Chapter: The worshiper’s clothing, its purity, and the place of prayer

No one who possesses anything with which to cover himself may lawfully pray while naked.

The minimum garment that suffices for a man in prayer is whatever covers the area between the navel and the knees; that is his ʿawrah (the part of the body that must be concealed).

For a free woman, the least that is acceptable is clothing that conceals her entire body except the face and the hands; the same applies when she is in ihram during Hajj or ʿUmrah. Everything else is ʿawrah.

The ʿawrah of a female slave is the same as that of a man, yet it is disliked for anyone other than her master to look beneath her garments, to gaze at her breasts or chest, or at anything of hers that might provoke temptation. It is recommended that she leave her head uncovered, but it is disliked for her to expose the rest of her body.

Anyone who still bears any measure of enslavement is treated like a slave‐woman. Even so, it is recommended that an umm walad (a slave who has borne her master a child) and a mukātaba (a slave under a contract of emancipation) prepare for prayer in the manner of free women.

Concealing the ʿawrah is compulsory.

The jurists have differed