{"id":2081,"date":"2014-02-12T21:32:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T01:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2014-02-12T21:32:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T01:32:18","slug":"essential-principles-islamic-clothing-adornment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/?p=2081","title":{"rendered":"Essential Principles of Islamic Clothing and Adornment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nEssential Principles of Islamic Clothing and Adornment\"download<\/a><\/b>\n<\/div>\n

By Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani<\/b>
\n<\/b>
\nTranslated by Umm Adam<\/b>
\nTruly the greatest thing for which humans have need after food and drink is clothing, with which man conceals his nakedness, protects himself from the heat and cold, and adorns himself for social settings. Given that Islam is a faith that incorporates injunctions inclusive of all areas of life, it has not overlooked the subject of clothing and has established for it inviolable principles and rulings.
\nIt may be that modern man considers clothing and adornment to be from those everyday, mundane issues that are subject to compliance of what is in vogue in each time and place, that it has no relationship to the rulings of\u00a0\u1e25al\u0101l<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0\u1e25ar\u0101m<\/i>\u00a0and thus not an essential issue upon which life depends. However this claim has but arisen due to insufficient reflection and lack of examination on the effect of clothing on human life. In fact, clothing and dress, despite its relation to a person\u2019s outward rather than his inward, still has a deep effect on his behavior, character and spiritual states. Amongst clothes are those which plant the seeds of arrogance and pride in the soul while others nurture in them modesty before Allah. There are those which establish good character in them and others which pave the way towards extravagance, sin, vanity, and infringement upon the rights of man. Therefore, whoever claims that clothing is but exoteric and that it has no connection to behavior or the character hidden within the hearts is truly uninformed of human nature.
\nFor this reason, Islam did not left the matter of clothing in vain. Islam does not approach any of the affairs of life except with a methodology that conforms to sound disposition and that is in harmony with the demands of nature. Given that humans are disposed to variation in types of clothing and food, Islam did not limit him to one type, excluding others, nor specified for man a particular style or particular form of dress, nor even a particular lifestyle. Rather it established a set of fundamental principles and dictums that every Muslim must abide by in the matter of clothing and then left him free to choose what he prefers from the [different] sorts of dress. Nothing thus prevents a change in the styles of clothing as long as a person upholds these principles and fulfils their necessary conditions.
\nFrom the first of these principles is that clothing must conceal the nakedness (\u02bfawrah<\/i>) of a person. Islam requires a man to wear that which conceals what is between his navel and his knees, and that a woman conceal her entire body with the exception of her face, hands and feet. Covering the\u00a0\u02bfawrah is the most important objective of clothing. Allah, glorified and exalted be He, states: \u201cO children of Adam! We have indeed sent down to you clothing to cover your shame, and (clothing) for beauty\u201d. Thus Allah, glorified and exalted be He, explains that covering shame, i.e. concealing the\u00a0\u02bfawrah, is of the greatest objectives of clothing. Clothing that does not fulfil this aim neglects that for which clothes were created, thus making it forbidden for use. All clothes that reveal a portion of the nakedness of a man or woman are not accepted by Islamic law, though they be beautiful or in fashion. Likewise, clothing that is fine and thin or clings to the body, which reveals to the viewer the shape of a portion of the body that must be concealed, would fall under the ruling above in impermissibility and would be disallowed.
\nThe second principle is that the purpose of clothing is concealment and beautification, concealment for reasons aforementioned, and as for beautification, because Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, calls [clothing] adornment when He states: \u201cTake your adornment at every place of prayer\u201d and in His statement: \u201cSay: who forbids the adornment that Allah has brought out for His slaves, and the good, pure things of sustenance?\u201d. Nas\u0101\u02be\u012b transmits from Ab\u016b\u00a0\u02bel-A\u1e25wa\u1e63 from his father that he related, \u201cI entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and he saw me in a shabby state. He said \u2018Do you have wealth?\u2019 I said \u2018Yes, Allah most High has given me all kinds of wealth\u2019. He exclaimed: \u2018If you have wealth it should be seen upon you\u2019\u201d. It has also been narrated from Ibn\u00a0\u02bfUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: \u201cTruly Allah loves to see the effect of His bounties upon His slave\u201d. (Tirmidh\u012b 124:5, and he deemed it\u00a0\u1e25asan<\/i>)
\nAs for when the purpose of [clothing] is arrogance, pride, sin, vanity and ostentation, then [such clothing] is forbidden. It is narrated from Ibn\u00a0\u02bfAbb\u0101s that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: \u201cEat what you like and wear what you like, provided you do not fall into two things: extravagance and conceit.\u201d (Bukh\u0101r\u012b, as an explanatory remark in the beginning of [the Chapter of] Dress)
\nThe third principle is that clothing which a person uses to imitate disbelieving nations are not permissible to wear for a Muslim if his purpose of wearing such clothing was to imitate them. Ibn Nujaym writes in [the Chapter of] the Nullifiers of Prayer from\u00a0al-Ba\u1e25r al-R\u0101\u02beiq<\/i>\u00a0(11:2): \u201cThen know that resembling the people of the book is not disliked in everything and indeed we eat and drink just as they do. That which is impermissible is but imitation in that wherein there is blame and where one intends resemblance by it. Q\u0101\u1e0d\u012b Kh\u0101n mentions the same in\u00a0Shar\u1e25 al-J\u0101mi\u02bf\u00a0al-\u1e62agh\u012br<\/i>. Based on this, if one does not intend resemblance then it is not disliked according to both of them\u201d. Hish\u0101m similarly states in his\u00a0Naw\u0101dir<\/i>: \u201cI once saw Ab\u016b Y\u016bsuf, may Allah most High have mercy on him, wearing sandals bordered by iron nails, so I said to him: \u2018Do you see any problem with this iron?\u2019 He replied: \u2018No\u2019. I said to him: \u2018Verily Sufy\u0101n and Thawr ibn Yaz\u012bd disliked them because them resemble (the sandals of) monks\u2019. Ab\u016b Y\u016bsuf, may Allah most High have mercy on him, said: \u2018The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to wear sandals that had hair on them (leather not stripped of the animal\u2019s hair) and that is from the dress of monks\u2019.\u201d He alluded to the fact that any form of imitation that relates to the interest of (Allah\u2019s) slaves is not harmful. This type of fixture (i.e. fitting iron nails to sandals) involves man\u2019s benefit as there are pieces of earth and land where it is not possible to cross a long distance except with this type of (sandal) fixture. See\u00a0al-Mu\u1e25\u012bt<\/i>\u00a0in the Chapter on Miscellany. See also\u00a0al-Fat\u0101w\u0101 al-Hindiyyah<\/i>\u00a0(333:5) in the ninth chapter on disliked actions.
\nThe fourth principle is that wearing silk is forbidden for men but not for women. Likewise, the lowering of the lower garment to [below] the ankles is not permissible for men but is permissible for women.
\n 
\nExtracted from Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani\u2019s\u00a0Takmilah Fath al-Mulhim.<\/i>\u200b
\n(Courtesy of\u00a0www.ilmgate.org )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essential Principles of Islamic Clothing and Adornment By Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani Translated by Umm Adam Truly the greatest thing for which humans have need…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,57,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-motivators","category-tazkiyah","wpcat-33-id","wpcat-57-id","wpcat-24-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}