Many readers have asked for a follow-up to the article I wrote last week about some employees in the Grand Mosque asking women to cover their faces. Some readers have little or no experience in these matters while others have questioned my integrity, saying that I let my imagination run wild, based on what I saw on TV. The fact is that I plan to go to Makkah after Eid in order to meet the authorities there and get an official response.

To set the record straight, I have not accused all employees in the Grand Mosque of asking women to cover their faces. Many of them have made no such request but some others have and their numbers are apparently on the increase.

Though I did not bring this up in my first article, a personal family friend complained to me of the treatment she received at the Grand Mosque. She is an American who converted to Islam several years ago and she said that when she performed Umrah for the first time, she stood frozen in awe in front of the Kaaba. She said she experienced a feeling of spirituality that she could not describe. Her intense moment was interrupted by a shout from one of the employees of the Grand Mosque, “Woman, cover your face!”

The shout was followed by her being hit on the back by the employee with his stick. A woman being hit with a stick in the Grand Mosque? As shocking as it is, it did happen.

Whether we know how many people behaving this way in the Grand Mosque is not the main issue here. I believe the main issue is that such things should never happen in God’s House and certainly not in the name of Islam.

Two e-mails I received from readers were particularly interesting. Both were from the subcontinent; one was a follower of the Hanafi school while the other did not specify any school but criticized my approach, saying that Muslim women are required to cover their faces whether performing Umrah or not. In my responses, I made it clear that we Muslims base our behavior upon the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He is our role model. The first reader wrote that even though the Hanafi school says a woman must not cover her face when she performs Umrah, he thinks they should do so because of “the possibility of temptation.”

My reply to him was that if we go back and read in the Hadith how the Prophet (pbuh) performed Haj, we would find a relevant section. It mentions that one of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh) who was a handsome young man was staring at women’s faces. The Prophet (pbuh) touched the young man’s chin and gently turned his face away from the women. If the Prophet (pbuh) had required women to cover their faces when they perform Haj or Umrah, he would have said so but he did not. And this Hadith is just one example: The usual practice when the Prophet (pbuh) performed his only Haj was for women’s faces to be uncovered.

Another matter that I mentioned was that Islam is a balanced religion. According to some scholars, Muslim women are required to cover their entire bodies from the tops of their heads to their feet — and this includes their eyes and fingernails. Some scholars say that failing to do so constitutes a sin. Suppose that is true. What then would we Muslim men turn away from as requested by God in the Qur’an?

Were we not asked by God in the Qur’an to “turn away your eyes”? If women were required to cover completely, what would there be to turn away from? Indeed, what would there be to see in the first place? I will not mention all the Hadith which inform us that common practice at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) was for Muslim women to dress modestly — no revealing clothing, no tight clothing and everything covered except the face and hands.

There is another point that should be addressed here. One of the most-quoted verses in the Qur’an tells us that there should be no compulsion in matters of religion.

The greatest freedom that God has bestowed upon mankind is for them to choose their own path, their own faith. No one should be forced to follow any certain faith or ideology. In other words, if a woman’s face is uncovered, no one has the right to ask her to cover it in the name of religion that is, unfortunately, being done here by many who consider themselves pious and religious.

At the same time, a woman who chooses to cover her face should not be required to uncover it. Either way, it is the woman’s choice and whatever her choice, it should be respected. Every person’s freedom to choose should be respected. And that, folks, is one of the principles of our tolerant and merciful religion.