What this means is that constantly wearing it while resident is an innovation, as we have related from Muhammad ibn Sīrīn. When he heard that some people deliberately chose to wear wool, he said:

“I think these people have heard that the Messiah used to wear wool, so they wear it for that reason. Yet our Prophet’s way is dearer to us than anyone else’s.”

It is reported in the Sunan collections that “the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to attend Friday prayer wearing wool.” Another hadith states:

“Some people came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, clad in striped cloaks.”

These cloaks were made of wool. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also wore cotton and other fabrics. The point is that treating the wearing of wool as an act of worship and a path to Allah is an innovation. Wearing it out of need and for its practical benefit, however—for a poor person because nothing else is available, or because he does not wear anything else, and similar reasons—is good and prescribed.

Refusing to wear it altogether is blameworthy, especially in the case of someone who professes to wear it out of pride and arrogance: Allah will not look at him on the Day of Resurrection. For it is established in the authentic hadith collection that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever lets his waist-wrapper trail out of arrogance, Allah will not look at him on the Day of Resurrection.”

He also said:

“While a man was letting his waist-wrapper trail out of arrogance, the earth swallowed him up, and he will continue sinking through it until the Day of Resurrection.”

They used to disapprove of both extremes of conspicuous dress: the luxurious and the shabby. No one may make anything part of religion or the path to Allah unless Allah and His Messenger have prescribed it, especially when imposing such restrictions corrupts both religious and worldly affairs. For