Wearing the sari

Question

Question: Zayd is a hafiz of the Qur’an and a graduate of Deoband. He tries to keep his wife safe under his own watch (lit. “protected by his own eyes”) and within the limits of the Shariah, but he has her wear a sari (a woman’s garment of a long draped cloth). Is it permissible for him to have his wife wear a sari? Also, please explain what the clothing of the Mothers of the Believers ﵅ was.

Answer

Where the sari is the distinctive mark (shiʿar) of the kuffar and fussaq, it is obligatory for the righteous (sulaha) to avoid it completely; where it is not their distinctive mark but everyone uses it, there is no prohibition on using it. The Mothers of the Believers ﵅ did not use the sari; the kurta (long shirt), the wrap and the waist-wrap were in common use there.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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