the Arabs, when they adopted a foreign term, would modify it by adding a letter, dropping a letter, or substituting one letter for another.
• al-barānis (sing. burnus): a hooded cloak whose head-cover is stitched on. It was worn by devout ascetics in the early Islamic period and is still worn today in the Maghrib. The word is derived from birs (cotton); the nūn is an added letter.
• al-khifāf (sing. khuff): footwear worn on the foot that reaches halfway up the calf. Jawārib (socks) are whatever covers the ankles, and both share the same legal ruling.
• “except one…”: the element from which the exception is made is omitted; the sense is, “A person in ihram is not to wear leather socks—except someone who cannot find sandals.”
• “touched by saffron”: i.e., dyed with it. The entire clause is in the accusative, functioning as an adjective modifying the word “garment.”
• saffron: a bulbous plant of the iris family used to dye cloth. The name is of foreign origin, pluralised as zaʿāfir; the Arabs adopted and declined it.
• the two ankles: the pair of protruding bones at the joint where the leg meets the foot.
• wars: a yellow plant likewise used for dyeing cloth; it also has a pleasant scent.
Lessons derived from the ḥadith:
- Excellence in questioning lies in formulating the question precisely and directing it to the very matter one wishes to ask about.
- Excellence in answering—and in perfecting instruction and comprehension—lies in reshaping the question and adjusting it to the required meaning. In this ḥadith the inquirer asked what the pilgrim in ihram may wear, yet because what he may wear is the abundant, original state of permissibility, the Prophet ﷺ responded by specifying what is forbidden and left all else on its default allowance. Scholars of rhetoric call this mode of replying the “method of the sage” (uslūb al-ḥakīm); it is briefer and more comprehensive, for what is prohibited is fewer and easier to enumerate than what is permitted.