Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:26
O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you clothing to conceal your private parts and as adornment. But the clothing of righteousness - that is best. That is from the signs of Allah that perhaps they will remember.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: يَا بَنِي آدَمَ قَدْ أَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ لِبَاسًا يُوَارِي سَوْآتِكُمْ (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah — exalted is His praise — says to the ignorant among the Arabs who used to strip themselves naked for the circumambulation, therein following the command of Satan and abandoning obedience to Allah. So He made known to them how they were deceived by his deception, until he gained mastery over them and stripped from them the covering of Allah with which He had favored them, until he laid bare their private parts and exposed them from one to another — despite the favor of Allah toward them, that He gave them the means to cover them. And that he walked with them along the same path as with their two parents Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ, whom he brought to a fall by deception, until he stripped from them the covering of Allah with which He had favored them, until he laid bare for them both their private parts and stripped them of it: (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing). He means by the sending down of it: His creating it for them, and His providing them with it. And "the clothing" (al-libās) is what they wear of garments. (that covers your private parts) He says: that conceals your nakedness from your eyes. And by "the private parts" (al-sawʾāt) He indicated the nakedness.
* * *
Its singular is "sawʾa", and it is a form "faʿla" from "al-sūʾ" (evil). It was called "sawʾa" because the exposing of it from one's body does evil (yasūʾu) to its owner, as the poet said:
They tore open the neck-opening of their girl's garment, without caring about the disgrace of the womanly one.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
14418 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the statement of Allah: (clothing that covers your private parts), he said: there were people among the Arabs who used to circle the House naked, and none of them wore a garment in which he performed the circumambulation.
14419 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, in like manner.
14420 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd al-Madanī related to us, he said: I heard Mujāhid say concerning the statement: (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts, and adornment (rīsh)), he said: four verses were revealed concerning Quraysh. They used not to circle the House in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) except naked.
14421 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, he said: I heard Maʿbad al-Juhanī say concerning the statement: (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts, and adornment), he said: the clothing that you wear.
14422 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts), he said: Quraysh used to perform the circumambulation naked, and none of them wore a garment in which he performed the circumambulation. And there were people among the Arabs who used to circle the House naked.
14423 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar and Sahl ibn Yūsuf related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of Maʿbad al-Juhanī: (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts), he said: the clothing that covers your private parts: that is this attire of yours.
14424 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (clothing that covers your private parts), he said: that is the garments.
14425 — Al-Ḥārith related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd related to us, he said: someone who heard ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr related to me that he said: the clothing: the garments.
14426 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning the statement: (We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts), he said: He means the garments of the man that he wears.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَرِيشًا (and adornment)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differed over the reading of it.
Most of the reciters of the cities read it: (wa-rīshan), without "alif".
* * *
And it is related from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī that they both read it: "wa-riyāshan".
14427 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith related to us, on the authority of Abān al-ʿAṭṭār, he said: ʿĀṣim related to us that Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh read it: "wa-riyāshan".
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct reading of it is the reading of him who read: (wa-rīshan), without "alif", because of the agreement of the authoritative reciters upon that.
And there is related from the Prophet ﷺ a report — in the chain of transmission of which there is doubt — that he read it as "wa-riyāshan".
He who read it as "wa-riyāshan", it is possible that by it he meant the plural of "al-rīsh", just as "al-dhiʾb" (the wolf) is made plural as "dhiʾāban", and "al-biʾr" (the well) as "biʾāran".
And it is possible that by it he meant a verbal noun (maṣdar), from the statement of the speaker: "rāshahu Allāhu yarīshuhu riyāshan wa-rīshan", just as one says: "labisahu yalbisuhu libāsan wa-libsan". And some have recited:
When they pulled off the garment (al-libs) from him, they stroked him with the tips of a tender finger that adorned a plump, tattooed forearm —
with kasra on the "lām" of "al-libs".
And "al-riyāsh", in the language of the Arabs, is the household goods, and what becomes visible of garments and possessions of that which one wears or with which one furnishes, such as mattresses or coverlets.
And "al-rīsh" is among them precisely the possessions and the property. And sometimes they used it for the garments and clothing apart from the rest of the possessions. They say: "he gave him a saddle with its adornment" and "a riding-mount with its adornment", that is: with its furnishing and equipment. And they say: "he has a fine adornment of garments". And "al-riyāsh" is sometimes used for abundance and prosperity of living.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said: "al-riyāsh" is the possessions:
14428 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His statement: (and adornment), he says: possessions.
14429 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (and adornment), he said: the possessions.
14430 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, in like manner.
14431 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "wa-riyāshan", he said: as for "riyāshan", that is the adornment of possessions.
14432 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd al-Madanī related to us, he said: someone who heard ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr related to me that he said: "al-riyāsh" is the possessions.
14433 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, His statement: "wa-riyāshan", he means the possessions.
* Mention of who said: it is the clothing and the prosperity of living:
14434 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His statement: "wa-riyāshan", he said: "al-riyāsh" is the clothing, the sustenance, and the luxury.
14435 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar and Sahl ibn Yūsuf related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of Maʿbad al-Juhanī: "wa-riyāshan", he said: "al-riyāsh" is the sustenance.
14436 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, he said: ʿAwf informed us, he said: Maʿbad al-Juhanī said: "wa-riyāshan", he said: it is the sustenance.
* * *
And others said: "al-rīsh" is beauty.
* Mention of who said that:
14437 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "wa-riyāshan", he said: "al-rīsh" is beauty.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَلِبَاسُ التَّقْوَى ذَلِكَ خَيْرٌ (and the clothing of god-fearingness, that is better)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation differed over the interpretation of it.
Some of them said: "the clothing of god-fearingness" is faith (īmān).
* Mention of who said that:
14438 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), it is faith.
14439 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), faith.
14440 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj informed me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), faith.
* * *
And others said: it is modesty (al-ḥayāʾ).
* Mention of who said that:
14441 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar and Sahl ibn Yūsuf related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of Maʿbad al-Juhanī concerning the statement: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), which Allah mentioned in the Qurʾān, it is modesty.
14442 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, he said: ʿAwf informed us, he said: Maʿbad al-Juhanī said — and he mentioned the like of it.
14443 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of Maʿbad, in like manner.
* * *
And others said: it is the righteous deed (al-ʿamal al-ṣāliḥ).
* Mention of who said that:
14444 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (and the clothing of god-fearingness, that is better), he said: the clothing of god-fearingness: the righteous deed.
* * *
And others said: no, that is precisely the goodly, dignified bearing (al-samt al-ḥasan).
* Mention of who said that:
14445 — Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾida related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā, on the authority of … ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), he said: the goodly bearing in the face.
14446 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥajjāj related to us, he said: Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl related to us, on the authority of Sulaymān ibn Arqam, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: I saw ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān on the minbar of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, with a shirt of Qūhī cloth upon him with its button undone, and I heard him commanding the killing of dogs and forbidding playing with pigeons. Then he said: O people, fear Allah in these hidden matters, for I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: "By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muḥammad, no one has ever done anything in secret but that Allah clothes him with the cloak of its openness — if it is good then good, and if it is evil then evil." Then he recited this verse: "wa-riyāshan" — and he did not read it as: وَرِيشًا — (and the clothing of god-fearingness, that is better; that is among the signs of Allah), he said: the goodly bearing.
* * *
And others said: it is the fear of Allah (khashyat Allāh).
* Mention of who said that:
14447 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd al-Madanī related to us, he said: someone who heard ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr related to me that he said: (the clothing of god-fearingness): the fear of Allah.
* * *
And others said: (the clothing of god-fearingness), in these places, is the covering of the nakedness.
* Mention of who said that:
14448 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: (and the clothing of god-fearingness): he fears Allah and so covers his nakedness; that is "the clothing of god-fearingness".
* * *
And the reciters differed over the reading of it.
Most of the reciters of Mecca, Kūfa, and Baṣra read it: (wa-libāsu al-taqwā dhālika khayrun), with rafʿ (nominative) on "wa-libāsu".
* * *
And most of the reciters of Medina read it: "wa-libāsa al-taqwā", with naṣb (accusative) on "al-libās", and that is the reading of some of the reciters of Kūfa.
* * *
He who put "wa-libāsa" in the accusative did so by coupling it to "al-rīsh", in the meaning: We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts, and adornment, and We have sent down the clothing of god-fearingness.
* * *
And as for the nominative, the grammarians differ over the grammatical ground by which "al-libās" stands in the nominative.
Some of the grammarians of Baṣra said: it stands in the nominative as a subject (mubtadaʾ), and its predicate lies in His statement: (that is better). And some of the grammarians have judged them to be in error in this and said: this is a mistake, because there is no pronoun in the sentence referring back to "al-libās", such that "al-libās" — when it stands in the nominative as a subject and "that is better" is made its predicate — [would be sound, but that is lacking].
* * *
And some of the grammarians of Kūfa said: (wa-libāsu) stands in the nominative through his statement: and the clothing of god-fearingness is better, and "that" is made its qualifier.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this position is, in my view, the most correct concerning what places "al-libās" in the nominative, because there is no ground for the nominative except that it stands in the nominative through "khayr" (better). And when it stands in the nominative through "khayr", then there is no ground for it other than that "al-libās" is made a qualifier — not that it refers back to "al-libās" through its mention in His statement: (that is better), such that "khayr" would stand in the nominative through "dhālika", and "dhālika" through it.
If that is so, then the interpretation of the statement — when "libās al-taqwā" stands in the nominative — is: and the clothing of god-fearingness, that which you already know, is better for you, O children of Ādam, than the garments that cover your private parts, and than the adornment that We have sent down to you; so wear it thus.
* * *
And as for the interpretation of him who read it in the accusative, it is: "O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts, and adornment, and the clothing of god-fearingness" — this which We have sent down upon you of the clothing that covers your private parts, and the adornment, and the clothing of god-fearingness, is better for you than the baring and the stripping off of garments at your circumambulation of the House. So fear Allah and wear what Allah has bestowed upon you of adornment, and do not obey Satan by stripping yourselves and baring yourselves of garments, for that is mockery on his part toward you and deception, just as he did with your two parents Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ, whom he deceived until he stripped them of the clothing of Allah with which He had clothed them on account of their obedience to Him, by their eating of what Allah had forbidden them to eat of the fruit of the tree by which they disobeyed Him in eating from it.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this reading is, in my view, the most correct of the two readings therein — I mean the accusative of His statement: "wa-libāsa al-taqwā" — because of the soundness of its meaning in the interpretation as I have set forth, and because Allah began the report about His sending down the clothing that covers our private parts and the adornment precisely as a rebuke to the polytheists (mushrikīn) who used to bare themselves during their circumambulation of the House, and commands them to take their garments and to cover themselves with them in every state — together with faith in Him and following obedience to Him. And He makes known to them that all of this is better than everything in which they persist of their disbelief in Allah and their nakedness — not that He made known to them that a part of what He has sent down to them is better than another part.
And what demonstrates the soundness of what we have said about this is the verses that follow upon this verse, namely His statement: يَا بَنِي آدَمَ لا يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ كَمَا أَخْرَجَ أَبَوَيْكُمْ مِنَ الْجَنَّةِ يَنْزِعُ عَنْهُمَا لِبَاسَهُمَا لِيُرِيَهُمَا سَوْآتِهِمَا (O children of Ādam, let not Satan tempt you as he expelled your two parents from the Garden, stripping from them their clothing to show them their private parts) — and what follows thereafter of verses up to His statement: وَأَنْ تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لا تَعْلَمُونَ (and that you say about Allah what you do not know). For He — exalted is His praise — commands in all of this the taking of the adornment of garments, and the use of clothing and the abandonment of stripping and baring, and faith in Him and the following of His command and acting according to obedience to Him; and He forbids the ascribing of partners to Him (shirk) and the following of the command of Satan — while in all of this He confirms what He expressed concisely in His statement: (O children of Ādam, We have sent down upon you clothing that covers your private parts, and adornment, and the clothing of god-fearingness, that is better).
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of the positions concerning the interpretation of His statement: "wa-libāsu al-taqwā", is: the clothing of the souls with god-fearingness toward Allah, in abstaining from what Allah has forbidden of acts of disobedience toward Him, and acting according to what He has commanded of obedience to Him. And that comprises faith, the righteous deed, modesty, the fear of Allah, and the goodly bearing — for he who fears Allah is a believer in Him, acting according to what He has commanded him, fearing Him, heedful of Him, and ashamed to be seen by Him at that which He abhors from His servants. And he who is thus, in him the marks of good become visible, and his bearing and his guidance become goodly, and upon him the splendor of faith and its light are perceived.
And we said only: by "the clothing of god-fearingness" He meant the clothing of the soul and the heart with it — because "the clothing" is precisely the putting on of what one wears, and the wrapping oneself in what one puts on, or the covering of one's body or a part of it with it. So everyone who clothes himself with something and wraps himself in it until the substance of it or the trace of it is seen upon him, that one is a "wearer" of it. For this reason He — exalted is His praise — made the men a clothing for the women, and they a clothing for them, and made the night a clothing for His servants.
* * *
* Mention of who interpreted it with the meaning that we have mentioned of his interpretation, when His statement (wa-libāsu al-taqwā) is read in the nominative:
14449 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), faith = (that is better), he says: that is better than the adornment and the clothing that covers your private parts.
14450 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His statement: (and the clothing of god-fearingness), he said: the clothing of god-fearingness is better, and it is faith.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: ذَلِكَ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ (26) (That is among the signs of Allah, that they may be reminded. (26))
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah — exalted is His mention — says: that which I mentioned to you that I have sent down to you, O people, of clothing and adornment, is among the proofs of Allah and His indications by which whoever disbelieves comes to know the soundness of the oneness of Allah, and the falsity of the error in which they persist = (that they may be reminded), He — exalted is His praise — says: I made that for them an indication of what I described, that they may be reminded and take a lesson from it and return to the truth and the abandonment of falsehood — as a mercy from Me toward My servants.
