Scholars differed over silk trim on a garment. Some permitted it, on the basis of the report that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, prohibited silk and said, “Do not wear any of it except this much and this much,” pointing with his index and middle fingers. Permission for a strip one, two, three or four fingers wide is also reported from Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him. A number of the early generations, however, disapproved of it. Likewise, the early generations, may Allah be pleased with them, differed considerably over wearing khazz (silk-blend cloth), whose warp is jarīr, and comparable fabrics. Their views amount to four positions:

The first is that wearing such garments is simply permissible: whoever wears them incurs no sin, and whoever refrains receives no reward for doing so. This is the position of Ibn Abbās and a number of the early generations, including Rabīʿah, as indicated by his statement at the beginning of Ibn al-Qāsim’s collected reports in the miscellaneous section of al-Utbiyya. They understood the prohibition of men wearing silk to apply only to garments made entirely of pure silk.

The second is that wearing such garments is impermissible, although it is not expressly called forbidden. Whoever wears them sins, and whoever refrains escapes sin. For it has been said that the silk-striped suit belonging to Utārid, concerning which the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said, “Only one who has no share in the Hereafter wears this,” contained silk woven into it and had silk stripes. This is the position of Abd Allāh ibn Umar. It is also the apparent position of Mālik, although he used the unqualified term “disliked” for it. A disliked act is one whose omission is rewarded but whose commission is not punished. Yet Mālik sometimes uses this term loosely for what he considers impermissible, to avoid declaring forbidden what is not forbidden. His statement in al-Mudawwana supports this understanding of his position: “I hope that wearing khazz may be treated leniently in the case of boys.”

The third is that wearing it is disliked in the proper sense of the term: whoever wears it incurs no sin, while whoever refrains is rewarded for doing so. This is the clearest position and the most likely to be correct, because matters over which scholars differ owing to equally balanced evidence for their permissibility and prohibition belong to the doubtful matters concerning which the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said, “Whoever avoids them has safeguarded his religion and his honour.” This position accords with Mutarrif’s report that he saw Mālik ibn Anas, may Allah have mercy on him, wearing a silken garment given to him by Hārūn al-Rashīd, for he would not have worn something he believed it sinful to wear.