Arguments about Muslim women's dress are usually conducted without reference to the texts that decide the matter. This book supplies them, and then works out what they require in practice.
The Textual Basis
It begins with the verses of the Qur'an that address covering and the authentic Ahadith that explain them, together with what the women of the first generation understood by both. That is the foundation, and it is laid before any conclusion is drawn from it.
The Conditions of Correct Covering
From those texts the book derives the actual conditions — which is where most discussions stop short. Covering is not satisfied by a garment merely being present: the scholars derive requirements concerning what must be covered, opacity, looseness, whether the garment is itself an adornment, and whether it resembles the dress of men or of the disbelievers. Set out plainly, these conditions answer a great many questions that otherwise turn into personal opinion.
Modesty as More Than Cloth
Haya in Islam is a quality of character before it is a manner of dress, and the book keeps the two connected. Speech, conduct, gaze and bearing all fall under it. Dress is the outward expression of an inward state, and treating it as the whole of modesty misses the point in one direction just as ignoring it misses it in the other.
Objections and Misconceptions
The claims raised most frequently — that covering is cultural rather than religious, that it belongs to a particular era, that it is imposed rather than chosen — are stated fairly and answered from the same sources. Whether the reader agrees, the evidences are laid out plainly enough to be checked.
Who It Is For
Muslim women deciding, or reconsidering. Parents and teachers asked about it by daughters and students. Da'wah workers who meet the objections regularly. Non-Muslims who have heard the subject discussed everywhere except from the texts.
Related Reading
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