The Shaykh’s warning about the error of some pilgrims and those performing 'Umrah in exposing the right shoulder from the time of entering ihram until the end of the rites

As for what follows: I wish to complete a discussion I mentioned when we went to pray, which is that we see many pilgrims, before entering Makkah and after finishing the tawaf and sa'y, rushing about with their shoulders exposed—the right shoulders. Perhaps you know that it is a recommended practice (sunnah) ... around it, to expose the right shoulder until the end of the seventh lap, as is the stronger position, and then to return his izar or rida' to its proper place, which is the correct action if he was wearing it before starting the tawaf. In other words, he must cover the shoulder he exposed for the sake of the tawaf. But most people, as the Lord of the Worlds said: , so you see them exposing their shoulders from the moment of ihram at the miqat and continuing like that for as long as Allah wills. First, this is contrary to the Sunnah, and any act of worship that is contrary to the Sunnah must not be taken lightly by the Muslim, nor should he think that the matter is easy. Rather, the matter is that it is misguidance, in the explicit words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . And as some of the Companions said, and specifically Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him): "Any act of worship that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not perform, do not perform it; do not perform it." Any act of worship that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not perform, do not draw near to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with it, because the acts of worship that bring us near to Allah are only those that came to us through the path of our Prophet (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him); for worship is only worship by his specification (peace and blessings be upon him) for us, not by our opinions and desires. Our righteous predecessors knew this reality, which the masses of the later generations were blind to, despite the many hadiths that came warning that any act of worship not brought by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is misguidance, as came in Sahih Muslim: ; al-Nasa'i added: . Therefore, one should not take lightly the introduction of some innovations in matters under the claim that they bring us near to Allah. And if it is the truth to say what the scholars said—that the state of affairs is more eloquent than the spoken word—we read from the state of these pilgrims who spend many days with their shoulders exposed, enduring the harm of heat and cold, which would not be the case except in their claim that it is an act of worship. How can it be an act of worship! The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not legislate it for us from his Lord except in that place I mentioned earlier, which is during the tawaf. This is one thing.
And a second thing, which is more dangerous, is that these people who draw near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) by exposing their shoulders throughout the days of Hajj, despite what we mentioned that they have innovated something for which Allah has not sent down authority, fall into a serious violation when we see them standing up to pray in the Sacred Mosque or in other mosques, or in Mina or in other places of the rites. They stand up to pray with their shoulders exposed. At that time, they fall into another violation. The first violation is their contradiction of the hadiths prohibiting innovation and that every innovation is misguidance; they contradict a general legal principle. As for the second violation, they contradict a specific hadith regarding prayer, where he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . This hadith is very important. First, in terms of its narration, it is an authentic hadith in al-Bukhari. Second, in terms of its understanding and implication, it indicates the invalidity of the prayer of one who prays with his shoulder exposed, or with both shoulders exposed, and a fortiori with the upper part of the body exposed. We are currently among some of our brothers who expose the upper part of their bodies. There is no harm in that for them because they are cooling off, but they must be aware that when the prayer is called for, they must pull this garment back and throw it over their shoulders, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He) ; this noble verse, although the original reason for its revelation, or the cause of its revelation, was that the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance used to circumambulate the Ka'bah naked, both women and men, and this was part of their ignorance. When Islam came, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed this verse to discipline and teach them, saying: . The intended meaning of "adornment" in this hadith, considering the cause of revelation, is covering the 'awrah. The 'awrah for which prayer is invalid by the consensus of the four schools of jurisprudence if one is exposing it. However, in the school of Imam Ahmad, there is a specific 'awrah for prayer, which is the upper part of the body. It is not permissible for the one praying, who has a garment with which to cover his upper body, to pray while exposing his upper body. Why? ... Due to the previous hadith in al-Bukhari: . And due to the other hadith, which I mentioned earlier, which is in Sunan Abu Dawud from the hadith of Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . We take from this hadith and the one before it that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) expanded the implication of His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): , because the cause of revelation restricts the implication of the verse to covering the 'awrah, because as we mentioned, they used to circumambulate naked, even the women. Until one of them, when she circumambulated naked like this, would say, making an excuse, and what an ugly excuse it was—though it is said that there is no sin after disbelief—she would say while circumambulating naked:
"Today some of it is exposed, or all of it, / And what is exposed of it, I do not make lawful."
To whom is this address? To the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Is their excuse valid? This is from the deception of Satan for the children of Adam who do not seek protection in the sanctuary of the Merciful through the Shari'ah of Islam. Satan made the ugliness of circumambulating in clothes attractive to them and told them, and some of them passed it on to others—"We do not circumambulate in clothes in which we have disobeyed Allah"—thus Satan made it attractive to them. But they circumambulate with hearts in which they have disobeyed Allah, and that is uglier and uglier ... So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed this verse specifically regarding this circumambulation with the 'awrah exposed: . The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) expanded the implication of the verse and included in it every prescribed adornment, saying , and he gave the reason for it by saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . Therefore, it is not permissible for the one praying to be lenient when he stands up to pray on ordinary days ... It is not permissible for the one praying to enter his prayer in his casual clothes, in his house clothes—and peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings ...—rather, they must first implement the text of the hadith, and second, its reason. The text: . The reason: . The point is that among the principles of the Shari'ah is that what leads to an obligatory act is obligatory; and what leads to a forbidden act is forbidden. So the pilgrims exposing their shoulders first involves the first prohibition: drawing near to Allah with what Allah has not legislated. The second thing is that they expose their prayer to invalidity by contradicting the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): . And it is necessary that some students of knowledge find this hadith difficult. One day he read, or heard, the hadith of the two Sahihs from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man said: . He said: . This hadith may conflict with the hadith: . It conflicts in the minds of some people, and more difficult than this hadith is the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari, when a man saw him praying and there was no garment on his shoulders, but he saw him praying wrapped in a single garment. So he asked him about it: How do you pray with one garment while your other garment is hanging on the peg? (And the peg is the pole on which clothes are hung, which they call in the language of the present age the hawini: the clothes hanger)

The Shaykh : The hanger, better than the hanger, is the device on which clothes are hung. One of the attendees criticized Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with them both) for praying in one garment while his other garment was hanging on the hanger. He said, "That is so that a fool like you sees me and thinks that the prayer is not valid except with two garments." This is undoubtedly more difficult than the hadith of Abu Hurayrah: Here, we must inform our students of knowledge to remember with us the scholars' method of reconciling hadiths that appear to contradict each other, even at first glance. First, and most importantly, is the hadith of Jabir: If Jabir's action undoubtedly indicates the validity of the prayer of one who prays with the upper part of the body uncovered, but does the action of this Companion have the strength to contradict the indication of a marfu' hadith that is authentic in its transmission and explicit in its meaning? The answer is no, by the consensus of the scholars. Therefore, it was said: "When an athar comes, reasoning is void, and when the river of Allah comes, the river of Ma'qil is void." And the scholars of usul al-fiqh said: "There is no ijtihad in the place of an explicit text." Here, there is the opinion of a noble Companion and an explicit hadith that contradicts the opinion or action of that Companion. At that time, one must return to the One to whom we were commanded to return in case of disagreement, as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: . Therefore, the madhhab of the Imam of the Sunnah and the most knowledgeable of the four Imams regarding the Sunnah, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), was to act according to the first hadith: , because of the authenticity of the hadith first, and its explicit indication second. This indication admits no discussion or debate. As for the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, the matter is easy in it, because his (peace and blessings be upon him) answer was pointing to the fact that one who prays in one garment does so because he may not find another garment. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Perhaps Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him), when what we mentioned earlier came from him, was first relying on this hadith of Abu Hurayrah, the second hadith: . And secondly, the prohibition of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) from praying in one garment when one has two garments had not reached him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) emphasized caring for covering the upper part of the body, even if one has only one garment. He said: . Therefore, if one has only one garment and is able to cover his upper part with the lower part, that is his obligation. If the garment does not help him do that due to its narrowness or shortness, then he must cover the 'awrah, which is the 'awrah in prayer and outside of prayer. This is what I wanted to clarify on the occasion of some people's practice of exposing their shoulders outside of tawaf and praying with their shoulders exposed. This is not permissible, and the Shari'ah is established by following, not by innovation. Please go ahead.

The questioner : Does Jabir's statement to the man not have the ruling of being marfu', and thus we interpret the prohibition of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as being disliked (makruh) rather than forbidden (haram)?

The Shaykh : Why, first, is it assumed that the opinion of a Companion has the ruling of being marfu'? There is a discussion that students of knowledge must be aware of due to its importance. I remind you, as a parenthetical remark, that some of our brothers drink while standing, and drinking while standing has been prohibited by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). This is a parenthetical remark; I do not want to give a lecture on it so that we do not lose the answer to the last question. As for drinking while standing, it has a specific discussion that may be available for us to delve into on another occasion, if Allah wills. I return to say: