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Covering the Nakedness of Children 

Answered as per Shafi'i Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Sidi Moustafa Elqabbany

In the Reliance, f5.3 in the section of Clothing One’s Nakedness, it seems to imply that young children have the same ‘awra as adults. Would this mean that when going out, girls who haven’t reached puberty need to cover everything except face and hands?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Preliminaries

One is only legally responsible for Islamic obligations once one has passed puberty. Whenever something is said to be compulsory for a child under the age of puberty, it is actually obligatory upon the child’s guardian to see that the child does so. Similarly, if something is forbidden for a child, then it is obligatory for the child’s guardian to ensure the child abstains from it. A child’s guardian must ensure that he or she starts learning his or her obligations at an age of seven lunar years. These issues are dealt with in more detail in the following messages:

Reaching Puberty

Raising Children

Nakedness In Prayer vs. Nakedness Outside of Prayer

The section of Reliance of the Traveller that you are referring to is concerned with what needs to be covered during prayer. This is not the same as what needs to be covered at other times. For example, a woman must cover everything other than her face and hands during prayer, even if she is alone. This is considerably more than she needs to cover when alone but not engaged in prayer.

General Principles

  • Looking at anyone, other than one’s spouse, with lust or enamorment is forbidden, regardless of age.
  • When a boy or girl has passed puberty, he or she is treated as an adult in terms of looking at the opposite sex and in terms of covering nakedness (awra).
  • A child who is close to puberty, but hasn’t yet gone through it, is called a murahiq. A murahiq is treated the same as an adult in terms of looking at the opposite sex and in terms of covering nakedness.

It is often the case that a girl must start covering and a boy must stop looking before becoming a murahiq, as detailed below.

When Children Have to Start Covering

As soon as a girl is desirable by men of normal sexual inclination, she must cover as an adult. However, an adult woman has to cover in varying degrees depending on the nature of the boy before her. This is described in more detail below.

Before a girl is desirable, only her private parts (which include her genitals, anus, and the area where pubic hair grows) need to be covered. The mother, or whoever else is involved in raising the child, is excepted from this rule.

A boy who isn’t yet a murahiq has the same legal nakedness (awra)as a girl who isn’t yet desirable. Once he is a murahiq or passes puberty, he is treated as an adult.

When Women Have to Start Covering In Front of Boys

Once a boy can describe women with desire, women (including girls who are desirable by men of normal sexual inclination) must also cover in front of him like an adult. If the boy can describe women well, but without desire, they must cover in front of him as they would in front of a mahram (unmarriageable relative).

If a young boy (who isn’t yet a murahiq) can describe women with desire, they would cover in front of him as an adult, but he would only have to cover his private parts in front of them.

References

Al-Bayjuri, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad. Hashiya al-Allama al-Fadil wa al-Qudwa al-Kamil ash-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Bayjuri `Ala Sharh al-Allamah Ibn Qasim Al-Ghazzi. 2 vols. Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi wa Awladuh, 1343.

Al-Jurdani, Muhammad ibn Abdullah. Fath al-Allam bisharh Murshid Al-Anam. 4 vols. 1408/1988. Reprint. Cairo: Dar as-Salam.

Allah the Exalted knows best and He alone gives success.

Moustafa Elqabbany
Metro Vancouver, Canada

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