they had disobeyed Allah, were unfit to be worn when worshipping Him. Thus, they sought to keep the worship of Allah free from contact with their clothes, only to fall into the indecency of exposing their private parts.

As for these people, their conduct is far graver and more serious. The most those earlier people did was for men and women to circumambulate naked, mingling together, so that a woman among them would say:

“Today some or all of it is laid bare;
Yet what is laid bare I declare forbidden.”

That mingling and gathering took place only during a public act of worship in which the greater indecency could not be committed. By stripping naked, they intended only to rid themselves of the clothing of sin, as they claimed.

But those men, women, and beardless youths who gather to listen to whistling and clapping, extinguishing the lamps so that they cannot see one another, thus gathering for singing, fornication, and foul foods, and making this an act of worship—these people are undoubtedly worse than those earlier people. They have opened the gates of Hell.

As Abū Hurayrah reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked, “What most often