Friday, August 17, 2012

Are we allowed to wear wedding rings?

Question

As-Salamu `alaykum wa Rahmatullah wa barakatuh. I want to know the Islamic ruling concerning engagement ring. Is it permissible in Islam or not? Jazakum Allah Khayran.

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.

Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for your good question and we pray to Allah to enable us furnish you with the best answer.

As far as your question is concerned, we would like to cite for you the fatwa issued by the prominent Muslim scholar, Sheikh `Atiyyah Saqr, former head of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee:

“The engagement ring or wedding ring has a history of thousands of years old. Some people claim that the Pharaohs were the first to invent it long before the Greeks had any notion of it.

Others say that it stems from an old custom still upheld by people. By this they are referring to tying the bride and the bridegroom together with chains and making him ride a horse, while dragging his bride behind him to the marital home, which might be a distance of two houses. Later, it became popular to wear a ring, instead of being tied with chains.

Wearing an engagement ring on the left finger is related to an old custom of the Greeks who believed that the circulation of blood by the aorta is done through this area.

It became apparent later that the British were also fond of wearing engagement rings; in fact, they regarded the habit as purely Christian.

Muslims adopted the idea of wearing the engagement ring without any obvious reason, and some consider removing it as a bad omen. This has no basis in Islam.

Wearing an engagement or wedding ring is not considered unlawful in the Islamic perspective, as there is no religious text that determines this.

It is also not considered as a form of imitating unbelievers. We know in any case that such imitation is forbidden, especially on something contravening the teachings of Islam.

If the ring is silver, there is nothing wrong in both men and women wearing it. But if the ring is made of gold, women can wear it, while men cannot. At-Tirmidhi relates through the authentic chain of narration that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Wearing gold is forbidden for male Muslims, but it is allowed for female Muslims.”

According to the hadith narrated by Muslim, the Prophet forbade men from wearing gold rings. It is also narrated that when the Prophet, peace be upon him, saw a man wearing a gold ring, he immediately removed it from the man’s hand and threw it away. He then said:
“Wearing it (a gold ring) is like wrapping one’s hand with fire brand”.
http://www.onislam.net/english/ask-the-scholar/morals-and-manners/customs-and-traditions/174823.html?Traditions=

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