Muharram in India: Mourning for Imam Husain's martyrdom, Ashura traditions in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh

Indscribe

India is a vast country and Muharram is observed across the length and breadth of the nation.

Not just Muslims, Hindus too take part in Muharram. In fact, Muharram reflects local culture in each state and region of the country.

From district to district, the shapes and forms of Tazias, the rituals differ. However, the passion remains same among Muslims and Hindus.

Muharram in small cities, towns

Generally, photographs from major cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad are seen in newspapers and media. In major cities in Central India like Jabalpur, Bhopal, Raipur, Indore, Bilaspur and Gwalior, Muharram is observed on a big scale.

Khargone, MP

In Bhopal alone, nearly 700 Tazias are taken out on Yaum-e-Ashura--the 10th of Islamic month of Muharram.

But this post deals with Muharram observances in smaller towns in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The reason is that from these places photographs don't generally reach the people, as media ignores small towns.

On the left is the photograph of Tazias in Panna, a small town in Madhya Pradesh.

The Tazias are quite high and the shape is also unique. The second photo shows a Tazia in Khargone, a tribal dominated region in South Eastern MP.

Imam Husain's horse, Zul-Jinah, is often seen on tazias. Here, its size is quite big.

Sarkari Tazia, Indore

Sarkari Tazia

The next photograph shows the 'Sarkari Tazia' in Indore. It is brought out from the era when Holkar was a princely state.

The person accompanying the Tazia is seen wearing the traditional Maratha dress and the headgear.

Sarkari Tazias are brought out in dozens of cities in MP and Chhattisgarh, It is an old tradition.

It dates backs to the era of princely states, when Muharram was observed under state patronage.

Though the Rajas and Nawabs are no more, these Tazias continue to be brought out with the same enthuiasm.

Mostly Sunnis, Hindus take out Taziyas

For many, who aren't aware, it needs to be clarified that Shias take out 'Alams' and perform the 'maatam' viz. beating their chests to express their grief over the martyrdom of Imam Husain.

Begamganj, MP

Sunnis and Hindus take out Tazias. In MP, 'sawaris' or persons who are possessed, are also a distinct feature of the Ashura.

Hindus, especially, women go to the 'sawari' and make their wishes. Also, they seek the 'sawari's blessings.

Irrespective of religion, the kids are made to bow their head and walk under the Tazia.

It is considered auspicious by the devotees.The mourners chant 'Ya Husain'. Urdu verses are played on loud speakers.

Those addressing the gatherings during the procession, rue that they weren't there during the battle, to fight along side the Imam.

Many people walk barefoot towards the local Karbala. Shias whiplash themselves and show their devotion.

Kunkuri, Chhattisgarh

FIREWORKS AND AKHADAS

Sherbet is also distributed on the way to the local Karbala [at the water body] in each town.

In the procession, there are also Akhadas where youth show their acrobatics.Also, traditional Indian martial arts are displayed. Those in procession recite elegiac verses.

On the right is the photograph of fireworks at Begamganj town in Raisen district in central MP.

On the eve of 10th of Islamic month of Muharram, there is a display of such fireworks at many places.

People also walk on fire or burning coal, to show their devotion. The fifth photograph shows a tazia being taken away on a cycle-rickshaw.

Chhindwara, MP

DEVOTION AMONG POOR SECTIONS

This is the photo from Kunkuri in remote Chhattisgarh. The children also accompany the tazia.

Interestingly, most of the people who build tazia, and work for days to complete it, belong to lower-middle class or poor section of the society.

They save hard earned money to build the tazia, because of their devotion and the sense of tradition.

A tazia is a replica of Imam Husain's 'rauza' or tomb.  Muharram is observed to commemorate Imam Husain, his family and companion's martyrdom.

TIGERS OF MUHARRAM

On the right is a boy dressed as tiger in Chhindwara in MP. This is also an aspect of Muharram observance in central India and Maharashtra. Many families praying for child, take a vow that if the kid is born, they would turn him into 'Husain's sher (tiger)'.

Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

The practice continues till date. Similarly, there are many other associated traditions that vary from regions to region.

First, the treachery and later the brutality with which Husain, his family and companions including children, were killed, shocked the Islamic world.

Husain was the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. The battle of Karbala took place nearly fourteen centuries ago in Iraq.

Bhilai, Chhattisgarh

Husain stood for principles. He refused to swear allegiance to the tyrant Yazid who was turning Caliphate into a hereditary rule.

Centuries have passed but the tragedy continues to inspire people and gives them the courage to stand for truth.

On the left is the photograph of a procession of Tazias in Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. There is a long line of brightly lit Tazias, which move around in the town before immersion.

The big photograph shows Guru Nanak Jayanti procession passing on the same street, where a Tazia procession is also moving.

This photo is from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh. Read posts on Muharram traditions published on this blog in the past.

CHECK THE POSTS HERE:

1. Muharram observed in India: Photos from Western, Southern and Eastern India.
SEE THE LINK

2. Most famous Urdu, Persian verses, poetry on the message behind Husain's sacrifice. SEE THE LINK

French Muslims Confront Menace Beneath Ban of Veil

 

Chatar, 40, who spoke with Women's eNews in a phone interview in September, lives in the small village of Meru, in the Picardie region of France, with her three children and husband. But her fear isn't that of a small-town person in a big metropolis. It's due to her custom of covering her hair with a hijab, part of her way of practicing her Muslim faith.

In her town, Chatar feels that her neighbors both know and accept her. But the stories of Muslim women in big cities getting singled out for hate crimes scare her.

Workers at the Paris Opera recently drew international headlines by ejecting a woman wearing a full face veil, or niqab, which Paris outlawed in 2011. But Chatar's fears are not about the niqab, which she doesn't wear. All she wears is a head covering.

France began frowning on women in hijab in 2004 when the Parliament passed a ban on the display of religious signs in public schools, which meant schoolgirls could not wear the hijab. In 2012, a similar government rule extended to thousands of older women such as Chatar, forbidding them from escorting their children on school outings.

Both bans apply to school settings but for many Muslim women in France today the rulings reach much further, creating a pervasive sense of social prohibition about wearing the hijab that they break at their own risk.

Out of 1,417 Muslims interviewed last year, 2 percent � 30 individuals --reported a physical aggression, found a June 2014 study conducted by the Paris-based Collective Against Islamophobia in France. Women were almost all--97 percent--of those 30 victims.

Elsa Ray, spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia, said street aggressions have been more violent in recent years. In the past veiled women were mainly targets of verbal violence, but the aggression has become more physical.

"The majority of aggressors are men and we have noticed that some women physically attacked were subjected to sexual touching while they had their clothes ripped off. These are signs of male domination," Ray said in an interview at the collective's office.

Last year, a 16-year-old Muslim woman recounted being attacked by two men in a Paris suburb in a piecepublished by the Huffington Post. "Then, he grabbed my arms trying to push me to the ground and he started to press his body against mine while he was holding my head. At that moment, the first guy started to touch my breasts. Then, he took a sharp object and started to scar my face with short and quick movements while the second guy was pressing his body against mine and he was blocking my head," the victim, named Aissetou, wrote.

Full article

Big Events Which Taken Place on Ashura Day 10th Muharram

Muharram is first month in the Islamic calendar and this month great significance because many big events taken place in it. specially on 10th Muharram which is called Ashura day has special Importance. this day is Important for not only Muslims but also Jews.

lets see some of the big events in history which taken place on Ashura Day 10th Muharram:

repentance of Hazrat Adam a.s was accepted was accepted on this day after he was exile from Jannah.

 Ark of Hazrat Nooh was saved on this day.

Hazrat Ibrahim A.s was saved from fire on this day in which Nimrod thrown him.

Hazrat Musa A.s talked with Allah SWT on this day.

Hazrat Ayyub A.s got his health back on this day.

Hazrat Yousaf A.s reunited with his father Hazrat Yaqoob A.s on same day.

Hazrat Younis A.s came out alive from belly of fish on this day.

Pharoah�s army was destroyed on this day.

Hazrat Dawood A.s was forgiven on this day.

Hazrat Esa A.S was raised alive on this day.

Hazrat Hussain R.a was martyred on this day.

Why Muslims don't want to vote for Congress, not even willing to consider party as second or third option?

(C) INDSCRIBE

After Congress' loss in Haryana and Maharashtra, which was not unexpected, a lot of things were analysed but an important aspect was not mentioned.

I don't see anyone discussing the trend of Muslims' voting pattern--not considering Congress even as second or third option. Did you notice the recent voting trend in Haryana? More than 52% Muslims voted for INLD, 27% to other parties and JUST 16% MUSLIMS voted for Congress in Haryana.

We will delve into the statistics, the trend, reasons and implications too. But do remember that this happened in Haryana, not a state like Maharashtra where Muslims have severe issues with Congress or UP-Bihar.

In states like Haryana, Rajasthan, MP, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Muslims are considered traditional Congress voters. But if just one in six Muslims are voting for the Congress, it is not ordinary.

This is alarming for the party, as even after BJP's victory in Lok Sabha, and the supposed feeling among large sections that Muslims tend to vote for Congress to keep BJP away from power, the minorities didn't vote enthusiastically for Congress.

First, let's see the Muslim majority constituencies in Haryana, from where Muslim contestants got elected to the Assembly. The trend is same at all these seats. It seemed Muslims didn't want to vote for Congress, at all.

FEROZEPUR JHIRKA

In Ferozepur Jhirka, most of the Muslim electorate didn't even think of voting for Congress candidate, who faced the humiliation of coming fifth, after two independents who got more votes than him.

Imagine, this is not UP where there are many parties like SP, BSP, RLD, Peace Party, Ulema Council et al.

Still, such is the situation! INLD's Naseem Ahmed won the seat by securing 40,000 votes.

Independent M Khan came second with 37,000 votes, followed by another independent Aman Ahmed who got 18,000 votes. BJP's Alam too got 16,540 votes. Congress' Azad Mohammad got just 15,943 votes.

PUNAHANA

In Punahana, such was the disenchantment with Congress that its candidate was no where in the race. While Independent Raees Khan got 34,000 votes, INLD's M Ilyas came second with 31,000 votes.

Even BJP's Iqbal Bhai got double the number of votes secured by Congress' Muslim candidate. Iqbal got 25,135 votes while Congress' Subhan Khan got 12,809 votes to come fourth.

NUH

In Nuh, INLD's Zakir Hussain won the election.

He convincingy defeated the Congress candidate, getting more than double the votes polled by him.

Hussain got 64,000 votes whilge Congress' Aftab Ahmed secured merely 31,000 votes.

Clearly, this is a major trend. If it is happening in a state like Haryana, you can imagine, how serious is Muslims' disenchantment with Congress.

Also, we will discuss Maharashtra in later posts. But this is pan-Indian phenomenon. There are several reasons. The two seats to MIM in Maharashtra got excessive focus in the media.

Reality is Muslims will vote for anyone other than Congress--from INLD to SP-BSP, AAP [as in last Delhi elections] or even Independents. It is not about going for a Muslim party because of choice, but because of 'majboori'.

In the surrounding din [MIM win], the trends like the
heightened disenchantment of Muslims with Congress were not analysed properly.


What about Sachar panel, Caste-based reservation demand, prison population!

1. Muslims voted for any party or candidate other than Congress. For the last 10 years, UPA was in government, but did it act on Sachar panel's recommendations. Congress did nothing about the Communal violence bill.

2. The presidential ordinance that bars Muslim and Christian Dalits from reservations was enforced during Congress rule, and despite vehement protests and demands to bring these communities in the ambit of caste reservations, UPA didn't act in 10 years.

3. Did it do anything about the fact that more than 35% inmates in jails in Maharashtra were Muslim, a vast number among them, under-trial prisoners. It gave the impression that it is pro-Muslim, but it shied from taking any step that would be seen as 'appeasement'.

4. It fell in a 'secular trap'. Congress has lost Dalits in UP-Bihar-MP-Chhattisgarh and many other states. It also lost tribal vote. Muslims are now forced to vote for it in exceptional circumstances, only in a few states.

5. They don't at all think of the party in UP. However, Congress refuses to learn. It feels Muslims will keep on voting for it. It forgets that Muslims want nothing, just basic respect and a bit of listening and action on their just demands.

6. The most basic thing is to ensure that there is no communal riot and the expectation that government would take action against those involved in excesses, torture or violation of human rights. On the contrary, there are killings--firing on the chest, riots, and yet, no stern action.

CONGRESS-ruled states were WORSE than BJP-ruled STATES IN tackling COMMUNAL RIOTS, KILLINGS in last couple of years

7. Congress talks of Gujarat carnage, which Muslims haven't forgotten, but it easily forgets that in the last couple of years, the worst killings of Muslims took place during Congress regimes, which haven't been forgotten either.

8. Assam repeatedly burnt and the horrific killings in BTAD, led to nationwide outrage but Congress couldn't stop it timely. No action was taken against Chief Minister. The same had happened earlier in Gopalgarh killings in Rajasthan. No action was taken against CM.

CHECK THIS LINK: ASSAM riots 2010, more than 50 killed

9. In Maharashtra, the Dhule killings, were treated as non-issue by ruling Congress. Just that we can't forget. The issue of non-implementing Sri Krishna panel report of Mumbai riots, has been repeatedly mentioned on this blog.

10. Once again, I would have to say that the situation in Maharashtra was such that Congress' mis-rule have now prepared the Muslims for the worst situations. Jo hoga jhelengu but you go now. In 1992-93, the Mumbai riots were during Congress regime, not Sena-BJP rule.

Lastly, I am not at all a BJP fan. But if you [Congress] are sincere, do introspect, accept your failures and work to ensure for providing a life of safety and dignity to people, who vote to you to power. You feel Muslims have no option, because if they vote for non-Congress candidate, their vote will get wasted.

Ok, we will waste the vote, but won't give it to you*. That's perhaps, lot of us feel today. 

EARLIER POSTS ON THE SAME ISSUE

If you want to understand the context, the reasons for anger,desperation and disgust among Muslims, you should read these posts. 

1. Arrogant, Apathetic Congress bites the dust in Maharashtra

2. An Indian Muslim's letter to Congress leadership: I am not a BJP supporter but glad to see Congress lose

[Percent of Muslims who voted for Congress obtained through CSDS survey. Published in Indian Express.]
[*Congress will get vote when it acts like Congress, work on the ideology of a real centrist party, as per the aspirations of the early leaders. More on this later]

Supreme Mufti of Syria: 'Islamic caliphate more dangerous than World War III'

This odd message from Syria's Supreme Mufti lacks Quranic authority, and flagrantly violates the hundreds of suras and hadiths commanding jihad and the establishing of a worldwide caliphate. He is not to be trusted. My comments interspersed and at end. Read and share widely.

Moscow, October 31, Interfax via Pravmir

Supreme mufti of Syria Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun sees the danger in establishing a "caliphate," as it has happened with the "Islamic state."

�Calls to set up an Islamic state are more dangerous that calls to unleash World War III,� the mufti said at his Moscow press conference.

He stressed that �religion is relations between God and a person,� and it does not have anything in common with a political regimen.

�When they wonder what will be with the state of �Islamic caliphate,� I ask, what state it is. I ask who of prophets commanded to establish it,� the Islamic leader noted.

[Actually, the prophet and founder of Islam, Muhammad, is the one who "commanded to establish" the Islamic caliphate, as seen in these hadiths:

Allah�s Messenger said: �I have been ordered [by Allah] to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah... so if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me.� (Sahih Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, 1:10:29-35)

Allah's Messenger said, �the earth belongs to Allah and his Apostle.� (Sahih Muslim, Book of Jihad, 3:17:4363; also Bukhari, Book of al-Jizya, 4:58:3167)  

Islam is demonstrably both religion and political ideology. Its purpose is forever linked by its founder to the conquering of the entire globe for Allah. The mufti's protestations don't ring true and are not to be trusted. See my comments at bottom for more...]

According to him, �those, who try to impose any faith, will crush.�

He also warned Russian Muslims from the similar initiatives.

�I want to warn Russian Muslims: be careful, when someone tells you to set up a Muslim state. The destruction you now see in Syria show the danger of these words,� Hassoun said.

Speaking about Syria, the mufti points out that the country is fighting in economic, political and cultural spheres and �it is the fight of truth against lie, the fight of justice against injustice.�

According to him, 83 countries struggle against Syria today, and the Great Britain only spends 8,3 million pounds to bomb Syrian territory.

_______

My comments:

The Syrian Supreme Mufti sounds exactly like Muslim apologists in the West, who invariably seek to convince non-Muslims that the primary meaning of jihad � literally �struggle� � is internal, that is, a Muslim�s inner struggle against his faults and weaknesses, and striving in the way of God, "relations between God and a person," as the Mufti says.

These Muslim apologists often cite a hadith, where Muhammad, returning from battle, said, �We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.� Yet not only does this hadith not appear in any of the six canonical hadith collections, it has openly been called into question by many Islamic scholars as inauthentic (see Mark Durie, The Third Choice, pp 65-66.)

The doctrine of jihad warfare as the greater struggle commanded of Muslims is presented in this key passage from Reliance of the Traveller, published by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, considered to be an authoritative manual of orthodox Sunni Islam:

Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion.

The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus (def: b7) is such Koranic verses as:

�Fighting is prescribed for you� (Koran 2:216); �Slay them wherever you find them� (Koran 4:89); �Fight the idolators utterly� (Koran 9:36);

and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet said:

�I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Mes- senger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah�;

and the hadith reported by Muslim,

�To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it.�

Jihad is a communal obligation. (o9.1)

The caliph [meaning that there is to be a caliphate] makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians... until

they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax. (o9.8)
The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim. (o9.9)138

The call for Muslims to wage jihad is global and universal, though not all Muslims wage offensive jihad. Yet if they cannot do so, they are still enjoined to support jihad through other means, such as financial, material, or in their heart and through their prayers (the lesser jihad).

The success of the Islamic State in winning more and more Muslims to their cause of global jihad and an ever-expanding caliphate is due to their zealous adherence to the dictates of Islam in the Quran and the Sunnah. Muslims know the Islamic State is practicing pure, authentic Islam, and they are signing up and lining up in droves to support them (including so called "lone wolves" like the Ottawa jihad attackers and many in the U.S. as well). 

The Islamic Caliphate is not "more dangerous than World War III, it is World War III.

Ayatul Kursi - Miracles of Quran - Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan

When Islam was at its strongest, it was also at its most open-minded.

                      

Ours is the oldest religion in the world,� said the Mandaean high priest to me in 2006, when we met during my diplomatic posting to Baghdad. He did indeed turn out to be the religious leader of an ancient people whose traditions go back to third-century Babylonia; he was also, for me, the man who opened a door to an Aladdin�s Cave of forgotten faiths.

Since then, I have witnessed on a mountaintop in the West Bank a sacrifice of lambs, done by Samaritan priests in precise observance of the Book of Exodus. I discussed Greek philosophy with Druze elders, who regard themselves as a branch of Islam but believe in reincarnation. I searched for the Zoroastrians of Iran, whose founder Zarathustra was among the first to teach (perhaps three millennia ago) that our fate after death might result from the good or evil that we do in our lifetimes. I encountered the Church of the East, which sent the first Christian missionaries to China in the seventh century and once, from its base in Iraq, covered a larger span of the earth than the Pope in Rome or the Patriarch in Constantinople.

These religions have survived fourteen centuries of Islamic rule, and their survival shows not only their own tenacity but also the potential for tolerance within Islam. Now, though, they are vanishing faster than ever before.

The brutal terrorist group called the �Islamic State,� which the U.S. and its allies are now fighting in Iraq, burst onto the front pages in August with a massacre of a little-known people called the Yazidis. The Yazidis are an extraordinary people, who have preserved traditions dating back to the time of ancient Assyria and mixed them with ideas that emerged from the most radical and imaginative of Muslim thinkers. They have faced, by their own tradition, 72 persecutions. That number does not include the Islamic State�s campaign of rape and murder or, in 2007, the world�s second worst terrorist attack, which killed nearly eight hundred Yazidis at Qahtaniyah near Mosul.

When I went back to see the Yazidis in northern Iraq in August, it was like an immersion in a sea of misery. Stranded in tents and dependent on charity, Yazidi refugees saw no future for themselves in Iraq and asked only for asylum in the West. They want to join the 70% of Iraq�s Christians who have already left. As for the Mandaeans, almost all have now sought refuge in Europe, Canada and Australia.

Nor is it only war-ravaged Iraq from which the minorities are fleeing. I could hardly find Zoroastrians in the great cities of Iran, such as Shiraz and Esfahan; instead, I found their fire-temple in north London. I discovered that tens of thousands of Coptic Christians, who keep the language of ancient Egypt alive in their liturgies, now live in the suburbs of Detroit along with more than 100,000 Iraqi Christians.

What amazed me, though, about these religions was that they had survived into the modern era at all. Imagine discovering some island off the coast of Ireland where the Druids still held sway: meeting the Mandaean high priest in Baghdad was similarly a throwback to the distant past. How can a religion conceived in the era of paganism still exist today, after 1400 years of Islam? The answers teach lessons about Islam � and about ourselves.

First, they show the importance of religion. A warped form of religion is what motivated the Islamic State to slaughter the Yazidis. It is also however what helped the Yazidis to survive over the centuries and keep their traditions and their identity. Religion can be a great source of division, but that is intimately linked to its power to gather people and unify them.

Second, when minorities leave, countries are diminished. Islam was the religion of a great world empire, so prestigious that �Islamic State� wants to steal its name: the Caliphate. Islamic State�s brutal and narrow-minded imitation is quite different from the original. The first Caliphs had Christians among their closest counselors; later Caliphs used Jewish astronomers and pagan mathematicians to turn Baghdad into a center of world learning.

When Islam was at its strongest, it was also at its most open-minded. The West�s diversity and its prosperity have similarly gone hand in hand. It is a poor outlook for the Middle East if loses its ancient minorities.

Source

Nowhere To Pray In Athens

Where's your beard, bro?

 

ANONYMOUS: SALAM. JUST WONDERING WHY YOU SHAVE YOUR BEARD IF IT'S FARD? I'M A SISTER AND I HONESTLY AM CURIOUS WHY BROTHERS SHAVE THEIR BEARDS WHEN PROPHET MUHAMMAD SAW HAD ONE HIMSELF AND COMMANDED HIS FOLLOWERS TO TRIM THE MUSTACHE AND LET THE BEARD GROW.

Wa alykum as-salaam,

First point: I have a beard. I just don�t update my icon picture.

Second point: The way you phrase your question is really off-putting and I would suggest you learn to ask questions like this in a better manner.

Third: Why do you wonder about things that do not concern you? The Prophet, in Tirmidhi, is reported to have said:

�From the excellence of a man�s Islam is to leave that which does not concern him.�

Fourth: The Hanafis, the Hanbalis, and the Malikis opine that the beard is Fardh (obligatory) for a man. The Shafi�is, however, write that the beard is Sunnah (highly recommended) not Fardh.

Therefore, the reason why men shave is because they follow the Shafi�i opinion, or, as is also possible: they are unable to grow a beard. There are many more reasons, as well.

I hope this helps, insha Allah.

From the excellent http://partytilfajr.tumblr.com/

Manners of Clothing In Islam

Many people are not going to like this post, but this has to be said nevertheless. Shaykh Fazal Elahi had a lecture at Youth Club Lahore today and he explained the manners of clothing. I am going to summarize it and put it up for everyone's benefit in shaa Allah.

MANNERS THAT ARE COMMON BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

1. You should not be extravagant in your clothing.

2. You should not be proud because of it.

Imam Ahmad, Nisai and Ibn e Majah narrated this Hadith that the Prophet PBUH said that eat, drink, and give charity, as long as these three things are free from two things:

a. Extravagance.
b. Pride.

1. Extravagance:

What is Extravagance?

It involves 2 things:

i) Extravagance is that a person spends more than he can bear.

For example, a person can only afford to buy a 1000 rupees suit every 2 months. But his son, his wife or daughter insists on buying a 2000 rupees suit every month.

The buying of this sort where you overburden yourself is Haram in Islam.

ii) You should be moderate.
For example, a person can buy a suit everyday. Does he buy new clothes everyday?
Every person should notice this in his home. Do you have clothes in your wardrobe that the whole season passes but you don't even wear those clothes?

It is Haram for such a person to buy more clothes. This is a blessing from Allah. What will you answer Him on the day of judgement, that O Allah I bought clothes that I didn't even wear? I didn't even need them but I bought them? Be grateful and spend only that you need! This is extravagance and extravagance is Haram in Islam.

2. Pride:

When you start thinking that because of your better clothes, you are superior than others. Or that you look better than someone because of your clothes. Or any such feeling, then know that you are walking on a path of destruction.

3. A person should not wear clothes to deceive people.

What does this mean? Let's look at a Hadith.

A woman came to the Prophet PBUH and said that she tells people that her husband has gifted her with such and such a thing. Whereas in reality her husband has not gifted her those things.
The Prophet PBUH said that whoever shows that which he does not have, then he is wearing 2 clothes of Lie.

My sisters should ponder over this point very carefully. Usually in functions, a woman borrows clothes from her sister, her brother's wife, her husband's sister, her friend. On every function she wears new clothes showing people that she is so rich that she can wear new clothes every time.
The Muhaddiseen (scholars of hadith) interpreted this in two ways:

i) The person is spreading 2 lies. One lie that he's telling others that these are his clothes. Second lie that he's telling people that he is so rich that he can afford such clothes.

ii) This person is wearing 2 clothes of lie, the upper cloth and the lower cloth. Meaning that this person is a liar from head to toe.

A single lie is a very grave sin. How about the person who's spreading 2 lies?

This habit has destroyed many families, and is still destroying them. A woman who has 10 other woman in her family can manage to wear different clothes by borrowing every time and showing off to other people as they are her own clothes.

But what about the woman who is the only woman in family? What would she do? She would curse her husband what else?

4. No man should dress like a woman and no woman should dress like a man.

In a Hadith the Prophet PBUH cursed those men who dress like women and those women who dress like men.

Ponder over this a bit... Muhammad SallAllaahu Alaiyhi Wasallam, who did not curse the people of Taif even when they stoned him. Who prayed for their well being, who was mercy to the worlds is cursing those who resemble the opposite sex? Why is that?

That is because this is a grave matter. When a person dresses like the opposite sex, he or she is actually challenging Allah in His creation. He is saying O Allah you made me a man but I will become a woman. She is saying O Allah you made me a woman but I will become a man (actions speak louder than words).

Some sisters say.. but we only wear jeans below the Abayah. We only wear shirts in front of our husbands, to please them. We're not going out like that.

My sisters, absorb this point and embed it in your mind that these two are SEPARATE SINS.
Not covering yourself is a separate sin.

Dressing like the opposite sex is a separate sin.

The matter is shameful but it is important to say it to make the point clear. A woman can be without clothes in her bedroom, she is not sinning. Similarly she can be without clothes in her bathroom casually. She is not sinning! But if she wears clothes like men even in her room alone, she is still sinning. They are separate sins.

All 4 points above were for men and women both, this last point is for women specifically.

5. No woman should dress in a way that she is naked according to the Prophet PBUH.

The permanent fatwa committee of Saudi Arabia defined 3 such cases where a woman is clothed yet naked according to the Ahadith of the Prophet PBUH.

1. The dress is so thin that you can see the body through it.
2. The dress is so tight that you can tell what parts of the body are fat and what are thin.
3. The dress is incomplete/short.

So there you are folks. No man should point out the woman's mistakes to her in order to ridicule her or make her feel bad. Similarly no woman should do the same to a man. Your matter is with Allah. Let everyone be a judge for himself and clear his matter with Allah. Let us all return to him and let HIM be the judge for us in every matter. Let us use His gift of clothing according to the instructions He gave and not according to the instructions of the Cursed One: Shaitaan.

May Allah guide us all to the straight path and help us in being firm on it. Ameen.