Being Hanbali: A Muslim Woman's Awrah In Front of Non-Muslim Women

I have a follow up Question to the fiqh of non-Muslim women seeing a Muslimah's hair. I work full-time, and need to perform wudu for dhuhr in the restroom shared by the companies on our floor. The restroom is usually empty when I use it because we have only 3 other offices on our floor (my own company is very small, and is comprised mostly of women). However, a woman could walk in at anytime. What is the ruling on exposing part of the awrah (hair and forearms) to perform wudu? It is especially difficult keeping the hijab on one's head (and keeping it dry) when wiping the top of the head and back of the neck...

Walaikum assalam,

Well, do your best to follow the Hanafi opinion, but if it proves too difficult, as it often is in work situations and elsewhere, it is not wrong to do taqlid of the Hanbali position.

Ibn Qudama (Allah have mercy on him) explained in his masterpiece al-Mughni:

  “(5342) The ruling of a woman with another woman [with respect to the awrah] is that of a man with another man, and there is no difference in this between two Muslim women, or between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim one…”

Ali ibn Sulayman al-Mardawi (Allah have mercy on him) [a leading Hanbali jurist] explained in his al-Insaf:

“As for the non-Muslim woman with a Muslim woman, the correct position in the [Hanbali] school is that her ruling [in terms of the what she may see] is that of a Muslim woman with a Muslim woman,”

after which he cited the major Hanbali texts to show that this is the position of the Hanbali school.

In  al-Mawsu`aal-Fiqhhiyya (‘Encyclopaedia of Islamic Law’), published by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Religious Endowments, it explains, under the entry “Awrah”

“The awrah of the Muslim woman in front of a strange [=other than immediate family] non-Muslim woman:

The majority of the fuqaha– the Hanafis, Malikis, and in the soundest position in the Shafi`i school --  hold that the non-Muslim woman is like a strange man for the Muslim woman…

The other position, besides the soundest position [mentioned above] in the Shafi`i school is that it is permitted for the non-Muslim woman to see that which is normally uncovered while working…

The relied-upon position in the Hanbali school is that there is no difference between the Muslim and non-Muslim woman [in this issue]…”

Not Binding to Stick to One School

It is not religiously binding on the Muslim to stick to one school on all matters, without exception, as both al-Tahtawi and Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on them), the two leading late authorities for fatwa in the Hanafi school, both explain. Rather, there is nothing wrong with taking a dispensation if there is a need; what is impermissible is to make it a habit to seek out dispensations [i.e. even if there is no hardship or need].

The Path of Taqwa

The path of taqwa, as the scholars and Sufis explain, is to avoid taking dispensations unless there is genuine hardship in following one’s own school. In fact, they say that those who have learned their own school should seek out the strictest positions from other school whenever reasonably possible, so that one’s worship and practice is sound without argument.

May Allah grant us beneficial knowledge, and the success to act according to it, on the footsteps of the His Beloved (Allah bless him and give him peace), with the secret of sincerity, without which actions are but lifeless forms.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.