Explanation

The people of Suffah were some of the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) who were poor emigrants who left their homes and wealth in Makkah and emigrated to Madīnah. They were more than seventy men. Suffah was a shaded area at the back of the Prophet's Mosque, where they would sleep. Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) describes their clothing that they used to wear in summer and winter alike, as he himself was one of them. He says: "none of them had a cloak (ridā’) over them". They had either a lower garment (izār) or a sheet (kisā’). If someone wanted to wear a ridā’, he had to wear a lower garment underneath it. The ridā’ is know today as a jacket or coat. Abu Hurayrah says that none of them had a ridā’; rather, each had one garment to cover himself from the shoulder downward. It resembled a short sheet that the man would tie around his neck because it was not large enough to be tailored and worn. Some of those sheets reached up to the middle of the shins, and others reached the ankles. Then Abu Hurayrah says that one of them would hold his sheet together with his hand while praying to avoid exposing his private parts while bowing or prostrating. This was the state of many Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). They lived in poverty and need, and were not prone to the world and its adornments. Even after wealth became abundant to them later on, they were not concerned with collecting it. They remained content and ascetic until they died.