A Response to the Tantawi Cult : The Many Books of Classical Sunni Tafsir that Mention The Covering of the Face

Recently the deceptive and sly enemy of our Ummah, “Shaykh Al-Azhar” Tantawi claimed that “The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam.” He further banned the niqab in the noble Azhar, following the whims of the shayatin and taghut within the Egyptian government, may Allah guide them all Amin!

I tried to forward 4 possible reasons why he made this horrible blunder. The first possible reason for his stance that I gave was,

That he is truly ignorant of this matter. If such is the case, it only shows the lack of knowledge held by him and his immense ignorance! It shows he has not picked up a single major work of tafsir, and has in fact abandoned the works of traditional fiqh as well!

In a comment someone challenged me on this point saying:

Dear Abul Layth,

Assalamu’alaikum. How sure are you regarding the option that you wrote assuming that Tantawi have not held a book of tafsir in his life? Are you aware of the fact that he has written a 7000 long tafsir on the Qur’an which took him over 10 years to complete? What book…or article of tafsir have you written my friend?

If it is true that Tantawi wrote a “7000 [page] long tafsir” while still claiming that the Niqab has nothing to do with Islamic law, then one could say that this claim of mine must be null. For certainly this “master of Islam”,”doctor of the law”, “Shaykh of Al-Azhar”, Jurisconsult appointed by the idiot and human rights abuser Hosni Mubarak must certainly know more than the insignificant Abul-Layth!

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The Shafi'i Stance on Women Covering Their Face

Compiled by Abul Layth for all English Speaking Shafi’is

Last Updated: Sept 17th 2008 

This article is a compilation of all of the statements of the shafi’i jurists that I could find specifically on the issue of covering the face. I am sure there are more, and if I find more, I will add them to this collection. I have taken many of these quotes from the SeekingIlm research paper “Defending the Obligation of Niqab”. Many, however, are newly translated and are taken from my own personal research regarding this legal issue. I hope this collection of statements encourages all Shafi’is to implement the madh-hab’s official stance on the issue.

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