Why are women not made to cover their faces during hajj? Well, without hajj you take such strong exception to this. And if even at hajj this is done, then what would be the state of affairs? Have you heard that joke about a scorpion who was asked once by somebody, Mr. Scorpion, why is it that I see you only in the summer and never in the winter? Where do you hide yourself and why? He said, it is enough how you treat me in the summer. Forget about the winters, please. I dare not come in the winters because I remember your treatment of me in the summer.
So something like that, I mean if I take it lightly I should say, that isn’t it enough that you are required to cover your faces in ordinary life? Must you cover your face also in the hajj? Is it not enough already? Why did it occur to you, I mean generally people ask questions, why must we cover our faces? And you are asking why must not we cover our faces? Just a minute. There are certain occasions which demand that there should be no purdah. At times of accidents, at times of havocs, at times of national crisis, where there is an urgency, we have seen purdah clad ladies walk out almost barely dressed in the streets and nobody takes an exception.
Because those are not the occasions where normal urges of human, normal human urges arouse to interfere with the sanctity of situations. To interfere with the sanctities of ladies or the normal day-to-day human practices. You know segregation of sexes has a purpose. It serves the purpose of unduly, of preventing undue excitement which may lead you to erroneous behavior. That is the underlying philosophy. So when in ordinary situations like accidents and things, these things are automatically omitted. No purdah is either required or expected and no purdah can possibly be held.
Because those situations are enough guarantee against the eyesight going astray or wrong ideas developing. Hajj is even a fitter example of such a situation. In fact, hajj has turned everybody into a mahram. In ordinary life you never wear a haram, do you? In hajj you wear a haram. And you know that purdah is not observed with the mahram. Mahram is the close relative with whom you never observe purdah. Because you expect that a mahram always has pure looks and a pure heart vis-à-vis you. You never expect wrong things of you and you can never expect wrong things of a mahram. Like a father, like a brother, like a sister, like a mother and so on. All these are mahrams.
So in hajj everybody becomes a mahram. When he wears that haram, there are so many restrictions attached to that area and those times by Allah. And there is so much fear instilled into human hearts at that time. And all your attention is drawn to pious thoughts so strongly that Allah tells us, and that is a symbol, that now all human beings have become mahrams in that area. So there shouldn’t be any purdah. Because in ordinary life with mahrams you don’t observe purdah.
The atmosphere is charged with piety. The atmosphere is sanctified by the Holy Qur’an and the obligations laid upon mahrameen and so on and so forth. Now all you can say is that perhaps some people may break the rules. Despite the fact some people may have wrong ideas. But such things happen even among mahrams in corrupt societies. So that is as applicable there as here.
So in fact the secret lies in your state of being a mahram during the hajj. Mahram means you are doubly responsible to guard against all stray excursions of your sights and so on and so forth.
