AWRAT PARTS TO BE COVERED

Parts of the body that men and women are to cover during salat and elsewhere are called ‘awrat parts’. If a person says that Islam does not prescribe a certain part in the name of awrat, he becomes an unbeliever. Some parts of the body are awrat according to the ijma’ (unanimity, consessu) of all four Madhhabs [1], (and these awrat parts vary with sex).

If a person flouts the importance of covering these parts of his (or her) body or of not looking at others’ exposed awrat parts, i.e. if he (or she) does not feel any fear concerning the torment (that will be incrurred by the violation of this prohibition), he (or she) becomes a disbeliever. In a man’s body, parts between the pelvis and the knees are not awrat in the Madhhab of Hanbali.

If a person says, “I am a Muslim,” he has to learn Islam’s tenets and the actions that are fard (obligatory) and those that are haram (forbidden) with the consensus (ijma’) of the four Madhhabs, and he has to pay due importance to this matter. Not to know is not a valid excuse. It is identical with intentional unbelief.

A woman’s entire body, with the exception of her hands and face, is awrat according to all four Madhhabs. So is the case with a woman’s exposing her awrat parts, singing, or saying (aloud the eulogy called) Mawlid in the presence of men. If a person slightingly exposes a part of his body which is awrat not with ijma’, i.e. which is not awrat in one of the other three Madhhabs, (though it is awrat according to his own Madhhab and two of the other three Madhhabs,) he will have committed a grave sin though this violation will not make him an unbeliever. An example of this is a man’s exposing his legs between the pelvis and the knees, (which are, as we have already said, not awrat in the Hanbali though they are awrat in the other three Madhhabs).

It is fard to learn the Islamic tenets that you do not know. As soon as you learn them, you must make tawba and cover your awrat parts. Lying, gossip, backbiting, slander, theft, cheating, treachery, hurting someone’s feelings, mischief-making, using someone’s property without permission, not paying a laborer’s or porter’s due, rebellion, that is, opposing the laws and the government’s orders, and not paying that are not so commonly spread or indispensable so as to be known by him, he is not in disbelief (kufr) but sinful (fisq).


[1] madhhab: all of what a profound ‘alim of (especially) Fiqh (usually one of the four-Hanafi, Shafi’i, Maliki, Hanbali) or iman (one of the two, namely Ash-ari, Maturidi) communicated