The reason the polytheists circumambulated naked in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
The Shaykh’s (may Allah grant you success) report. We read that the elders of Quraysh prevented people from circumambulating in their clothes until they had finished dressing the Ka'bah with cloth, meaning that it was a matter of the economy, and that those who circumambulated naked were those who could not buy clothes from Quraysh or did not wish to buy them from them.
The Shaykh:
This is not correct. This is not an economic issue; the issue is one of worship. The issue is one of worship. They believed that it is not permissible for a non-Makkan or a non-Makkan person to circumambulate in his clothes, but rather he is between two things: either he obtains clothes from the people of Makkah, who lend them to him or rent them to him, or by any other means, or he circumambulates naked if he finds nothing. So they did this as an act of worship. For this reason, the Shaykh says that they worship Allah by exposing their private parts. Yes.
The questioner:
Okay.
The Shaykh:
This interpretation is an interpretation that has no basis, and they have no scholar for this interpretation. Yes.
The Shaykh’s (may Allah grant you success) report. We read that the elders of Quraysh prevented people from circumambulating in their clothes until they had finished dressing the Ka'bah with cloth, meaning that it was a matter of the economy, and that those who circumambulated naked were those who could not buy clothes from Quraysh or did not wish to buy them from them.
The Shaykh:
This is not correct. This is not an economic issue; the issue is one of worship. The issue is one of worship. They believed that it is not permissible for a non-Makkan or a non-Makkan person to circumambulate in his clothes, but rather he is between two things: either he obtains clothes from the people of Makkah, who lend them to him or rent them to him, or by any other means, or he circumambulates naked if he finds nothing. So they did this as an act of worship. For this reason, the Shaykh says that they worship Allah by exposing their private parts. Yes.
The questioner:
Okay.
The Shaykh:
This interpretation is an interpretation that has no basis, and they have no scholar for this interpretation. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 08 من 16 / شرح مسائل الجاهلية / المسألة الخامسة والثلاثون/ صالح الفوزان / العقيدة/ كبار العلماء — youtube.com (46:38)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.