wearing English clothes

Question:

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.

Question (copy the entire email with header):

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
Darul Ifta Australia
www.mufti-online.net

DISCLAIMER – Mufti-Online.net questions
Mufti-Online.net answers issues pertaining to Shariah. Thereafter, these questions and answers are placed for public view on www.mufti-online.net for educational purposes. However, many of these answers are unique to a particular scenario and cannot be taken as a basis to establish a ruling in another situation or another environment. Mufti-Online.net bears no responsibility with regards to these questions being used out of their intended context.

The Shariah ruling herein given is based specifically on the question posed and should be read in conjunction with the question.
Mufti-Online.net bears no responsibility to any party who may or may not act on this answer and is being hereby exempted from loss or damage howsoever caused.
This answer may not be used as evidence in any Court of Law without prior written consent of Mufti-Online.net.
Any or all links provided in our emails, answers and articles are restricted to the specific material being cited. Such referencing should not be taken as an endorsement of other contents of that website.

Support Darul Ifta Australia by donating.

DISCLAIMER:

Darul Ifta Australia provides answers to queries pertaining to Islamic law. Some answers are subsequently published publically for educational purposes. The queries are taken at face value since we have no way to investigate the actual circumstances or context. Fatwas (answers; verdicts) are unique to the stated query and cannot be used to establish another ruling or applied to another situation. We bear no responsibility for circumstances and situations where incorrect or incomplete information is given in the question. We are also not responsible if the answers are misinterpreted, applied incorrectly or taken out of context. We reserve the right to revise and update answers as and when needed and required.

All fatwas given on this site are based specifically on the question posed and should be read in conjunction with the question.
Darul Ifta Australia bears no responsibility to any party who may or may not act on any fatwa and is being hereby exempted from loss or damage howsoever caused.
No fatwa may be used as evidence in any court of law without prior written consent of Darul Ifta Australia.
Any or all links provided in our emails, fatwas and articles are restricted to the specific material being cited. Such referencing should not be taken as an endorsement of other contents of that website.