Answer

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh

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:

The Islamic dress code for men should meet the following conditions:

1- The dress has to be halal by its origin, i.e. purchased or owned through halal earning.

2- The dress must not imply imitation of other people’s dress.

3- The dress must not carry any resemblance to women’s dress.

With regard to your question about the dress code for men, Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal Nadvi, Imam of Calgary Mosque, Canada, and Former Professor at King Saud Univ., Saudi Arabia, states:

I appreciate your concern about the dress code for men. Islamically, a dress is supposed to serve two purposes:

1- Covering the Awrah (private parts) of the body.

2- Serving the purpose of adornment and beautification.

Reviewing the Quran, we find that Allah, the Almighty, describes the dress of believers as “The Dress of Piety” or Libasut-Taqwa, and this exactly emphasizes the aforementioned two conditions, and stresses that such a dress should never be used for showing off. Almighty Allah says: “But the raiment of righteousness, – that is the best.” (Al-Araaf 7:26)

Islam has provided few guidelines to achieve this quality:

1- The first condition is that the dress has to be halal by its origin, i.e. purchased or owned through halal earning.

2- The second is that it must not imply imitation of other people’s dress. This means we should not imitate others’ religious attire or style, as the Hadith states: “Whoever imitates some people will be ranked among them.” (Irwaa’ul Ghaleel, Al-Albaani, Hadith no. 2384)

3- The third condition is that the dress must not carry any resemblance to women’s dress. This means men’s dress must not involve any kind of feminine style of adornment: pure silk, golden dress, very bright and fast color, are all considered permissible for women, but not for men.

Below this level are some cultural choices and this may come as a second level. But what is important is that Islam promotes unique identity for Muslims in every action, and this applies to the dress code.

So, Islam encourages the dress which represents the message of Islam, and which distinguishes Muslims from others. I hope you will develop your taste so to achieve the goal of piety, which is the best as the Quran has pointed out.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.