Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!
The dress code for people as per the Quran alone can be determined if we approach the topic with full reliance on what the Quran alone says and no other source.
Steps of the Dress Code
Let’s start with the women. The first verse that gives instructions for the women’s dress code is 24:31.
First Step: Cover the Breasts and Genitals
Note that verse 24:31 does NOT say to wear a headcover, but instructs that if a woman has on a headcover, it must be extended down to cover the bosom area:
- [24:31] And say to the believing women that they should reduce from their sight, guard their private parts, and not disclose their adornment except what was made apparent of it. And let them draw their headcovers over their bosoms, and not disclose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, the fathers of their husbands, their sons..
This verse (24:31) is commonly misinterpreted to mean that women must wear a khimar (headcover).
But logically, this verse does not say, “cover the head” or “wear a khimar”.
It is only saying that if women possess khimars with them (khimars and turbans were commonly used as headcovers by Arabs to provide shade or protect from the desert sand during windy days), then it should be extended to cover the entire bosom area.
So, this verse only regulates how to use khimars rather than mandates one on everyone. It instructs those who already wear one to modify it by extending it to cover the breasts.
To give an example, wearing seatbelts are required by law when driving cars, but that doesn’t mean it is mandatory to drive a car. The law simply modifies how to drive cars for those who choose to do so (by mandating seatbelt usage).
Likewise, verse 24:31 simply modifies how to wear a headscarf for Muslim women who choose to wear one, rather than mandating to use one.
If God intended to make mandatory for Muslim women to cover their hair, He would have said “cover your hair”, or “wear a headcover” but God didn’t say that in the Quran. The word hijab (which means barrier or veil) is used a total of seven times in the Quran, but never once did it refer to any kind of clothes or headscarves in the Quran.
Second Step: Adornments Made Apparent
Verse 24:31 says women should not disclose their adornment, except whatever God made obvious and clear in the Quran.
The phrasing of this verse in Arabic is, “illa (except) ma (what) zahara (has become obvious) minha (of it)”.
So which adornments are obvious for her to reveal?
This is very similar to the command in the Quran to eat the foods that are available except for what God obviously prohibited: pork, carrion, blood, and things consecrated to other than God. Any other kind of food which God didn’t manifestly prohibit in the Quran is obviously permissible to eat.
Likewise, the Quran clearly and obviously mentioned body parts that a woman is supposed to cover. That means anything besides those specific body parts are obviously able to be uncovered in public.
The only two body parts in the Quran that have obviously been commanded to cover up are the breasts and genitalia.
So if the breasts and genitals should obviously be covered up, then all other body parts are obviously able to be shown (hair, neck, arms, thighs, abdomen, and others). Those are not mandatory to cover up unless there are specific circumstances, which are mentioned in verse 33:59.
Final Step: Flexible Outer Garment Length, Protection from Harm
Let us analyze this verse, which contains the final step of the dress code for women:
- [33:59] O you prophet, tell your spouses, your daughters, and the women of the believers to “yudneena” (lower) upon themselves of their “jalabib” (outer garments). That is nearer, that they be recognized, then not harmed; God has been Forgiving, Merciful.
The term “jalabib” is the plural of “jilbab”.
It is commonly believed that jilbab only refers to a full-bodied outer garment, but that belief is not correct. Verse 33:59 itself says that there can be long jilbabs and short jilbabs. We know this because the verse says women should “yudneena” (lower) their jilbabs, but does not give a specific length for exactly how much to lower it.
If the jilbab can be lowered, it can also be raised as well, thus indicating that jilbab is not a single type of garment with a single length. That means anything can be a jilbab, such as a T-shirt or a dress.
The only stated requirement in this verse for the length of the jilbab is that the length should be sufficient for women to be “recognized, then not harmed”. In other words, the recognition should at minimum be just enough to protect from harm.
There’s several potential sources for harm: legal, social, and environmental.
Avoiding legal harm means avoiding legal dress code violations, violations in the dress code as mandated by one’s employers, or dress code violations in any place that has formal dress code or uniform requirements.
Avoiding social harm means to avoid clothing that will cause social rejection, isolation, judgement, harassment, or stigma by the general public.
Avoiding environmental harm means to avoid clothing that can increase your chances of getting harmed by the natural environment (i.e. wearing protective gear at work, wearing extra clothing layers in cold environments, wearing lighter clothes in hot environments, and more).
The legal and social standards of what is inappropriate or not is different from place to place. If you were a free Arab woman during the prophet’s lifetime, and heard that the command to wear the jilbab is to distinguish you and protect you from harm, you would immediately understand that for your situation specifically as an Arab during the prophet’s time, wearing the jilbab refers to the typical full-length garment used to distinguish free people from slaves. Slave women were harassed frequently in public, so if the Arab believing women at the time dressed like free Arab women regardless of status, they were less likely to be harassed in public.
But in DIFFERENT locations, the exact length and extent of lowering the jilbab will depend on what is sufficient to protect from legal and social harm in those locations.
In more conservative and less liberal areas, more clothes is protective. In Iran for example, being fully-clothed is protective and will save you from being killed by the government, as was tragically the case with Mahsa Amini during detention by Iranian police just for taking off the hijab in public (as per leaked medical reports and CT scans indicating severe head trauma, and eyewitness testimonies).
In more liberal places, such as the urban parts of the world, the length of a Muslim woman’s jilbab can be far more flexible.
Therefore, the universal bare minimum for women is breasts/cleavage, and genitals, and the rest is up to the woman given that she wears whatever will not cause any legal or social harm to her in any setting that she may be at.
Verse 24:60 – Further Proof of Dress Code Flexibility
If you are surprised by the flexibility of the woman’s Quranic dress code, then just know that the Quran in verse 24:60 indicates that only part of a woman’s body (and not the entire body) is considered adornment.
In this verse, God states that there is no blame on menopausal women who aren’t expecting marriage anymore if they “yada’na thiyabahunna” (put aside their clothes), provided that they don’t show their adornment, but it’s better for them to refrain from doing that.
If the entire body of a woman is adornment that should be covered, then how would an older woman logically be able to take off her clothing without showing her adornment?
This tells us that older women who do not expect marriage can wear only the absolute bare minimum clothing in public that covers her breasts and genitals (the only two parts specified as adornments in the Quran) although God says it’s better if they exercise restraint from doing so and that it is better to just stick to the same coverage as younger women.
- [24:60] And the post-menstrual women who do not expect marriage, there thus is no blame upon them that they put aside their clothes, without displaying their adornment, but that they exercise restraint is better for them; God is Hearing, Knowledgeable.
Applying the Dress Code in Practice
Therefore, Muslim women ARE allowed to wear bikinis and bathing suits at any beach or pool only if it covers the breasts and genitals fully, and does not violate beach dress code policies and local customs or cause any physical and social harm to the person.
And for casual outdoor settings, a Muslim woman may feel free to wear crop tops, tank tops, shorts, and sports bras as outer garments if they wish in any location or setting where it is seen as normal, given that the breasts/cleavage are fully covered. In places like the U.S. and Europe, those are normalized and are not seen as inappropriate outer garments, thus they will not cause social or legal harm.
The same standard applies to digital settings such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and more; if the outfit does not violate social media guidelines and does not cause significant social harm to be experienced in real life, then it can be worn.
Men’s Dress Code
And for the men, there is no minimum or maximum dress code in the Quran besides covering up the genitals.
How much to cover is up to him, while respecting the standards of the social setting in the places that he goes to.
For example, in the United States, it’s seen as normal and not inappropriate for a man be shirtless at or near the beach or pool because people go there to either sunbathe or swim. However, at other public places such as restaurants, it is usually seen as inappropriate.
Conclusion
Since we are used to Muslim women covering up fully, there will objection to the idea that the Quran allows women to have such a liberal dress code. But at the end of the day, the amount of clothes that one wears itself doesn’t make anyone a better or worse Muslim.
The Quran states in verse 7:26 that even though clothes have been provided to provide cover and decoration, what’s better than any piece of clothing is the garment of reverence, or taqwa in Arabic. This means that clothing is far less important for a Muslim than being a sincere, God-conscious believer, whether man or woman.
Lastly, we must remember verse 5:101, which told the believers at the time of the prophet to not keep asking him questions about things to which, if they knew the answer, would distress them. One way that such answers will distress them is if they receive flexible guidelines but still proceeded to ask Muhammad for more and more restrictions to that flexibility until the added restrictions are something they are not happy with. Verse 5:102 warns that people before Muhammad have disbelieved after asking their prophet/messenger such questions and getting back inconvenient responses from God.
One example of this is the story of the cow in Surah 2, when God told the followers of Moses to slaughter a cow. They could have slaughtered any cow to fulfill the command, but they kept making Moses ask God to add more details and specifics, until they were made to slaughter a very specific kind of cow which was so beautiful that they almost were not going to do it. This is a lesson for us to appreciate when God grants flexibility on something, including the dress code.
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