Shi'ar (the distinctive sign: the inner garment, a battle cry, and dress that sets a group apart)

Sha'ar, in cloth, is the garment that touches the body, the one worn beneath the outer cloak, so named for its contact with the hair of the body. A tradition uses this image to describe the Ansar as close and dear to the Prophet ﷺ. ¹

The shi'ar of a people in war is their sign, and the call they shout so that they may know one another; to "shout the shi'ar" is to call out one's war cry. Among the reports is the war cry of the Prophet in one of the campaigns, a known call among the fighters. To the jurists the shi'ar is the clear, distinctive sign. ^{1 2}

Most jurists hold that imitating non-Muslims in a dress that sets them apart from Muslims, such as the zunnar belt and the like, makes the imitator, in outward legal terms, an unbeliever, when done in Muslim lands out of inclination to them, unless a necessity such as heat or cold, deception in war or coercion by the enemy requires it. If it is later shown that he wore it without believing in unbelief, he is not judged an unbeliever before God. The majority rely on a hadith of Ibn 'Umar about imitating a people, and on the view that the dress particular to unbelievers is a sign of unbelief. ²

Dress for display is clothing that departs from local custom so that the wearer is noticed and pointed at. It is disliked in law, following a hadith of Ibn 'Umar warning against wearing a garment of fame, and because it leads people to backbiting. ²

Scholars differ on musical instruments. The view of most of them is that it is forbidden to use an instrument that marks drinking gatherings, such as the tanbur, the lute, the jank (a type of cymbal), the Iraqi pipe, and all kinds of strings and pipes, because the pleasure they give leads to corruption, as wine does, and because they are the sign of the dissolute, and imitating them is forbidden. One who hears them without intent is not sinful. ^{2 3}