Works of Abul Baraa Muhamad Amreeki

All the praises is for Allah the Lord of the Worlds and peace and blessings be upon His  Chosen Messenger Muhammad and upon his family and his companions all of them.

Q & A by the Student of Knowledge, Shaykh Abdurrahman Murad هداه الله 

Question:

If one wears their trousers/pants/jeans below the ankle…isn’t the prohibition specific to arrogance?

Answer:

Although this questions was raised and answered in the course, due to its importance, and the frequency at which it was asked (no less than 15 times) I thought it would be best to repeat the answer here!
Of course we have two sets of texts that relate to wearing a garment below the ankle…the first which do not mention the issue of arrogance, and the second that does.
For example the Prophet, may Allah praise him, said:

ثلاثةٌ لا يُكَلِّمُهم اللهُ يومَ القِيامةِ ، ولا يَنظُرُ إِليهِمْ ، ولا يُزَكِّيهِمْ ، ولَهُمْ عذابٌ ألِيمٌ ، قال فَقَرَأَهَا رسولُ اللهِ صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّمَ ثلاثَ مِرارٍ . قال أبُو ذَرٍّ : خَابُوا وخَسِرُوا . مَن هُم يا رسولَ اللهِ ؟ قال : الْمُسْبِلُ والمَنَّانُ والمُنْفِقُ سِلْعَتَهُ بِالْحَلِفِ الكاذِبِ

Meaning: Three individuals to whom Allah shall not speak to on the Day of Resurrection, nor look at them, nor sanctify them, and they will have a severe punishment. The Prophet, may Allah praise him, repeated this three times…Abu Dharr said: “Woe to them, may they be in a state of misery and loss…who are they?” He said: “The one who lowers their garment below the ankle, the one who reminds you of a gift that they gave and one who sells his items by bearing false testimony.” (Muslim)

In this narration, no reference was made to arrogance…in fact many of the narrations don’t indicate arrogance!
The other set of Hadeeth speak of this sin accompanied with arrogance…the Prophet, may Allah praise him, said:

مَنْ جَرَّ ثَوْبَهُ خُيَلَاءَ ، لم ينظُرِ اللهُ إليه يومَ القيامةِ

Meaning: Whoever drags their garment out of arrogance, Allah will not look at them on the Day of Resurrection.
When looking at both sets of hadeeth…I personally conclude that simply deliberately wearing the garment (thobe, pants…) below the ankles is a major sin…but the sin intensifies if accompanied with arrogance.
Now that said, one would usually speak of what the Prophet, may Allah praise him, said about Abu Bakr…He said to him: “You are not among those who do this out of arrogance!”
With this, I want to leave a few ‘last comments’:

a. Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, did not initially wear his garment below the ankles…it was above, and on the rare occasion when it slipped below the ankle, he would pull it up…Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was concerned about those moments in which the garment slipped below…the hadeeth goes on to say that he would pull it up كان يتعاهده !

b. We cannot compare ourselves to Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, that was a different caliber of individual that will not repeat in this Ummah…a man with such strong faith and Iman…Allah Akbar…personally, this to me seems more like a specific matter that pertains to this Sahabi, and not for anyone else…you see, we don’t have the luxury of the Prophet, may Allah praise him, being with us to identify who does and does not wear the garment below the ankle for the sake of boasting, pride, arrogance…etc.

c. What further solidifies the issue of this not being a general matter that we can take by…is what took place during the end of the Khilaafah of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him…when a young, bright, strongly faithful Ta’biee entered upon him…he gave beautiful, touching words of advice and as he walked away…Umar noticed that his garment was below his ankle…so he called him back and advised him to raise it above the ankle. This Ta’biee had more Iman than people today…yet Umar didn’t make that assumption ‘you are not among those who do it out of arrogance and pride’.

d. I think, we should adopt the SCHOOL OF THOUGHT (سمعنا وأطعنا) we hear and obey…just look at the severe punishment tied with lowering the garment…it is very scary. We seek refuge with Allah from that! Ameen…!