Texts of Islam

A Manual of Hadith: Chapter XXIX: Toilet

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This is a chapter from an Islamic hadith commentary — a genre that presents prophetic traditions alongside Quranic verses and scholarly annotation — likely from a 20th-century rationalist Muslim author working in the tradition of hadith exegesis. The chapter addresses Islamic rulings on dress, adornment, personal grooming, and decorative images, marshaling Quranic verses (7:31–32) alongside authenticated hadith from collections such as Bukhari and Abu Dawud to outline normative practice. The main argument is that Islam endorses cleanliness, modesty, and personal care as religious virtues, while prohibiting specific excesses: nudity, extravagance, silk and gold jewelry for men (with medical and practical exceptions noted), and the making of three-dimensional images intended for veneration. The work is distinctive in its rationalist interpretive method — most notably, the author rejects a literal reading of the hadith prohibiting images in houses, arguing instead that "house" means the heart, and that only images kept for idol-worship are forbidden, not decorative cloth patterns or pictures. This interpretive move allows the author to reconcile apparently strict hadith with Quranic passages endorsing Solomon's use of statues. A reader interested in how classical Islamic sources on embodied practice (dress, grooming, ornament) can be read through a modernist lens that resists literalism will find this chapter directly relevant.

A Manual of Hadith: Chapter XXIX: Toilet

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