Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:31
O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess.
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 explanation of the words of the Exalted: يَا بَنِي آدَمَ خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَكُلُوا وَاشْرَبُوا وَلا تُسْرِفُوا إِنَّهُ لا يُحِبُّ الْمُسْرِفِينَ (7:31) (O children of Adam, take your adornment at every mosque, and eat and drink, but be not wasteful; verily, He does not love the wasteful.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says to those among the polytheists of the Arabs (mushrikīn) who used to strip themselves naked during their circumambulation around His sacred House and there expose their private parts, and to those among them who declared forbidden for themselves—as an act of piety toward their Lord—the food which Allah had not forbidden them from His permitted sustenance: (O children of Adam, take your adornment), of covering and clothing, (at every mosque, and eat) of the good things with which I have provided you and which I have made permissible for you, (and drink) of the permitted drinks, and declare nothing forbidden except that which I have forbidden you in My Book or by the tongue of My messenger Muḥammad, ﷺ.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
14503 – Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabīb ibn ʿArabī related to me, saying: Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Salama, on the authority of Muslim al-Baṭīn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that the women used to walk around the House naked—and in another place he said: without clothing—except that the woman placed a piece of cloth over her private part, as described, if Allah wills, and she said:
"Today some of it appears, or the whole of it, and what appears of it, I do not permit."
He said: Then this verse was revealed: (Take your adornment at every mosque). (1)
14504 – ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Muslim al-Baṭīn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: They used to perform the circumambulation naked, the men by day and the women by night, and the woman used to say:
"Today some of it appears, or the whole of it, and what appears of it, I do not permit."
Then Allah said: (Take your adornment). (2)
14505 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: the clothing.
14506 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ghundar and Wahb ibn Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, who said: I heard Muslim al-Baṭīn relate, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The woman used to walk around the House naked—Ghundar said: while she was naked—Wahb said: The woman used to walk around the House while she had bared her bosom and what is there—Ghundar said: and she used to say: "Who will lend me a circumambulation cloth?", which she placed over her private part, and she said:
"Today some of it appears, or the whole of it, and what appears of it, I do not permit."
Then Allah revealed: (O children of Adam, take your adornment at every mosque). (4)
14507 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: (O children of Adam, take your adornment at every mosque), he said: They used to walk around the House naked, and Allah commanded them to wear their clothing and not to bare themselves.
14508 – Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: (Take your adornment at every mosque) "the verse," he said: There were men who walked around the House naked, and Allah commanded them the adornment. And "the adornment" is the clothing, namely that which covers the private parts (ʿawra), and in addition to that the good of garments and goods. They were commanded to take their adornment at every mosque.
14509 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Al-Muḥāribī and Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ: (Take your adornment), he said: They used to walk around the House naked, and they were commanded to wear their clothing.
14510 – Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, with similar import.
14511 – ʿAmr related to me, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Malik related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, concerning His words: (Take your adornment at every mosque): Wear your clothing.
14512 – Yaʿqūb related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning His words: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: There were people who walked around the House naked, and they were forbidden that.
14513 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: They used to walk around the House naked, and they were commanded to wear the clothing.
14514 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad, on the authority of Mujāhid: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: that which covers the private parts (ʿawra), even if it were only a cloak.
14515 – ʿAmr related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, Abū ʿĀṣim, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His words: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: that which covers your private parts, even if it were only a cloak.
14516 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words of Allah: (Take your adornment at every mosque), this concerns the Quraysh, on account of their removing of the clothing during the circumambulation.
14517 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, with similar import.
14518 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: the clothing.
14519 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Zayd ibn Ḥubāb related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: The woolen cloak (shamla) belongs to the adornment. (5)
14520 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Ṭāwūs: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: the clothing.
14521 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Suwayd and Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Zayd, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: They used to walk around the House naked, and a woman performed the circumambulation around the House while she was naked, and she said:
"Today some of it appears, or the whole of it, and what appears of it, I do not permit."
14522 – Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: (Take your adornment at every mosque), he said: There was a tribe among the people of Yemen; when one of them arrived as a pilgrim (ḥājj) or as a performer of ʿumra, he used to say: "It is not fitting that I perform the circumambulation in a garment in which I have defiled myself," and he said: Who will lend me a loincloth? If he could obtain that, well and good; and if not, then he performed the circumambulation naked. Then Allah revealed concerning this what you hear: (Take your adornment at every mosque).
14523 – Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: Allah said: (O children of Adam, take your adornment at every mosque), he says: that which covers the private parts at every mosque.
14524 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī: that the Arabs used to walk around the House naked, except the Ḥums—the Quraysh and their allies. Whoever of the others came laid aside his clothing and performed the circumambulation in the clothing of an Aḥmasī, for it was not permitted to him to wear his own clothing. And if he found none of the Ḥums to lend him clothing, then he threw off his clothing and performed the circumambulation naked. And if he performed the circumambulation in his own clothing, he threw it off when he had completed his circumambulation; he declared it forbidden and made it untouchable for himself. Therefore Allah said: (Take your adornment at every mosque). (7)
14525 – And with the same chain, on the authority of Maʿmar, he said: Ibn Ṭāwūs said, on the authority of his father: The woolen cloak (shamla) belongs to the adornment. (8)
14526 – It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words: (Take your adornment at every mosque), the verse: There were people among the people of Yemen and the bedouins who, when they performed the pilgrimage to the House, walked around it by night naked, and Allah commanded them to wear their clothing and not to bare themselves in the mosque.
14527 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: (Take your adornment), he said: their adornment is their clothing, which they used to throw off at the House and bare themselves.
14528 – And he related it to me yet another time with his chain, on the authority of Ibn Zayd, concerning His words: قُلْ مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِهِ وَالطَّيِّبَاتِ مِنَ الرِّزْقِ (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah, which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of sustenance?), he said: When they came to the House and performed the circumambulation around it, the clothing in which they had performed the circumambulation became forbidden to them. And if they found someone to lend them clothing, well and good; and if not, then they performed the circumambulation around the House naked. Then He said: (Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah?), he said: the clothing of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, the verse.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said, they have also spoken about the explanation of His words: (and eat and drink, but be not wasteful).
* Mention of who said that:
14529 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Allah has permitted eating and drinking, as long as it is not wastefulness or arrogance. (9)
14530 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: (and eat and drink, but be not wasteful; verily, He does not love the wasteful), that is to say in eating and drinking.
14531 – Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, who said: Those who walked around the House naked forbade themselves the fat as long as they remained during the pilgrimage season, and Allah said to them: (eat and drink, but be not wasteful; verily, He does not love the wasteful), He says: be not wasteful in the forbidding.
14532 – Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Abū Saʿd related to us, saying: I heard Mujāhid say concerning His words: (and eat and drink, but be not wasteful), he said: He commanded them to eat and drink of that with which Allah had provided them.
14533 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words: (but be not wasteful): Eat nothing forbidden; that is the wastefulness.
* * *
And His words (verily, He does not love the wasteful), He says: Verily, Allah does not love those who transgress His limit in the permitted or the forbidden, who exceed in what Allah has permitted or forbidden, by permitting the forbidden and forbidding the permitted, but He loves that one permit what He has permitted and forbid what He has forbidden; and that is the justice which He has commanded.
