description of women

[noodles]

I've asked this question to another brother and he has given me an answer though he is not too sure himself. So I'll here in hopes of receiving an answer from you folks.

What is the ruling regarding describing women?


I tried some searches at islam-qa but didn't come up with anything.

I ask this because I'm considering writing some literature and I want to describe some of her features, though I'm not too sure if I should or not. Ofcourse I can cloud her in mystery, but that is my back-up solution :)

[noodles]

anyone?

[Kittygyal]

Salamualikum.
I have a sincere question to ask you brother. What do you mean by describing women? In what sense do you want to describe her?
Is it by looks or her identity her self? Do you know a muslim women to describe her?

Why not ask few sisters you know to desribe there self like leaving some few cents

Remember not all womens are same.

Allah Hu ALim.

Ma'assalama

[Woodrow]

Think in terms of this. Writing is a form of verbal imagery, a written description is similar to a painting, except you are dealing with thoughts and not vision. What you describe is the mental image the reader will have.

I would strive to be on the safe side and use only words I would use to describe the physical features of my Mother or Sister.

I can not think of any specific ruling but to some extent I think the rulings on images would apply. Because you are writing to cause the reader to have a mental image.

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[noodles]

I've searched and searched yesterday and this is the Hadith that I came up with.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamen...ml#007.062.168

Volume 7, Book 62, Number 168:

Narrated 'Abdullah:

The Prophet said, "A woman should not look at or touch another woman to describe her to her husband in such a way as if he was actually looking at her."

In regards to what way I want to describe her, well I'll just say that I'll be describing her in such a way that it would be easy to differentiate between 2-3 other characters in the story. (ie, I'm speaking character-wise and maybe some physical features. Like "She was a woman of beauty, her speech eloquent and her gaze could see through to the depths of one's soul." another example would be "Her walk towards the hull of the ship was brisk and such that it demanded attention."

These are just a couple of examples of the many that I'd like to include in what I want to write.

Jazakallah for the replies