A Reflection on Women Attire in the Quran; a Study on Ayat Al-Hijāb

Hijab, jilbab or khimar known as a piece of garment which usually worn by Muslim women in order to obey their God. It becomes a symbol that shows their identity. Besides, Hijab has a particular meaning according to multiple perspectives which resulted variant styles and types of hijab in one community, with or without syari'ah compliance. Fashion trends also plays the role in modifying women attire and the issue about this seems more complicated since the guidelines were avoided. This paper will goes through the commentaries of Qur'an to examine the requirements of proper women attire as mentioned specifically on ayat al-hijab. It results that Qur'an already put some guidelines on proper attire for Muslim women such as: the garments used to cover body parts is must be long, wide and thick enough. Not being overdressed also included as a requirement.


A. Introduction
When addressing women attire, it is accordingly about the pieces of garment worn by them to cover their bodies. Al-Qurtuby mentioned in his tafsīr that the majority of scholars or called jumhūr most agreed that women are only allowed to reveal their faces and hands. 1 This means that women need more pieces of garment than men to cover the upper and lower parts of their bodies.
All Muslim women are sure and well informed about this obligatory. Despite, some of them are failed to understand the meaning of hijab used it only to define it as a head cover only or being worn only when they are outside the house without concerning the strangers (non mahram) or not . Hence, multiple understandings and fashion trends have their own impact in the application of this syari"ah in their life. Various styles, types and colors show in existence and lately, hijab syar"i comes out as a trend. But another problem shows up, since they modify their attire to a 'modern' look, such as a head cover style which looks like a wavy hair, an excessive adornment, or any shocking color which put into attention, made a proper hijab is not only define as a wide and long garment which cover the body parts. But it has its special requirements which beautifully explained by God in His book. This is what this paper tried to address. It is all about the reflection of women attire by studying the commentaries of ayat alhijab in Qur'an. And it found that hijab is more than only about a head cover.

B. The meaning of Hijab, Jilbab and Khimar
The word Hijab found in lisan al-Arab dictionary can be mean as as-sitr which can translated as curtain, cover or partition. 2 Further, the word Hijab and its derivative was found 8 times repeatedly in Quran, as it sorted by its meanings such as Partition, Screen and Curtain, as written in the And for the word Jilbab or Jalabib; in plural, Ibn Mandzur gave it meaning as a qamis or clothes. It also can defined as the clothes which is wider than khimar, which covers an upper part of women from head until chest. Or it is a material worn by women to cover her clothes from upper parts. 4 It pointed out that Jilbab is an outer garments covering the whole body traditionally and it worn by some Muslim women. This word was mentioned in surah al Ahzab 59 as recited: "O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused."

C. The Characteristic of Women Attire
The first thing to be discussed in this part is about the part which is obligatory to be covered and to not showing it to the strangers. Regarding to this issue, Ar-Razi 5 was discussed it in detail about the aurah parts and to whom it was permissible to be revealed, as mentioned in the table below.

The Limitation of
Aurah Men Women

Men
All parts between knee and navel. Both knee and navel are excluded from aurah, except for Imam Abu Hanifah who said that knee is aurah. And Imam Malik said that thigh is also excluded from aurah. Special condition: If looking at his face or his body are lead to syahwat then it is forbidden. And also it was abominable to do hugging, embracing each other at lips and sharing one blanket at same time. 3. Looking at her with syahwah and it was forbidden.

Non-Strangers (Mahram):
First: blood related because of lineage, breast feeding and marriage (laws): their aurah are same as mens to mens aurah which is in between knee to the navel. Second: Wife, there are no aurah between them.

Women
As mentioned in men to men's aurah. With addition: it was not permissible to show their aurah to nonmuslim women because they are included in group of strangers.
Apparently, the Qur'an 6 also mentioned the number of mahrams who are permissible to see women adornment, as written on the After knowing the limitation of aurah which is allowed to be seen by strangers or non-strangers, women are asked to not expose their body parts and its adornments.
There are some requirements pointed by Islam such an ideal characteristic of garments or fabrics can be worn by Muslim women. This obligation of Hijab are applied to all Muslim women. Covering their bodies from heads to toes, hiding it behind the wide and loose garments until their body shapes become unseen. As other scholars mentioned a wide and loose type of garments as a respected attires to be worn, it found that Syeikh Abdul Rauf Al Fansuri mentioned the type of garments in particular. As he said: "Dan hendaklah ditutup oleh mereka itu atas segala kepala dan lehernya dan segala dada mereka itu dengan segala telekung mereka itu dan jangan dinyatakan mereka itu hias mereka itu yang tersembunyi yaitu lain daripada muka dan dua tapak tangannya" 7 Telekung is a special garment worn by Muslim women in Asia particularly when performing Salah. Normally, telekung made by very long and wide garment covers all parts of head, neck, extended until the knee. It can be understood here, that telekung is a cultural attire of an Asian ladies which fulfilled the requirements of sharia, as it's loose, wide and long. By mentioning telekung as a particular example to women head covers, turned out the multiple perceptions. One: telekung is wear as regular clothes as daily basis. Two: telekung is one of head cover style for Muslim women on that days. It worn regularly during performing Salah, and Sheikh Abdurrauf suggested telekung as an exact apparel to be worn for daily uses as it meets the sharia criteria. By noting telekung, indirectly, it can be noticed that a particular characteristic of hijab is long and wide which may cover all aurah parts. He also mentioned another type of head cover, it is selendang which is a common attire around Malay people. It's much like shawl, a square, triangular or oblong piece of wool or other material worn by women to cover their head, neck and shoulders. From its definition, it was known that selendang is little bit smaller than telekung, in size. What brought to attention is, Sheikh Abdul Rauf mentioned both selendang and telekung when he interpreted the attire guidelines for postmenstrual women which usually reached their old ages, not to all women. 8 It left the assumption that, selendang is commonly wear by late age women, or, selendang is only allowed and 'legal' to be worn by those late age women. But, it was really clear explained that Quran mentioned the conditions of women who are not being effected to the previous obligation. Those are the women of postmenstrual age, or in menopause state because of their late age, and those who has no desire of marriage anymore, those are allowed to put aside their outer garments which cover their faces and heads. Ibn Ashur said for those post-menstrual women, they are allowed to lessen this garment to their chest, but they are allowed to open free their head cover as well. 9 From here, it pointed out that wide and lose are the requirements of hijab garments, and telekung or selendang, both meets the criteria.
The next requirement of proper attire for Muslim women as mentioned in the Qur'an 10 is to not overdress. By pointed His command to not overdress when leaving home and adhere jahiliyah women at the next part of ayah, means, keep residing at home is not an obligation, it's just a way to be covered. And it's allowed to leave the house with a proper clothes covering their aurah and not be overdress like the women in jahiliyyah did. Zamakhsyari said jahiliyyah here was divided into two categories. Jahiliyah al-Ula is the first era of Jahiliyyah or also known as Jahiliyah al Juhala". There were various sayings about exact time of Jahiliyah al Juhala. First, it is at the time of Prophet Ibrahim was born. Another opinion estimated that it was in between Prophet Adam and Prophet Noah, or between Idris and Noah, or Daud and Sulaiman times. It was narrated that, at that time, the women was wearing clothes with embroidered by pearl and walking around the road in purposed to show themselves to their men. 11 Then, Abu Hayyan 12 defined that Tabarruj is showing the beauty or attractiveness from their faces or bodies which may invite the desire of their opposite genders.
Later, there are Two maqasid Syari"ah of creating libas for the children of Adam spoken out from the Qur'an, 13 first: to conceal their private part and then second: as an adornments to them. And the clothing of righteousness is the best o clothing. It explained that Syari"ah allowed to dress up and beautify ourselves by the garments which was one from the maqasid, but then, the next rule to be specified is, libaasut taqwa dzaalika khayr. The clothing of righteousness-that is better. Zamakhsyari was saying that Libaas al taqwa is the garments or clothes which covered their private parts (aurah), and it is a way better than libaas al zinah or the adorning clothes. 14 Although, there was an opinion said that this verse is only about Allah's bounty, but al Qurtuby mentioned that this is an ayah about the obligation of covering aurah as God said "yuwaarii sau-aatikum" 15 meanwhile, Al Maraghi also shared the same view when he put the first function of clothes is to cover aurah and more over it can be used as an adornments in second. 16 Or as embellishment and beautification. 17 Later, by mentioning libaas altaqwa in the end of this verse after exhibiting the luxurious of His favors in terms of this garments, is more like asserting one general rule. He bestowed a favor upon human by His power; as a garments is one of His bounty, then He also want human to remember that those ni"mah came from Him. And being modest, not being overdressed, no dazzling display, is the ways to show gratitude upon Him.
Moreover, turns out that Hijab is not only about a piece of garment worn to hide a body parts. As Qur'an 18 mentioned that hijab is also about lowering gaze and guarding the visions. Lowering gaze is categorized under discussion of Hijab matters, yet, it is kind of partition or screen which is related to sight and vision 19 not to the outer garments or another kind of veil and scarfs only. Zamakhsyari said the obligation of lowering visions is for both men and women. They are advised to guard their sight from other private part which known as aurah. It is permissible to see the parts of aurah only if it covered by clothes. But there is an exception, if the material of clothes is very thin, then putting a sight onto it is forbidden. 20 From this explanation it was clear, that women were asked to conceal and not to expose their body parts, adornments, being overly dressed and tapping their feet in order to invite the attention of opposite gender, in balance, men also asked to lower their gaze and guard their private part.

D. Conclusion
Women attire is one of big issues to be discussed nowadays. As the fashion industry also took a part on developing and modifying the styles and types of women attires. Some regulations mentioned in syari"ah were denied. Fashion trend tends to show the beauty overly and avoid the maqasid or purposes of clothing. And some Muslim women also failed to understand and choose to avoid the requirements of proper clothing on order to be 'up to date'.
The very clear characteristic of a proper women attire mentioned in Qur'an is being long, wide and thick enough until it can hide the body parts. And the skin color of that body parts also remain hidden. Evidently, concealing the body parts and adornments is not only from strangers, as if it leads to syahwah, than covering aurah and hiding the adornments from non-strangers is necessary as well.
After being covered properly, the next regulations about proper attire is to not overdress. Being modest in clothing is highly recommended than wearing any dazzling adornments, choosing any shocking colors, or tapping their feet which can invite the attention of the opposite gender.
Then, the last thing to mention is hijab is not only about covering body parts but also about lowering and guarding the visions and gazes towards the opposite gender. It shows that Islam is well balanced and organized when it comes to syari"ah. Here, women were asked to dress properly according to syari"ah¸besides, men also asked to lower and guard their sight, vision and private parts.