Is it permissible for a woman to uncover her eyes unnecessarily?

My question has to do with niqab. I read on your website and many
Islamic websites that theniqab is fard (obligatory) and women must
wear niqab, but they can leave their eyesuncovered so that they can
see where they are going.
What concerns me is: is itobligatory for us to cover our eyes if I am
not walking and there is no need to see where I am going?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
What the woman must do is cover her face because of a great deal of
shar'i evidence which indicates that it is obligatory for the woman to
cover her facein front of non-mahram men. And she has two ways in
which she can cover:
Either she may lower down on her face something that will cover it
completely and not let anything of it show, and she can see through
that cover
or she may wear the niqab (face veil) which isthat which covers the
face but leaves the eyes uncovered.
In Saheeh al-Bukhaari (1838) it says: "The woman in ihram should not
wear niqab or gloves." The fact that thewoman in ihram is forbidden to
wear niqabindicates that it is permissible to wear it when not in
ihram.
Hence the fuqaha' and scholars said that it is permissible for a
womanto wear niqab, but that is on condition that she does not go to
extremes in uncovering the eye socket or show too muchof the cheeks.
Imam al-Ramli ash-Shaafa'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
It is haraam to look at a woman in niqab of whom nothing can be seen
except her eyes, especially if she is beautiful. How much fitnah may
be caused by looking at a woman's eyes. End quote from Nihaayat
al-Muhtaaj, 6/188
It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa'imah: With regard to the niqaab:
Abu 'Ubayd said, describing the niqab according to the Arabs: itis
that from which the eye appears. It was known by other names,
including "burqa'". As for the ruling on it, it is permissible.
The source for that is thehadeeth narrated from Ibn 'Umar (may Allah
be pleased with him), according to which the Prophet (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) said: "The woman in ihram should not wear
niqab or gloves." Narrated by al-Bukhaari.The fact that he (blessings
and peace of Allah be upon him) forbade the woman in ihram to wear
niqab indicates that it is permissible when not in ihram. End quote
from Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa'imah (vol. 1, 17/171).
Shaykh 'Abd al-'Azeez ibn Baz, Shaykh 'Abd ar-Razaaq 'Afeefi, Shaykh
'Abdullah ibn Ghadyaan, Shaykh 'Abdullah ibn Qa'ood.
This has been stated previously in the following answers: 1496 , 8540
, 21134 and 100719
Secondly:
Once the above becomesclear, we will realise thatthere is nothing
wrong with a woman wearing a niqaab from which only her eyes appear
through a narrow opening which does not uncover anything more than
what is needed in order to see. The ruling that this is permissible is
not dependent upon there being any need; rather it is generally
applicable and it is permissible for her to wear the niqab whether the
woman needs to see where she is going or not, and whether she is
sitting in a car or walking down the street. The evidence quoted above
which indicates that it is permissible to wear the niqab was narrated
in a hadeeth of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him), and the tafseer of Ibn 'Abbaas is general in application and is
not restricted to cases of necessity.
And Allah knows best.