#263: Ruling on Women`s Voice as an Awrah
QUESTION
” Assalamu alaykum, please I have a question. Is the voice of a woman part of her awrah!”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh
Alhamdulillāh
The majority of the Ulamā from the various Madhāhib have agreed that the voice of a woman is not of her ‘Awrah and that it is Harām to listen to her voice if it can lead to Fitnah..
This position was echoed by Imām Ibn ‘Ābidīn of the Hanafī school, Ad-Dasūqī Al-Mālikī in his Hāshiyah, An-Nawawī and Ash-Shuraybānī of the Shāfi’ī madh’hab, and Al-Mardāwī Al-Hanbalī in Al-Insāf. But they all mentioned the very minority position in their various schools that held that the woman’s voice was of her ‘Awrah.
Of the proofs that her voice is not Harām, Allāh – ta’ālā – said about the wives of the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam -:
وإذا سألتموهن متاعاً فاسألوهن من وراء حجاب
“And if you ask them for anything, then ask it of them from behind a veil”
Allāh in this verse did not forbid speaking to them at times of need but put barriers that may lead to fitnah.
He – Ta’ālā – said:
(فلا تخضعن بالقول فيطمع الذي في قلبه مرض وقلن قولاً معروفاً). [الأحزاب: 32]
“So, do not soften and make long your speech that the one in whose heart is disease may not soar up with desire. And speak that which is right and precise.”
The Scholar and linguistic expert, Sayyid Qutb – rahimahullāh – in his Tafsīr Fī Dhilāl has an excellent commentary on these verses.
He said:
“He forbade them whenever they speak with strangers from among men, from making soft and attractive their voices, the likeness of which softness soars up the desires of men and incites their desirous instincts thereby leading to the unlawful yearn of those in whose heart there is disease and the kindling of their lowly desires. To whom was Allāh directing this speech in which Allāh cautioned them this much? They were the wives of the Prophet – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – and the Mothers of the Believers who, at first thought, nobody lusted over and no Sick Intentions wonder over. And in which era was this warning? It was in the era of the Prophet – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – and the era of the Elect and Chosen of all times from all of mankind. But Allāh, who created men and women knows that in the voice of a woman when she speaks coquettishly and makes soft her voice, is that which kindles desires in the hearts and incites infatuation and fitnah in the hearts, and that the diseased hearts that soar up and are incited are found in all eras and environments and toward every woman even if she was a wife of the Honored Prophet and a Mother of the Believers. And that there is neither purification from filth nor cleanliness from stains until these causes are hindered and curbed from the onset..”
Some of the Ulamā said: What is meant by:
وقلن قولا معروفا
In the verse is
“And say a speech that is known”
What that means is that they must not code words or use slangs that only a few people or them both alone understand. That this may not be a room for the occupation of Shaytān.
And Allāh knows best…
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
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