Muslim

Hadith Commentary:
Vocabulary of the Hadith:
al-mutanatti‘ūn:
Those who adopt excessiveness and extremism,
those who split hairs,
because the meaning of tanattu‘ is excessiveness and overcomplication.

Benefits and Issues:
It is understood from this hadith that
engaging in pointless and fruitless hair-splitting and going to extremes is not a commendable approach,
because this leads to bad practice and to seeking escape or making excuses,
just as when the Children of Israel were commanded to slaughter a cow, they asked,
“What is its age?”
When this was clarified, they said,
“What is its color?”
When this was clarified, they said, “Give us more explanation,”
because there was ambiguity and confusion among such cows.
However, adopting caution (wara‘) and piety (taqwa) and striving to avoid doubtful matters is desirable,
for example, one garment is clean and has just been set aside, and there is doubt about the other garment,
some drops of a child’s urine have fallen on it but it has been washed, so to take the first garment instead of the second is excessiveness and extremism.
But if the garment is pure and clean, and the other garment has mud on it, then to take the first garment is caution (wara‘) and piety (taqwa).