The Muslim woman's dress:
First, a
Muslim man or woman must understand that for any Muslim it is obligatory to
accept words of the Al Qur'aan and Sunnah as ultimate authority. If we
don't, then that means that we have a defective Eeman. Please read the following from
Qur'aan and Hadith before proceeding to the main topic of this page:
“It is not fitting for a believer, man
or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Apostle, to have
any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Apostle,
he is indeed on a clearly wrong path.” Surat-ul-Ahzab
(33-36)
"Whatever Allaah's Messenger SAW:
gives you, take it, and whatever he has forbidden, refrain from it."
(Al Qur'aan)
The Prophet (S.A.W.) said: "Belief and
the sense of shame are tied together; if one is lost, the other is lost."
(Al-Hakim)
The Prophet (S.A.W.) said, "If you do
not feel ashamed, then do whatever you like." (Sahih
Bukhari)
The outer garment must not
be decorative itself or a means of beautification.
When Allaah commands women not to reveal their beauty, He
means both the natural beauty, with which He has endowed them, and all means
which they might employ to enhance that beauty. Clearly, the garment which
is used to screen the woman's beauty and her adornment from public view
should not itself be a thing of beauty.
Fudaalah ibn 'Ubaid (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW)
said:
"There are three people
that you should not concern yourself about: a man who parted from the
Jamaa'ah and disobeyed his Imaam and died in that state; a slave who ran
away from his master and died without returning; a woman whose husband
departed from her after providing for her worldly needs and who then
beautified (tabarrajat) herself in his absence. Do not worry about any of
them." (Ahmad)
The word tabarraja means not only to beautify
oneself, or to make oneself pretty, but also to display oneself, to play up
to one's charms for the purpose of exciting desire. Imaam ad-Dhahabi said in
his book Kitaab al-Kabaa'ir (The Book of Great Sins):
"Of the deeds woman is cursed for are displaying the
ornaments which she is wearing, wearing perfume when going out, and wearing
colourful clothes and silky short cloak." The verb `tabarrraja'
includes all of these actions. `Tabarruj' is so abhorrent that it is
associated with shirk, fornication, stealing and other (major) sins.
Abdullaah ibn 'Umar (RA) said:
"A woman came to the Messenger
(SAW) of Allaah to give her pledge for Islaam. He said: "I accept your
pledge that you will not associate partners with Allaah, nor steal, nor
fornicate, nor kill your child, nor commit a sin between your arms and legs,
nor wail over the dead, nor beautify and display yourself (tatabarraji)
after the fashion of the pre-Islaamic days."
(Ahmad)
The outer garment must be
thick and opaque so as to conceal the clothes worn.
Proper covering cannot be achieved by wearing tight or
transparent apparel.
The Prophet (saw) said:
"There will be in the last days of my
ummah (nation), women who are dressed and undressed. Curse them: they are
accursed." (At-Tabarani)
Abu Hurairah (ra) related that the Prophet (saw) referred
to:
"... women who are naked
even though they are wearing clothes, go astray and make others go astray,
and they will not enter paradise nor smell its fragrance, although it can be
smelt from afar."
(at-Tabarani)
The dressed and undressed
women are those who wear transparent or very tight clothes, or
clothes which are cut in such a way that they expose the body. Such clothes
reveal more than they conceal. The Prophet (saw) said:
"Belief and the sense of
shame are tied together; if one is lost, the other is lost."
(Al-Hakim)
It should be noted that a woman should wear a loose
over-garment for offering prayer. It should cover her whole body (as far as
going out) and should be such that it conceals the shape of her arms and
legs, as well as that of the rest of her body.
Muslim women
must not imitate men's dress
Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmaan al-Jibreen (may
Allaah preserve him) was asked about the ruling on women wearing jeans. He
replied:
“As for women wearing pants or
trousers, this is not permitted, even if she is on her own or in front of
other women or her husband, except if she is in a closed room with her
husband only. Apart from that, it is not permitted because it shows the
details of her body and makes her get used to these clothes. So she is not
permitted to wear these clothes at all.” (al-Nukhbah
min al-Fataawaa al-Nisaa’iyyah, p. 30).
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih ibn ‘Uthaymeen was also asked
about the ruling on women wearing any kind of pants or trousers. He (may
Allaah preserve him) answered:
“I think that women should not wear
trousers at all, even if there is no one with her apart from her husband,
because this is imitating men. The ones who wear trousers are men, and the
Prophet (saw) cursed women who imitate men.”
Muslim women are not to wear
perfume in public.
Abu Musa (ra) narrated that the Prophet (saw) said:
"Any woman who wears
perfume and passes by some people who smell her perfume is like one who
commits fornication."
Abu Hurairah (RA) said that:
"A woman passed by him
smelling strongly of scent. He called to her, "O slave of the powerful. Are
you going to the mosque?" She said that she was. He said: "Go back and wash
it (the perfume) off. I heard the Messenger (saw) of Allaah say: "Any woman
who goes to the mosque wearing perfume will not have her prayer accepted by
Allaah; first she should go back home and have a bath (to wash the perfume
off).""
It is inappropriate for a woman to wear perfume in the
mosque, where people are attending to the worship of Allaah; how much more
inappropriate is it that she should wear scent elsewhere, where people are
more liable to distraction? Scent attracts attention to woman and may
thereby stimulate sexual desires; this is improper in the marketplace and
mosque.
The clothes of Muslim women
should not resemble men's clothes.
Abu Hurairah (ra) said that:
"The Messenger (saw) of Allaah cursed
the man who wears women's clothes and the woman who wears men's clothes."
Ibn 'Umar (ra) said that he heard the Messenger (saw) of
Allaah say: "He is not of us who imitates women nor
is he of us who imitates men."
(al-Hakim)
Abdullaah ibn 'Umar reported that the Prophet (saw) said:
"Three people will not
enter paradise, and Allaah will not look to them on the Day of Judgement:
the one who is disobedient to his parents, the woman who imitates men and
the ad-Dayooth."
(Ahmad)
Ad-Dayooth is the man who permits women for
whom he is responsible (eg: mother, wife, sister etc.) to engage in illicit
sexual relations, or to display their beauty to strange men, thereby
stimulating their sexual desires.
The clothes of Muslims women
should not resemble those of the disbelievers.
In Surat al-Hadeed, ayah 16, we are told:
"Has not the time come or
those who believe to submit their hearts to Allaah's reminder and to that
which has been revealed of the truth, and not become as those who received
the Scriptures before and for whom the term was prolonged so their hearts
grew hard? And many of them are rebellious transgressors."
Those who refuse to submit to Allaah's
commands are rebels against Him, and they are permitted to continue in their
rebellion until their hearts become hard. The ayah and Hadeeth
quoted above serve as a double warning to us: we must take care to heed
Allaah's commands, revealed to us through the Qur'aan and Sunnah of His
Messenger (saw), lest we suffer the fate of the recipients of previous
revelations: we should also shun the way of life of any dis-believing
people. If we adopt what is theirs, we partake also of the quality of their
hearts. We pray to Allaah to safeguard us from that, lest we become like
them.
Give the condition of the disbelievers'
hearts, it is not surprising to find that much of their clothing,
particularly that of women, is unsuitable for Muslims. It is designed to be
attractive in itself and to enhance and attract attention to women's natural
beauty.
The clothes of Muslims women
should not be Ostentatious.
Ibn Umar (ra) reported that the Messenger
(saw) of Allaah said:
"He who
dresses for ostentation "
By following the seven principles above, Insha-allaah, a woman will
satisfy all the necessary requirements for proper Islaamic dress. it should
be noted that some of these principles also apply to men's dress, and
clearly some would apply not only to what a woman wears in public, but also
to what she wears in the privacy of her own home or in the homes of her
relatives or her Muslim sisters.
There are however, some additional
prohibitions regarding personal appearance of which our Muslim sisters
should be aware. These prohibitions have to do with changes made to the
appearance which are regarded as unacceptable alterations to Allaah's
creation, namely wearing wigs, plucking facial hair, filing teeth and
getting tattoos.
Asmaa (ra) related that:
"A woman asked the Prophet (saw): "Messenger of Allaah, my daughter had
smallpox, and as a result her hair fall out. She has recently been married.
Can I get her a wig?" He answered: "Allaah has cursed the maker and the
wearer of a wig."
Abdullah ibn Masood (ra):
said that Allaah has cursed tattooers and those who are tattooed, and those
women who have their teeth filed for beauty and those who have their hair
plucked and thus alter Allaah's creation. A woman asked him: "What is all
this?" He replied: "Should I not curse the one whom Allaah's Messenger (saw)
has cursed? And it is in the Book of Allaah." She said: "I read the Qur'aan
from cover to cover but did not find that in it (ie. prohibition of
tattooing, filling the teeth and plucking facial hair)." He said: "If you
had read it thoroughly, you would have found it."
Allaah says: "Whatever
Allaah's Messenger (saw): gives you, take it, and whatever he has forbidden,
refrain from it." (Muslim)
This Hadeeth is particularly
significant for us, because it not only informs us of something which the
Prophet (saw) found hateful, it also makes it perfectly clear that, in
matters of religion, the commands of the Prophet (saw) are as binding on us
as the commands of Allaah.
In obeying Allaah and His Messenger (saw),
we can hope to be of those who are successful, tasting of the fruits of
paradise. If however, we should disobey Allaah and do things prohibited by
him (and we seek refuge with Him from that), then we will taste His wrath:
In the case of a woman who does something forbidden by Allaah or His
Messenger (saw), she and her husband or guardian who permitted her to do the
forbidden thing are cursed by Allaah. We are advised in the Qur'aan to:
"... ward off from
yourselves and your families a fire whereof
the fuel is men and stones..." (Al Qur'aan)
The Prophet (saw) also said:
"All of you are
guardians. The man is a guardian of and is responsible for his womenfolk on
the Day of Judgement."
May Allaah open our hearts to the guidance,
strengthen us that we may be obedient to Him and His Messenger (saw) and
save us from the punishment of Hell fire.
Clothing must cover the
entire body, only the hands may remain visible
(According to some Fiqh Schools, also
the face) .
The dress should not be such that it attracts
men's attention to the woman's beauty. The Qur'an clearly prescribes the
requirements of the woman's dress for the purpose of concealing zeenah
(adornment). How could such zeenah be concealed if the dress is designed in
a way that it attracts men's eyes to the woman?
The material must not be so
thin that one can see through it.
The dress should be thick enough so as not to show the color of the skin
it covers, or the shape of the body which it is supposed to hide.
The purpose of 'ayah (24:31) is to hide the Muslim women's body except ma
dhahara minha. It is obvious that this purpose cannot be served if the dress
is thin enough so as to reveal the color of the skin or the shape or beauty
of the body.
This is eloquently explained by Prophet Muhammad pbuh:
"In later
(generations) of my urnmah there will be women who will be dressed but
(will remain) naked. On top of their heads (what looks) like camel humps. Curse them for
they are truly cursed." In another version he added that they "will not
enter into paradise or (even) get a smell of it."
At one occasion Asma' (daughter of Abu-Bakr) was visiting her sister 'A'ishah,
wife of the Prophet. When he noted that Asma's dress was not thick enough he
turned his face away in anger and said, "If the woman reaches the age of
puberty, no part of her body should be seen, but this, and he pointed to his
face and his hands."
The clothing must hang loose
so that the shape or form of the body is not apparent.
The dress must be loose enough so as not to describe the
shape of a woman's body. This is consistent with the intent of the 'ayahs
cited above (24: 30-31) and is surely a crucial aspect of hiding zeenah.
Even moderately-tight clothes which cover the whole body do describe the
shape of such attractive parts of the woman's body as the bustline, the
waist, the buttocks, the back and the thighs. If these are not part of the
natural beauty or zeenah what else is?
Prophet Muhammad pubh once received a thick garment as a gift. He gave it
to Osamah b Zayd, who in turn gave it to his wife. When asked by the Prophet
why he did not wear it, Osamah indicated that he gave it to his wife. The
Prophet then said to Osamah "ask her to use a gholalah under it (the
garment) for I fear that it (the garment) may describe the size of her
bones." The word gholalah in Arabic means a thick fabric worn under the
dress to prevent it from describing the shape of the body.
A highly desirable way of concealing the shape of the body is to wear a
cloak over the garment. The Prophet pubh, however, indicated that if the
women's dress meets the Islamic standards it suffices (without a cloak) even
for the validity of prayers.
The female clothing must not
resemble the man's clothing.
Abu Hurairah (ra) said that:
"The Messenger (saw) of Allaah cursed the man who wears women's clothes
and the woman who wears men's clothes."
Ibn 'Umar (ra) said that he heard the Messenger (saw) of Allaah say:
"He
is not of us who imitates women nor is he of us who imitates men."
(al-Hakim)
Abdullaah ibn 'Umar reported that the Prophet (saw) said:
"Three people will not enter paradise, and Allaah will not look to them
on the Day of Judgement: the one who is disobedient to his parents, the
woman who imitates men and the ad-Dayooth."
(Ahmad)
The design of the clothing
must not resemble the clothing of the non believing women.
Unlike the non-believers, the Muslim woman's clothing must
cover the entire body, only the hands may remain visible. The material
should not be see through. The clothing must hang loose so that the shape is
hidden of the body and must not bear a resemblance to the man's clothing.
The clothing design must not resemble the clothing of the non believers,
such as short skirts, low shirt, etc. Bold designs which attract attention
should only be warn at home. Clothing should not be worn to affirm your
social stance. It is also advised that women outside of her home should not
where perfume that can be smelled at a distance, makeup to enhance her
beauty or where shoes that make sounds when she walks (bells, metal plates
and etc.)
"A woman who removes her clothes
outside her home tears down the veil between herself and her Lord."
[Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, ibn Majah, Hakim]
