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[quote]CAUTION: The following is my opinion and MUST NOT be construed as a religious edict. To each his own. I will NOT accept any alleged responsibility for misleading the naive.

And God knows best.

>>the salaah was a well-known act of worship, having been established amongst the 'saliheen' as an Abrahamic Tradition.

To the extent that Simon Stylites would pray in the Abrahamic fashion before the Prophet, I agree. REF: Islam a Concise Introduction by Neal Robinson.

>>My question is: would the 'method of prayer' include the dress code?

To the extent that nude pilgrimage was abolished, I suppose there is some form of a minimum dress code as defined by the 'awrah'.

However, having said that, the male prayer cap, and the women head cover all lie outside the scope of the awrah.
 
But, the above and the beard were universal at the time of the Prophet. We have not one companion without the beard or without the head cap and nor a single lady without the head cover.

The beard and prayer cap have been shown to be NOT obligatory. However much of Islamic research has been done with a male perspective. So a certain level of gender bias does seep in.

Practices which are ubiquitous but NOT obligatory are humbly protested against by our learned scholars. I know for certain, my Islamic Studies Prof. would NOT stay for the collective prayer after the Jamaah. And neither would he wear the prayer cap. He kept a beard despite the knowledge that it was not mandatory. And out of personal preference also refused the Western attire.

Likewise, the female head cover is neither part of awrah and more importantly not sanctioned.

Hence in the spirit of the above, I am more inclined toward the opinion that we must not be making something obligatory which was never sanctioned UNLESS the Prophet made it part of the Sunnah Mutawatirah.

To my knowledge the prayer cap, beard, and the female head cover are NOT part of the Mutawatirah.

For if the female head cover were Mutawatirah then they should be wearing the head cover at all times and not just for prayers, which would seem as absurd as guys wearing caps just before prayers.

>>If no, then how do you decide what goes within the purview of Sunnah and what goes within the purview of simple tradition/custom?

Since we know from the Koran that head cover is not obligatory, therefore the Sunnah cannot/MUST not contradict the Koran.

CONCLUSION: I guess what I am getting at through all these discussions is the following opinion.

If out of personal preference a lady wishes to wear the head cover, then that is just like a man wearing a beard.

We do not frown upon a man who prays without a beard and not even when such a person leads the prayer. Likewise if some women choose to pray without the head cover, there should be no issue at all.

The men have broken the seeming obligations of beard and the prayer cap. It is upto the women to decide how they would sort matters which fall in their domain, and should ideally be leading these discussions.

Edited by: junaidj on Sunday, August 08, 2004 7:57 PM[/quote]

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