Is wearing a headscarf fard in Islam?

Dear Brother / Sister,

There are two verses in the Quran on this issue. In these verses Allah (swt) says clearly: 

“O Prophet! say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments (when out of doors)” (1)

“And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and to be mindful of their chastity, and not to display their charms [in public> beyond what may [decently> be apparent thereof; hence, let them draw their head-coverings over their bosoms.” (2) 

In the verses, believing women are not told exactly how to veil and which parts to show. But this hadith (word of prophet Muhammad) explains the verses. Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) told to his sister-in-law Hz. Asma, “O Asma! It is not correct for a woman to show her parts other than her hands and face to strangers after she begin to have menstruation.” (3)

Therefore it is a must for a Muslim lady reaching to puberty to cover her head, told by Allah and His messenger. It is fard (religious duty) to cover the head except the face part, the neck and the chest. And to show them is haram (forbidden) since it means quitting a fard. The ones who do not cover become committing sin and take a big responsibility since they don’t obey the command of Allah and His messenger. A person becoming a sinner repents to be cleared from his sin and begs Allah’s pardon. 

“And those who, having done an act of indecency to be ashamed of, or wronged their own souls, remember Allah, and ask for forgiveness for their sins,- and who can forgive sins except Allah? - and are never obstinate in persisting knowingly in (the wrong) they have done. For such the reward is forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens with rivers flowing underneath,- an eternal dwelling: How excellent a recompense for those who work (and strive)!” (4)

So for a sin to be forgiven we are required not to insist on it when there is no excuse.

A hadith on this issue tells: 

“When the believer commits a sin, a black spot appears on his heart. If he repents, quits that sin and asks for forgiveness from Allah, his heart is cleaned from that spot. If he goes on the sin, that spot gets bigger. There the ‘covering of the heart by the sin’ taking place in the Quran indicates this.” (5)

“There is a road to the kufr (disbelief, denial) in every sin” expresses an important truth. Such that, a person insisting on a sin gets used to that sin by time and becomes unable to quit it. This addiction leads him to the bigger spiritual dangers. It goes to the belief of sin’s not having a punishment in the afterlife, and even to the belief of there should be no Hell. (6) 

In order not to be exposed to such a danger and not to be deceived by the Satan we should quit our sins and pull ourselves together.

1) Surah (chapter) of Ahzab (The Allies), 59. 

2) Surah of Nur (The Light), 31. 

3) Abu Dawud, Libas: 33.

4) Surah of Âl-i-Imran (The Family Of Imran), 135-136. 

5) Ibn Maja, Zuhd: 29.

6) Lem'alar, p. 7; Mesnevî-iNuriye, p. 115. 

Mehmet Paksu

For more information on this subject, please click on the links given below;

The limit of tasattur of woman is designated in the Holy Qur’an as follows:

Does a women have to wear full sleeve clothing in the home?

Can the hair of a woman be uncovered while her husband performs salah in the same room?

Questions on Islam