The point here is that the trousers associated with futuwwa have no basis in anything transmitted from 'Alī or any other early Muslim. Whatever conditions some of them stipulate, if they concern something commanded by Allah and His Messenger, it should be done because Allah and His Messenger commanded it. Whatever He has forbidden—such as partisan support for one person against another, or assisting in sin and transgression—remains forbidden, even if they make it a condition.

The word fatā means “young man” in Arabic, as the lexicographers explain. Examples include the words of Allah Most High:

“Two young men entered the prison with him.”

“They were young men who believed in their Lord.”

“And when Moses said to his young attendant.”

The verbal forms fatā and yaftā describe being young; a fatā is someone whose youth is evident. Among animals, the aftā are the young, as opposed to the aged. The word fatā may also refer to a slave irrespective of age, as in the words of Allah Most High:

“From among your believing slave women.”

Since a young man is more amenable than an old man, his disposition contains a liberality and generosity not found among the elderly. People therefore came to use the word fatā for someone liberal and generous. One says, “He is a fatā of manifest futuwwa”; also qasada yaftā and yufātā. The plurals are fityān and fitya.

The use of fatā to mean someone endowed with noble character occurs in the words of many spiritual teachers. It may be supposed that the Quranic wording conveys this meaning. An example is the saying of one of these teachers: “Our path is chivalry, not Christian monasticism,” meaning that it consists in practising the finest qualities of