Yasir Qadhi – Ask Shaykh YQ #102 – Can Men Wear Silk Ties

			The next question brother valleyfair, called or Zulfiqar from Detroit, he emails and he asks the age
old question about silk ties for men. So now we get to finally the question about silk ties for men,
is it permissible or not?
		

			out of seven,
		

			poverty in Asia, no, he lay him first coo
		

			coo.
		

			In response to this, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he picked up gold and silver. And he
said, that these two are permissible for the women of my own, and how long for the men of my own.
And therefore, this is the verdict that has been pretty much accepted by the mainstream in the bulk
of Islamic scholarship, that silk and gold are not befitting for a man to wear. And that as our
Prophet system said, Whoever wears silk in this world shall not wear it in the next slide. In other
words, any you're going to be deprived of something that is far better, why would you not want the
silk agenda. And so anybody who immerses himself in the silk and that the reason our scholars say
		

			for this, this is the wisdom and not the the the cause the wisdom is that it is effeminate, the
wisdom that is not befitting the dignity of a man. So again, the Shetty actually does believe in
something called masculinity and femininity, and in our culture is in times. This is a concept that
is being discarded and thrown out the window. And we're being told that there's no such thing as
masculinity or being a gentleman, and there's no such thing as femininity, they're all you know,
constructs and we don't believe this, we believe there are certain characteristics that are
masculine and certain characteristics that are feminine, and the two of them are complimentary. So
		

			the point being, that of these characteristics Is that too much, you know, getting involved with the
fineries of this world, is not befitting the dignity of a man that is not something that looks good
on a man to be decorated top to bottom with gold and with silicon of these things. So our Prophet
sallallahu Sallam said that this is not allowed for the men of my own, that having been said, a
concession has been given and what is that concession had it isn't Sahih Muslim over Roma mahapatra
de la one was giving a whole tuba and he said the Prophet salallahu it he was sending them forbade
us to wear silk, except for two or three or four fingers except for any actually in one version, he
		

			put his hand up and he went like this except for you know, a portion or a patch or a small bit of
silk two or three or four like basically a strip except for this it is allowed. So based on this
Hadith, the vast majority of scholars actually three of the format types, they actually said that a
small amount of silk that is used as decoration for example the fringes you see so in those days, so
you have to realize that in those days, they didn't have these the capability to do these types of
dark garments, all of these different you know, patterns and weave together know if they wanted to
decorate a garment, they would put a patch on it right? So the garment would be a base of one thing
		

			and then they would take maybe some silk and maybe the embroidery would be silk, okay, or maybe the
patch would be a design and patched on as silk. So the decorations on the garment. So these days,
they have all of this already weaved in you can see you know the exotic patrons for example, on this
particular on this particular quarter that I'm wearing, but in those days, they didn't have that so
what did they do, as they said they would take different clots and they would make the pattern or
especially what was the most common is the fringes. That was the most common thing back then the
fringes of the the cuffs if you we call it in our days we have the cufflinks right? In our case we
		

			have that in those days, they would have the brocade and they would have the sash okay maybe at the
bottom of the soap as well that was also common at the bottom of the long silver the shirt and also
at the ends of the sleeves, they would have maybe patches of silk to make it look dignified or
beautiful or whatnot. So I'm going to be upset except for two or three or four fingers. So based on
this therefore, if there is a small amount of silk you know that's for decoration purposes, that is
a shallow to either acceptable now when it comes to ties, the position that I hold and ally xojo
knows best first and foremost, we have to realize that much of what passes as silk. Today is not
		

			actual silk. It might there are actually ties that say 100% silk and what they mean is 100%
synthetic silk because you see actual silk which is prohibited is the silk of the silk worm. So
there are plenty of you know polyester or you know, different types of of
		

			cloth or material that are
		

			different percentages of cotton, and of polyester and whatnot and of wool and so they try to make it
feel like silk make it silk like but it is not actual silk, the actual silk that is forbidden is a
silk that comes from the cocoon of the silk worm. And of course, that type of soil is extremely
expensive, and it is laborious and painstaking, you know, you have to get 1000s of the cocoons of
the silkworm and then make from it basically one garment and it takes a lot of manual labor, even
machines cannot really do that. So, what what passes for silk in our times, most of it is not silk.
If that is the case, you need to find out by the way, when you see the garment and it says silk What
		

			is it synthetic silk or real silk. If it is synthetic silk, it is completely permissible because
this is like taking a metal and painting it the color of gold and then saying this is gold? Well,
it's not gold, you can call it golden, it is not gold. And what the shediac forbids is the actual
silk. So realize this, an actual real silk tie would not be sold at your average, you know, places
for an average sum is going to be an exorbitant amount of money. And you get plenty of polyester and
plenty of good ties that are synthetic silk. And it's not real silk, and it looks like silk. As for
actual silk ties, these are the very expensive ties that are the name brands and whatnot. The
		

			position that I hold is that it comes under this exception that Armando mahatama de la Juan, who
narrated from the Prophet system that he forbade for a silk except for two, three or four fingers.
Now again, some people say oh, the the tie at the bottom is more than four fingers. SubhanAllah it's
not you don't have to be that literalistic The point is that an embellishment or a decoration, that
is a strip, this is something that is permitted. And this is the position that I hold that a pure
silk tie actual silk tie would come under this because it is a strip and it is meant as
embellishment. Now somebody says it is a separate strip. The response is that the technicalities
		

			here I think are you're getting lost in the point here, the point is that what is forbidden would be
a silk shirt, let's say okay, a silk suit, let's say a silk jacket a complete silk jacket. And by
the way, if there's a percentage of silk in it, you know shallow less than 30%. For example, this
would be permissible because the 30% of food within that would be where we get problematic anything
less than 30%, it can be overlooked, because the majority would not be silk. But if it is a pure
silk tie, in my opinion, it does not come under the prohibition in the first place. Nonetheless, if
you felt that it did, it is your prerogative, in which case you follow the other position and choose
		

			other ties in that regard. As for this notion that the tie itself is not allowed because it is a
symbol of Christianity and whatnot. This is a myth that has no basis in reality, in the sense that
nobody ever wore a tie that was meant to be basically an indication of a theology nobody had has
done that, and it is not done anymore. So this is complete mythology. So it is completely
permissible to dress like the cultures of your time and place as in fact our Prophet sallallahu
wasallam himself dressed and dressed up in accordance with the culture of his time in place, and
I've said talked about this in other lectures, when our Profit System dressed up according to what
		

			culture was he dressing up, it was the culture of pre Islam. It was the culture of the Arabs that
were were existed before the coming of Islam, our Profit System did not change the cultural
statements, he did not bring a fashion revolution he did not do that. So when he dressed he dressed
like the people of his time, when he dressed up he dressed up like the people of his time. And this
indicates that the default as imminent claim says the sooner the real sooner is to dress like your
own culture dresses as long as it is halal. In other words, the outer has to be covered. And you
know, this material has to be valid and whatnot. Otherwise, culturally speaking, you should conform
		

			to people as much as possible, as our professor lucidum did. And then also as the oma has done
throughout all of our last 14 centuries, wherever Islam went, the peoples of those lands when they
embraced Islam, they might have modified their garb they might have changed certain things, but in
the end, they dressed like their own peoples and that is why the Muslims of Nigeria Mashallah they
have their colorful, you know, ways that they dress the Muslims of Indonesia dressed the way that
they do right, the Muslims of avani stand the Muslims of Pakistan, they have their dress coatings,
right? Nobody said Oh, that is a prom dress coat. So now that Muslims are in western lands and the
		

			Muslims are in American England and Canada and whatnot, we may dress like the people that we are
living amongst completely permissible, but we have to make sure our outer outer is covered. We have
to make sure it is loose, etc, etc. And the position that I hold and Elon knows best is that ties
are completely permissible.
		

			Even if they're made out of silk because they come under this notion of an embellishment that is a
little bit you know just a strip This is exactly what is the goal of this concession given actually,
if you look at it the the the sash that would have been at the bottom of a garment, that sash would
probably have more silk than a simple silk tie and it was overlooked and allowed and so Allah azza
wa jal knows best