About this site
A reference on niqab: what it is, where it came from, what the sources say, and the questions people actually ask. There was no such reference, despite niqab being a live global argument.
What is here
Short pages, each answering one question, each naming its source. Understanding Niqab covers the terms and the history. Why Niqab? sets out the scriptural argument and where the schools of law stand. Misconceptions handles claims made against the practice, claims made too strongly in its favour, and its misuse. Q&A covers the practical questions.
Pages are deliberately brief. Nobody reads long pages on the web, and the depth is in the book.
Where it comes from
The reference material summarises Bersama Niqab — around 41,500 words with 483 footnotes — by Wan Muhammad Izzat bin Wan Nor Anas al-Kutawi. Penerbitan Alkutawi published the first edition in 2019; Adjung Press published the updated second edition in 2024, which is what this site draws on. Its foreword is by Dato’ Dr. Abdul Basit bin Haji Abdul Rahman, known as Abu Anas Madani, who holds a doctorate in Sharīʿah from the Islamic University of Madīnah.
The book’s scholarly apparatus — full chains, gradings, and the hundred-odd scholarly positions surveyed — is not reproduced here. That is what the book is for.
What this site does not do
It does not decide whether niqab is obligatory. Scholars have differed on that for centuries, the author of the source book deliberately suspends judgement on it, and this site follows him. What it argues is that the practice is legislated and commended.
It does not present personal experience as doctrinal evidence, and it does not present the author’s own interpretation as agreed scholarship. Both are labelled.
It is not a bookshop. The book will be sold here soon, and cited throughout, but the site exists to answer questions rather than to move copies.
Still being built
Pages are added as they are written and checked. Sections that have no content yet say so rather than being filled with placeholder text.
Adjung Press
NIQAB is published by Adjung Press, a Malaysian publisher of long-form knowledge work.