people who would come to the graveyards, exhume graves, and take the shrouds. Those scholars therefore said: If you fear such people, make holes in the wrappings, so as to spoil them for the thieves—just as al-Khidr damaged the ship so that the unjust king would not seize it.

However, the later jurists said that the wrappings should not be torn.

His statement: “If he is shrouded in a shirt, a waist-wrapper, and a wrapping, that is permissible.”

After the author, may Allah have mercy on him, mentioned the prescribed manner of shrouding a man—that he is shrouded in three white wrappings, as the Prophet ﷺ was shrouded (1)—he explained the minimum that suffices. He said: “If he is shrouded in a shirt, a waist-wrapper, and a wrapping, that is permissible.”

The shirt is the garment that we wear; that is, a tunic with sleeves.

The waist-wrapper is what is wrapped around the lower part of the body.

The wrapping is a garment that covers the entire body. Thus, if he is shrouded in these garments, there is no harm. Yet today, most people are shrouded in three wrappings, because a shirt requires sewing and time, or else shirts must be prepared in advance by those who wash and shroud the deceased.

His statement: “A woman is shrouded in five garments: a waist-wrapper, a head-covering, a shirt, and two wrappings.”

His statement, “a waist-wrapper,” is grammatically an appositive indicating a part of the whole.