delivered a ruling in accordance with it in order to completely follow the Sunnah, as he always used to do’. (1)
Ibn Qud?mah said: ‘Doing Sal?t wearing red garment is detested according to some of our scholars’. (2)
Ibn Al-Qayyim affirmed the same and then said: ‘How could one think that the prophet ( - ) wore pure red clothes?! By All?h, All?h ( - ) protected him from such an act. This misconception by some scholars was born out from the had?th that stated that the prophet ( - ) wore a red Hullah’. (3)
Explaining the meaning of Hullah, (4) Ibn Al-Qayyim said: ‘Some thought that the colour of the Hullah was pure red, on the contrary; it was a two-sheet, Yemeni-made cloths that were decorated with red and black lines like other Yemen? Burds which are known as Hullah. But pure red cloths are prohibited to be worn’. (5)
Ash - Shawk?n? refuted Ibn Al-Qayyim’s opinion in “Sharhul Muntaq?” saying that: ‘The Sah?b? -who is of the pure native Arab speakers- described the prophet’s ( - ) Hullah to be pure red and we should read his words as they literally mean; the Hulla was red coloured only. Resorting to figurative meanings, one needs a hard evidence.
The Sah?b? - who described the colour of the prophet’s ( - ) Hullah - meant the linguistic meaning of red. Nothing in the Arabic
(1) “Fath Al-B?r? “(vol. 10. p. 304) and “Sharh Sah?h Muslim” by An-Nawaw? (vol. 14 / p. 54) and he stated Al-Baihaq?’s statements and then said: ‘As for Al-Bahiaq?’s, he clarified this issue clearly in his book “Ma‘rifatus Sunnan” saying: ‘Some Salaf forbade that one should wear clothes dyed with Saffron, and it is the opinion of Ab? Abdull?h Al-Hulaim? while some other scholars permitted it, in any case Sunnah must be followed, All?h ( - ) knows best’.
(2) Al-Mughn? (vol. 1 / p. 624).
(3) Z?d Al-Ma‘?d (vol. 1 / p. 139).
(4) At-Tabar?n? in “Al-Awsat “(vol. 2 / p. 53) through achain of narrators who are all reliable and trust worthy as is mentioned in “Al-Majma’” (vol. 2 / p. 198), traced back to Ibn ‘Abb?s that the prophet ( - ) used to wear the red Burdah on the Eid day’. “As-Silsilah As-Sah?hah” (no. 1279).
(5) The previous reference.