'Awrah/Nudity
- philhoraia
- Feb 4, 2023
- 5 min read
'Noun
defectiveness, faultiness, deficiency, imperfection quotations ▼
nakedness, awrah
pudendum, genitals
(plural) weaknesses, weak spots
exposed, open, vulnerable quotations ▼https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9
Awrah, we are told, should be covered.
Narrated 'Abdullah bin Jardah Al-Aslami:
from his father, from the Prophet (ﷺ) who said: "The thigh is 'Awrah."
Muhammad b. Jahsh told that God’s Messenger came upon Ma'mar when his thighs were uncovered and said, "Cover your thighs, Ma'mar, for the thighs are private parts.” It is transmitted in Sharh as-sunna.
'A'isha said, "The Prophet was lying down in my room with his thigh uncovered when Abu Bakr asked for permission to enter. He gave him permission to enter, remaining as he was. Then 'Umar asked for permission to come in and he gave him permission, remaining as he was. Then 'Uthman asked for permission to enter and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sat up and arranged his garment, and then he came in and spoke. When he left, I said, 'Messenger of Allah, Abu Bakr came in and you did not exert yourself nor concern yourself with him. Then 'Umar came in and you did not exert yourself nor concern yourself with him. Then 'Uthman came in and you sat up and arranged your garment.' He said, 'Should I not be modest before a man before whom the angels are modest?'"
There are ahadith in which we are told about his thigh, which was exposed for some reason.
"...The Prophet (ﷺ) passed through the lane of Khaibar quickly and my knee was touching the thigh of the Prophet (ﷺ) . He uncovered his thigh and I saw the whiteness of the thigh of the Prophet. ..."
Abdullah narrated that The Prophet said:
“The woman is Awrah, so when she goes out, the Shaitan seeks to tempt her.”
In Arabic the hadith says that it is hasan gharib and the English that it is daif. The Arabic has: " الْمَرْأَةُ عَوْرَةٌ فَإِذَا خَرَجَتِ اسْتَشْرَفَهَا الشَّيْطَانُ "In another it says that it is sahih. The Arabic says: «الْمَرْأَةُ عَوْرَةٌ فَإِذَا خَرَجَتِ اسْتَشْرَفَهَا الشَّيْطَانُ» The translator puts:
He reported the Prophet as saying, “A woman should be concealed, for when she goes out the devil looks at her.”* * The basic idea is to lift up the eyes to look at something. Here it is explained as meaning either that the devil makes her attractive to men, or that he looks at her to seduce her and to seduce people by her. Tirmidhi transmitted it.
Muslims like to point to the Prophet Isaiah, referring negatively to the time when he spent three years 'naked'.
1In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; 2At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; 4So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape? Isaiah 20 KJV
A commentary states:
With the great importance attached to the clothing in the East, where the feelings upon this point are peculiarly sensitive and modest, a person was looked upon as stripped and naked if he had only taken off his upper garment. What Isaiah was directed to do, therefore, was simply opposed to common custom, and not to moral decency. He was to lay aside the dress of a mourner and preacher of repentance, and to have nothing on but his tunic (cetoneth); and in this, as well as barefooted, he was to show himself in public. This was the costume of a man who had been robbed and disgraced, or else of a beggar or prisoner of war. The word cēn (so) is followed by the inf. abs., which develops the meaning, as in Isaiah 5:5; Isaiah 58:6-7. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/isaiah/20-1.htm
We also read that St Peter was 'naked' when fishing.
7Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. https://biblehub.com/kjv/john/21.htm
Personally, I don't think that he would have been literally naked. But if a Muslim objects to Isaiah's being 'naked', then what will he make of this?
Narrated 'Aishah:
"Zaid bin Harithah arrived in Al-Madinah while the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was in his house. So he went and knocked at the door, so the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) stood naked (1), dragging his garment - and by Allah! I did not see him naked before nor afterwards - and he hugged him and kissed him." (1) They say that the meaning of naked here is that he was not wearing his Rida or upper wrap and it was that which was dragging, so the area between the navel and knees were covered. See Tuhfat Al-Ahwadhi.
If 'naked' here means 'not wearing his rida', then why do they think that they can object to Isaiah's being 'naked'?
قَدِمَ زَيْدُ بْنُ حَارِثَةَ الْمَدِينَةَ وَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فِي بَيْتِي فَأَتَاهُ فَقَرَعَ الْبَابَ فَقَامَ إِلَيْهِ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عُرْيَانًا يَجُرُّ ثَوْبَهُ وَاللَّهِ مَا رَأَيْتُهُ عُرْيَانًا قَبْلَهُ وَلاَ بَعْدَهُ فَاعْتَنَقَهُ وَقَبَّلَهُ
See also this hadith with the same wording, but graded hasan:
- قَدِمَ زيدُ بنُ حارثةَ المدينةَ، ورسولُ اللَّهِ صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّمَ في بَيْتي، فأتاهُ، فقرَعَ البابَ، فقامَ إليهِ رسولُ اللَّهِ صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّمَ عُرْيانًا يجُرُّ ثَوبَهُ، واللَّهِ ما رأيتُهُ عُرْيانًا قَبلَهُ ولا بَعدَهُ، فاعتَنَقَهُ وقبَّلَهُ.
الراوي : عائشة أم المؤمنين | المحدث : شعيب الأرناووط | المصدر : تخريج شرح السنة الصفحة أو الرقم : 3327 | خلاصة حكم المحدث : إسناده حسن
I've highlighted the word 'naked' in blue.
Allah's 'shin' (saq) would be uncovered on judgment day. The word saq can include the thigh; would Allah's 'awrah be seen on that day?
"Then the Almighty will come to them in a shape other than the one which they saw the first time, and He will say, 'I am your Lord,' and they will say, 'You are not our Lord.' And none will speak: to Him then but the Prophets, and then it will be said to them, 'Do you know any sign by which you can recognize Him?' They will say. 'The Shin,' and so Allah will then uncover His Shin whereupon every believer will prostrate before Him and there will remain those who used to prostrate before Him just for showing off and for gaining good reputation."
From Wiktionary:
From Aramaic שָׁקָא (šāqā, “shin”), ultimately from Akkadian 𒆸 (sâqu, “to be narrow, skinny, or constricted”), cognate to native Arabic ضَيِّق (ḍayyiq, “narrow, pressed”); compare Classical Syriac ܫܩܐ (šāqā, “shin”), Hebrew שׁוֹק (shok, “shin”). Connected back to the root س و ق (s-w-q) by the urging on of animals with one's legs when riding or by driving them forward by tapping at their legs.
NounEdit
leg
shank
side of an angle
perpendicular
trunk, stalk quotations ▼
column, pillar
scale (balance)
genus, gender, kind
pain, torment
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