the early generations, among them Imām Aḥmad. The view most commonly reported from him is that if someone offers the prayer with his shoulders uncovered while he is able to cover them, the prayer is invalid; he therefore regarded covering the shoulders as a prerequisite of validity. This is likewise the position of Ibn Ḥazm in al-Muḥallā.

A second report from Aḥmad, however, states that the prayer remains valid but the person incurs sin for omitting the covering. This, God willing, is the correct opinion.

The majority—Mālik, Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, and others—hold that the Prophet’s ﷺ prohibition is one of mere disapproval and that his command denotes recommendation. Accordingly, if a person prays in a single garment that conceals his ʿawrah yet leaves nothing upon his shoulders, his prayer is valid, though disliked, whether or not he could have placed something over his shoulders. Al-Nawawī said in his commentary on Muslim:

“The proof of the majority is…,”

and he wrote in al-Majmūʿ:

“Our evidence is the ḥadith of Jābir in which the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Fasten it around your waist (fa-’tazir bihi).’ Al-Shāfiʿī argued this in al-Umm, and the companions and others have relied upon it. Allah knows best.”

I say: This is truly astonishing. The Prophet’s ﷺ instruction to fasten the cloth around one’s waist applies only when the garment is narrow, as the very wording of the ḥadith states, yet the majority insist on fastening even when the cloth is wide. How could al-Nawawī and those who preceded him rely on the bare command to “fasten it” without attending to the condition the Prophet ﷺ himself attached to it?

The fact is that the ḥadith provides decisive support for the position of Aḥmad and others, namely, the distinction between a wide garment and a narrow one: with a wide garment, wrapping oneself (al-iltiḥāf) is obligatory, whereas with a narrow garment only fastening is required. Al-Bukhārī inclined to this view as well.