Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Wearing silk garments and gold ornaments are impermissible for men in Islam.
2- As for the garments mixed of silk and other fabrics, such as wool, cotton, acrylic, etc., there is controversy among scholars concerning that; while some see they are forbidden, others are of the opinion that they are permissible as long as silk is not the main fabric, i.e., it has a less percentage than the other fabrics.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
There is almost a scholarly consensus that wearing clothes made of pure silk in the form of a shirt or tie, etc., is forbidden for men. Some scholars permit it in exceptional cases such as when the man has a skin disease that requires wearing silk, or some kind of dire necessity, or because nothing else can be found to wear, etc.
The above scholarly opinion concerning the prohibition of silk is based on the explicit statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), “Wearing silk has been forbidden for the men of my Ummah.” The Prophet’s words are categorical in their implication, so there is no way to justify wearing pure silk in ordinary circumstances.
Concerning clothes that are not made of pure silk, but are a mixture of silk and other substances such as cotton, acrylic, wool, etc., scholars are divided on the ruling about them.
When one looks closely at the various views concerning this issue, it can be concluded that if silk is not the main substance of the cloth, then it is permissible; say for example: if a certain piece of cloth is 60% cotton and 40% silk, then it shall be considered permissible for men to wear.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.