she would then begin her circumambulation, holding it over her private part and saying:

“Today some of it—or perhaps all of it—may appear; whatever does appear I shall not make lawful.”

Thereupon Allah revealed: “Put on your adornment at every place of worship.” (al-Aʿrāf 7:31)

This report was recorded by Muslim, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Jarīr in his Tafsīr, as well as by al-Ḥākim—followed by al-Bayhaqī—through multiple chains from Shuʿbah, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from Muslim al-Baṭīn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās. The wording cited here is that of Ibn Jarīr; the first additional phrase is found in al-Ḥākim, the second in Muslim and al-Nasāʾī, and the fourth in a version of al-Bayhaqī, and likewise in Muslim.

Hishām ibn ʿUrwah reported from his father: “The Arabs used to circumambulate the House naked, except for the Ḥums—the Ḥums being Quraysh and those to whom they gave birth. They too went around unclothed unless the Ḥums supplied them with garments; in that case the men would clothe the men and the women would clothe the women.” Muslim also transmitted this.

About this naked circumambulation the verse was likewise revealed: “When they commit an indecency they say, ‘We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded us to do it.’ Say: ‘Allah does not command indecency. Do you attribute to Allah what you do not know?’” (al-Aʿrāf 7:28). Mujāhid said so, as related in Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr. Thus Allah classified their naked tawāf as an act of indecency (fāḥishah). This is the view of most exegetes, as al-Qurṭubī notes, and it is the well-known position of Ibn ʿAbbās, as cited in al-Majmūʿ.

Accordingly, our statement that what is required is the covering of the ʿawrah is unanimously agreed upon by the scholars, as Ibn Ḥazm has conveyed.