that men should wear khimārs that cover the head, face, and neck, and jilbābs that hang down from above their heads so that nothing of the wearer is visible except the two eyes; and that women should put on turbans, cropped cloaks, and the like—this would be deemed permissible! Yet this clashes with both the revealed texts and the unanimous agreement of the scholars. Allah, exalted is He, said to the women: “Let them draw their head-scarves over their bosoms and not display their adornment except to their husbands…” (24:31). He also said: “O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the believing women to draw their outer garments close around them; that is better so that they may be recognized and not molested” (33:59); and He said: “And do not flaunt yourselves with the flaunting of the former Age of Ignorance” (33:33).

If the distinction in dress between men and women were based solely on whatever each sex happens to adopt out of choice and desire, then it would not have been obligatory for women to lower their jilbābs, or to draw their khimārs over their bosoms, nor would tabarruj (flamboyant display) like that of the first Age of Ignorance have been forbidden, for that display was simply the custom of those earlier people. Nor is the decisive factor a particular garment explicitly fixed either by the Prophet ﷺ or by the conventions of the men and women of his own time, such that one could claim that only that specific clothing is obligatory and anything else unlawful. Indeed, in his lifetime the women used to wear garments with long trains that trailed behind them when they walked, whereas the man is instructed to raise his hem so that it does not reach the ankles. Thus, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade men to let their lower garments hang down and was asked, “What about the women?” he replied, “They may let it down a handspan.” It was said, “Then their shins will be exposed,” so he said, “A forearm’s length, and no more.” Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “A sound hadith.” Because of this, it is related that a woman was granted a dispensation: if her trailing hem passes over something filthy and she then walks over a clean place, that subsequent passing purifies it.1 This is also the view of a group of scholars in the school of Aḥmad and others, considering