CLOTHING STYLE OF HOLY PROPHET

When we look at the clothing style of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), we see that he paid the utmost attention to these three issues:

• Avoidance of ostentation
• Avoidance of making the style of clothing a means for showing off, arrogance or ostentation
• To dress in accordance with the opportunities and conditions of the society in which he lived.

As can be understood from documents in the available sources, there was no particular style of dress—except for one—that was introduced with Islam. All of the Prophet’s clothes were examples of clothing styles that had been worn in his society long before. These clothes, which were known as kamis, izar, rida, jubba, kulle and nalayn, were also worn by the hanifs, idolaters, and non-Muslims before the advent of Islam, and Muslims continued to wear them after becoming Muslim.

The only exceptional change that Prophet Muhammad exercised in clothing was that of head gear, with his introduction of the turban. The Muslims wore turbans (imama) wrapped around a conical hat which was called a burnus or kalansuva. 

Some of the clothing they wore was rida, izar or kamis. Their clothes were generally composed of two parts. The upper part of the dress was called the rida, with the lower part being known as the izar. The early Muslims usually preferred to wear long shirts which fastened at the front, known as kamis. When necessary, they wore a cloak called a jubba, aba or  burda over the other garments.

The shoes they wore were sandal-like shoes called na’layn and boots or me overshoes called khuffain .

According to the information obtained from the sources, all the clothing of Prophet Muhammad was composed of such garments. We could find no source asserting that he did not wear socks.

Prophet Muhammad did not always wear the same color of clothing. For instance, he wore white, black, yellow, green or red garments. However, the Prophet usually preferred to wear white due to the climatic conditions, and advised Muslims to wear white clothes. Apart from this, he did not prevent people dress according to their preferences.

Prophet Muhammad wore woolen clothing as well as clothing made from cotton. However, he did not wear silk, as silk was the most expensive cloth and it is thought to be too luxurious for men. Nonetheless, he let some of his Companions wear silk shirts if there was a special condition that required them to do so.

Prophet Muhammad also wore special garments, a type of formal dress, on Fridays, for religious festivals and when welcoming local or foreign delegations.

Quoted from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri:

“Whenever Holy Muhammad wore a new garment—whether it was a turban, shirt, or cloak—he would mention the name of the garment, pray and ask:

“O Allah, all praise and thanks be to You. You have given me this garment. I seek from You its good and the good that is made of it and I seek refuge with You against its evil and the evil that it is made of!”