Section: It is permissible to look at the slave woman with respect to what usually appears of her, such as the face, head, hands, and legs, because Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, saw a slave woman with a face covering (89), so he struck her with his whip and said, "You lowly woman! Do you imitate free women?" Abu Hafs narrated with his chain of transmission that Umar would not let a slave woman wear a veil (qina') during his caliphate and would say, "The veil is only for free women (90)." If looking at such parts of her (91) were prohibited, he would not have forbidden her from covering them, but would have commanded it. It was narrated that Anas said that when the Prophet - peace and blessings of Allah be upon him - took Safiyyah, the people said, "We do not know whether he made her a Mother of the Believers or a concubine (umm walad)." They said, "If he veils her, then she is a Mother of the Believers, and if he does not veil her, then she is a concubine." When he mounted, he prepared a space for her behind him and drew the veil (hijab) between himself and the people. Agreed upon (92). This is evidence that the lack of veiling for slave women was widespread and well-known among them, and that veiling for others was [also] known. The followers of al-Shafi'i said: It is permissible to look at the slave woman with respect to what is not an 'awrah (intimate part), which is what is above the navel and below the knee. Some of our companions treated the free woman and the slave woman as equal, due to the saying of Allah, the Almighty: {And let them not display their adornment}, the verse, and because the reason for the prohibition of looking is the fear of temptation (fitnah), and the feared temptation is the same regarding both the free woman and the slave woman; for freedom is a legal status that has no effect on a natural matter. We have already mentioned what points to the specification and necessitates the distinction between them. Even if they do not differ in what they have mentioned, they differ in sanctity and in the difficulty of covering. However, if the slave woman is beautiful and there is fear of temptation by her, it is prohibited to look at her, just as it is prohibited to look at a youth by whom temptation is feared. Ahmad said regarding a slave woman if she is beautiful: She should wear a niqab, and one should not look at the owned woman; how many a glance has cast turmoil into the heart of its observer.
Section: As for the young female child who is not yet fit for marriage, there is no harm in looking at her. Ahmad said, in
(89) In M: "a woman wearing a face cover". In the following two source references: "a slave woman wearing a veil". (90) Both reports were recorded by Ibn Abi Shaybah in: The Chapter on the slave woman praying without a head covering, from the Book of Prayers. Al-Musannaf 2/230. And by Abd al-Razzaq in: The Chapter on the head covering, from the Book of Prayer. Al-Musannaf 3/136. (91) In B: "of them". (92) Its verification has preceded on page 348.
