Discarded Garments among the Hums

The Arabs called those discarded clothes al-laqa, “cast-offs.” Quraysh imposed this practice on the Arabs, who adopted it. They stood at ‘Arafah and departed from it, then circumambulated the House naked. Men went naked; women removed all their clothes except a front-opening shift, which they wore while circumambulating. A woman of the Arabs, while circumambulating in that state, said: Today some or all of it is exposed; what is exposed, I will not make lawful. Whoever circumambulated in the clothing he had brought from outside the Sanctuary discarded it and neither he nor anyone else used it again. An Arab poet described a beloved garment he had left behind and would not approach: How many a garment I left behind, like a cast-off held inviolable among those who circumambulate— that is, it must not be touched.

[1] Aqit, with several possible vocalizations, is a food made from sheep’s fermented milk. [2] Sala’t al-samn means cooking and processing clarified butter; the verbal noun is sila’. [3] Leather tents are shelters made from hides. [4] Laqa means something thrown away or abandoned; its plural is alqa’. [5] Mufarraj describes a garment slit at the front or back. [6] The woman is said to have been Dub‘ah bint ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah, of Banu Salamah ibn Qushayr. Ibn Hisham notes a report that the Messenger had proposed marriage to her, but left the matter; the editor suggests that Allah’s protection and knowledge of the Messenger’s protective jealousy may have played a role.

[1] One account of the discarded garments concerns Fakhitah, Umm Hakim ibn Hizam. She entered the Ka‘bah pregnant with Hakim ibn Hizam; labor came upon her and she could not leave, so she gave birth inside. She wrapped herself and the newborn in pieces of aqit and discarded her clothing, which became cast-offs no one could approach. Al-mithbar, with a fathah, means the place where a child is born. [2] Another copy reads “as though she”; [3] harim means something inviolable, not to be touched or used. [4] The adornment in the verse refers to clothing and not circumambulating naked. The instruction to eat and drink alludes to the Hums prohibition on bringing food into the Sanctuary. [5] Recension A reads “from”; other copies read “on.”