He then says: “This is what the jurists mean by the statement, ‘He must not wear tailored garments.’ A tailored garment is any article made to fit a particular limb, and he must likewise avoid anything that serves the same purpose as trousers, such as the tight loin-cloth (tibbān) and the like.”

If the pilgrim in ihrām cannot find sandals, he may wear leather socks (khuffayn); if he cannot find a waist-wrapper (izār), he may wear trousers (sirwāl) until he obtains one. Once he acquires an izār, he must remove the trousers and put on the izār, because the Prophet ﷺ, at ʿArafāt, granted permission to wear trousers for anyone who had no izār.

A woman in ihrām may wear whatever garments she wishes, since she needs full covering; however, she must not wear the burqaʿ—a face covering with two openings for the eyes. Instead, the female pilgrim veils her face with a khimār (head-scarf) or jilbāb (outer cloak). She must also avoid gloves, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “A woman in ihrām must not wear a face-veil and must not put on gloves,” recorded by al-Bukhārī and others.

Imām Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) said: “His prohibition of the woman’s wearing a niqāb or gloves proves that her face, in this ruling, is treated like a man’s body, not like his head. Therefore it is forbidden for her to wear anything fashioned to fit the face—such as the niqāb or burqaʿ—but not to cover it with a scarf, jilbāb, or the like. This is the sounder of the two opinions.”