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Wearing English clothes

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Fatwa.org.au
Is it permissible for men and women to wear English clothes such as trousers, shirts etc (even though these are the clothes of the non-believers)? I was watching Peace TV the other day and Dr Zakir Naik wears shirt and trousers. They state that in regards to clothing you should not wear clothes that reveal the body (only hands and face can show for women) and should not wear thin/see-through clothes and also not wear clothes of the non-believers. But isn’t pants, shirt etc clothes of the non-believers?

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Clothing is a great bounty of Allah Ta’ala. Allah Ta’ala refers to clothing as adornment (zeenat).

يَا بَنِي آَدَمَ خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ

“O children of Adam, take along your adornment to every masjid” (Quran 7:31)

Clothing is a means of covering our bodies, protecting them from different weathers and a means to beautify ourselves.

The ideal in wearing clothing is to adopt the Sunnah attire.

It is permissible to wear other clothing (besides the Sunnah attire) on condition:

         The body is covered. In the case of males, the form and shape of the sensitive organs should be concealed. Hence, tight fitting trousers for males is against shame and modesty.

         In the case of fermales, the entire body should be covered in a way that conceals the form and shape of her body.

         Men should not wear clothing of women and vice-versa

         It is not permissible to wear such attire that is a symbol of disbelievers or some deviated sect.

English type clothing, shirt and pants is a general and casual attire of everyone today. It is not synonymous to any religion or sect. It is thus permissible to wear English type shirt and pants. However, the pants should be big and loose so as not to reveal one’s form and shape of the lower body.

Zakir Naik is not an Alim and authority in Deen. His expertise is comparative religion. His appearance should not be used as a measure in Deen.

(Fatawa Mahmudiya: vol. 27 pg. 403-407, Maktaba Mahmudiya)

(Jadeed Fiqhi Masa’il: vol. 1 pg. 232, Zamzam Publishers)

And Allah knows best.

Mufti Faizal Riza

This answer was collected from Fatwa.org.au, which is connected to Darul Ifta Australia, based in Melbourne, Australia.
It is operated by Mufti Faizal Riza, a student of Mufti Ebrahim Desai from South Africa.

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