The
Verse
of
the
Curtain

Here's a question,

how can ayats addressing the early muslims,

telling them how they should give privacy to Muhammad's wives,

be used to suggest that all women should withdraw from sight the same way?

Did no one wonder if what might be seen as a relief by some

could be seen as a hardship by others?

Isn't confinement a punishment meted out to criminals?

Surely only the rich and powerful can afford

to treat confinement as as a comfortably expansive seclusion?

So what was going on that night,

on the night of the revelation of the Verse of the Curtain?

Was withdrawal of women from public life the purpose of the revelation?

What was going on in the life of the Messenger when the verse descended?

I suppose the obvious person to ask

would be Anas ibn Malik as he was there,

so al-Tabari tells us,

when the curtain fell,

and the state of the muslim community changed.

Up to that point the community were like a family,

tied together by the revelations of the Holy Qur'an

as it threaded its way through their lives.

The Messenger was not a king,

he lived as a poor man,

and his door was always open to his companions.

But as the community grew, so did the variety of people becoming muslim,

and the burden of bridging those varied points of view

and sets of manners

must have been quite stressful upon the man at the best of times,

and it wasn't the best of times the night that verse came down.

Because Muhammad was angry,

and that was very unusual.

But even so it was not his way to let his anger control his behaviour.

He must have been used to being surrounded by all sorts of people

whose behaviour he would rather have been another way,

but he was always just a Mercy to all beings.

He spoke to anyone who addressed him

and would reply 'At your service'.

He gave to whoever asked

and was dependent on the Adab of his companions for respite.

If you think of the attention surrounding any celebrity these days,

the crowds and the paparazzi,

can you imagine the attention that would surround someone

that was liable at any moment to speak the Words of God?

And wouldn't the same kind of attention have surrounded his wives,

people trying to get a look at those closest to him?

When faced with the prospect of being God's Messenger,

how overwhelming must it have been

to realise that as a Messenger you become a servant

not just of God, but of the people of God's Creation?

And how overwhelming would it have been

for the women who would share some of that burden

as the Messenger's wives?

Anyway, it had been a particularly busy day,

and a very busy evening,

and the business didn't seem to be stopping

even into the night.

And on another night the Messenger might not have cared,

but this night was a special occasion,

it was his wedding night!

Earlier in the day he had married Zaynab Bint Jahsh,

and Anas ibn Malik had been charged with inviting people to the wedding supper.

Many people came, arriving in groups, one after the other, ate and then left again.

And amidst the comings and goings, Anas ibn Malik said to Muhammad

“Messenger of God, I invited so many people that I can't find anyone else to invite.”.

Now does that sound like a busy wedding party or not?

But eventually the Messenger said “End the Meal”

and all the remaining guests departed

leaving only Zaynab,

known as a woman of great beauty,

where she had been sitting in the corner of the room.

And then of course there were the three guests

who didn't seem to care what time it was,

and who seemed to have no intention of leaving.

And they just sat there,

enjoying their conversation,

not caring that they were the only ones still there.

And eventually, Anas ibn Malik says that

Muhammad looked annoyed,

and left the room

and went for a walk.

But then, when the Messenger returned

they were still there, and apparently not going anywhere,

so yet again he left

and went to wait in Aisha's apartment.

Anas ibn Malik says that

when those guests finally left,

and Muhammad returned to the wedding chamber,

the Messenger put one foot in the room and kept the other outside,

and in that position let down what Anas ibn Malik calls a sitr,

a curtain, between them.

And at that moment, he says,

the Messenger received and recited

the verse of the curtain,

the Verse of the Hijab.

Now this word Hijab is very commonly used in the muslim world today,

but almost always with regard to women's clothing,

and particularly head covering and veiling,

and people seem to think that's very important,

so I guess we had better look at this ayat carefully

don't you?

Because the idea of hijab goes back to there.

So God begins by making clear who it is that is being spoken to,

those who believe, male and female,

but in that time and place with regard to visiting the Messenger.

And those people are told in no uncertain terms of the correct etiquette

when receiving an invitation to the Messenger's house for a meal.

Don't arrive too early,

and leave after eating

without staying around to talk.

And then God tells them how their behaviour annoys the Messenger,

and how Muhammad was too ashamed to tell them to leave,

And this is one of those places in the Qur'an

which must have been extraordinary to hear at the time,

where Allah talks about the Messenger

while using the voice of the Messenger

to speak the words.

And that's just like a little sting in the tail, isn't it,

reminding the believers just Who it is that is talking to them?

And then making clear that it's not just the etiquette for meals with the Messenger that needs to change.

From now on if they have anything to say to the Messenger's wives,

they will be expected to do so from the other side of a Hijab.

So what does that mean?

Well, firstly it means to hide something from sight,

as the root of the word means 'to hide'.

The second meaning is to separate, or mark a border,

or establish a threshold,

of the kind that the Messenger straddled when lowering the curtain.

And the third part of its meaning implies defining what is forbidden.

A space hidden by hijab is a forbidden space.

Now Anas ibn Malik had heard the word hijab when it was revealed,

but still chose to use the word sitr to describe the actual curtain that was lowered.

So does that not suggest that he was aware that the hijab was a separation,

but not the same as the physical curtain?

For hijab has a wider meaning

of a boundary and a protection.

In the body,

the bones and the hairs of the eyebrows are known as al-hajiban,

because they protect the eyes from the suns rays,

while the diaphragm is the 'hijab of the stomach',

and the hymen is the 'hijab of virginity'.

In the Qur'an the word is only used seven times.

It is used to describe the veil of separation

behind which Mary isolated herself from her people,

and on the Day of Judgement

a hijab will separate the saved and the damned.

In the Qur'an, a hijab protects those humans to whom God speaks

from the brilliant light of the Face of Allah,

and a hijab is what the idol worshippers said was between them and the Messenger,

protecting them from being affected by his Message.

For this reason, some early theologians saw hijab as a punishment.

But surely the hijab is not meant to be a punishment for the wives of the Messenger?

In the light of the circumstances of the revelation, who do you think was being protected from whom?

Yet later, this verse would be used to justify the complete veiling and seclusion of muslim women?

As far as I know,

only the Tuareg tribesmen of the Sahara

understand the verse as applying to muslim men,

and so veil themselves.

One can only imagine

the relief that the Messenger's wives would have felt at the time,

having been given Divine permission for personal privacy?

The Messenger's wives had apartments

clustered around the social hub of the Messenger's mosque,

Aisha had a door directly from her room into the mosque,

plus a window opening onto it.

With the Verse of the Hijab,

they were taken out of the public eye.

Then at the end of the verse

the Qur'an again makes clear

that God is talking specifically about

the believers attitudes to the Messenger's wives,

by also ruling that no-one could marry Muhammad's widows after him,

which would make clear to the community

not to think of them that way.

And that would certainly have annoyed at least one clan leader

who had already offered to trade wives with the Messenger,

as well as others who had threatened to marry them once they were widowed.

Then in the ayats that follow, God makes clear

that this is not to be seen as an imposition on the Messenger's wives,

making a clear list of exceptions to the ruling

including their fathers, their sons, their brothers, their nephews, and slaves.

Yet in just over 100 years,

in the time of Caliph Walid II,

muslim nobles in the court were using the verse to introduce purdah,

the seclusion of their wives,

mainly to protect them from the predations of the Caliph.

And gradually, following the fashion of the court,

this practice became more commonplace over the next few hundred years.

So women's freedom to participate in the life of the community

was slowly restricted,

in an attempt to control social behaviour by setting barriers

preventing muslim women from mixing with the community at large.

So are those restrictions on women's dress and behaviour

still enforced by many today

to be understood as the only correct interpretation of hijab?

Well, as the Qur'an makes clear

in the verses immediately following the Verse of the Curtain,

where God is concerned it makes no difference

what you try to hide behind a screen,

as Allah has knowledge of everything,

and witnesses all things.