Deciphering Words on Clothing in Al-Ṣaḥīḥayn for Answering Misconception on Forbidden Colours for Men in “Clothing and Colours in Early Islam” by Hadas Hirsch

Abstract

The discourse regarding clothing in Islam regularly emphasizes on divine dress code differentiates between the permissible and the forbidden, as enshrined in Islamic scripture. Possibly, a misconception could prevail within attempts by outsiders of the fraternity of scripture studies. For instance, there is a claim in an English paper “Clothing and Colours in Early Islam: Adornment (Aesthetics), Symbolism and Differentiation” by Hadas Hirsch states that Muslim men are forbidden from wearing yellow, red and colourful clothes. To answer the misconception, this study focuses on hadiths in the chapters on clothing in al-Ṣaḥīḥayn. This study employs a qualitative methodology through content analysis on the paper and contextual analysis on the culled chapters. Ultimately, this study identifies the argument presented by Hirsch and then finds narrations on the mentioned colours for men in the culled chapters. Based on the narrations, these colours are allowed for men since they are not performing pilgrimage ritual and their red dress are not of safflower-based dye. Indeed, the false claim lies in dependence on insufficient texts besides the hindrance in construing archaic words in text of hadith. Hereby, this study stresses on the conveying of teaching from hadith into other languages, especially English should be made by its scholarly fraternity in hadith which can reveal sufficient array of narrations for each topic. In addition, the text which has its Arabic language root back to over fourteen centuries is understandable in the hands of scholars in the field of hadith and Islamic scripture.