As Salamu alaikum fellows. I think I’ve finally unraveled this mystery. You know, there isn’t any QURAN verse directly instructing us to raise our trousers or izar above our ankles. This ayat is close to the topic though- وَلاَ تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلاَ تَمْشِ فِى الاٌّرْضِ مَرَحاً إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ 18. "And turn not your face away from men with pride, nor walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah likes not any arrogant boaster.'' (surah Luqman). We see that ALLAH has banned pride. Let us take a look at the following hadith- Bukhari:72:675:- The Prophet said Allah will not look, on the Day of Resurrection at the person who drags his garment (behind him) out of conceit. On that Abu Bakr said, "O Allah's Apostle! One side of my Izar hangs low if I do not take care of it." The Prophet said, 'You are not one of those who do that out of conceit." SB:73:88:- Narated By Salim : That his father said; "When Allah's Apostle mentioned what he mentioned about (the hanging of) the Izar (waist sheet), Abu Bakr said, "O Allah's Apostle! My Izar slackens on one side (without my intention)." The Prophet said, "You are not among those who (out of pride) drag their Izars behind them." SB:72:679:- Allah's Apostle, "Allah will not look, on the Day of Resurrection, at a person who drags his Izar (behind him) out of pride and arrogance." Abu Dawood:27:4082:- AbdurRahman said: I asked Abu Sa'id al-Khudri about wearing lower garment. He said: You have come to the man who knows it very well. The Apostle of Allah (pbuh) said: The way for a believer to wear a lower garment is to have it halfway down his legs and he is guilty of no sin if it comes halfway between that and the ankles, but what comes lower than the ankles is in Hell. On the day of Resurrection, Allah will not look at him who trails his lower garment conceitedly. Word "conceit/proud" is missing in some hadees like following one & that's why our scholars took them "Literally" instead of looking into the spirit of what Prophet said. SB:72:678:- The Prophet said, "The part of an Izar which hangs below the ankles is in the Fire." SB:72:681:- Allah's Apostle said, "While a man was dragging his Izar on the ground (behind him), suddenly Allah made him sink into the earth and he will go on sinking into it till the Day of Resurrection." Now let’s take a look at this hadith- SB:72:678:- The Prophet said, "The part of an Izar which hangs below the ankles is in the Fire." We do not know in what context or situation prophet has said it. So by comparing with the other similar hadith we can say that it is about those who hang their izar low out of pride. That those days people used to lower their clothes out of pride is evident from the previous hadiths. SB:73:88:- " The Prophet said, "You are not among those who (out of pride) drag their Izars behind them." Abu Dawood:27:4082:- . On the day of Resurrection, Allah will not look at him who trails his lower garment conceitedly. Now, these days lowering the garment upto the shoe is in no way directly out of pride. It’s just a social norm. Yeah I don’t have the right to say I don’t have any pride in my heart but I can say I don’t intend pride in wearing my garment upto the shoe. If unintentional hidden pride is the problem then you’re just exaggerating. We may have such hidden pride in everything we do. How do you know you don’t have pride in sitting on the sofa or using a laptop. Sit on the floor buddy and get yourself a typewriter (and a cheap desktop). Drink in brass pots. You all know the definition of pride? 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "No one who has an atom's weight of pride in his heart will enter the Garden." A man said, "And if the man likes his clothes to be good and his sandals to be good?" He said, "Allah is Beautiful and loves beauty. Pride means to renounce the truth and abase people." [Muslim] So pride in wearing long garments is definitely abasing/belittling people. There is no belittling people when letting the pant reach the ankle (upto the shoe) is universal. Everybody in the society does that more or less. (but still dragging the clothes is unnatural and arrogant, cause he shows that he doesn’t care his clothes getting worn out and dirty, it can never be a natural thing. ) I’m saying this because rasul warned us of isbal due to pride, not wearing a shoe and letting the garment reach that. Rasul allowed abu Bakr (R) to do that. Now if it were haram to lower it with or without pride rasul would’ve strictly warned abu Bakr. Like, you can’t say that ‘I get involved in telling lies if I don’t pay attention’ and expect prophet to say, ‘don’t worry, you don’t mean no harm.’ This is because lying itself is potentially haram and lowering the garment is not. But still, you need to be aware if you really do intend pride. Like as in the parallel examples I’ve cited, you need to know if you are showing off your comfortable sofas. If not, there’s no harm sitting on them. You might say, then what do you have to say about this? [2] Also narrated by Tabarani, the Prophet (peace and blessing upon him), saw a man whose garments were below the ankles, he ordered him: “Raise your waist-wrap!” The man said: “I have an ailment in my legs; my knees collide with each other.” He (saw), replied: “Raise your garment because all of the creation of Allah is beautiful.” Answer is, the prophet also said these- 1] In a hadith from Imam Tabarani, whose chain is sound, which is emphatic in this ruling not being restricted to when this act is done in pride. Namely: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), struck four fingers of his hand below the knee (on the shin) and said: “O Amar (bin Zurarah)! this is the place of the garment.” 5) Ibn Umar r.a. narrates that: “I passed by the Messenger of Allah , peace and blessings be upon him, and my garment was loose, so he, peace and blessings upon him, said: "O Abdullah raise your garment,’ so I raised it. Then he said, ‘more,’ so I raised it more. Ever since then I have been vigilant regarding it.” (Muslim) Does that mean raising your trouser up to the shin is FARZ? In this case, you are gonna refer to other hadith as it does not offer complete information- The Messenger of Allah , peace and blessings upon him, said: “The waist-wrap of the Muslim must be up to the middle of the shins; and there is no harm if it goes between there and the ankles….” (Abu Dawud) And I’d refer to other hadith like- Bukhari:72:675:- The Prophet said Allah will not look, on the Day of Resurrection at the person who drags his garment (behind him) out of conceit. On that Abu Bakr said, "O Allah's Apostle! One side of my Izar hangs low if I do not take care of it." The Prophet said, 'You are not one of those who do that out of conceit." SB:72:679:- Allah's Apostle, "Allah will not look, on the Day of Resurrection, at a person who drags his Izar (behind him) out of pride and arrogance." Makes sense doesn’t it? I agree, it’s true that raising your garment is a good thing, a sunnat. But it would not be right to tell us that it’s a farz and that you have to do it no matter what.