Display of Gheerah

During the third Islamic Century (Hijri), the Judge of Rayy and Ahwaaz, Musa ibn Ishaaq (may Allah have mercy on him), sat to adjudicate people's disputes.

Among the litigants was a woman who claimed five hundred dinars from her husband.

The husband denied the claim.

The Judge said to the husband, "Bring your witnesses."

The husband said, "I have brought them."

The Judge said to one of the witnesses, "Look at the wife so you may point her out during testimony."

The witness stood up and said to the woman, "Stand."

Upon this, the husband said, "What do you want from her?"

The husband was told, "It is necessary that the witness sees your wife unveiled so that he may know that it is your wife."

The husband detested his wife unveiling her face for the witnesses in public. He said out loud, "I make the Judge my witness that this dowry of my wife is an obligation on me, and she must not unveil her face!"

When the wife heard this, she thought it was wonderful that her husband disapproved of her unveiling her face before the witnesses, and was protecting her from the sight of people.

She too said aloud at the dowry, "I make you a witness that I have granted my dowry to him, and have absolved [forgiven] him in this world and the hereafter!"

The Judge said to those around him, "Record this as a moral standard."

Moral

From this story we learn about the gheerah (protective jealousy) that Muslim men had in the past over their wives, so much so, that they would sacrifice something like the husband did in the story, so that their wives wouldn't be put into a compromising position in which they have to uncover. Gheerah is something which is being lost in recent times, and you see men who don't care about what their wives reveal of themselves publicly.