al-Hijab Shariat Allah fi al-Islam wa al-Yahudiyya wa al-Nasraniyya
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- al-Hijab Shariat Allah fi al-Islam wa al-Yahudiyya wa al-Nasraniyya
al-Hijab: Shariat Allah fi al-Islam wa al-Yahudiyya wa al-Nasraniyya (The Veil: God's Law in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) is a comparative religious study written by the contemporary Islamic researcher Sami Amiri. The book investigates the prescription and historical practice of the veil across the three Abrahamic faiths—Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—demonstrating that modest dress and head covering represent an established divine commandment throughout religious history rather than an exclusively Islamic phenomenon.
Scope and Background
Amiri opens the work with a dedication to chaste women and includes verses by the poet Ahmad Matar composed in response to France's prohibition of the Islamic headscarf in schools. The author argues that modesty and covering have been an integral part of human history since Adam and the earlier prophetic messages, citing historical and sociological studies showing that veiling was widely practiced across various ancient cultures, including the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Hebrews, Chinese, and Romans.
Content and Structure
The book is organized into sections examining the veil within each of the three major traditions:
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The Veil in Islam: The work presents the veil as an explicit divine obligation rooted in Quranic revelation, citing passages such as وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ وَلاَ يُبْدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلاَّ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَلْيَضْرِبْنَ بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَى جُيُوبِهِنَّ (Surat al-Nur 24:31). It defines the minimum scope of Islamic modest dress as clothing that covers the entire body before non-mahram men, noting the classical legal differences regarding the uncovering or covering of the face, hands, and feet. The Islamic section also addresses contemporary intellectual controversies and responds to critiques and polemical arguments raised by secularists and Christian missionaries against the Islamic veil.
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The Veil in Judaism: The author examines scriptural proofs from the Old Testament, holy Jewish jurisprudence, and rabbinic literature, showing that head covering was treated as a mandatory obligation for Jewish women. Drawing on historical and archaeological evidence—including the Roman Judaea Capta coins and early Christian testimonies such as that of Tertullian—the text documents that Hebrew and Jewish women in antiquity and the Middle Ages routinely wore head and body coverings in public.
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The Veil in Christianity: The study examines New Testament scriptures, particularly Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (11:4–10), which enjoins women to cover their heads during prayer and worship. It documents the broad consensus among early Church Fathers and ecclesiastical councils requiring modest dress and head coverings both inside churches and in public spaces. Furthermore, it surveys the history of Christian women's attire in Europe, noting the medieval adoption of garments such as the wimple (khimar) covering the head, neck, and chin, influenced partly by contact with Muslim women during the Crusades.
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