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:
One may pray in any cloth, pants, lunki or thawb, etc. as long it is modest and covers the parts of the body we are supposed to cover in prayer.
Answering your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a Senior Lecturer and an Islamic Scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
One may pray in any cloth, pants, lunki or thawb, etc. as long it is modest and covers the parts of the body we are supposed to cover in prayer.
One may pray in a single piece or two or three. Covering from navel to knee is an absolute requirement; however, one should wear as decently as possible as determined by the culture we live.
Allah tells us in the Quran:
{O children of Adam! Beautify yourselves when you enter the mosque (for every act of worship), and eat and drink [freely], but do not waste: verily, He does not love the wasteful!} (Al-A`raf 7:31)
We learn from the sources that the Prophet (peace be upon him) as well as his companions used to wear whatever was available at the time.
If a particular type of clothing had been a requirement, the Prophet (peace be upon him) would have said so explicitly.
Having said this, let me rush to point out: Some people insist on rolling up pants before prayer if they fall below the ankles; this, however, is being rigid or literalistic in the understanding of the Sunnah.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.