God has created the face as a vital organ to show characzter, reflect emotions, express and communicate, showing His mercy on human beings to understand each other irrespective of a person’s religious faith, a clear instruction given in the Qur’an towards mankind.
by Eng. Nuhuman Marikkar
Face is the most vital and the characteristic part of a person. Being the ‘front’ of the body, it is also the perfect body organ to readily identify another. In biological sense, the face contains the forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, mouth and ears; the sense of sight, hearing, smell and taste are all sited in the face.
Face also has many functions; biological functions of breathing and eating and the most important social function of verbal and non-verbal communication. When it comes to non-verbal commutation, the face plays a prominent role. Emotions of fear, anger, wonder, hate, consent, grief and joy are some basic facial expressions. Any person’s speech is more often than not supplemented by the expressions on the face. Hence, it is the most noticed part of a person’s social life and instantly recognized to establish identity and build trust.
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| Why do they cover? |
One can reasonably assume that it is because of this special place the face occupies in a person’s body, physically and psychologically, we all take special care of our faces, at all times to beautify, maintain, be presentable and to be personable.
The face of a person means his or her presence. Apart from what was discussed, there are many ways the ‘face’ is used in common dialect metaphorically to express one’s character; it is often said, ‘person with two faces’, for someone with double standards. It is said, ‘don’t show your face around this place again’, to admonish a person. It is to ‘lose face’, when one falls into a shameful situation. ‘Face saving measures’ are taken, when someone wants to save the dignity, making the face synonymous with one’s nobility.
Turning your face towards someone shows respect and attention while turning the face away means ignoring a person. "Wajith", in Arabic means the chief or dignitary of a community, while "Wajh" stemming from the same root, means face, also reflecting the prominence and dignity of the face in a person’s physique.
There are many references to human face in the Quran and the prophetic tradition. Many are instances in Prophet’s life where his facial expressions are described in detail; "he came with good news showing on his face", " his face beamed with joy", to state a few. A new convert once said to Prophet, "your face was the one I hated most, now it’s the one I love most". The Prophet himself was a close observant of emotions and attitudes of his companions.
God has created the face as a vital organ to show characzter, reflect emotions, express and communicate, showing His mercy on human beings to understand each other irrespective of a person’s religious faith, a clear instruction given in the Qur’an towards mankind.
"O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another…". (Al-Qur’an, 49:13)
The Prophet said, ‘smiling is a meritorious act’, which makes it clear that smiling is a recognizable act amongst one another and an emotion that connects people. The sensory organs God has placed on the face whether it be eyes , ears , nose or tongue , are all gifts from Almighty and the believers are expected to use all of these in a manner pleasing to God.
Being able to read expressions on face supplementing the verbal dialogue, becomes of utmost importance, especially in a multi-cultural, multilingual, multi-religious society like ours, when we go about in our day-to- day activities. It is not surprising then, that in the case of a partial or full concealing of one’s face, another person cannot catch the true and the entire meaning or the expression of the words, although the speech could be audible, since the accompanying expressions are hidden.
This does not amount in any way to advocating free mingling of the genders without a legitimate cause or unnecessary conversations amongst individuals that may lead to vice and evil. Allah has clearly said in the Qur’an, to lower their gazes for both men and women alike. (Al-Qur'an 24:30-31) Hence, face, hand gestures that may compel one another to enticement and temptations is prohibited at the onset by God’s instructions and thus inherently bad.
Face Covering And Law
Face covering in Sri Lanka had been an issue over the years for obvious reasons. In the recent past, mostly the learned people in the society (especially from non-Muslim faiths) have started to raise their voices and demand for logical reasoning for face covering. Local Islamic scholars, more often than not, have made contradictory opinions at different times confusing the issue of face covering even more, to the Islamic community. The opinions have been made based on situations and as reactions to situations and not based on facts and long-term solutions. Hence the answers have been temporary and subjective.
Since the EasterSunday attack in April 2019, the majority of the public started to vehemently object to face covering, and the government subsequently was forced to bring in a restriction. Unfortunately, following the Easter Sunday attack Muslims were also seen as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.
The general public and all of the media who campaigned for stricter laws cited security reasons when demanding a ban on face covering. As in any society, some racist sections used the situation to promote and act on their ideology. There are similar racist elements and opportunists within the Muslim community as well.
With the eventual lifting of the emergency regulations, the ban on face cover too was presumably lifted. Since then many Muslims women have started to go out in public wearing the black cloak and the face covering, which was under ban before. There have been numerous occasions, also circulated widely in social media, where the accompanying men of these ladies arguing with police and others who questioned them, saying, "it’s our right and now there is no emergency law existing, hence, we can wear this", etc. The viral video clip of the incident in Gall fort is witness to these happenings.
However, many Muslim women who chose to readily go out in public covering their faces in black, once the emergency law was lifted, do not seem to understand the underlying cause of the face covering being banned along with the tense situation prevailing in the country and society.
Not only the face covering, lifting of the emergency law allowed many other restrictions being relaxed to the benefit of the entire people of the country. One must understand at this juncture that the emergency law was not lifted to allow face cover, as speculated by some in the Muslim community.
The hatred for face cover among a large stratum of the population still exists, emergency regulation or not. Majority of the learned and reasonable Muslims do not necessarily endorse face covering as it creates more issues and difficulties for the community. There is also the fear that this hatred could develop and could escalate to social opposition even for a simple hijab (Head Scarf) and modest dress worn by Muslim women and girls in travelling for learning and work. It is to be noted that learning is a right given by the Almighty, for all men and women irrespective of their social standing. Thus, any action that could prevent or hinder the right to seek any kind of beneficial knowledge has to be assessed more seriously than an imported cultural practice.
As much as some Muslim men argue that face cover is a fundamental right of a Muslim woman, they seem to be ignorant of many other issues impacting society;
Violation of a fundamental right (in Common sense perspective) of persons around her for not being able to identify the person inside the Niqab (Face cover).
Society at large gets disturbed by the presence and behaviour of those who cover their faces in public, hence the people around such a lady needs to be extra cautious to gauge the behaviour.
It’s not known whether the person inside the Niqab, is a lady or a man.
Creating difficultly for law enforcing officers and administrators as it amounts to extremely embarrassing situations on both ends.
Islamic Explanation For Face Cover
The majority of scholars have cited face covering as not a compulsion, for a woman to practice Islam as her religion, stating there is no clear cut Hadeeth or Q’uranic verse that directly says face veiling is obligatory.
Sheik Al-Albaanee (1914-99 AD), one of the foremost scholars of the religion views that face covering has not been made obligatory. He has further clarified in detail, the lapses made while interpreting the Quranic verses to mean otherwise.
Three main schools of jurisprudence hold that the face is not ‘awrah’, and many declare that the exposing of it is necessary for mundane actions. Scholars, Ibn Muflih al-Hambalee (710- 763 AH), An-Nawawee (631-676 AH), and Al-Qaadee 'Iyaad (1083- 1149 AD), also are of the view that covering the face is not obligatory.
Dr Akram Nadwi , an Oxford Scholar who has researched excessively on Women In Islam and has authored many books , also considered as one of the best Islamic scholars in the world today, clearly opines, there is no mandate for a woman to cover her face and hands. Further elaborating Dr Nadwi believes nobody should force women and girls to cover their heads or faces, as imposing of laws don't make people pious.
In the book written in Tamil named as "Pen" = "WOMEN" by Mr Hajjul Akbar , also a moderate educated local scholar, he says , there is nothing mentioned in the Quran that face covering is required or not covering is a sin. Additionally, he says there is no evidence in teaching of Holy Prophet that he has instructed women to cover their faces.
Taking in to account the context within which the Islamic community has been practicing face covering and the emerging situation after the Easter Sunday attack, it is the Muslim community’s collective responsibility and prime duty to re-visit the tradition of face covering.
The Islamic scholars need to enlighten the community on the authentic teachings of the Quran and the prophetic tradition as relevant to the situation we are in today and not leave room for the law enforcing authorities and the government to enact conflicting regulations from time to time, confusing the general public. This is even more so with a sensitive and a volatile situation prevailing in the country and with mounting tensions waiting to erupt.
Insights from;
Mohammad Akram Nadwi PhD, al- Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars In Islam, Interface Publications Ltd, Oxford, December 2014.
Mohammad Abdel Haleem PhD, Understanding The Qur’an: Themes And Styles, L.B. Tauris & Co. ltd, London | New York, 2011
Mohammad Abdel Haleem PhD, The Qur’an ; A New Translation, Oxford University press, 2015
Rasheed Hajrul Akbar, Pen, Neethamum Nidarsanamum, Al Hasanaath publishers, Colombo, September 2013
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