Wearing white clothes that are transparent under close observation
Fatwa No: 297154

Question

Salam alaikum,i know, that you can not wear transparent clothes, which means that the skin color should not be seen. But is a little bit transparency excused, because it seems to me, that most white clothes are transparent even clothing from islamic countries (qamis, jalabiya), because it is possible to recognize if you wear a t-shirt beneath it (sometimes you see a darker color, sometimes the labeling on the t-shirt or the edge where the shirt ends). Is that the transparency which would not cover the awrah? Until now i came not across a white qamis, where you can not see a little bit through. Jazakum Allahu khayran

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Concerning the transparency of clothing, the jurists have distinguished between clothes through which the skin color is visible and those through which skin color is not visible without close observation. The first kind does not suffice in covering the ʻAwrah (body parts that must be concealed). On the other hand, the scholars maintained that it is disliked to wear the second kind for the purpose of covering the ʻAwrah. The Maaliki scholar Al-Qaadhi ʻUlaysh said,

Covering the ʻAwrah with thick and opaque clothes that do not display the skin color underneath them without close observation, if such clothes do not normally reveal the color of the skin or perhaps show the skin color with close and attentive observation, it is disliked to wear them for the purpose of covering the ʻAwrah. If a person performs prayer in such clothes, he is to repeat the prayer as long as the time of the prayer has not expired. On the other hand, transparent clothes that reveal the color of the skin without attentive and close observation, it is prohibited and it does not suffice to cover the ʻAwrah with them, and the worshipper must repeat the prayer performed while wearing them even if the time of prayer expires.

Allaah Knows best.

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