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Verses of jilbab
Verse's Information
SuraSura al-Ahzab
Verse59
Content Information
Place of
Revelation		Medina
TopicJurisprudential
Related VersesVerse of Hijab


Verse of Jilbab (Arabic: آية الجِلباب) (Qur'an 33: 59) asks women to draw their jilbābs near themselves so that they are not harassed by men. In this verse, the word jalābīb (plural of jilbāb) is used. Jilbāb is interpreted as a type of clothing larger than a headscarf.

Al-Fadl b. al-Hasan al-Tabrisi, a Shi'a exegete, believes that this verse was specific to free women so that they could be distinguished from slave women by observing Hijab and thus not be molested. However, another group, without considering this verse specific to free women, believes that the verse requires all women to behave with dignity so that they are not suspected of immorality and no one harasses them.

Sayyid Husayn Burujirdi, a Shi'a Marja', and Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, a Shi'a exegete, believe that based on the Verse of Jilbab, women must cover their faces. In contrast, Ja'far Subhani and Morteza Motahhari disagree with such an interpretation and consider covering the hair to be sufficient.

Introduction, Text, and Translation

Verse 59 of Sura al-Ahzab, in which a type of Hijab is mentioned, is called the "Verse of Jilbab":[1]

﴾يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُل لِّأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِن جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ أَدْنَىٰ أَن يُعْرَفْنَ فَلَا يُؤْذَيْنَ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا ﴿
O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the faithful to draw closely over themselves their chadors [jalābīb]. That makes it likely that they are recognized and not be troubled. And God is all-forgiving, all-merciful.


Quran 33: 59


Occasion of Revelation

According to Tafsir al-Qummi, the reason for the revelation of this verse was that during the time of the Prophet (s), when women went to the Mosque for Congregational Prayer, some youths would sit on their way and harass them.[2]

Meaning of Jilbab

The word jalābīb is the plural of jilbāb. Al-Raghib al-Isfahani wrote that jilbāb refers to a shirt and a headscarf;[3] however, in Majma' al-bahrayn, it is stated that jilbāb is a garment larger than a headscarf (khimār) and smaller than a cloak (ridā) that women place on their heads and it covers down to their chests.[4] Hasan Mustafawi, a Quranic lexicologist, believes that what is meant by jilbāb is something that covers the body and the clothes together; a chador, sheet, or cloak that covers the woman's entire body and is worn over clothes.[5]

Meaning of "Being Known"

Al-Fadl b. al-Hasan al-Tabrisi, a Shi'a exegete of the sixth/twelfth century, in the exegesis Majma' al-bayan, has proposed two interpretations for the phrase "That makes it likely that they are recognized and not be troubled" (Arabic: ذٰلِكَ أَدْنیٰ أَنْ يُعْرَفْنَ فَلا يُؤْذَيْنَ), and others who have interpreted the verse have chosen one of these two interpretations:

  • According to the first interpretation, which is al-Tabrisi's own view, the meaning of "being known" in the above phrase is that it becomes known that they are free women and not slave women, and therefore they would not be harassed; because at that time, some people would harass women who were not free. Also, some hypocrites would harass free women and when questioned, they would say, "We thought they were slave women." With this action, the opportunity for this excuse was taken away from the hypocrites.[6] Tafsir-i nimuna mentions the distinction between free women and slave women but considers this distinction to be ethical rather than class-based; because slave women were not in a good ethical situation.[7]
  • The second interpretation, which al-Tabrisi has attributed to Abu 'Ali al-Jubba'i (a Mu'tazili theologian, d. 303/915-16), states that the meaning of "being known" is that it should be known that those women are people of Hijab and chastity so that libertines (fāsiq) do not approach them; because when libertines see that a woman has proper covering and is chaste, they do not harass her.[8] Allama Tabataba'i and Morteza Motahhari have chosen this interpretation.[9]

Jurisprudential Application

The Verse of Jilbab has also been cited in jurisprudential discussions.[10] According to Morteza Motahhari, exegetes such as al-Zamakhshari and Fakhr al-Razi have inferred from this verse that it is obligatory for a woman to cover her face.[11] Allama Tabataba'i also held this view.[12] According to Ja'far Subhani, Ayatollah Burujirdi held the same view and argued that by drawing the jilbāb near, which is commanded in the verse, the entire face is necessarily covered.[13]

Morteza Motahhari and Ja'far Subhani have not accepted this argument. In Motahhari's view, this verse does not intend to state the limits of covering, but rather states that Muslim women should behave with chastity and dignity and that their covering should not merely have a formal aspect. He wrote that the phrase "so that they are not troubled" (Arabic: فَلَا يُؤْذَيْنَ) in the verse confirms this view.[14] Citing the same phrase, Subhani wrote that the purpose of drawing the jilbāb near was for free women to be distinguished from slave women and not be harassed, and this goal is achieved by covering the hair. Therefore, covering the face is not necessary.[15]

See Also

Notes

  1. ↑ Jamʿī az muḥaqqiqān, Farhang-nāmay-i ʿulūm-i Qurʾānī, 1394 Sh, p. 126.
  2. ↑ Qummī, Tafsīr al-Qummī, 1367 Sh, vol. 2, p. 196.
  3. ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Al-Mufradāt, 1412 AH, vol. 1, p. 199.
  4. ↑ Ṭarīḥī, Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn, 1375 Sh, vol. 2, p. 24.
  5. ↑ Muṣṭafawī, Al-Taḥqīq fī kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm, 1368 Sh, vol. 2, p. 95.
  6. ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, 1372 Sh, vol. 8, p. 581.
  7. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, 1371 Sh, vol. 17, pp. 427-429.
  8. ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, 1372 Sh, vol. 8, p. 581.
  9. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Al-Mīzān, 1417 AH, vol. 16, pp. 339-340; Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 19, pp. 504-505.
  10. ↑ For example, see: Shubayrī Zanjānī, Kitāb al-nikāḥ, 1419 AH, vol. 2, pp. 462-470; Subḥānī, Niẓām al-nikāḥ, 1375 Sh, vol. 1, p. 52; Makārim Shīrāzī, Kitāb al-nikāḥ, 1424 AH, vol. 1, p. 32.
  11. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 19, p. 505.
  12. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Al-Mīzān, 1417 AH, vol. 16, p. 339.
  13. ↑ Subḥānī, Niẓām al-nikāḥ, 1375 Sh, vol. 1, p. 52.
  14. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 19, pp. 503-504.
  15. ↑ Subḥānī, Niẓām al-nikāḥ, 1375 Sh, vol. 1, p. 52.

References

  • Jamʿī az muḥaqqiqān. Farhang-nāmay-i ʿulūm-i Qurʾānī. Qom, Pazhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm wa Farhang-i Islāmī, 1st ed, 1394 Sh.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Kitāb al-nikāḥ. Edited by Muḥammad Riḍā Ḥāmidī & Masʿūd Makārim. Qom, Madrasa-yi Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, 1st ed, 1424 AH.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Tafsīr-i nimūna. Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 10th ed, 1371 Sh.
  • Muṣṭafawī, Ḥasan. Al-Taḥqīq fī kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm. Tehran, Wizārat-i Farhang wa Irshād-i Islāmī, 1st ed, 1368 Sh.
  • Muṭahharī, Murtaḍā. Majmūʿa-yi āthār. Tehran, Intishārāt-i Ṣadrā, 1390 Sh.
  • Qummī, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-. Tafsīr al-Qummī. Edited by Ṭayyib Mūsawī Jazāyirī. Qom, Dār al-Kitāb, 3rd ed, 1404 AH.
  • Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-. Al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān. Edited by Ṣafwān ʿAdnān Dāwūdī. Damascus/Beirut, 1st ed, 1412 AH.
  • Shubayrī Zanjānī, Sayyid Mūsā. Kitāb al-nikāḥ. Qom, Muʾassisat-i Pazhūhishī-yi Rāy-pardāz, 1st ed, 1419 AH.
  • Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. Niẓām al-nikāḥ fī l-sharīʿat al-Islāmiyya al-gharrāʾ. Qom, Muʾassisat al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1375 Sh.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Qom, Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 5th ed, 1417 AH.
  • Ṭabrisī, Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-. Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Tehran, Nāṣir Khusraw, 3rd ed, 1372 Sh.
  • Ṭarīḥī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-. Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn. Edited by Sayyid Aḥmad Ḥusaynī. Tehran, Kitābfurūshī-yi Murtaḍawī, 3rd ed, 1375 Sh.
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