permitting one’s animal to be adorned with gold and silver by analogy with permitting it to be clothed in a ritually impure garment. The prohibition of using silk as bedding is established by explicit textual evidence, just as the prohibition of wearing it is. This shows that the view prohibiting women from using it as bedding—as held by the scholars of Marw among al-Shāfiʿī’s followers—is more consistent with analogical reasoning than the view permitting men to do so, as held by Abū Hanīfa. Nevertheless, the majority hold that using it as bedding is like wearing it: it is forbidden to men but not to women, because using something as bedding counts as wearing it. As Anas said:

“I went over to a mat of ours that had turned black from long use.”

For permission to wear adornments on the body does not entail permission to use them separately from it, as illustrated by gold and silver vessels: the scholars agree that using these is forbidden to both sexes, male and female.

Once the distinction between what the jurists in this discussion call a need and what they call a necessity is clear, a small amount of silver used as a subsidiary component is, in their view, permissible to meet a need. This is illustrated by the hadith of Anas:

“When the cup of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, broke, it was repaired with silver.”

This applies whether it was the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or Anas himself who repaired it.

If, however, the small amount is used for adornment, there are several opinions within Ahmad’s school and elsewhere: prohibition, permissibility, and reprehensibility. A fourth view has also been mentioned: that what is permitted of this is