Wearing one�s clothes below one’s ankles

Gathering Relevant Hadiths on a Subject Together

Also necessary for a correct understanding of the Sunnah is that the sahih hadiths on a single subject be gathered together and juxtaposed � the ambiguous alongside the explicit, the absolute alongside the restricted, the general alongside the particularized.  In that way, by interpreting one with the other, we make the meaning intended in them plain and clear.  We do not �strike some of them with others� (i.e. we do not cause some to clash or become confused with others).  As it is established and agreed that the Sunnah interprets the Quran and clarifies it � meaning that it details what is general in it, interprets what is obscure in it, particularizes what is universal in it, and restricts what is absolute in it � the maxim �better followed by better� is most successfully applied within the Sunnah, some elements of it checking the other elements of it.

Hadith: Wearing the Izar Long

Take for example the hadiths on wearing the izar (the lower garment) long.  The threat against doing so is made severe.  Many zealous youths rely on that when they rebuke with severity whoever is not wearing his robe above the ankles.  They preach on it to the effect of all but making shortening the robe one of the symbols of Islam, or the greatest of duties in it!  If they should catch sight of a Muslim scholar or preacher who is not wearing his robe short, how they act!  They reproach him among themselves for belittling the religion, and (worse still) they sometimes do so with public proclamation!

If only they had gone back to the whole group of the hadiths related to this issue, and set some of them alongside others, in the light of a comprehensive view of the purposes of Islam for those whom it obligates in their everyday affairs and usages!  Had they done so, they would have known the purposes of the hadiths on this point, and they would have lightened their zeal and not ridden rashly on the vehicle of excess.  And they would not have made narrow for the people a matter which Allah had made wide for them.

Consider what Muslim narrated from Abu Dharr, from the Prophet, he said �{There are} three to whom Allah will not speak on the Day of Resurrection: the benefactor who does not give anything except as a favor {i.e. he does it for reputation or to bind the recipient}; the quick profiteer whose commodity is {sold} by a lying oath; and the one who wears his izar long.�

In another narration, also from Abu Dharr: �{There are} three to whom Allah will not speak on the Day of Resurrection.  He will not look at them, and He will not purify them, and theirs will be a painful punishment.�  He said Allah�s Messenger recited it three times.  He (Abu Dharr) said: �They have failed and they have lost!  Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?  He said: �The one who wears his izar long; the benefactor: and the quick profiteer who sells his commodity by a lying oath.�

What is the Intended Meaning of �One Who Wears His Izar Long�?

Does it mean anyone who has his izar long? Even if, in doing so, he was merely following the conventions of this people, without having in his intention any haughtiness or conceit?   Another hadith has perhaps attested to that, one found in the Sahih of al-Bukhari from Abu Hurayrah: �That which of the izar is lower than the ankles, then it is in the Fire.�  In al-Nasa�I it has appeared with wording: �That which of the izar is below the ankles, then it is in the Fire.�  The meaning would appear to be: whatever falls below the ankles of the wearer of the izar constitutes �wearing it long� and it is in the Fire � the outcome for anyone is according to his deed, an here, the robe (used metonymically) alludes to the body and the person it clothes.

However, it becomes clear to one who reads the whole group of hadith that have come on this that its meaning is as al-Nawawi and Ibn Hajar and others judged it on balance to be: namely, the (apparent) absoluteness is to be interpreted by the restriction to �conceit�. And there is consensus that this �conceit� is what the threat in the hadith is directed against.  So, let us read what has appeared of the sahih from these hadiths.

Al-Bukhari narrated, under the chapter heading man jarra izarahu min ghayri khuyala (one who has trailed his izar without conceit), in a hadith of Abd Allah ibn Umar from the Prophet, he said: � �Whoever trails his robe with conceit Allah will not look at him on the Day of Resurrection.�  Abu Bakr said: �O Messenger of Allah; one side of my izar works loose, unless I am attending to that to {prevent} it.�  Then the Prophet said: �You are not among those who make that {happen} with conceit.� �Also in this chapter is a hadith of Abu Bakrah, who said: �The sun eclipsed, and we were with the Prophet.  He stood up, trailing his robe in great haste until he came to the mosque {�}� Then, narrated under the chapter heading man jarra thawbahu min al-khuyala (one who has trailed his robe with conceit), from Abu Hurayrah that Allah�s Messenger said: �Allah will not look at one who trails his izar with arrogance (al-batar).�  Also from Abu Hurayrah: �He said the Prophet said, (or he said Abu al-Qasim, said): �While a man was walking in fine dress, himself admiring himself, his abundant hair well-combed, then Allah caused the earth to give way to him, so he will be shaking and sinking until the Day of Resurrection.� �

Muslim narrated the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, the one last mentioned, and the one before it.  Also, he narrated the hadith of Ibn Umar by a number of routes.  Among them: �I heard Allah�s Messenger, with these my two ears, saying: �One who trails his izar not meaning by that {anything} but conceit, then indeed Allah will not look at him on the Day of Resurrection.� �In this narration, the restriction of �conceit� by way of the clear qualification �not meaning by that {anything} but conceit� has not left any room for interpretation.

Al-Nawawi � and he is not one accused of laxity, rather (as is well known to students), one more inclined to the stricter, more cautious approach � says in commentary on the hadith �One who wears his izar long�:

As for his saying, �The one who wears his izar long�: then its meaning is �the one who has loosened it for trailing the side of it with conceit.  It has come interpreted in the other hadith �Allah does not look at the one who trails his robe with conceit�, and �conceit� {means} haughtiness.  This limitation to the trailing with conceit particularizes the generality of �one who wears his izar long�.  It is demonstrated that the object of the treat is one who trails it with conceit, for the Prophet, made allowance for Abu Bakr al-Siddiq in that, and said: �You are not among them� when he was trailing it without conceit.

Ibn Abd al-Barr said: �The understanding of it is that trailing without conceit will not encounter the threat unless {indeed} the trailing of the shirt and other than that of long garments is {to be censured} in all circumstances.�

This confirms that what is aimed at, in the restriction that goes with wearing the izar long, and what carries the threat mentioned in the hadiths is a severe threat, so for so that it has made whoever wears his garment long one of three �to whom Allah will not speak on the Day of Resurrection.  He will not look at them, and He will not purify them, and theirs will be a painful punishment�.  Indeed, the Prophet repeated that threat three times, which made Abu Dharr so fearful of it that he said: �They have failed and they have lost!  Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?�  All of this demonstrates the deeds of those e three as being among the gravest of sins, and the gravest of the forbidden things.  This is not so except in matters that infringe �the public good�, which the Law came to uphold and to safeguard � in the religion, the soul, the mind, dignity, lineage, and property � the fundamental goals of the Law of Islam.

The bare shortening of the izar or robe comes under the heading of the �refinements� (not essentials), related to good manners and perfections, by which life is graced, tastes elevat4ed and noble traits of character deepened.  As for wearing the garment long or lengthening it when stripped from any evil intention, it belongs in the class of the lesser disapproved acts.

What concerns the religion here, and is deserving of greater attention, is the intentions and sensibility of heart behind the outward behavior.  What harms the religion through resistance to it are conceit, pride, haughtiness, self-praise, arrogance, and the like among diseases of the heart and defects of the soul.  He does not enter the Garden who has a particle�s weight of them in his heart.  This supports every confirmation restricting the severe threat mentioned to one who intends conceit in wearing his garment long � s the other hadiths (mentioned above) have demonstrated.

Another meaning, related to what we have said, is this: the command about dress is subject to manners and outward forms familiar to the people and their customs.  These vary with variations in heat and cold, wealth and poverty, capacity and incapacity, type of work and standard of living, and other influencing factors.  The Law here lightens the restrictions for people, and it does not intervene except in matters related to the fixed bounds, so as to forbid what is visible of waste and extravagance in the outward life or the intent of arrogance and conceit in the inner life, and the like of that which we have set out in detail elsewhere.

For this reason al-Bukhari quoted in the beginning of Kitab al-Libas in his Sahih, under the chapter heading qawl Allah Ta�ala: Qul: man harrama zinata al-Lahi allati akhraja li-ibahihi (Allah�s saying, Exalted is He: �Say: Who forbids the ornaments of Allah that He has brought out for His slaves� (al-Araf, 65:32)).  The Prophet said: �Eat and drink and dress, and give in charity, without wastefulness and {with} no conceit.�  Ibn Abbas said: �Eat what you wish, and wear what you wish, as long as {these} two do not touch you: wastefulness and conceit.�

Ibn Hajar conveyed from his teacher al-Hafiz al-Iraqi that he said, in his commentary on al-Tirmidhi:

What touches the earth from them (i.e. clothes) is conceit.  No doubt as to its being forbidden�And if it is said about the prohibition {that it is} on what exceeds the accustomed {practice}, it would not be {going} too far.  However, the convention happens to people of lengthening {robes}.  Then every class of people begins to notice and know it.  The duty in that is {to close} the way to conceit.  For no doubt it is forbidden.  But {the prohibition} is not on the manner of the custom, and there is no prohibition on it, so long as it does not reach to the forbidden {kind of} trailing of the hem.

Al-Qadi Iyad conveyed from the scholars: �Aversion is entirely to what is {done} over and above the custom, and beyond the accustomed practice for length and looseness in dress.�

So custom has its rule, and convention its influence, just as al Iraqi said.  Departing from custom sometimes makes the doer of it suspected of seeking notoriety, and the robe of notoriety is also reproached in the Law.  Then, the good lies in moderation.

Beyond that: one who intends, by the shortening of his robe following the Sunnah and keeping away from suspicion of conceit, if he intends abandoning opposition to the scholars, and if he intends his acceptance of the practice as a precaution, then he will be rewarded for that, if Allah wills.  That is on condition also that he does not compel all people to the same, and does not proclaim the rejection of one who, being among those content with the views of the imams and profound commentators that we have cited, has left that practice.  The wise maxim is: to every established mujtahid his reward, and to very man his intent.

The resort to the outward sense of a single hadith, without looking into the rest of the hadiths and texts relevant to its subject, often causes lapsing into error, and falling far away from the main road of correctness, and from the purposes for which the hadith has come.

(Above passage taken from book entitled �Approaching the Sunnah� Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Translated by Jamil Qureshi)