peace—and those whom this prohibition had not reached permitted it, just as those whom the prohibition of gold rings had not reached permitted men and women alike to wear them. This is an isolated view. Success is through Allah alone.
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The same applies to tailored clothing during ihram (ritual consecration), and to sitting on silk carpets and reclining on silk cushions. The latter are permissible for women but not men according to those who regard such use as a form of dress. Their evidence is the hadith Mālik narrated from Ishāq ibn Abī Talhah, “from Anas ibn Mālik, whose grandmother Mulaykah invited the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, to a meal she had prepared for him. He ate some of it, then said, ‘Rise, so that I may lead you in prayer.’ Anas said: I went to a mat of ours that had blackened from long wear and sprinkled it with water. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, prayed on it, and we prayed behind him.”
Anas thus described sitting on the mat as wearing it, so its ruling must be the same as that of clothing. The underlying rationale is that silk was prohibited because it involves resembling the unbelievers; sitting on it must therefore also be avoided because it involves resembling them. The same applies to veiling oneself with it, since it serves as clothing for the person using it as a veil. This differs from silk curtains hung in houses: there is nothing wrong with them, since they merely clothe the walls they cover.
Some scholars have permitted sitting on silk carpets and reclining on silk cushions because they did not regard this as a form of dress—or this is the view of Abd al-Malik ibn al-Mājishūn in the reports heard by Abd al-Mālik ibn Ghānim, in the miscellaneous section of al-Mustakhraja. The prevailing view, held by the majority, is that this has the same ruling as clothing, on the evidence we have mentioned.
Some clothing is forbidden to women but not men, namely thin robes that reveal what is beneath them, because of the words of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, “Women who are clothed yet naked…”—to the end of the hadith. He means that they are clothed literally, but naked in effect.