Bismillah
allhamdulillah, sister, actually, I do not state my personal opinions. I quoted you the athar of Abdullah ibn Abbas (radiAllahu anho) to show that the scholars differ over this issue, including the early scholars, and it is not as straight as some of us may put it. And it were not the wahabis/salafis who came up with niqab being fardh. If you say Abdullah ibn Abbas (radiAllahu anho) is not your scholar then I am out of words.
I did not force this opinion on anyone or even asked anyone to follow it - I was merely stating it.
I will get back to you on this one later, insha'Allah
PS: only the ahnaf make distinction between fardh and wajib
Allahu A'lam
You can bring other ahadith in favour of your argument but Still Qura'n doesn't say to common women to wear niqab.
I know it weren't salafis who came up with niqab and there are opinions for niqab in others schools except Hanafi.....but in Western societies it cannot be made obligatory and even in most muslim countries it cannot be made obligatory because of the norms where most women don't even dress up decently.
but in some places you have to wear niqab to follow the culture and norm so you don't attract the attention by showing your face where everyone is wearing niqab.
Also, the majority of muslims are hanafi and hanafis don't consider niqab an obligation.
This is my point.