- "The woman is considered a private part, and when she goes out, Satan looks at her. She is never closer to Allāh than when she is in the innermost part of her house." It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Awsaṭ" in the biography of Ibrāhīm ibn Hāshim al-Baghawī (number 3036 - my copy): Ibrāhīm narrated to us: ʿĀṣim ibn al-Naḍr narrated to us, Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us from his father, from Qatādah, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from his father, from the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) who said: and he mentioned it. I say: This isnād is authentic, all its men are trustworthy, the men of Muslim except his teacher al-Baghawī, who was deemed trustworthy by al-Dāraqutnī. He died in the year 297 as in "Tārīkh Baghdād" by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī. The ḥadīth has a strong corroborating narration from Ibn Masʿūd, recorded in "Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl" (1/303/273). Al-Mundhirī said in "al-Targhīb": "It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī in 'al-Awsaṭ', and its men are the men of (the authentic collections)." I say: Except for the teacher al-Baghawī as we mentioned. It is one of the ḥadīths that escaped al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Haythamī, as he did not include it in "Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn" nor in "Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid" as I pointed out in my commentary on the ḥadīth in "Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wa-al-Tarhīb" (1/136). The first volume has been printed, and it will be available soon, if Allāh wills. It was then published, and now the second is under printing as previously noted (p. 384). (Benefit): Some of those strict with women like to use this ḥadīth as evidence that a woman's face is a private part to strangers, but there is no evidence in it at all, because the meaning, as Ibn al-Athīr said in "al-Nihāyah":