that results from men adorning themselves with gold?

Answer: Know, dear questioner—and let everyone listening to this program (1) know as well—that for every believer the decisive cause behind any legal ruling is the word of Allah and His Messenger. The Almighty says, “It is not for a believing man or woman, once Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter, to have any choice in the affair” (al-Nisa 36). Therefore, whenever someone asks us about something made obligatory or forbidden whose ruling is established by the Qur’an and the Sunnah, we reply: the reason is the statement of Allah and the statement of His Messenger, and that is sufficient for every believer. For this very reason, when ʿAʾishah was asked, “Why must a menstruating woman make up the fast but not the prayer?” she said, “That used to happen to us, and we were commanded to make up the fast but we were not commanded to make up the prayer” (2). A text from the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger thus stands as a binding reason for every believer. Nevertheless, there is no objection if a person seeks