The first is that many people assume the only clothing required in prayer is whatever covers the ʿawrah. Limiting the obligation to this alone has absolutely no proof and openly contradicts the preceding texts—especially the first hadith, which declares the prayer invalid if nothing of a garment is on one’s shoulders. This is the view of the Hanbalis,¹ and it is the incontestable truth.

The second is their rigid adherence to blind imitation. They may read or hear these very texts, yet they are unmoved and never adopt them as their own position, for the madhhab in which they were raised stands between them and the guidance contained therein. Thus, the Sunnah is on one side and they are on the other, as is their habit in this matter—save those whom Allah protects, and they are but few. So may Allah reward Shaykh al-Islam with goodness, for through this blessed epistle he has shown them the path to many realities they had neglected, this one among them.

Among those realities is his ruling that it is impermissible for a man to pray with his thighs uncovered, whether or not they are considered part of the ʿawrah. ⦗16⦘ Such is his precise juristic insight—may Allah have mercy on him.

This concerns a man’s attire in prayer. As for the woman, the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—has clarified that, although the jilbab is obligatory for her when she leaves her home