Clothes of the Praying Person

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From wikishia

The Clothes of the praying person are the clothes that he or she is wearing during the prayer. Shi'a jurists have stated rulings and conditions for the praying person's clothes and the extent of their coverage. One of the requirements for the praying person's clothes is that they should be clean and not najis, permissible and not usurped. It should not be made of a dead animal's parts, whether it be a Religiously non-edible animals or a Halal-meat dead animal (that which has not been slaughtered according to Islamic law).

The jurists agree that it is obligatory for women to cover their body and hair during prayer, whether they are in the presence of a non-mahram man or not, except for the face and hands from the wrist down. It is not obligatory for men to cover their bodies in prayer, except for their private parts.

According to the fatwa of the jurists, wearing a garment made of gold or gold-embroidered, as well as a garment made of silk, is forbidden for men, and the prayer they perform with them is invalid. Regarding the clothes of the praying person, some rulings about recommended and disapproved acts have been stated by the jurists.

Significance

The clothes worn by the praying person during prayer must have rulings and conditions, and jurists have explained these rulings in some sections of jurisprudence, such as the chapters concerning purification and prayer.[1] Al-Hurr al-'Amili arranged an independent section titled "Chapters on clothes of the praying person" in his book Wasa'il al-Shi'a and compiled numerous narrations referring to the rulings of the clothes of the praying person in sixty four different sections.[2]

Amount of Body Covering in Prayer

According to jurists, the amount of body covering for men and women in prayer is different:

Body Covering for Women

According to some jurists, there is a consensus among the jurists[3] that whether a non-mahram is present or not,[4] women should cover their body and hair on the head except for the front of their faces (the amount washed in wudu) and the hands from the wrists down.[5] Of course, a group of Shi'a jurists have doubted the obligation to cover the hair in prayer.[6] According to the fatwa of Ibn al-Junayd, one of the jurists of the fourth/tenth century, there is no problem for women to pray without covering their hair where there is no non-mahram to see them.[7]

Some jurists are of the opinion that in addition to the face and hands, there is no problem if women's feet are bare (from the wrists down) in prayer.[8] Al-Tabataba'i al-Yazdi (the author of al-'Urwa al-wuthqa) said there is no problem if the soles of women's feet are not covered in prayer.[9]

Covering of Men's Body

According to the jurists' consensus,[10] it is not obligatory for men to cover their bodies in prayer, except for the private parts.[11] According to al-Tabataba'i al-Yazdi, it is recommended that men cover their bodies from the navel down to the knees in prayer.[12] According to Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi, even though it is permissible for men to pray naked, with their private parts covered, it is disapproved.[13]

Related Rulings

Some of the rulings related to the clothes of the praying person are as follows:

Purity

According to the consensus of Shi'a jurists, a praying person's clothes must be pure,[14] and if they are najis, it is obligatory to remove the najasa.[15] Of course, jurists have excluded clothes stained with the blood of wounds, boils, and bleeding wounds, as well as blood that is less than one dirham in size (except for menstrual, prenatal, and "istihada" blood).[16]

They have also said that if small pieces of clothes that cannot be used to cover the private parts, such as socks, hats, taqiyah, gloves, etc., are najis, there is no problem with prayer.[17] According to some jurists, there is no problem if small things and accessories that are with the person praying, such as rings, keys, watches, and coins, are najis.[18]

According to a famous opinion among Shi'a jurists,[19] regarding a woman who babysits a child (whether she is the child's mother or not) and has only one dress, if this dress becomes najis with the urine of the child, she has to wash it only once during the day, and it is not necessary to purify it for performing each prayer.[20]

Not Being Usurped

According to the consensus of jurists, the clothes of the praying person should be permissible; i.e., they should not be usurped.[21] Therefore, if a praying person, knowing the prohibition of using usurped clothes, intentionally prays with them, his prayer will be invalid.[22] Of course, if the praying person does not know or forgets that his clothes are usurped and prays with them, his prayer is correct,[23] but if he remembers that in the middle of the prayer and it is possible to continue the prayer by covering his private parts and wearing non-usurped clothes, he should immediately take off the usurped clothes and even if he can pray one rak'a in the time limit, he should take them off. Of course, if the person is forced to pray with such clothes to save his life or the usurped property, his prayer is correct.[24] If the praying person buys clothes with the money, khums or zakat of which has not been paid, and prays with them, his prayer will be invalid.[25] Another fatwa is that although possession of usurped objects such as rings, mobile phones, and belts is forbidden, carrying them during prayer does not invalidate prayer.[26]

Clothing Material

According to the fatwas of the jurists, the clothes of the praying person should not be made from the body parts of forbidden-meat animals. Therefore, if the praying person's clothes are made of a forbidden-meat animal's skin, hair, wool, etc., or if any item of such nature is with him in the prayer or is attached to his clothes, his prayer is invalid.[27] In addition, they have said that if things such as saliva and excrement of forbidden-meat animals and birds are on the praying person's clothes, the prayer he or she performs with such clothes is invalid.[28] Also, the clothes of the praying person should not be made of the parts of the dead body of an animal whose meat is forbidden or permissible (but it has not been slaughtered according to Islamic law).[29]

Wearing gold-woven or gold-embroidered clothes is forbidden for men, and the prayers a person performs with them are invalid.[30] Also, it is forbidden for men to wear gold chains, rings, and wristwatches, and according to the fatwa of some jurists, it is obligatory to remove them when praying.[31]

According to the fatwa of the jurists, wearing silk clothes is forbidden for men, and praying with them is invalid.[32] According to some jurists, wearing clothing such as taqiyah, socks, hats, clothing linings, and the like invalidates the prayer if they are made of pure silk.[33]

Recommendations and Disapprovals

According to the narrations of the Infallible Imams (a), apart from the conditions that the clothes of the praying person should have, the jurists have also stated the rulings about recommended and disapproved issues in this regard:[34]

Recommendations

Some of the things that are considered recommended about the clothes of the praying person are as follows:

  • Wearing white clothes;
  • Wearing robe ('aba) for men and chadors for women;
  • Wearing the cleanest clothes;
  • Wearing pleasant perfume;
  • Wearing an agate ring[35]

Disapproved Points

In al-'Urwa al-wuthqa, al-Tabataba'i al-Yazdi has listed 33 issues disapproved about the clothes of the praying person, some of which are as follows:

  • Wearing black clothes;
  • Wearing dirty clothes;
  • Wearing clothing with the image of a human or animal on them;
  • Wearing niqab for women
  • Wearing tight clothes;
  • Wearing only a thin garment;
  • Wearing clothes of shuhra.[36]

Notes

  1. See: Baḥrānī, al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira, vol. 5, p. 290; Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 327.
  2. See: Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 4, p. 343-465.
  3. Ḥillī, al-Muʿtabar, vol. 2, p. 101; Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 5, p. 250.
  4. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 318; Marʿashī Najafī, Minhāj al-muʾminīn, vol. 1, p. 143.
  5. Ḥillī, al-Muʿtabar, vol. 2, p. 101; Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 318; Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 5, p. 250.
  6. See: Muqaddas Ardabīlī, Majmaʿ al-fāʾida wa al-burhān, vol. 2, p. 105; Mūsawī ʿĀmilī, Madārik al-aḥkām, vol. 3, p. 189; Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 5, p. 255.
  7. Ibn al-Junayd, Majmūʿa fatāwā Ibn al-Junayd, p. 51.
  8. Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ, vol. 1, p. 87; Ḥillī, al-Muʿtabar, vol. 2, p. 101; Shahīd al-Awwal, al-Alfīyyat wa l-naflīyya, p. 50.
  9. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 319.
  10. Sabziwārī, Muhadhdhab al-aḥkām, vol. 5, p. 243.
  11. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 8, p. 175.
  12. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 319.
  13. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 8, p. 175.
  14. Sabziwārī, Muhadhdhab al-aḥkām, vol. 5, p. 262.
  15. Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍa al-bahiyya, vol. 1, p. 289; Baḥrānī, al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira, vol. 5, p. 290.
  16. Shahīd al-Thānī, al-Rawḍa al-bahiyya, vol. 1, p. 289; Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 210.
  17. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 219.
  18. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 219; Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 582.
  19. Baḥrānī, al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira, vol. 5, p. 345.
  20. Baḥrānī, al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira, vol. 5, p. 345; Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 221.
  21. Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 5, p. 278.
  22. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 328.
  23. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 328-329.
  24. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 232.
  25. Khomeinī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 151.
  26. The conditions of the clothes of the praying person (Persian).
  27. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 337.
  28. Khomeinī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 151.
  29. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 334.
  30. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 341; Khomeinī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 152.
  31. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 341-342.
  32. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 343-344; Khomeinī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 153.
  33. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 343-344.
  34. See: Sabziwārī, Muhadhdhab al-aḥkām, vol. 5, p. 347.
  35. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 361.
  36. Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 360.

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