Question Summary:
Jilbabs & Nail Polish.

Question Detail:

Respected Mufti Ebrahim Desai Saheb. I trust you are enjoying the gifts that Allah (SWT) has blessed you with and bestowed upon you.

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

Jazakallah for your wishes and duas.

We value you seeking clarity on the two issues of our article on Laws of adornment and beautification.

COLOURED JILBABS.

The issue of the colours of jilbab should be analysed in the context of the spirit of jilbab in Shariah which is to achieve concealment of the woman to the best of her ability. Hence, the colour of the jilbab not being attractive refers to the onlooker and not to herself.  It is obvious that there is no point in a woman concealing herself from herself. There is a need to distinguish between one’s personal choice of attraction and hideousness and the general attraction to others.

Attraction refers to the action or power of evoking interest in or liking for someone or something.¹ We agree that colours are personal choices, however, there are some colours, for example red, yellow, pink etc., to some women these colours may be hideous but are nonetheless attractive to the onlooker, thus defeating the object of hijab.

In law, we analyse issues in a context and consider generality within a context rather than generalising out of a context. In the issue of reference, if the spirit of jilbab was considered and in relation to the onlooker, then the issue would be easily understood. It is precisely for that reason we qualified any colour with being attractive and in the context of hijab it obviously refers to generally being attractive to the onlooker.

NAIL POLISH

We take note of your stringent sentiments on nail polish which is stark contrast to the flexibility of the colours of jilbab. Nevertheless, we agree that the ideal is a person should be sensitive to ones salaah and do all that is easy to execute one salaah. Removing non permeable nail polish is indeed a mammoth task.

We have to be realistic. There are women who sincerely wish to perform salaah but also use such type of nail polish. We consider their sincerity and offer guidance to them to safeguard the validity of their salaah. It is either they bear the pain of the non-validity of their salaah or the difficulty in removing the nail polish.

Your analogy of nail polish on a drunken state is non analogous. The verse in reference is abrogated. Furthermore, should we consider it at the time when alcohol was permissible, then that is exactly our point of reference. Come out of the alcoholic state then perform salaah. Likewise remove the nail polish and then perform salaah.

Do remember, we cannot make anything halal as haram. That is equally a crime. However, we acknowledge the ideal is not to use nail polish. However, the reality is that non-permeable nail polish it is used and women may perform salaah in that condition risking the validity of their salaah. We thus advised on the Shari ruling on that. We have also advised against the use of such nail polish in many of our fatawa.²

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Huzaifah Deedat

Student Darul Iftaa
Lusaka, Zambia 

Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.

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