Must a woman veil herself from her male slaves?

Question

I have seen questions regarding slave women and their male masters but what if the roles are reversed. Can a male slave see his female mistress?

Answer 1

The 'awrah of a woman in front of her own male slaves is disagreed upon.

Most hold the opinion that her slave is like her mahram in this ruling (see What kind of clothes are to be worn around mahrams?). Hence she does not need to observe hijab from the slave, rather she is only obligated to cover that much of her body which she is obligated to cover from her mahrams, like from her father, sons or brothers - provided that there is no risk of fitnah. The reason is that the Quran counts slaves among those to whom she can reveal her adornments, along with her other mahrams:

وقل للمؤمنات ... ولا يبدين زينتهن إلا ... ما ملكت أيمانهن

And tell the believing women that ... they must not expose their adornment except to ... those owned by their right hands

^{— Quran 24:31}

لا جناح عليهن في آبائهن ولا أبنائهن ولا إخوانهن ولا أبناء إخوانهن ولا أبناء أخواتهن ولا نسائهن ولا ما ملكت أيمانهن

There is no blame upon women concerning their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their brothers' sons or their sisters' sons or their women or those their right hands possess.

^{— Quran 33:55}

As ما ملكت أيمانهن is understood to include both male and female slaves.

This view is also supported by the hadith:

أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أتى فاطمة بعبد قد وهبه لها قال وعلى فاطمة رضي الله عنها ثوب إذا قنعت به رأسها لم يبلغ رجليها وإذا غطت به رجليها لم يبلغ رأسها فلما رأى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ما تلقى قال إنه ليس عليك بأس إنما هو أبوك وغلامك

The Prophet (ﷺ) brought Fatimah a slave which he donated to her. Fatimah wore a garment which, when she covered her head, did not reach her feet, and when she covered her feet by it, that garment did not reach her head. When the Prophet (ﷺ) saw her struggle, he said: There is no harm to you: Here is only your father and slave.

^{— Abu Dawud}

While a minority opinion is that her slave is like a stranger, so she must veil everything except her face and hands from him. This view interprets ما ملكت أيمانهن in the above verses to be implicitly limited to slave women belong to the owner.

Answer 2

We have to understand that male slaves in the Muslim world were considered part of the family and were treated more like adopted sons. A male slave could look that much of his mistress which a man looked at his female mahrams. He was permitted to see her adornments and beauties. Ibn Hajar stated in Al-Minhaj that a male slave looking at his mistress is like looking at a Mahram and he can look at her body except for what is between the navel and the knee. According to one tradition, Hazrat Aisha used to comb hair in front of her male slave. A slave could travel alone with her and could be in seclusion with her in her room or house.

وقال المرداوي في الإنصاف (8/20) : " والصحيح من المذهب ( أي الحنبلي ) أن للعبد النظر من مولاته إلى ما ينظر إليه الرجل من ذوات محارمه " انتهى .

Al-Mardawi said in Al-Insaaf (8/20): The correct view of the madhhab (i.e., the Hanbali) is that a male slave can look that much of his mistress which a man looks at his female mahrams.

Ibn al-Arabi said in Ahkam al-Qur’an (3/387): Our later scholars have said that a woman’s male slave is among her Mahrams and it is as much permissible from her for her slave as as is permissible for a mahram, and it is correct in analogy.