

Surat An-Nūr - ayah 31

It makes clear that believing women need to veil their beauty. So shouldn't that mean unattractive women, such as those that are over the age of 50, or the very fat etc don't need to wear a hijab?

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    I am not an expert on this, but I have never heard the term "unattractive women" in any religious texts or talks. If I am not mistaken, there is no concept of "unattractive women" in Islam. – user44 Aug 25 '12 at 13:07
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    Beauty is very subjective. In this case, it's all about guarding your modesty, and in order to do that, you start off by not displaying your beauty (subjective) and ornaments. As beauty is subjective, your idea of beauty is different from my idea of beauty. But modesty is the same for all. – oshirowanen Aug 25 '12 at 14:21
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    beauty is in the eye of the beholder – NesreenA Aug 25 '12 at 15:22
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    I don't understand the DVs. He just asked a question to learn something. Why are you down-voting him? Can't you simply answer yes or no, or just ignore it if you are not interested in? I find this kind of DVs very offensive. There are a lot of people among us who don't understand the meaning of voting, and even why and how to vote. – hkBattousai Aug 25 '12 at 19:18
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    @Mohayemin and ahmed han, i am one of the downvoters, and FYI i do not downvote based on personal belifs, i downvoted because i found the question lacking in research and effort, so plese do not try to discourage downvotes that help filter out low quality questions, if you go to the room you created in chat you can see my full reasoning – NesreenA Aug 27 '12 at 15:18

There is an ayat about your question:

وَالْقَوَاعِدُ مِنَ النِّسَاء اللَّاتِي لَا يَرْجُونَ نِكَاحًا فَلَيْسَ عَلَيْهِنَّ جُنَاحٌ أَن يَضَعْنَ ثِيَابَهُنَّ غَيْرَ مُتَبَرِّجَاتٍ بِزِينَةٍ وَأَن يَسْتَعْفِفْنَ خَيْرٌ لَّهُنَّ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Noor 60

This ayat doesn't mention beauty or attractiveness, but it mentions age and losing hope of marriage.

  • Ha, I was looking for this verse.. beat me to it. Beauty is too subjective to be put in legalese, and too personal. But age usually correlates with lack of beauty, so this comes close. – Muz Aug 25 '12 at 19:42
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    Good answer and the reference, but it needs explanation. What does really the verse mean? – muslim1 Aug 26 '12 at 23:53

The translation that you picked is wrong. The more accurate translation is by shakir


This means

  • A woman should guard her private parts. This most likely meant bosom, but applies equally other private parts well.
  • A woman should not display her ornament (bangles, necklaces, anklet) to men other than what is mentioned in the verse above, that is husband, father-in-law, sons, sons of her husband (of another wife), her brothers, brothers sons,sisters sons, other women like her, slaves, and servants who do not have desire for women or children who are not familiar with a woman beauty (that is they are not attracted to women).
  • The should not strike their feet, walk the way to draw attention to her ornaments.

So I think the term beautify is being misquoted here. It is verse related to all women, not just beautiful women. As far as I know, there is not such term as beautiful women or men in Islam.

As far as your question, A muslim women must wear hijab regardless of weather she is beautiful or not (unless someone can correct me). Note that I have answer it in general way. They may be specific cases that I have not addressed.

If you need more explanation, please comment, so I can explain better.

  • I got my translation from muslimaccess.com/quraan/arabic/024.asp, but in my book there is no mention of beauty either - strange. – Larry Harson Aug 27 '12 at 19:18
  • There are different translators of Quran. Some have translated Quran word by word. Other have translated it in their own context try to give a more "clear" meaning, but that often changing the meaning of the verse altogether. A correct translation is always word by word. – muslim1 Aug 27 '12 at 20:26
  • @crocodile yes, I agree. Is Arabic your native language? – Larry Harson Aug 30 '12 at 13:57
  • I have learned some basic arabic but google is your friend to find out the truth :) – muslim1 Aug 30 '12 at 14:01

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