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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Is adopting fine clothing as a custom and nature, and making it our habit, what is required by the Shari'ah, or is there a distinction?

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The Shaykh : We take from this collection of verses and hadiths this etiquette in a Muslim visiting his Muslim brother, that he should visit him in fine clothes. But is adopting fine clothing as a custom and nature, and making it our habit, what is required by the Shari'ah, or is there a distinction?
Answer: There must be a distinction: It is good to dress well on occasions, but it is not good for that to become a constant habit. This is so that a person does not become accustomed to luxury and a soft life, such that it becomes burdensome for him if severe hardship strikes him to wear these clothes. He must train himself to sometimes wear what is available and sometimes to wear fine, beautiful clothes, especially on the occasions of the festivals. The festivals of Islam are three: a weekly festival, which is Jumu'ah, and two annual festivals, 'Id al-Fitr and 'Id al-Adha. If this is combined with what was mentioned in the previous hadith, that when he visits some of his brothers he should adorn himself, that is a beautiful thing. Likewise, when he leaves the mosque, he should not leave in his tattered, worn-out, dirty clothes, but rather as He, the Exalted, said:
take your adornment at every masjid خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ
[Al-A'raf 7:31]
, and there are many hadiths on this matter. So, he sometimes wears what is available and sometimes wears fine, beautiful clothes. If he does that, he will have followed the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), for he used to wear whatever he found that was available, and sometimes he had two garments which he would wear on the day of the festival and meet his guests in them. Allah willing, the hadiths narrated on this matter will come. So, the one who sometimes combines fine clothing and sometimes ordinary clothing has taken the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as a good example. And from another angle, he has obeyed his saying (peace be upon him):
Beware of me of enjoyment; for the slaves of Allah are not those who enjoy themselves. إياي والتنعُّم ؛ فإن عباد الله ليسوا بالمتنعِّمين
,
Beware of me of enjoyment; for the slaves of Allah are not those who enjoy themselves. إياي والتنعُّم ؛ فإن عباد الله ليسوا بالمتنعِّمين
Some people may understand this hadith in a way that contradicts the adornment and enjoyment mentioned in the Book and in other hadiths, and they use this to counter that. The answer is no. The intended meaning of his saying:
Beware of me and luxury. إياي والتنعُّم
is: Beware of exaggeration in enjoyment. And exaggeration takes two forms: one is the persistence in enjoyment, and we have mentioned the harm that results from that, or the persistence in enjoyment to the point of falling into extravagance. The middle path, as He, the Exalted, said in describing the slaves of Allah:
And [they are] those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, [justly] moderate وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا أَنْفَقُوا لَمْ يُسْرِفُوا وَلَمْ يَقْتُرُوا وَكَانَ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ قَوَامًا
[Al-Furqan 25:67]
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Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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