, while khamr is that which covers the mind. Traditional translators, obviously influenced by Hadith and culture, claim that khimar in 24:31 has only one meaning, and that veil or hijab, and thus mislead women into believing that 24:31 commands them to cover their hair! This fact that the word khimar can mean any cover is a matter that can be verified by consulting any Arabic dictionary.
In 24:31 God is telling women to use their khimar (cover/garment) which could be a dress, a coat, a shawl, a shirt, a blouse, a scarf and so on to cover their bosoms.
We can see that there is not even a remote instruction of GOD , the Almighty , to cover a womans head . Head (raas in Arabic) and/or hair (saar in Arabic) is absent there. Hence , verse 24.31 never authorized the headscarf and facecover to be a part dress code for the believing women .
The other important verse about women dress code is 33.59 :
[033:059] O Prophet! say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; this will be more proper, that they may be known, and thus they will not be given trouble; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
This verse serves the same purpose as of 24.31 apart from the fact that this verse is more related with women living in hostile community . If we read the context of the verse , it appears that women are instructed to draw additional clothing to guard themselves from harm and in the same time should be identified . One way to identify a woman to look at her face . Hence face covering is again uprooted as per this verse . Drawing around from the clothing is to serve the purpose of clothing in 24.31 and 7.26, e.g. , to cover the shameful parts , e.g. , bosoms , backside , thighs , navels , cleavage etc. which is more attractive for men to excite the illicitly in him .
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