Fashion or moral deterioration?

Allah (may He be Exalted) says: "Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him) till you follow their religion. Say: Verily, the Guidance of Allah (i.e. Islamic Monotheism) that is the (only) Guidance. And if you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him) were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of Knowledge (i.e. the Quran), then you would have against Allah neither any Wali (protector or guardian) nor any helper." [Surat Al Baqarah: 120].

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "You will follow the wrong ways of your predecessors so completely and literally, a hand span by a hand span, and an arm-length by an arm-length to the extent that if they should go into the hole of a mastigure, you too will go there. He (the Prophet) was asked: Do you mean the Jews and the Christians? He replied: Who else?" [Reported by Al Bukhari and Muslim].

Islamic identity is the strong target of Jews, Christians, and all enemies of Islam. So, the alienation of a Muslim from his identity means that he had kept away from the rites of his religion, Sunnah, and proprieties, and perhaps he would make the lawful forbidden and vice-versa by the name of democracy and globalization, but rather by the name of fashion which our concern in his article.

What does fashion mean? Does it have a hidden and invisible goals?

The meaning of fashion in the comprehensive dictionary of meanings- an Arabic lexicon is as follows:

Fashion is a noun.

It means: New styles of clothes, make up and other Parisian fashion.

Fashionable means: Widespread.

A mode of which man is fond for some period then loses attention.

These fashion styles started as a search for anything that increases beauty and elegance in men and women whether in clothes, adornment, or others. Gradually, these styles started to denote hidden creeds that may not be noticed except by a wet person who bears the responsibility of maintaining his pure Islamic creed and identity, whereas most today's fashions are symbols and conventional rites for many deviant creeds that did not come by a coincidence. They are well-studied matters to inculcate in the next Muslim generations poisons and to keep a loaf from Islamic creed step by step to the extent that their evaluation to lawful and prohibition is fashion and until these hearts harmonize with these emblems and incline to them.

What we are seeing today from young men and women from odd haircuts are now common under the word fashion and many Muslims got accustomed to see these styles in the hairs of their children and forgot that the Prophet (peace be upon him) forbade shaving part of the hair and leaving the other.

Add to this the girls' clothes everywhere -except those whom Allah shows mercy to- to the extent that girls were included in the Prophet (peace be upon him) saying: "There are two types of people who will be punished in Hell and whom I have not seen: men having whips like the tails of cows and they will be beating people with them, and, women who will be dressed but appear to be naked, inviting to evil; and they themselves will be inclined to it. Their heads will appear like the humps of the Bactrian camel inclined to one side. They will not enter Paradise and they will not smell its fragrance which is perceptible from such and such a distance." [Reported by Imam Ahmad and Muslim in his Sahih]. They are included in this threat under the name of fashion, moreover mothers push their daughters to this threat. By Allah, if those merchants who deal in these clothes do not find interest in what they offer, they shall keep away from that field, but they have realized how those girls are fascinated by fashion and forgot all about their Qur'an and the Sunnah, and their follow-up to everything comes from the enemies of Islam without being in harmony with the Qur'an or the Sunnah. Holding firm to the Qur'an and the Sunnah is the core of maintaining the Islamic identity.

What we are seeing today of ugly hair cuts, indecent clothes, forbidden relationships, and sexual deviation in fact emerge from fashion and imitating the West until the new generation got attached to it and took them as a model example even in things which Allah has forbidden.

We see that fashion was introduced to Muslims as renewal and beauty then ended up in the mud of moral deterioration and dependency which Allah (Glory be to Him) dispraised in His Saying: "And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger (Muhammad peace be upon him) after the right path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the believers' way, We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in Hell - what an evil destination!  Verily, Allâh forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners (in worship) with Him, but He forgives whom He wills sins other than that, and whoever sets up partners in worship with Allâh, has indeed strayed far away." [Surat An-Nisa': 115 - 116].

So, whoever ponders over this Ayah finds that Allah spoke about the danger of associating others with Allah after he had mentioned "And follows other than the believers' way." So, let us go back to the glory and greatness by which our Prophet (peace be upon him) started. Allah is the guide to the straight path.