Why is Islam so harsh towards a woman that just by leaving a few hairs out, it considers her worthy of the torment of hell?

woman's covering

In which verse of the Qur'an is it stated that if a single strand of a woman's hair is exposed in front of a non-mahram, she will be punished on the Day of Judgment? And if it is mentioned in a narration, is the document valid!?

The hijab of women is one of the unquestionable commands of Islam, which also exists in other divine religions. Women's clothing is so important that it is mentioned in the Holy Quran and many hadiths. It is natural that not following some order of Islam will cause some problems in this world and punishment in the hereafter.

In this regard, the Messenger of God (PBUH) said to Imam Ali (PBUH) and Hazrat Zahra (PBUH) about what he saw on the night of Ascension: I saw women hanging by their hair. The woman who was hanging in the fire by her hair, does not cover her hair from the non-mahram."[1]

However, it is not stated in any authentic verse or narration that women will enter hell if only one or two strands of their hair are out, and the narrations that declare the punishment of a woman for not wearing hijab are about leaving hair out, not one or two strands of hair.!

And in fact, no woman leaves only one or two strands of her hair out!

But it should be noted that the Qur'an says that man will see the result of his smallest actions on the Day of Judgment:

And whoever does even an iota of evil will see it.[2]

Therefore, he wishes for distance between himself and his bad deeds:

The day when every soul will find present whatever good it has done; and as for the evil, it has done, it will wish there were a far distance between it and itself. Allah warns you to beware of [disobeying] Him, and Allah is most kind to [His] servants.[3]

This divine law that "everyone will see his smallest deed in the Hereafter" is a general law that includes telling a small lie, drinking a drop of wine, stealing a very small amount, doing a little harm to Parents, underselling as much as a few grams, gambling even though winning only one chocolate! And there are cases like this that are not exclusive to leaving one or two hairs out!

Therefore, one should not be deceived by the rumors related to hijab, and one should not underestimate any sin; Because according to Imam Ali (AS) "The greatest sin is the sin that its doer considers small".[4]

Nevertheless, we do not believe that a woman who has submitted to religion and has a good relationship with God, and the weight of her good deeds are more than her bad deeds, will definitely go to hell for just one or two hairs.

Because non-infallible people always have sins in their records that if the sin is accompanied by repentance, apology, and regret, there is a lot of hope that God will ignore these shortcomings and make him/her a companion of the righteous.

But otherwise, with the assumption of repeating and insisting on the sin, as well as belittling it, a person cannot be considered deserving of forgiveness just because of the few good deeds he has on the record.

Resources :

[1] - Sheikh Sadouq, Ayoun Akhbar al-Reza (AS), researcher, corrector, Lajurdi, Mahdi, vol. 2, pp. 10-11, Tehran, publisher Jahan,

[2] - وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ. Surah Zelzal:8

[3] - يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مُحْضَرًا وَمَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُوءٍ تَوَدُّ لَوْ أَنَّ بَيْنَهَا وَبَيْنَهُ أَمَدًا بَعِيدًا ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ. Surah Al-Imran:30

[4] -Seyyed Razi, Muhammad bin Hossein, Nahj al-Balaghah, Mohaghegh, Sobhi Saleh, p. 535, Qom, Hijrat, first edition, 1414 AH