Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

Albisa (clothing: rulings, colours and manners)

الألبسة

Clothing is that which covers the body and protects from heat and cold. 1 Five rulings apply: covering the nakedness is obligatory; showing blessing and dressing well for Friday and festivals is recommended; garb that suggests pride is disliked; silk and gold are forbidden to men. 123 The default is that clothing is lawful unless a text forbids it; the rulings on colours, images and transparency differ, and clothing that makes its wearer conspicuous is disliked. 4567

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Dress

Definition

Libas is what covers the body and protects against heat and cold; albisa is its plural. 1 The word libus, with the l vowelled, names what is worn, such as armour. 1

Rulings

  • Obligatory: what covers the nakedness and protects against heat and cold. 1
  • Recommended: what gives the basic adornment and shows blessing, and dressing well at gatherings and festivals, following Aisha's report of two garments for Friday, so long as it is not for pride. 12
  • Disliked: garb that suggests pride and vanity. 2
  • Forbidden: dress worn for pride, and silk and gold for men, except in necessity or illness. 2

Materials

The default is that materials are lawful unless a text forbids them, as silk is for men. 3 Hides of dead animals become clean and lawful by tanning. Wool, hair and fur of an animal that may be eaten are clean and lawful. 3

  • Predator skins: most jurists allow their use after tanning; Abu Ya'la held them forbidden absolutely, citing the prohibition on riding tigers. 4

Colours

  • White is recommended and used for shrouds, following the report of Samura ibn Jundab (may God be pleased with him). 48
  • Red: some Hanafis and Hanbalis disliked pure red for men; others allowed it if not dyed with saffron or safflower, citing a red garment the Prophet ﷺ wore on feast days. 89
  • Black: permitted to men and women without dislike. 9
  • Yellow: permitted unless dyed with safflower or saffron. 9
  • Green: some jurists recommended it, citing the green garments of the people of Paradise in the Qur'an. 5
  • Striped: permitted. 5
  • Saffron-dyed clothing: the Shafi'is forbade it to men and allowed it to women; the Hanafis and Hanbalis disliked it for men. A muhrim may not wear saffron- or safflower-dyed clothes. 106

Images, crosses and verses

  • Clothing with images of animals is forbidden, and so is a cross on clothing; pictures without living beings are permitted. 510
  • Praying in clothes with animal images or crosses is forbidden, though the prayer is valid. 10

Transparent clothing

Clothing thin enough to show the colour of the skin is forbidden; clothing that shows the shape of a limb while covering the nakedness is disliked. The report of Usama about the Coptic cloth and the undergarment is cited. 67

Clothing that makes one conspicuous, and imitation

Clothing that makes its wearer conspicuous is disliked, and imitation of unbelievers' dress is disliked, following the hadith that whoever imitates a people is one of them. Such clothing is forbidden where worn for pride or show. 711

Impure and usurped clothing

  • Wearing impure clothing to cover the nakedness outside prayer is permitted. In prayer the schools differ; the Hanbalis require covering with it, while Abu Hanifa distinguishes an impure material from one that is merely soiled. 11
  • A naked person may not take clothing from its owner by force for prayer, and makes tayammum if he finds none. 1112

Festival clothing and the dress of scholars

  • Recommended to dress well at festivals, in new and fine clothes, white being best. 12
  • Garb that displays wealth or vanity is disliked, and excessive width is disliked by the Malikis and Hanbalis. 1314
  • Scholars are recommended to wear distinctive dress so that people may ask them; the Malikis and Hanbalis dislike excessive width for them. 1314
  • The dhimmis must be distinguished in dress from the Muslims. 14

Other rulings

  • Clothing is due in maintenance according to the means of the one who provides it. 14
  • For expiation of an oath, feeding ten poor persons with clothing counts when it is called clothing. 14
  • A bankrupt is left the clothes he needs; fine clothes are sold only if the proceeds do not leave him what suits him. 1415
  • The spoils of a slain enemy, including clothes, go to the slayer if the imam so declared. 15
  • The rule is to begin with the right when dressing and with the left when undressing, and to say the prescribed words on putting on a new garment. 15

People and things also explored

The turban (amama): its forms, wiping over it, and its rules in prayer and ihram· Awra (intimate parts)· The burqa· The ghulamiyyat fashion· Hair, wool and fur (their purity, the rules for the dead, washing, adornment and sale)· The hijab· The bandage or turban and wiping over it (isaba)· Naqsh (engraving and decoration)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3267
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3268
  3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3269
  4. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3270
  5. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3273
  6. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3275
  7. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3276
  8. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3271
  9. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3272
  10. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3274
  11. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3277
  12. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3278
  13. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3279
  14. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3280
  15. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.3281
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Albisa (clothing: rulings, colours and manners)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/albisa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

The turban (amama): its forms, wiping over it, and its rules in prayer and ihram

In the lexicon, 'amama is a cloth wound round the head, and its plural is 'amai'im; it is related to the tail, the headband, the bandage, the veil and the cap. Its styles include wrapping the head with the end let fall on the back, and i'tijar, wrapping without tucking the end under the chin, and the end let fall from both sides of the head. The turbans of the Prophet are described as black, with the end let fall between the shoulders, and he is reported to have worn a Qatari cloth. Protected non-Muslims were distinguished by colours and by wearing the turban without tucking it under the chin. Prostration on the fold of the turban is disliked by most jurists unless there is an excuse, and the Shafi'is require the forehead to be bare. Wiping over the turban in ablution is refused by the Hanafis, allowed by the Malikis where removal would harm, and allowed by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis. A shirt and a turban in a shroud are recommended by Abu Hanifa and Malik and not by al-Shafi'i and Ahmad. A turban is forbidden to one in the state of ihram, and a restraint may be imposed by removing the turban as a discretionary penalty.