The Dark Danger: Bigotry: Fabricated Hadiths on the Subject of the Head-Covering and Their Internal Inconsistencies

As we have seen with all the evidence, verse 31 of Surat an-Nur, which some people try to portray as evidence for the headscarf, in fact contains no reference to the word "head-covering" at all. However, with the inclusion of some false hadiths into the literature of Islam, this misconception has spread and come down to the present day. The false hadiths fabricated by fanatics are riddled with significant flaws of logic and contain many inconsistencies. Let us now have a look at some examples:

Aisha (ra) said: "When verse 24:31 was revealed, the women of the migrants from Mecca took their garments and tore pieces of cloth from the edges of their skirts and covered their heads with them." (Sahih Bukhari; Sunan Abu Dawud, Beyhaqi, VII, 88)

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: May God have mercy on the early immigrant women. When the verse "That they should draw their veils over their bosoms" was revealed, they tore their thick outer garments and made veils from them." (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 32, Hadith 4091)

Satiyya binti Shayba narrates this memory she heard from Aisha (ra): We were with Aisha, talking about Quraishi women and their virtues. Aisha: Verily, Quraishi women have some virtues. But, I swear by God, I have never seen any women more virtuous than the women of Ansar who believed in the Book of God strongly and firmly. When the verse of the Surah Light they should draw their veils over their bosoms was revealed, believer men went to their homes reciting that verse. They read the verse to their wives, daughters, sisters and other relatives. Each woman made headscarves out of their clothes, by believing and affirming the Book of God. The next morning, the women performed the prayer of fajr (the early Morning Prayer). It looked as if there were crows on their heads. (Sahih Bukhari, Tafsir Sura (The Commentary of the Surahs) 24:12; Sunan Abu Dawud, Libas (Cloth): 29)

As we have seen, these hadiths all claim that when verse 31 of Surat an-Nur was revealed, Muslim women immediately tore pieces from their skirts and wrapped them round their heads. That is where the first violation of logic begins. Now let us look at the flaws of logic in these false hadiths and how they conflict with the Qur'an: • As we have already seen in detail, the term in the verse "... they should put their coverings across their bosoms" refers to women covering their breasts. The hadiths in question, however, say that when this verse was sent down Muslim women immediately cut pieces from their garments and covered their heads with them, not their breasts; yet the verse says nothing about covering the head. None of the hadiths in question says anything Muslim women obeying the actual command in the verse, covering up their breasts, in other words.

• According to the description here, women tore pieces from their skirts, but instead of covering their breasts, as commanded in the verse, they wrapped them round their heads. In order to agree with the mistaken interpretation of "draw down their head-coverings," the pieces they cut from their skirts must have been so large that they were able to cover their heads and also descend to their chests.

• According to this account, the women's chests are exposed, but they have covered their heads twice. Yet as we have seen with all the evidence, verse 31 of Surat an-Nur was revealed "only" to tell women to cover their breasts.

• We have already seen how some commentators interpret the term "draw down their head-coverings" in such a way as to justify their idea of an "already existing head-covering." They make that claim in order to justify the idea that the verse contains the word "head-covering" and maintain that the women addressed by the verse are already wearing head-coverings. The fact is, however, that the false hadiths in question claim that the women made head-coverings for themselves by cutting up their skirts when the verse was revealed. How it is that these false hadiths, which the commentators in question regard as their main support, conflict so much with their own accounts?

They conflict with their own accounts because the faith of those who wish to add false commandments to Islam other than the true commandments found in the Qur'an are full of profound flaws of logic. All superstitious accounts clash with the Qur'an, and they all involve great contradictions. The deceptive interpretations produced solely in order to justify the idea of the head-covering in verse 31 of Surat an-Nur, even though the verse is perfectly clear and easy to understand, show the scale of what is happening. The interpretations made in the light of the false hadiths in question and the conclusions produced from them are all quite terrifying:

As we will explain later in detail, in the Qur'an, women are advised to cover their entire bodies when necessary so as not to be bothered. However, God left it to women to decide if the conditions require such a measure. According to the Qur'an, when women must go where they think they might be verbally or physically bothered or harassed, they wear a jilbab which will cover them from head to toe, and not hug their figure.

Let us also remember here that the hadith collection refers to men and women purifying themselves from the same bowl in the time of our Prophet (pbuh). (See Sahih Bukhari, Wudu 43; Sunan Abu Dawud, Kitab al-Taharah 39; Sunan ibn Majah, Taharah 36; an-Nasai, Taharah 56) Since the areas purified are the feet, the arms as far as the elbows, the face and the head, it appears from the hadiths that women were alongside men and had their heads uncovered.

However, the one unifying feature of the otherwise fractious fanatics is that they completely ignore those hadiths that do not suit them.

Since our sole guide is the Qur'an, and the accounts given in the Qur'an are as explicit as can be, women being present alongside men with their heads uncovered is a behavior entirely compatible with the Qur'an.

The three hadiths talk about the revelation of the verse in the words “When the verse ‘That they should draw their veils over their bosoms’ was revealed …”.

According to the description in these fabricated hadiths, the women already had a veil on their heads, let their veils hang down but left their breasts uncovered.

Nevertheless, according to all three hadiths, the women did not cover their breasts with the large and long covering on their heads. Let’s see what these fabricated hadiths claim that the women did, instead.

According to the phrase added to the verse in the fabricated hadith, women already had a veil covering their heads and they would use the excess parts of that large fabric to cover their breasts so that their breasts would also be covered.

1 ACCORDING TO THE FABRICATED HADITHS WOMEN ALREADY WEAR HEADSCARVES THEIR BREASTS ARE EXPOSED ACCORDING TO THE ADDITION MADE TO THE VERSE IN THE FABRICATED HADITH NEVERTHELESS, ACCORDING TO ALL THREE HADITHS, THE WOMEN DID NOT COVER THEIR BREASTS WITH THE LARGE AND LONG COVERING ON THEIR HEADS ACCORDING TO THE ADDITION MADE TO THE VERSE IN THE FABRICATED HADITH It is claimed that women already had a veil covering their heads and that they would use the excess parts of that large fabric to cover their breasts too.

It is claimed that women already had a veil covering their heads and that they would use the excess parts of that large fabric to cover their breasts too.

According to the fabricated hadiths, it is claimed that when the verse was sent down, the women cut off pieces of their skirts or clothes, and added another layer of headscarf to their heads, which was already covered.

The fabricated hadith reads, “[they] took their garments and tore pieces of cloth from the edges of their skirts and covered their heads with them...” In other words, the fabricated hadith suggests that the women did not cover their breasts using the veil that was already covering their heads, but instead they cut pieces from their skirts and garments and covered their heads the second time.

This way, they did not follow the supposed command of ‘covering with the excess fabric coming down from your head’, which they claimed to be God’s order. These fabricated hadiths claim that women covered their already covered heads a second time. However, these explanations imply that their breasts were still exposed. In other words, by means of these hadiths, they introduced a new commandment, which was not in God’s verse. In addition, they did not even act by this newly introduced commandment.

This flawed logic is a clear testament to the fact that God foils the stratagems of those who produce superstitions.

THEY CUT OFF PIECES FROM THEIR SKIRTS AND COVERED THEIR HEADS WITH A SECOND HEADSCARF ACCORDING TO THE FABRICATED HADITHS WOMEN HAD THEIR HEADS COVERED WITH TWO LAYERS OF HEADSCARF AND HAD THEIR BREASTS EXPOSED THEIR BREASTS EXPOSED With the phrase in the fabricated hadiths, “[they] took their garments and tore pieces of cloth from the edges of their skirts and covered their heads with them...”, it is suggested that women covered their heads the second time.