The Husband and Wife Conceal and Protect Each Other

Last updated on September 19th, 2026 at 11:42 am

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هُنَّ لِبَاسٌ لَّكُمْ وَاَنْتُمْ لِبَاسٌ لَّهُنَّ 

Surah Baqarah, Aayat 187

“They (Your wives) are garments for you, and you are garments for them.”

A second indication in this simile [of the spouses being garments for each other] is that just as a garment has the attribute of concealing, similarly, the wife conceals the husband, and the husband conceals the wife.

This concealing is in several ways. One is that each of the two conceal each other’s faults.

The nafs has desire in it. If a single place for fulfilling these passions is not determined, then a person will fulfil his desire everywhere. In this way his shamelessness will become apparent everywhere. Therefore, the Shariat has prescribed Nikaah.

In Nikaah, one place is fixed for the desires of the nafs. In this prescription, the Shariat being more well-wishing to a person than his intellect is evident. If the intellect is questioned, then it would not have prescribed Nikaah because according to the intelligence it is awful for a person to be unclothed with another person.

If this prescription of the intellect is practised upon then there would be a greater fitnah in that, whilst in Nikaah just one man and one woman expose themselves to each other, the intellect’s [austere] counsel will lead to how many men and women exposing themselves to each other, because after all, how long can a man and woman restrain themselves from each other!

Considering the repercussions, the Heavenly Shariah has prescribed Nikaah so that the desires are restricted and fixed to one person and fitnah does not become rife. This is a sign of a Heavenly Religion; it encompasses the consequences of actions, whereas those laws and constitutions which are the products of human intellect do not encompass the repercussions and consequences.

(Raf’ul Iltibaas – To be continued, Insha Allah)

The gaze of the Shariat is on the end results. Although apparently, it may seem in conflict with the primary rule (azeemat), but in so far as consequences are concerned, what the Shariat prescribes is the best.

Accordingly, the intellect takes chastity (Haya) altogether to be the desired goal, and it says that Nikaah is in conflict with Haya. But the Legislator of the Law of the Shariah promulgated the Law of Nikaah for the preservation of Haya. The reason for this is that if a person were to be restricted by not letting go of Haya anywhere, then he would become completely bê-haya (utterly shameless).

Thus, the husband and wife are garments and concealers of each other, meaning that they conceal each other from faults and wrongs.

This benefit is explained in this manner in the Hadeeth:

مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ مِنْكُمُ الْبَاءَةَ فَلْيَتَزَوَّجْ فَاِنَّه اَغَضُّ لِلْبَصَرِ وَاَحْصَنُ لِلْفَرْجِ

“Whoever has the means of making Nikaah (marrying) he should marry, because Nikaah lowers the gaze immensely and it protects one’s chastity abundantly.”

In other words, the gaze and one’s chastity are easily protected by virtue of Nikaah.

The general trend is that by virtue of Nikaah a person with a sound temperament finds it easy to acquire chasteness.

Insofar as a depraved person is concerned, one who cannot gain chasteness even after one or two or even four Nikaahs, in fact this person searches for excreta to consume even after mut’ah [Shiah-style fornication] and zina [fornication], such a person is beyond the scope of our discussion because we are speaking about human beings, not about animals and apes.

This is the nature of ease in chastity by virtue of Nikaah.

(Raf’ul Iltibaas)

The words in the Hadeeth اَغَضُّ [lowers the gaze immensely] and اَحْصَنُ [protects one’s chastity abundantly] allude to the point that lowering and protecting basically were possible even before Nikaah. If a person takes up courage, then even without marrying the person can lower his/her gaze and protect his/her chastity. But such people with such determination are very few. They are not many. Hence, the Shariat has rejected the ‘fatwa’ of the intellect [that one should not marry as one will have to expose oneself to the partner in marriage and this is contrary to haya]; and the Shariat gave the order to marry and to rebuff ‘haya’ in front of the wife.

Such inordinate haya is not praiseworthy – the wife seeking to be modest with the husband or the husband seeking to be modest with the wife.

Leaving ‘haya’ in this situation results in haya and chastity being preserved in other situations [that is, with non-wives and non-husbands]. Then the urge to sin will not be strong. The desire will subside and fade away.

But if a person wants to be free of even the thought of sinning after Nikaah; he should not have any urge to sin, this is not possible.

Thus, one indication in the simile with garments [“They are garments for you, and you are garments for them,”] is that the husband is the concealer and protector of the wife and the wife is the concealer and protector of the husband. In other words, the two preserve the haya and chastity of each other and they protect each other from sin, provided that the person wants to be saved from sin.

Insofar as a person who wants to devour excrete [commit zina] is concerned, there is no remedy for such a person.

These were two reasons for the simile which are documented in the statements of the Ulama. [The first reason appears in the post: The Strongest Bond in the World.]

(Raf’ul Iltibaas)