Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
It is not haram to tuck in one’s shirt in one’s trousers so long as the trousers are not extremely tight. Moderation in everything is the best course of action to follow.
In responding to your question about tucking in shirts, Dr. Rif`at Fawzi, Former Professor of Shariah at Cairo University, states:
Dress Code for Men
Before dealing with the core point of the question concerning tucking in shirts, we would like first of all to stress that men’s dress in Islam is supposed to serve two purposes:
1- Covering the awrah (private parts) of the body.
2- Serving the purpose of adornment and beautification.
Reviewing the Quran, we find that Allah Almighty describes the dress of believers as “The dress of piety” or libasut-taqwa, and this exactly emphasizes the aforementioned two conditions and stresses that such a dress should never be used for showing off. Almighty Allah says: “But the raiment of righteousness, —that is the best.” (Al-Araf 7:26)
Islam has provided a few guidelines to achieve this quality:
1- The dress has to be halal by its origin, that is, purchased or owned through halal earnings.
2- It must not imply imitation of people of other faiths. This means we should not imitate others’ religious attire or style, as the Hadith states: “Whoever imitates some people will be ranked among them.”
3- The dress must not carry any resemblance to women’s dress. This means men’s dress must not involve any kind of feminine style of adornment such as pure silk, golden dress, very bright color. All are considered permissible for women, but not for men.
Below this level are some cultural choices and this may come as a second level. But what is important is that Islam promotes unique identity for Muslims in every action, and this applies to the dress code.
So, Islam encourages the dress that represents the message of Islam and that distinguishes Muslims from others. We hope that you will develop your taste to achieve the goal of piety, which is the best, as the Quran has pointed out.
Tucking in Shirts
There is no basis in the Shariah that orders men
not to tuck in their shirts inside their trousers. Also, there is nothing wrong
in men tucking in shirts inside their trousers as long as the awrah itself or part of it is not exposed. Here,
the issue has nothing to do with awrah shape,
and hence men are permitted to tuck in or not to tuck in their shirts.
Having stated the above, I add that the issue of
tucking in shirts or not tucking them is usually governed by the prevailing
custom among certain people, and such customs differ from one country to the
other.
Added to the above, I warn those who insist on
not tucking in the shirt that much argument about such minor issues allows
Satan to disseminate hatred and separation among Muslims, which is totally
rejected in Islam.
If a person wants to tuck in his shirt, then let him do so, and if another one prefers not to tuck it in, then we cannot tell him that what he is doing is wrong. However, compelling others to stick to something that has no basis in the Shariah should be avoided.
Thus, men can tuck in their shirts as long as their clothes go in harmony with the guidelines mentioned above.
Moreover, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, concludes:
It is not haram to tuck in one’s shirt in one’s trousers so long as the trousers are not extremely tight. Moderation in everything is the best course of action to follow. Such issues are usually governed by the prevailing customs and convictions of people, and there is no restriction attached to them so long as they are not clearly forbidden or deemed to be harmful to individuals and societies.
The style of dress varies from one climate to another. Wearing suits, ties and slacks is merely customs; there is nothing haram or harmful about them so long as we observe the proper adab or ethics of Islamic attire.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.