The Shaykh’s Explanation of the Usul Principle

The Shaykh: And from here remains a fiqh usul principle, which is: "When two texts contradict each other, one being general and the other specific, the specific is excepted from the general." In other words: If there is a general text, meaning it has a broad meaning, and there is another text with a narrow meaning, but this narrow meaning contradicts that general text in part of its parts, in this case the lesser meaning is excepted from the greater meaning. If we look at the hadith: , here "silk" is stated in a general sense, so it includes both a little and a lot, with no difference in that, because it was generalized and not specified. But in the hadith regarding the wearing of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), there is a specific mention that the jacket was not of silk; rather, the garment was a long robe, except that there was a piece of silk at the ends of the sleeves of this jacket, a span in measure, a span. This piece is silk, so this little silk is excepted from the much forbidden silk. It is said, in the expression of the scholars: His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): is general, encompassing all silk, whether much or little. But the little is excepted from this hadith that forbids wearing a little of silk; it is excepted from the prohibition of this text by the little, by the hadith of the jacket of the Prophet (peace be upon him) which had a little of silk on it. It is said: Silk as a garment, a shirt, or a jacket, this is forbidden by the evidence of this general hadith. But it is not so if a man wears a garment of permissible fabric in which there is a piece of silk for the benefit of the garment, for example, here... So the silk has resistance; if this piece of silk is for preserving the garment from quickly decaying and wearing out, then there is no harm in using this piece of silk in the worn-out garment. As for the garment being entirely of silk, that is forbidden by the text of this hadith and by other explicit hadiths forbidding silk for men, such as the well-known hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out one day to his companions, with silk in one hand and gold in the other, and he said (peace and blessings be upon him): هذان حرام على رجال أمَّتي ، حلٌّ لِإناثها These two are forbidden for the men of my Ummah, and permissible for their women. So if we bring to mind this last hadith حلٌّ لإناثها Permissible for women and look at the text of the second hadith: إنما يلبسها مَن لا خلاق له في الآخرة This is worn by the one who will have no share in the Hereafter.Sahih al-Bukhari 2612, meaning, the one who wears the silk jacket is the one who has no share in the Hereafter.