Asalaamu alaikum and Hello dear readersโฆ
As I’m sure you all have already noticed by now; I always cover my chin; like the underside and the sides of my cheeks when out and about, wearing Hijab and personally I’ve always felt that the chin must be part of a woman’s awrah (ุนูุฑุฉ-Parts of the body that must be covered) because when we wear Hijab we should cover as much as possible except for the hands and the face. Of course, I know many sisters who read my blog follow the rulings that state that the face is parts of ones awrah and hence niqab is fard (required) while other sisters follow rulings that state that the chin is not awrah, doesn’t need to be covered and hence Niqab is not required either. I won’t argue with any of these opinions as it comes down to which scholars you take your rulings from.
Anyway, this lead me on a quest recently to find out where, in both Sunni and Shia sources it states that the underside of the chin is considered awrah and must be covered. As you can imagine its quite a contentious issue! Many Sunni Muslims mistakenly think only Shia Muslim women cover their chin and so wearing ones Hijab covering the chin automatically labels you as a Shia Muslim. Yet, many Shia Muslim women do not in fact cover their chin when wearing Hijab. Conversely, many Sunni Muslim women state that covering the underside of the chin when wearing HIjab is not required. Yet, I have personally seen North African, Turkish and Malaysian or Indonesian Muslim women who in fact do cover the underside of their chin. Regardless of their Madhab (School of Thought); Hanafi, Malaki, Shaifi, Hanbali? What about the Telekung, the Malaysian/Indonesian prayer dress that usually come with a chin-cover?
My search for scholarly rulings about wether the underside of the chin is considered a part of a woman’s Awrah and hence should be covered in Hijab lead me to a few sources which I found quite interesting.
From Sunni Sources: The Sunni Madhabs (schools) that I could find in which the underside of the chin is considered awrah, part of the neck and should be covered is Hanafiyyah and Shafiyyah…but…not every Hanafi or Shaifi scholar says it is required. Some do and some do not. Most say its not exactly required as it would be considered a “hardship” while a handful say its required or should be done. I guess this explains why I sometimes see North African and Turkish sisters wearing their Hijabas in such a fashion.
Here is one such link about this from the Hanafi perspective.
Then what about Shia sources? I kept going around and around when searching for scholarly rulings about this. I had always heard for the longest time that for women who are Shia that the chin is considered part of the neck and hence awrah and must be covered but now suiddently I read that no longer do most Shia Marja feel that covering the chin is necessary!
In a more recent ruling, Ayatollah Sistani states that the underside of the chin is considered part of the face and does not need to be covere, yet in another ruling also by Ayatollah Sistani…namely his Code of Ethics he states that it is important for a Muslim woman who observes hejab to cover the underside of the chin and that it is considered awrah! I can only speculate that maybe his views changed over time. I don’t know. I read elsewhere that the rulings from his “ethics” must be taken as supplemental.
Anyway, in conclusion…for Sunnis…its recommended to cover the chin if you are Hanafi or Shaifi. Although most likely in the other madhabs there are similar strains of thought but its not required by most, it would be more like a recommendable action. For Shia sisters it seems like its generally considered required but not mandatory, although again, each Shia scholar will have his own viewpoint so personally in that matter, one should follow the majority…right?
I’m not writing this to en’shallah upset anyone or to pretend to be a scholar or some wise educated person in the deen…I’m learning like everyone else. But I did want to share this as sometimes I get tired of explaining to sisters WHY I wear my hejab the way I do! Also I chose to include both references to Sunni AND Shia scholarly opinions because my blog is aimed at Muslim sisters in general…not Muslim sisters of one sole islamic viewpint and I have readers who are Sunni, Shia and Salafi along with non-Muslims…
I close with…ALLAH SUBHANA WA TA’ALA KNOWS BEST!
Thanks for reading! You know I love feedback and hearing from my Readers so please feel free to leave me a comment or two.
โค๏ธ-Bailey Umm Ibrahim
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Thank you. While I have never put much thought into this topic, it gave me some insight.
A friend of mine had the opportunity to ask Ayat. Sistani personally on this about a decade ago, and it was confirmed that according to him it is not required to cover the chin. This friend also said that his book of rulings for people in the West supersedes all others for people in the West; if there is any conflict between books that have been issued, it is the most accurate and up-to-date.
That being said of course there’s nothing wrong with covering the chin and if one prefers it, should do so. One reason I like amiras is that it is easy to cover the chin with them, but some people think they are not long enough in the chest area – my personal take is it depends on what you’re wearing and what your body type is.
Jazak Allah khair for writing this. I have worn my scarf to cover my chin almost since I have been wearing hijab. I never really looked into it from a scholarly perspective, I just knew that after I had worn it that way once…I felt weird going out with my chin exposed, kind of like it was supposed to be covered up. It was very interesting reading about the scholarly opinions on this subject. Once again, jazak Allah khair for a great post!
I just saw loads of Amirahs today with an added-in chin piece at an Afghani fabric store that also sells a small selection of hijabs and abayas, maybe this is a new style that is becoming more mainstream (they were Amirahs made by the usual brands from Syria etc-just with added chin piece)
wa salaam…w.oooow! I want! seriously… n’ they are soo comfy!
NB-That isn’t including the original ‘Al-Amirah’ brand though but the other brands you typically see around. They had a few in another store as well but not as wide a selection. These were the one piece ones, as well as your typical spandex-y ones they had some in an embroidered cotton blend crinkle crepe type fabric
Salam,
I cover my under chin.
It suits me better and i feel better with mu under chin coverd.
XO Arezu
Agreed, it’s an interesting issue! Personally, I cover my chin… only because I do feel that best fulfills hijab requirements in terms of the scarf, but you’re right that we do have so many different opinions by scholars so I’d say in this one that either form of wearing the scarf is OK as long as you are following the scholar/madhab you feel is right. In short, I agree haha!
Selam sis. As a Hanafi I follow the ruling that we leave these discussions to scholars with ijazat.
I agree but its still okay to discuss rulings and what people do with them, as long as your not issuing rulings then thats different, unless your a scholar.
as salaamu alaikum
i follow shafi’i school. and my sheiks i study under didn’t mention covering the chin on a daily basis. but that the chin has to be covered for salat to be valid. because the chin is part of the neck. and not the face, but this is probably also why women cover their chin daily.
asalam waliykum,
i cover my chin becuase i dislike the underside of my chin, round face and all. And i feel its more modest. i never heard anything about it being awrah so it really is my personal choice. But jazakallah khier for the research, this has lead me to want to research it. inshallah what i findill post on my blog too. thank you sis, very intreresting ๐