Women's clothing (libas al-mar'a), fiqh rulings

Libas is what covers the body; its plural is albisa and lubus. Husband and wife are each a garment for the other, as the surah of the Cow says (verse 187), without quoting the text here ¹. Zina, adornment, is wider than libas ¹.

The jurists agree that a woman must wear what covers all her nakedness, on the verse of the surah of Light (verse 31) and its sense of covering ^{1 2}. What cannot be concealed, like the veil over the head and the lower hems, is excused; a hadith tells how Asma came to the Prophet ﷺ in thin clothes, and he turned away and pointed to the face and hands ².

A woman's clothing may uncover the nakedness, or cover it but show its shape; in both cases it is not lawful. Whether it shows the colour of the skin depends on whether it is before the husband or strangers, and inside or outside prayer ².

A woman may wear clothing woven with gold or silver, for need or otherwise, much or little, on the hadith that the Prophet made gold and silk lawful for the women of his community and forbade them to its men ².

A woman may not wear clothing specific to men, on the hadith that God cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men ^{2 3}. The Shafi'is hold that dress is judged by the custom of each region ³.

The woman being courted is a stranger to the suitor, so she covers all her body except what he may look at; the detail is in the entry on betrothal ³. On mourning, the jurists differ on whether a widow may wear some clothes as adornment; the detail is in the entry on mourning ³. In prayer, nakedness must be covered where cover is available, on the hadith that God accepts no prayer of an adult woman without a veil ³. In ihram, the Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbid a woman in ihram to wear anything that covers her face ³.